Top 5 CMS's for your website

Looking for the best CMS software to build your website? A CMS, or content management system, can help you create a high-level functional website without having to build each page from scratch using code.

However, different CMS programs have different pros and cons, so you should choose the tool that is best for your specific needs and budget.

What is a CMS?

Before we get to our list, let's answer the question: What is a CMS?

A content management system does exactly what the name says: it helps you "manage" your website's content in a "systematized" way.

Instead of having to work with code when you want to add content to your website, with a CMS you can work in an easy-to-use editor that might look something like this:

When you then want to "publish", the CMS will correctly display that part of the content to the visitors according to your wishes.

A CMS also manages the organization of your entire website's front end. For example, if you publish a blog post, the CMS will automatically display it at the top of your blog page and add a timestamp.

However, a CMS is more flexible than just a blogging platform. A blogging platform is basically a CMS for a specific type of content (blog posts) while a CMS can help you manage virtually any type of content.

The "content" of your CMS could be, for example:

• Blog post
• Static pages
• E-commerce products
• Forum posts
• Private course content
• Membership

It can even be several types of content at the same time! A good CMS platform can help you manage just as many different types of content as you need.

What is a Headless CMS?

In the list below you will see another term: Headless CMS. With a headless CMS, you use your CMS to manage all content on the backend. Then you can build your own frontend by querying data via an API.

The advantage of this "headless" approach is that you can use your content pretty much anywhere. It can be about everything from a website to a mobile app and much more.

A headless CMS requires much more technical knowledge but gives you more flexibility in how and where you use your content.

What should you consider when choosing a CMS?

Here are some of the most important things to consider when choosing a CMS:

• Pricing – every CMS comes with a cost. Some are free and open source, but you have to pay to host them. Others may require you to purchase the software from the company that creates the CMS.
• Support & customer experience – some tools are open source with no central support options, while others have 24/7 support – make sure you understand what you're getting.
• SEO – it's important that your chosen software gives you the tools to rank in Google and other search engines.
• Customization – If you run a business, a CMS that allows you to create personalized experiences for visitors can help you improve your marketing and conversion rates.
• Ease of use – if you are not a developer, you should choose a tool that is easy to use without development knowledge.
• Security – some CMS tools put you in charge of website security, while other tools handle this for you.

The 5 Best CMS Software Solutions in 2022

1. WordPress— Price: Free

WordPress s is by far the world's most popular CMS – it powers over 37% of all websites on the Internet. WordPress started as a blogging platform but has since turned into a powerful CMS that you can use to build any type of website. It can be about everything from E-commerce stores to membership sites, forums, and much more.

In fact, WordPress, through the WooCommerce extension, is also one of the most popular platforms for creating an e-commerce store. Some of the reasons for WordPress' great popularity are:

• It is free and open source.
• You can find thousands of WordPress themes to influence the look of your website.
• You can access 55,000+ free plugins to extend your site's functionality (Here are some of the best).
• Advanced users can also use WordPress as a headless CMS with something similar to Gatsby.

2. Drupal — Price: Free

Drupal is another popular open source CMS that is quite similar to WordPress.

With its flexible taxonomy system, Drupal excels when it comes to managing sites with large amounts of content. It also has a built-in user access system that gives you good control over what registered users can do inside the CMS.

Like WordPress, you can control the look of your website using themes and extend Drupal's functionality with modules.

3. Joomla — Price: Free

Joomla is the third player in the trio of popular open source CMS software, along with WordPress and Drupal.

Like WordPress and Drupal, Joomla has large marketplaces for templates and plugins, helping you create a website that matches your needs.

In terms of the technical knowledge required, Joomla offers a nice middle ground between WordPress and Drupal.

4. Grave — Price: Free

Grav is an open source flat-file CMS. The "flat-file" designation means that Grav does not require a database to function. Instead, it works via content from text files. This makes Grav very easy to deploy anywhere as all you have to do is upload the site's files.

You can still create dynamic content types and filter content, but you'll also be able to use a Markdown editor to create content.

5. Shopify — Starting at $29/month

Shopify is a hosted e-commerce platform. It is the second most popular way to create an eCommerce store after WooCommerce.

Shopify's biggest advantage is simplicity. Since it's a host-based tool, you don't have to worry about your store's security or maintenance. You can simply focus on finding customers and expanding your store.

You still get a good dose of flexibility thanks to the Shopify App marketplace, but you won't have full access to your store's underlying source code.

Businesses that need more flexibility can get Shopify Plus.

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