A content management system, or CMS, is software that lets you change a website through an admin screen instead of editing code. WordPress is the best-known example. You log in, edit a page or write a post, and publish it.
One of the main reasons to use a CMS is that several people can work on the same website, each with their own responsibilities. Every person gets their own login with only the access their role needs. Marketing publishes articles, sales staff update offers, a shop manager looks after products, and a manager approves changes before they go live.
You need a CMS if several people work on your website, or if people without technical skills update it often. If your content changes a few times a year and one developer makes the changes, a site without a CMS is usually faster, more secure and needs less maintenance.
This article explains what a CMS gives you, what it takes to look after one, and how the main options compare.
What a CMS gives you
A good CMS lets your team look after the website themselves. The main benefits are:
- Several people, each with their own role. Each person has their own login and permissions. Writers draft content, editors approve it, a shop manager updates products, and only administrators change settings. The CMS records who changed what, and access is removed in one step when someone leaves.
- Editing without code. Staff change text, swap images and publish new pages through a visual editor.
- Structured content. Posts, products, events, team members and case studies each have their own fields, so they display the same way on every page.
- A media library. Images and documents are stored in one place and reused across the site.
- Scheduling and history. You can publish at a set time and restore an earlier version of a page.
- Integrations. Plugins and extensions add forms, online payments, bookings, newsletters and search.
For a business that publishes news every week, sells hundreds of products or has several people editing the site, these features remove a lot of work and prevent mistakes.
Looking after a CMS
A CMS is software that runs every time someone visits your site, so it needs ongoing care:
- Updates. The CMS, its plugins and the server software all receive regular updates. Some fix security problems, and someone needs to apply and check them.
- Suitable hosting. Most CMS platforms need a database and a server configured for them.
- Extra work on every page load. The server builds each page from the database unless caching is set up well. Heavy themes and plugins add more work.
- More software to attack. Every plugin is more code that can contain a vulnerability.
These needs are manageable when the setup is lean and one person or company is responsible for it. Our article What happens to your website after launch day covers this in more detail.
The main options
WordPress
WordPress is the most widely used CMS in the world. Its editor is familiar to many people, and thousands of plugins add almost any feature. With WooCommerce, it also runs online shops.
Its weakness is how easily a WordPress site becomes slow. Page builders, heavy themes and dozens of plugins add code to every page, and updates become risky. A WordPress site built with a hand-coded theme, native blocks and a few chosen plugins stays fast and easy to update. We explain the difference in Why your WordPress site is slow, and what fixes it and on our Lean WordPress Rebuilds page.
Drupal
Drupal suits large sites with complex, structured content. It handles detailed user permissions, several languages and content that is reused across many pages. Universities, government departments and large non-profit organisations often use it.
Drupal takes more developer time to set up and change than WordPress, and its admin screens are less familiar to most editors. For a small business site, it is usually more than you need.
Shopify
Shopify is a hosted e-commerce platform. Products, stock, payments and checkout are built in, and Shopify runs the hosting and security for you. It is a strong choice when selling online is the main purpose of the site.
You have less control over the code and the server, and many extra features come from third-party apps, which add their own scripts to your pages. Moving a large shop away from Shopify later takes planning. For a shop that is part of a WordPress site, WooCommerce is the main alternative. Our e-commerce page compares the options.
Website builders: Wix, Squarespace and Webflow
Website builders combine hosting, design templates and a visual editor in one subscription. They are quick to start with and work well for very small sites.
Their limits show as a site grows. You have little control over how fast the pages load or how they are built, and moving the site to another platform usually means rebuilding it. Webflow gives designers more control than the others, but the site still runs on Webflow’s platform.
Headless CMS: Sanity, Contentful and Strapi
A headless CMS separates the editing screens from the website itself. Editors manage content in the CMS, and a developer builds the pages separately, often as fast static files. Your team gets a CMS, and visitors get the speed of a hand-built site.
Layout changes need a developer, because the design is not controlled from the admin screen. A headless CMS suits businesses with a lot of content and a development partner who looks after the website itself.
No CMS: a static site
A static site is built as finished HTML files, with no database and no admin screen. It is the fastest and most secure way to run a website, because the server sends files that are already built and there is no login or database to attack.
The question is how you make changes. Either your developer updates the site, or a Git-based editor such as Decap CMS gives your team a simple screen for editing text and images.
Our own site, capefrisco.com, works this way. We change it ourselves, so we do not need an admin screen, and every page loads quickly.
How the options compare
| Option | Who edits content | Best for | Where it is hosted | Speed | Ongoing maintenance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| WordPress | Your team | Regular publishing, and shops with WooCommerce | Your choice of host and country | Fast when built lean | Updates to the core, theme and plugins |
| Drupal | Your team | Large sites with complex content and permissions | Your choice of host and country | Fast with good caching | Updates and developer support |
| Shopify | Your team | Online shops | Shopify’s servers on Google Cloud, in several regions | Depends on the theme and apps | Shopify runs the platform; apps need review |
| Wix, Squarespace, Webflow | Your team | Very small sites | Wix: USA and Ireland. Squarespace: USA. Webflow: USA | Little control | The platform runs it |
| Headless CMS | Your team for content, a developer for design | Content-heavy sites that must be fast | Content: Sanity in Belgium, Contentful in the USA or EU. Pages: your choice | Very fast | The CMS service and the website |
| Static site | A developer, or a Git-based editor | Sites that change a few times a year | Your choice of host and country | Fastest | Very little |
Where your website is hosted
With WordPress, Drupal, a headless front end or a static site, you choose the host and the country. A content delivery network such as Cloudflare can then serve copies of your pages from locations close to visitors around the world.
With a hosted platform, the platform decides. Wix stores site data in the USA and Ireland. Squarespace and Webflow store it in the USA. Shopify runs on Google Cloud in several regions and keeps data for European stores in Europe, but it does not publish which regions it uses for stores elsewhere. Among headless services, Sanity stores content in Belgium, and Contentful stores it in the USA unless you add its EU option.
Hosting location matters for two reasons. Pages from a nearby server reach visitors faster, although a content delivery network reduces the difference. And if your site collects personal information, such as orders or form submissions, POPIA sets rules for sending it outside South Africa. Check the platform’s data processing terms and mention the transfer in your privacy policy. Our article POPIA and AI chatbots explains the rules for sending personal information abroad.
Which option fits your business
- Several people look after different parts of the site. Use a CMS with user roles. WordPress handles this for most businesses, and Drupal suits large teams that need detailed permissions.
- Your staff publish news, articles or offers every week. Use a CMS. A lean WordPress site is the most common choice.
- Selling online is the main purpose of the site. Use Shopify, or WooCommerce if the shop is part of a larger WordPress site.
- Your content changes a few times a year. A static site is faster and needs less maintenance, and your developer makes the changes.
- Large teams edit the site in more than one language, with approval steps. Drupal handles this well.
- You publish a lot of content and need very fast pages. A headless CMS with a static front end gives you both.
- You want a very small site and plan to manage everything yourself. A website builder works, as long as you accept its limits on speed and on moving the site later.
How we decide
When a client asks which platform to use, we start with how their team works. We ask who updates the site, how often, what they update, and which systems the site connects to. Then we recommend the simplest setup that meets those needs, and we tell you when a CMS would add work you do not need.
We build and host WordPress, Drupal and WooCommerce sites, Shopify shops, and static sites like our own.
If you are not sure which option suits your business, tell us how your team updates the site and we will recommend a setup. You can also test your current site with our free speed check, or read about our web development and hosting services.
Filed under Web Development, Lean WordPress Rebuilds, E-commerce.