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A content management system (CMS) is used to manage and deploy website content. Users can create, edit and delete content from a site. Typically CMS software offers an interface that does not require HTML skills or other technical knowledge. Content managers and authors can make changes without the help of a developer. However, customizing the layout and site experience may still require some coding.
Users can rely on CMS software to run any of these types of sites:
Blogs
News sites
Ecommerce sites
Corporate websites
Intranets
Blogging platforms are essentially very basic, simple content management systems. More complex tools allow users to manage more structured content across a larger number of pages. They also offer more integrations and allow users to configure rules for personalization based on visitor site activity or demographic information. The most advanced content management systems are called digital experience management platforms.
The core purpose of CMS is to simplify content processes for non-technical people. Users can focus on creating, organizing, and delivering content instead of wrestling with code.
The most common CMS features and capabilities include:
WYSIWYG (what-you-see-is-what-you-get) editor
Page templates
Library of website themes
Content versioning and archiving
Mobile optimization / responsive design
Publishing workflow
Form generation
Content scheduling
Asset management (images, articles, etc.)
Page caching (or other features to speed delivery of content to the site)
SEO support
Tools to tag content and create a taxonomy
Browser compatibility
Bulk management
E-commerce functionality (i.e. catalog, shopping cart, payment processing)
Community management (i.e. commenting, profiles)
Localization / regionalization with multi-lingual content
Other personalization options
User roles and permissions
API
Analytics tools
Import/export content
Content management systems are usually priced based on a few factors. These include the number of users, volume of content, range of features, and whether it’s a subscription service or a lifetime license.
Some CMS options are open source, and therefore free. (However, these are usually less user-friendly for authors. Open source content management systems will likely require more HTML skills to format content and help from developers to deploy/update content.)
For lower-end options, prices can start as low as $5-$10 per month per user (MS SharePoint and Joomla, for example). Other options include Wix ($5/mo.) and SquareSpace ($12./mo.) Premium packages for enterprise level CMS is typically available by request.
Progress Sitefinity is a content management and customer analytics platform. Progress Software acquired the product from Telerik.
MindTouch is a leader in customer self-service software. According to the vendor, MindTouch brings the customer record (CRM) and customers’ self-service behavior together to better understand their experience with the brand. Additionally the vendor says companies like Accenture, ADP, McKinsey, Sp...
Microsoft SharePoint is usually considered an internal content management product, but it also features web content management capabilities for managing external website content. SharePoint is a very broadly adopted solution and competes successfully with Oracle, EMC Documentum and OpenText in t...
Wordpress is an open-source publishing platform popular with bloggers, and a content management system, known for its simplicity and modifiability. Websites may host their own blogging communities, controlling and moderating content from a single dashboard.
Drupal is free and open source content management system written in PHP that competes primarily with Joomla and Plone. The standard release of Drupal, known as Drupal core, contains basic features common to content management systems. These include user account registration and maintenance, menu ...
ExpressionEngine is a content management system from EllisLab in 2002, a successor to pMachine Pro, a blogging system, which is written in object-oriented PHP and uses MySQL for data storage. ExpressionEngine is their flagship Content Delivery Platform.
Squarespace is a CMS platform that allows users to create a DIY blog, eCommerce store, and/or portfolio (visual art or music). Their templates are designed to be elegant and give users maximum control over the look & feel of the website. Some Squarespace templates are industry or use case-spe...
Wix is a free hosted website builder, designed to be user-friendly and highly customizable without requiring coding from the user. It is well-known for its eCommerce solution, which allows users to build an online store. Wix includes customizable HTML5 templates that can be used with its drag n...
Joomla! is a free and open source content management system used to publish web content. Joomla is written in PHP, uses object-oriented programming (OOP) techniques and stores data in a MySQL, MS SQL, or PostgreSQL database. Included features are page caching, RSS feeds, printable versions of pa...
Cascade Server is a Content Management System (CMS) from Hannon Hill. It is designed for decentralized web teams and counts clients in most major industries, including Higher Education, Government, Healthcare, Technology, Finance and Publishing. It can be installed or hosted by Hannon Hill in the...
Kentico is a fully integrated ASP.NET CMS, E-commerce, and Online Marketing platform that promises to allow you to create truly optimised digital customer experiences across multiple channels. With Web Farms, Continuous Integration, GDPR and Data Protection, and MVC development fully supported ac...
Concrete5 is a free and open source PHP built content management system for content on the web and also for intranets. Concrete5 is ideal for online magazines.
Weebly is a basic content management system with blogging and eCommerce features. It is inexpensive, and aims to allow all users to easily create high quality sites, regardless of technical skill. Pricing ranges from free to $25/month. All offerings include email and chat support; Pro and Busin...
Ektron is a Web Content Management System. It has been focused on mid-market accounts but is now starting to attract more enterprise customers. The product has a very comprehensive set of connectors to CRMs and web analytics products. It is built on a .NET platform.
Adobe Experience Manager is a combined web content management system (WCMS) and digital asset management (DAM) system from Adobe designed to help businesses manage their marketing and web presence, and track customer data to optimize the visitor experience and conversion. The combined application...
SiteCore Web Content Management is an enterprise-grade CMS competing with Oracle WebCenter, IBM Web Content Manager and Adobe.
Adobe Business Catalyst is an all-in-one cloud-hosted system for building and managing web content and on online store. It has a built-in CRM framework, and sales, service, and marketing features including eCommerce and Email Marketing tools. It was acquired by Adobe in 2009, five years after the...
SDL Tridion Sites is a content management system that targets global businesses attempting to enrich their customers’ experience. It is used by businesses to reach out to a diverse customer base.
The vendor says that global organizations use Acquia Platform to unify content, community, and commerce. Additionally, the vendor says that users can deploy and manage one or several sites without compromising brand or creating governance chaos. The vendor’s value proposition is that through it...
The Episerver Digital Experience Cloud™ is designed to help editors and marketers to create and experience content simultaneously. With the Episerver Digital Experience Cloud™ users can: Create content directly on-page and view it just as a visitor wouldStart work on any device and switch device...
Plone is a free and open source content management system built on top of the Zope application server. In principle, Plone can be used for any kind of website, including blogs, internet sites, webshops and internal websites. It is also well positioned to be used as a document publishing system an...
Movable Type is a Perl-based CMS from Six Apart, featuring the capability to host multiple weblogs and standalone content pages, manage files and user roles, templates, tags, categories and trackback links.
Evoq Content is a content management system, and part of the Evoq business suite of applications from DNN Corp in Mateo, California.
IBM's Web Content Manager is sold as a stand-alone product, and is also bundled with portal, E-commerce, analytics etc. as part of the Customer Experience Suite. The product is integrated with WebSphere Portal for integration with external data. IBM Web Content Manager has a large customer base o...
Clickability is a content management systems acquired by Upland Software in 2013, which provides a SaaS platform for web content creation, management, publishing and analytics, for enterprises, digital marketing and online publishing for marketers and enterprises.