
Last updated January 28, 2025
Introduction
Chances are you need a website for your business. Whether you use that website as a portfolio, business card or concrete sales channel, you need a website that allows you to present your business online. If you want to maintain and regularly update your website yourself, you need a CMS, or content management system. In this blog post, we will explain to you what a CMS is, its benefits and discuss different content management systems.
CMS meaning. What is a content management system?
CMS is an abbreviation for content management system. A content management system is software that allows you to create, manage and publish content on your website. With a CMS, you can manage Web pages, blog posts, images, videos and other types of content without extensive technical knowledge or programming skills. When creating content, users do not have to consider layout or design. This is because in the content management system, the website content is separated from the layout.
Nearly 70% of websites worldwide are built with a content management system. Website installation and design is often done by a web developer. You can then work on the content of your website yourself. There are CMSs for both websites and web shops.Benefits of a CMS
There are many advantages to using a content management system.
- You don't have to have any technical knowledge to create, modify or delete content yourself.
- Various content management systems often allow you to quickly build a complete website even without programming knowledge.
- Through a CMS, you can give your entire website a consistent design.
- Using a CMS is efficient because you can edit content easily and quickly without the help of a web developer.
- User Management. In a CMS, it is often possible to give multiple users access with different permissions. For example, you can give a user access only to edit content. Also, a CMS makes it easy to collaborate on content.
- Many content management systems come with extensive functionality that can also be expanded with additional software, often called plug-ins. Likewise, many popular CMSs are SEO-friendly.
- Many content management systems are updated automatically. Among other things, this keeps functionality up to date and plugs security holes.
- Many CMSs offer integrations with other software, such as CRM systems, e-commerce platforms, and social media.
- Many content management systems offer support for multilingual websites.
What CMSs are out there?
There are lots of different CMSs available. We discuss the most popular content management systems below.
- WordPress. This is by far the most popular and widely used CMS in the world. Worldwide, as many as 835 million websites are live that are built with WordPress. WordPress is an open source CMS and basically free. You can create your own website in WordPress without any programming knowledge. This CMS is user-friendly, has a lot of functionality and is flexible. Through the plug-in WooCommerce it is also possible to create an online store. However, with WordPress.org you must provide your own hosting or maintenance, or outsource it.
- Joomla is also a free CMS that is basically free, but just a little less user-friendly. The learning curve with Joomla is a lot steeper than with WordPress. The popularity of Joomla has therefore declined in recent years.
- Wix. Wix, on the other hand, has been on the rise in recent years. This CMS is very user-friendly and without technical knowledge you can build a Web site relatively quickly. Another advantage of Wix is that the start-up costs are relatively low. There is also a lot of investment in this CMS, which has improved it in recent years. Disadvantages of Wix is that the content management system is less flexible than open source CMSs and it is also not ideal for a multilingual website.
- Squarespace.com. Squarespace is another CMS that has become more popular over the past 10 years. This CMS is user-friendly and you can choose from many different designs. You can also create a Web shop relatively easily and quickly.
- Drupal. Drupal is a content management system that was very popular 10 years ago, but has since lost market share to other CMSs. The reason is that it is not very user-friendly and therefore not easy for beginners.
- Hubspot CMS. Hubspot is software that offers more than a CMS. For example, Hubspot is also a CRM and offers marketing automation. Hubspot also has a CMS that allows you to build a Web site. Hubspot is practical for companies that want their CRM, marketing automation and CMS integrated and managed in one place. Hubspot does come with a hefty price tag, however, and costs can run into thousands of dollars per month. Hubspot is therefore not suitable for small business owners.
Webshop CMSs
With the content management systems mentioned above, you can build a webshop in addition to a "regular" website. There are also CMSs specifically aimed at webshops and we have listed them below.
- Adobe Commerce. This CMS was first formerly known as Magento. Adobe Commerce is an open-source CMS for Web shops. It is a flexible system, but not suitable for users who are not technical. It also requires a large investment to set up a webshop in Adobe Commerce. Developing an Adobe Commerce webshop will quickly cost several tens of thousands of euros. Maintenance and hosting start around €50 per month. However, this does not include further development of the shop. If you want to add new features, this will cost extra. This CMS is therefore not suitable for small webshops.
- Shopify is the most popular CMS for web shops, if we don't count WordPress. Shopify allows you to create a professional online store relatively quickly without programming knowledge. In addition, this CMS is user-friendly, fast and has a lot of functionality. Another advantage is that Shopify arranges updates and security for you. Shopify is also an excellent choice for international web shops. For large webshops, however, the costs can increase and this CMS is less flexible than open source CMSs. A basic subscription starts at € 21 per month, but for a large webshop this can rise to € 289 per month. In addition, you also pay a fee per transaction. This makes Shopify for large webshops often more expensive than WooCommerce and Adobe Commerce.
- Lightspeed is also a user-friendly CMS that lets you put together an online store quickly and without programming knowledge. Also with this software, Lightspeed takes care of updates and security. Another advantage is that Lightspeed is also a system for offline stores and offers, among other things, a cash register system. This is useful for store owners who have both a physical and online store. Furthermore, Lightspeed offers excellent support in Dutch. The disadvantages of Lightspeed is that this CMS can also incur costs and offers less flexibility than an open source CMS. The basic subscription is € 119 per month and the premium subscription € 349 per month. You don't pay a fee per transaction, unlike Shopify.
- Mijnwebwinkel is a Dutch webshop CMS that allows you to quickly create your own online store. Mijnwebwinkel is a cheaper solution than Shopify and Lightspeed. However, there are also a lot of disadvantages. Mijnwebwinkel has limited functionality and is not SEO-friendly. Also, this CMS is not suitable for an international shop.
- Shopware is an open source e-commerce CMS. Shopware offers a visual editor that allows you to design your own. Also, this CMS is relatively user-friendly. However, Shopware's functionality and support is limited.
The popularity of different CMSs worldwide can be found on this website.
Headless CMS
For some years now, headless CMS has been on the rise. In a headless content management system, the content and data management (the backend) is separated from the presentation or display components (the frontend). A headless CMS has no built-in way to present content. The backend and frontend communicate with each other via an API.
This has the advantage that you can use the content for multiple frontends. For example, you can connect the content to a website, app and smart devices, such as a smart watch. This makes a headless CMS practical and efficient if you want to distribute your content across multiple frontends. On the other hand, a headless CMS is more complex, and if you've chosen a developer to manage your headless CMS solution, you won't easily switch over (vendor lock-in).
Custom CMS
Many Web developers offer their own, custom CMS to their clients. This is a content management system they have developed themselves. They often claim that their CMS is faster, more secure and has many features. In our experience, however, this is disappointing in practice. In fact, a custom CMS often has the following disadvantages.
- With a custom CMS, you are stuck with your Web developer. If you are not satisfied with your website builder, you cannot transfer your website to another developer. This is because he does not know the custom CMS.
- The functionality of a custom CMS is often limited. For a CMS like WordPress, an awful lot of functionality is available through free or inexpensive plug-ins. This does not apply to a custom CMS. If you want to add non-standard functionality, it must be developed (and this costs money). Also, new developments and techniques often become available quickly for popular standard CMSs. For a custom CMS, again, this is not the case.
- Custom CMSs are often not SEO-friendly. Web developers are not marketing experts. They often claim that their custom CMS is SEO-friendly, but in practice this is often not the case.
Which CMS to choose. How do you choose a content management system?
We have now discussed different types of content management systems. We can well imagine that you are unsure which CMS is best suited for your business. Consider the following when making your choice.
- Purpose of the CMS: what are you going to use it for? Are you planning to build a web shop, should it just be a static site? How many people are going to work with it? Choose a CMS that fits your business goals.
- Cost. One-time and monthly costs vary widely among content management systems. Choose a CMS that fits within your budget.
- Functionality. What features should your website have? Ideally, you want these functionalities already available by default or via plug-ins in the CMS.
- User-friendliness. Some systems are easier to use than others. Are you not that technical yourself? Then choose a CMS that is very user-friendly.
- Scalability. Do you expect to grow rapidly in the coming years? Then choose a CMS that is scalable.
- International. Do you want a multilingual Web site now or in the future? Then you need to select a CMS that has good functionality for multilingual websites built in.
- Security. How secure is the CMS? Are there regular updates, is your site well protected against hacks?
- Search Engine Friendliness (SEO). Did you know that 53.3% of all website traffic worldwide comes from organic search results, primarily through Google. There are significant differences between the SEO friendliness of different content management systems. If you want to attract website visitors through Google, you need to choose an SEO-friendly CMS.
- Support. Does the CMS provide good support for questions or problems?
Do you have answers to these questions? Then research carefully which CMS fits them. Also ask around you what CMSs are being used and how you like them. In general, we can say that WordPress is often a safe and fine choice, but other CMSs can also meet your needs.
Are the results from your online marketing disappointing?
Request our no-obligation performance scan and we'll tell you where you're going wrong.