The Best CMS question is an important one. If your goal is to consistently deliver your firm’s marketing or product value statement to prospective clients and customers, having the right tools should help reduce cost, time and energy. CMS (Content Management Systems), enables companies and individuals to manage many individual operational components of their website from an easy to use interface and require little to no programming knowledge for most tasks.
Choosing the very best cms platform is an important step for your business and your brand. Many companies host their websites on top of their CMS. A CMS platform that is intuitive, easy to use and easy to update can make the difference between success and failure.
Many of the best CMS platforms are free and opensource with some of the leading options integrating into existing or common technologies and are easily deployable on most hosting providers.
We’ve done the research for you and ranked the top 15 CMS platforms on the market based on the system most likely to meet the average consumer’s needs.
15. Modx
Is a CMS that was developed starting in 2004 and written in PHP. There is not enough active development of the system or enough users to recommend Modx for the broader market. There are only an estimated ~12,000 customers.
14. Sitefinity
Sitefinity is a CMS developed in Bulgaria with fewer customers than Modx. It is developed in ASP.net which is not as widely used as other programming languages in this list and so presents some complexities for the average user and not recommended.
13. Crafter
Another open source CMS Crafter is a Java-based and uses modern web architecture and is ahead of Sitefinity and Modx but should still be passed over by the average consumer because of its very small market share and small knowledge base.
12. LightCMS
LightCMS bosts roughly 100k users but is not free compared to our number 1 pick on this list. Great for getting started the price per page quickly escalates. For most consumers, the feature set for LightCMS kicks the pants off the lower rung of this list but we can’t recommend a CMS that costs money given other options.
11. Kentico
Built-in .Net Kenetico CMS has added layers of functionality which can support e-commerce and additional online marketing functions. They have a hybrid freemium model which applies to mostly to e-commerce. But the cost would probably be lower for most consumers if you develop the solution on top of another open-source platform.
10. Blogger
If you need to get your written and blog content out on the web in a seamless easy way, Blogger paved the way for millions of bloggers around the globe. It is free and easy to launch a blog in minutes. We advise blogger for most people looking to just start a blog rather than almost any other option. Drive traffic first then figure out branding and the additional CMS features.
9. Concrete5
Built-in PHP the Concrete 5 CMS and works great for folks looking to publish mostly text and image content. The add-ons available through the marketplace are extensive but not as exhaustive as other players on this list. If you are looking for the best CMS keep looking!
8. Drupal
Drupal CMS has roughly 5% of the total market share and roughly 1 million active sites using it. Harvard University and General electric are known users of the Drupal platform but it still doesn’t have enough of knowledge and userbase to justify our top 5 spots on our list.
7. Weebly
Weebly is a what you see is what you get CMS (WISIWIG) meaning the CMS is designed to allow you to visually edit many parts of your webpage without knowing how to code. Out of the gate, you can create a website or online store. The downside is technical customization (functionality outside of what they provide) is going to be present a smaller pool of available resources than other existing platforms.
6. Joomla!
Joomla CMS has about 2 million active sites, double that of Drupal and so as a larger knowledge base and a pool of talent and knowledge that allows for customization and management much more available. If you are stuck between Joomla and Drupal and not the higher ranked CMS systems in this list, pick Joomla for the simple fact that twice as many people are using it so it will be easier to find information.
5. Hubspot
Hubspot is the undisputed king of multi-platform marketing in a very classy package. The downside to that package is that for the average consumer you will pay for features you don’t need or will barely use. You can host your site onto of Hubspot and take advantage of their great toolset (at a price) but it will also be harder to find developers who are familiar with the platform.
HubSpot’s CMS’s features just weren’t worth the price point for most businesses.
4. Wix
Wix, like Weebly, is a CMS that lets you visually customize a page. If you need to set up a simple webpage so your customers can visit you online Wix can probably do the job as a CMS. As a full-blown CMS, however, WIX will cost most consumers more than they need to pay in the long run. Customization and available features, when compared to our number one CMS pick, are simply not available. You can build an online store but functionality is going to require customization.
3. Magento
Magento is the Go to CMS if you are looking for a CMS to build a store with a large number of SKUs and have detailed customization and control of your wares. If you have anything more than a simple shop Magento is the platform you need to be on and is the most widely used e-commerce CMS platform.
2. Squarespace / Shopify / Big Commerce
If you want to set up a simple online store CMS with 50-100 products you will not be better served than with either of these three options. Frankly, the differences are minute and you will have a little harder time customizing things but it will be much easier to get started than with Magento.
1. WordPress
WordPress takes the number one CMS spot for Zibtek. Compared to the competition it has the most market share, and most active development and support community out of all the platforms, some of them combined.
To analogize, WordPress is a lot like a Toyota, stable, reliable and importantly very easy to get aftermarket parts, so customization, repair, and maintenance of your site should be very easy to do. This can’t be stressed enough; WordPress has over 60% of the CMS market share and therefore has the most number of available resources to get what you need to be done. Oh, and it’s free!
Wordpress as a CMS has a number of additional benefits including:**
- Thousands of plugins that negate the need for programming knowledge
- Plugins help to optimize SEO, social media integration, etc.
- Simple, intuitive interface for any level of experience
- Best system for newer professionals in the industry
- Great community of support