You wonder what CMS useΒ to create your website? This will allow you to create a website without generally needing to integrate a line of code. There are a multitude of them and the choice becomes more and more difficult, especially when one does not have web development skills.
In this article, you will see why it is important to choose the right CMS and we will compare 7 platforms you absolutely need to know.
A CMS, what is it?
A CMS (Content Management System) platform is software that allows you to create and manage website content.
Basically, web pages are written in HTML, CSS and Javascript programming languages. Without a CMS, you would have to learn these languages and write many lines of code.
These software facilitate this work and allow you to create a website without having to learn coding or programming. Even if there are CMS only for developers who already know how to code.
How to choose a CMS for website creation?
There are many different CMS, but which one to choose? First, here are the criteria to consider when looking for website creation software.Β
Ease of use
A CMS must allow you to create and modify content without too much knowledge to add elements to your pages. Therefore, it must be easy to use, but also fast so you can make changes once the website is published.
Design options
If you want to personalize your site in the image of your company, a CMS must be able to offer you a wide choice of website templates. Thus, you will be able to create the site which completely corresponds to your needs.
Data portability
A good CMS must offer you effective tools to easily export and transfer your data. In short, if one day you decide to change website creation software, you need to be able to easily move your data from one platform to another.Β
Extensions and add-ons
A CMS as is cannot meet 100 % your needs in terms of functionality. Therefore, it is important to look at what extensions and add-ons are offered. These are separate software to be installed on the CMS to extend its functionality and add more. It is ultimately applications that are downloaded on its platform.Β
Help and support options
Although a CMS is made to make it easier for you to create a website, you may need help from time to time. Check the various FAQ resources and investigate the quality of customer service. Some CMS also have a large community to help you at any time!
How much does it cost ?
There are free CMS and others with monthly subscription. However, be aware that even free website creation software can have costs, because very often, some extensions are paid for or the platform offers a third-party web hosting service.
Find out as much as possible about the price so as not to have any unpleasant surprises when designing your website.
How about now to know a little more about the best CMS?
No surprise, we have already told you about it, WordPress.org is our favorite CMS. It is the most popular content management platform that powers around 43 % of all websites online.
It is important not to confuse WordPress.org with WordPress.com. WordPress.org is a free and open source CMS while WordPress.com is a hosting platform.
So, when you use the WordPress CMS, you need to find a web hosting provider.
Advantages
1- On WordPress, you can create any type of website: online store, showcase site, membership site, blog, etc.
2- Like a good CMS, WordPress is easy to use and requires no specific coding knowledge. Among other things, the block editor makes it easy to create pages on your website.
3 β There is a multitude of WordPress plugins, paid and free. This allows you for an online store to add an inventory management system, payment. You can also insert a contact form, a photo gallery. In short, you can add whatever you need.
4- WordPress is really well designed for search engine optimization (SEO). You can create URLs, HTML, meta tags and choose from many SEO plugins like Rankmath to guide you through the SEO optimization of all your content.
5 β Since WordPress is an open source CMS, there is a large community. There are many groups you can join to ask for the help you need when you have a problem.
Disadvantages
1 β It's up to you to configure the hosting and the domain name. Additionally, you will be responsible for managing security and backups.
2 β WordPress offers a lot of possibilities, you can quickly get lost on the platform. Fortunately, the CMS offers page builder plugins, which unfortunately won't make your website a unique 100 % interface.
Pricing
WordPress itself is free. However, you will need to invest in a host and a domain name. At Geekworkers we recommend for example Infomaniak, hosting company 100 % Switzerland.
And if you want to learn more about WordPress, check out our article on the 5 reasons to create your site with WordPress.
Joomla is a CMS rather similar to WordPress. It provides various templates and all different extensions for personalize your website. It's also free to use, and you'll need to find a host and domain name on your own.
However, it is a destination CMS platform developers and professionals of website creation. Thus, this option is not the most advantageous for beginners.
Advantages
1 β Flexibility and options. Ideal if you want to create a complex or tailor-made website.
2 β Even if this platform is mainly used by developers, you do not always need to adjust lines of code and can easily modify your content.
3 β Like WordPress, Joomla is open source, so you can easily find help in the event of a problem thanks to its community.
4 β It is quite possible to create an online store, because Joomla offers extensions to facilitate its creation.
Disadvantages
1 β It is a complex platform and it requires some expertise in website creation.
2 β Compared to WordPress, Joomla still offers fewer extensions and using the platform can be quickly frustrating when you want to create a personalized site as a beginner.
Pricing
As with WordPress, it will be necessary to invest in web hosting and a domain name, even if the CMS itself is free. Additionally, you may find yourself paying for extensions if you want to add specific features to your site. But also having to invest in the services of a professional developer to create a functional website as the platform can be difficult to handle.
Drupal is also an open-source CMS. It's the perfect platform for developers or for companies that can afford to hire one. It is suitable for those wishing to create a highly personalized site requiring the processing of a large amount of data.
Advantages
1 β There are many options and you can easily add content to customize your site as well as various modules, similar to WordPress plugins.
2 β You will find many support options via communities like on WordPress and Joomla.
3 β You can easily manage your users thanks to an integrated system that allows you to create new management roles on your website.
Disadvantages
1 β The Drupal CMS is less pleasant to learn than WordPress, and it can be difficult to understand how to modify and personalize your website.
2 β For a design website, it is advisable on this CMS to choose themes created by developers who are unfortunately more expensive.
Shopify is another all-in-one website builder software. Just like BigCommerce, you won't need to purchase hosting, install software, or manage updates and backups.
Advantages
1 β The Shopify Payments solution allows you to accept credit and debit cards. Additionally, you can also use PayPal, which is included as the default payment on the platform.
2 β Many extensions and themes are available for Shopify. Thus, you can add various features to your online store.
3 β No need to upgrade your account no matter how your revenue grows, unlike BigCommerce.
4 β Chat, email or phone, Shopify offers 24/7 support. Documentation with how-to guides and tutorials is also available, as well as online forums.
Disadvantages
1 β Costs can be quite high, especially if you want to add lots of third-party apps to your store.
2 β You may want to add a feature that simply isn't available: Shopify apps are more limited than WordPress plugins, for example.
Pricing
Shopify pricing plans range from 29 $/month to 299 $/month depending on the type of online store you want to create.
BigCommerce is an e-commerce platform all in one. In short, BigCommerce is completely hosted. The software offers you the CMS platform as well as hosting and also manages security and backups. It is therefore ideal for beginners.
Advantages
1- You have the choice between creating your own domain name, or choosing a free domain name provided by BigCommerce which may look like: leblog.mybigcommerce.com.
2 β BigCommerce offers you various payment methods to install on your marketplace. PayPal, Apple Pay or credit card, you can choose the method that best suits your business. There are many different ways to make payments through BigCommerce.
3 β From your dashboard, you can access support options, including via chat or phone number, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Disadvantages
1 β Themes and integrations are limited on BigCommerce, which does not allow you to have much control over your online store.Β
2 β When your sales reach a certain threshold, you move to the next level of the tariff plan. Thus, it requires a certain investment to take into account if you have many expenses related to your activity.
Tariff plan
You have to pay a monthly subscription to use BigCommerce. Thus, its use is necessarily not as profitable as for other CMS. The tariff plan is based on an estimate drawn up by the company.
Ghost is a CMS platform specially designed for the blogs. The particularity of the platform is that the content does not have to be distributed in a particular way. That is to say, the content or data produced can just as easily be displayed on a website and sent back to a mobile or other application. In other words, you do not have to make any specific changes to the responsive design of your blog.
Advantages
1 β Ghost's Markdown format allows various ways to format your text. Special characters, bold, italic, you can give the style you want to your text.
2 β You don't need to add a plugin for your SEO, Ghost offers very good support to improve your natural referencing.
3 β Ghost is well set up to charge for content, so if you want to run a magazine or online publication that people pay for, you can do that easily.
Disadvantages
However, Ghost is not as flexible as WordPress. Although it started out as a CMS platform designed just for blogging, many find that it has become complicated as it notably offers a paid subscription system for your blog readers.
Pricing
Like WordPress or Joomla, you will need to find and pay for hosting and a domain name. Unfortunately, Ghost is not supported by many hosts. It offers hosting (GhostPro) from 36 $ per month, which will become more expensive if you want to add users or subscribers.
TYPO3 is a free and open source website creation software. It's done an enterprise CMS. In other words, it is internet software specifically designed to create intranets (internal company website). But it is also entirely possible to develop your own website there. There are a number of extensions available for TYPO3 which also provide additional functionality.
Advantages
1 β TYPO3 is ideal for large international companies, as it can manage large websites, especially those that offer several languages.
2 β If you want to be accompanied by a developer, TYPO3 is perfect. Being open source, it can be extended easily. Moreover, there are thousands of extensions and applications to add on the CMS to be able to add all the features you want. Thus, TYPO3 is a very good website creation software if you want a personalized interface.
Disadvantages
TYPO3 still requires a certain level of expertise in terms of web development. Thus, you will surely have to invest and be accompanied by a professional to set up your site and carry out its maintenance over the long term.
What is the best CMS for website creation?
At Geekworkers, we favor WordPress! You can create a custom 100 % website or online store, and with a little work, anyone can do it! And if you are not yet convinced, do not hesitate to consult our article: 5 reasons to create a WordPress website
