Content management systems have made website development from scratch easier without writing lines of code. In this era where digital presence is considered paramount, the open-source content management system has become an essential tool for businesses, individuals, and organizations seeking to create and retain a cohesive online presence.
Further, it indicates how CMS platforms strengthen users with different functionalities to develop a website while enabling them to smoothly create, modify and manage content ranging from images & text to multimedia aspects.
Looking at the market size of content management systems globally, it was valued at US$19308.38 million in 2022 and is forecasted to increase at a 6.74% CAGR at the time of the forecasting period to reach US$28552.98 million by the year 2028.
Resulting of the increasing interest of businesses, it will be good to go for a content management system to build a website.
This below guide to content management systems proceeds toward the details of different types of CMS systems, holding open-source options like WordPress, Drupal, and Joomla along with proprietary solutions customized to the specific needs of the industries. Let’s dive in-
Table of Contents
What is a Content Management System?
A content management system (CMS) is known as a software application crafted to ease the process of creating, managing, organizing, and publishing digital content on websites and other essential online platforms.
The main objective of CMS is to allow organizations and individuals to manage and update online content irrespective of their technical knowledge and without the need for lengthy coding or programming expertise.
The content manager system has a user-friendly interface that enables content creators, administrators, and editors to create, modify, and streamline content including images, articles, videos, etc. This simplified process augments collaboration among several users working on a similar platform allowing consistent and coherent digital experiences.
Some of the top content management systems are WordPress, AEM (Adobe Experience Manager), Drupal, Sitecore, Joomla, Silverstripe, etc. helping businesses to make their websites perform better.
There are 5 types of content management systems, we will get to know about them in the below section. They include –
- Web Content Management System (WCMS)
- Digital Asset Management System (DAMS)
- Enterprise Content Management System (ECM)
- Component Content Management System (CCMS)
- Document Management System (DMS)
All these content management systems allow users to amend, edit, or build websites without any knowledge of coding. Even with no knowledge or zero understanding, they can stick to best practices for web performance and security.
Market Size and Statistics of Content Management System
The content management system software market in 2023 is expected to grow at a rapid pace in terms of opportunities, risk mitigation, and others. Talking about revenue, the global content management software app market is forecasted to value US$48.3 billion in 2022. The entire market is expected to increase at a 1.1% CAGR till 2026 resulting in gaining huge benefits in the coming years.
As per the research conducted by Storyblok, respondents were asked to give their opinion on using headless Content Management Systems in the overall technical infrastructure. Compared to monolithic, headless CMS platforms are more capable of addressing major challenges. Here are the responses about headless CMSs:
- 82.91% of the firms noticed that using a headless CMS helped them to manage time, budget, meeting their KPIs, productivity, and growth/revenue.
- 31.4% of firms observed that headless CMS benefitted them regarding time in content and project management.
- 16.8% of organizations reported growth in traffic after switching to headless CMS.
- 14.2% of firms stated better ROI using it.
- 13.7% of companies reported a budget alleviation for their CMS maintenance after using headless solutions.
Components & Functions of Content Management System
CMSs are mostly used by people who have no coding experience; hence, it allows them to create a website without using any code or programming.
Before going further or choosing any of the Content management systems, one should know some of its most important core components & functions to use it better. These are-
- CMA (Content Management Application): GUI (graphical user interface) enables you to plan, craft, modify, and delete content from a site. And it doesn’t need any HTML knowledge.
- CDA (Content Delivery Application): CDA provides back-end services to support the website content management and delivery you generate in the CMA.
Now, let’s navigate to the overview of the content management system functions:
- Content Creation
- Content Storage
- Content Editing
- User Management
- Workflow & Collaborations
- Publish the Content
- Templates & Themes
- Plugins & Extensions
- SEO Updates
- Responsive Design
- Security & Updates
- Analytics & Insights
Content Creation
Different types of content can be created with CMS such as blog posts, articles, videos, images, and so on. Here, a user-friendly interface helps users that seems like word processing software.
Content Storage
The content is stored by CMS in a structured format within a database. Also, the content is unified into categories, tags, and other grouping options to make it searchable & manageable easily.
Content Editing
There are various editing tools provided by CMS to modify the existing content. Users can make changes via an editor called WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) which enables users to format content without having any technical knowledge.
User Management
CMS platforms contain user roles and permissions enabling different access to different users. For example, admins, authors, editors, and contributors might have different levels of access and controls.
Workflow & Collaborations
Various CMS systems support collaboration by allowing content creators to work on multiple projects simultaneously. Also, drafts can be saved, evaluated, and authorized by higher-level users before publishing.
Publish the Content
When the content is ready to publish, users can publish it with just a simple click. Here CMS makes sure that published content sticks to the website design and layout.
Templates & Themes
Content manager systems often use templates and themes to get a consistent look and feel throughout the website. Themes help to control the design and templates identify how content is shown on different pages.
Plugins & Extensions
CMS systems enable the integration of extensions or plugins to include advanced features & functions, and these can go from SEO optimization tools to eCommerce capacities.
SEO Updates
Users can enter metadata like meta titles, descriptions, and keywords for search engines. Incorporated analytical platforms enable users to track user behavior and website traffic.
Responsive Design
The content management system crafts the websites with responsive design capabilities, optimizing content for different devices such as mobile, desktop, tablet, etc.
Security & Updates
Best content management systems release updates regularly because of security and better performance. It is necessary to keep the plugins, CMS, and themes up to date to alleviate the vulnerability.
Analytics & Insights
Some CMS platforms offer built-in analytics or permit the addition of external tools to observe website performance. Top of Form
Complete List of Different Types of CMS
Once you have decided to build a website by choosing the best content management system, it’s the right time to jump to the details of different types of CMS software. Here we have come up with the five different CMS types that you can choose from as per your requirements, have a look-
1. Web Content Management System (WCMS)
Create a website with CMS that is considered by most industry giants. Web content management system is crafted specifically to manage and publish content on websites. It enables users to generate, edit, manage, and publish web pages and digital content simply. WCMS mostly controls the HTML content used over different digital channels.
This CMS enables content creators to work collaboratively, provides templates for continuous design, and supports version control. WCMS also ensures content organizations with amazing features such as categorization, hierarchical structuring, and tagging. It enhances content for several devices via responsive design with a better user experience across tablets, desktops, and mobile devices.
WCM provides different CMSs for different purposes including open-source CMS, commercial CMS, and custom CMS. Get details about them below-
Open-Source Content Management System
An open-source content management system allows users to create, organize, and publish digital content on websites. It is a free content management system with no license or upgrade charges that lets users modify and distribute it easily as it has its source code open to the public. It forwards partnership and community-driven development.
It is good to use when you require the least integration. Users can also customize this CMS suiting to their needs while accessing a broad range of plugins and themes. Here are some popular examples of open-source CMS-
- WordPress
- Grav
- Joomla
- Drupal
- SilverStripe
- Craft
- Bolt
- Umbraco
- Microweber
- Textpattern
- Contao
- Concrete CMS
- PyroCMS
- Strapi
- Fork
- DjangoCMS
- DotCMS
- PrestaShop
- DotNetNuke
Commercial Content Management System
A commercial content management system (CMS) is used by businesses to manage, edit, and publish content and related processes while accomplishing business needs. This CMS applies a license fee to use the CMS software, but it is quicker to implement in comparison to open-source CMS.
CCMS also offers customizable templates, plugins, and integration options to improve website functionality. It also includes advanced features, security, scalability, and support that make it one of the best content management systems. Look at the best of CCMS below-
- ExpressionEngine
- Sitecore
- Kentico
- Cushy CMS
- Siteleaf
- Episerver
- Magnolia
- Adobe Experience Manager
- Flamelink CMS
- Ghost CMS
- Magento
- BigCommerce
- WooCommerce
Custom Content Management System
The main purpose of using a custom content management system is to match unique requirements, workflows, and organizational branding. It also has accurate control over content generation, modification, and publication lining up with the business goals.
Custom CMS bridges the gap between open-source and commercial CMS by providing personalized features, security measures, and integrations. Below we have named popular Custom CMSs-
- Wix
- Squarespace
- Shopify
- Pulse CMS
- Sitefinity CMS
2. Digital Asset Management System (DAMS)
DAMs concentrate on controlling digital assets like pictures, videos, documents, and audio files. It also comprises tools to search, organize, and share digital assets across an organization.
A digital content management system allows distributed teams to grab the right asset to provide a better customer experience via the right channel.
It works as a tool to compact assets, operations, and workflows across different business units, and teams. It is also considered a cloud content management system so that users are able to access content anywhere. Here are examples of DAMS-
- Brandfolder
- Bindery
- Canto
- Aprimo
- Air
- Frontify
- Dash
- ImageKit
- Cloudinary
3. Enterprise Content Management System (ECM)
Enterprise content management systems collect, manage, and deliver the documents of an organization safeguarding vital information conveyed to the right audiences including customers, employees, business stakeholders, etc. ECM allows the organization’s members to access the content easily required to complete the projects and make decisions accordingly.
Also, ECM permits you to remove files after a specific retention period to make sure there is no pointless content covering space. ECM systems are also better at managing the organization’s content comprising records management, document management, collaboration tools, and workflow automation. It is the reason why most website development companies in the USA use this CMS. Have a look at the top examples of ECM-
- Laserfiche
- Box
- FileCloud
- Sanity
- DocuWare
- DocuShare
- ShareFile
- M-Files
- DocuSign CLM
- DocLink
4. Component Content Management System (CCMS)
The component content management system is one of the best CMS types that are designed to organize modular content components. These types of CMSs are majorly used in industries where content is required to be reused across several documents or publications. It also allows for effective content creation, organizing, and publication, mainly for product manuals and technical documentation.
It is slightly different from a standard CMS as it manages content at a coarse level. It doesn’t organize content page by page, but it takes phrases, words, paragraphs, or images and gathers them in a key repository. Some popular component content management systems examples are-
- Paligo
- Confluence
- Documoto
- Xyleme
- Author-it
5. Document Management System (DMS)
A document management system provides a paperless solution to organizations while focusing on storing, organizing, and tracking documents. It works as an automated & eco-friendly solution for publishing, processing, and sharing business documents without worrying about printing or scanning them.
This is one of the best content management systems that offer access controls, version control, and metadata management to store documents securely. Check out some examples of DMS-
- Google Workspace
- Dropbox
- OneDrive
- iCloud
What Kinds of Websites Can You Build with Content Management Systems?
When it comes to hiring a top website development company to develop a website with CMS, it is needed to think about which kind of website you want to build. However, you have plenty of options regarding content management systems but choosing one of them also depends on the type of website you are going for.
Let’s understand what kinds of websites you can create with different types of content management systems, have a look below-
- Static Websites
- Blogs
- eCommerce Stores
- Forums
- Social Networks
- Online Courses
- Membership Sites
- Portfolios
1. Static Websites
Website content management systems can be used to create static websites for small to large businesses. These kinds of websites often comprise information regarding the firm or agency, its services & products, contact details, and also, eCommerce capabilities. CMS simplifies website development and maintenance with the use of templates and tools.
2. Blogs
One of the most common uses of website content management systems is creating and publishing blogs. Most popular examples of content management systems such as WordPress, Joomla, Blogger, etc. offer easy-to-use tools and interfaces to write and publish blog posts empowering both experienced and novice bloggers.
3. eCommerce Stores
Several top CMS types comprise eCommerce plugins, themes, and features to ease the process of building an eCommerce store or website. These examples include Shopify, Magento, and WooCommerce for WordPress.
4. Forums
CMS platforms empower users to build vibrant online communities called forums that enable sharing of knowledge, and discussions, and foster higher engagement. WordPress, phpBB, Drupal, etc. are some CMS platforms that integrate forum functionality seamlessly.
5. Social Networks
Custom content management systems are used to build social networks including user-generated content, profiles, and interactions. CMS like WordPress with BuddyPress, Drupal, etc. can be used to build social networks with easy user connections, content sharing, and community building.
6. Online Courses
Design comprehensive online course platforms swiftly using CMS. Popular CMS options such as WordPress with LMS plugins, LearnDash, etc. offer seamless course creation, management & interaction, augmenting e-learning experiences for both learners and educators.
7. Membership Sites
CMS allows easy development of membership sites while managing users’ access, subscriptions, and content restriction. CMS platforms such as WordPress with plugins comprise tools for easy setup, content delivery, and user management, easing the process of creating and streamlining membership-based websites.
8. Portfolios
Build an amazing portfolio website efficiently using CMS like WordPress, Wix, Squarespace, etc. There is no coding required, just simply put content & photos, and customize the design to showcase our style. It helps users to present their portfolios professionally with customizable premium Squarespace templates.
How to Build a Website with a Content Management System?
Building a website is the need of the hour that businesses require to increase their online presence and user engagement. Before getting website development services, they must follow the content management systems guide to know which CMS will be most appropriate to choose while creating the website.
If you have chosen the right CMS already, then it’s time to follow the below steps to get a content management system website-
- Get a Domain Name
- Choose a Website Builder
- Select a hosting plan
- Choose & Customize Themes
- Fill in General Settings
- Select & Install the Plugin
- Add Pages to Your Site
- Upload Content
- Test and Review
Step 1: Get a Domain Name
The website or domain name signifies your website’s purpose; hence, it must be catchy, attractive, and SEO-friendly. Instead of keeping the domain name too long, keep it short, unique, and brand related. Try to make it different from other popular brand names so that it can have a unique identity.
Step 2: Choose a Website Builder or a CMS
Build a website with CMS suitable to your web development requirements, level of expertise, and desired outcomes. There are available several examples of content management systems you might look into, they are WordPress, Drupal, Joomla, Wix, and so on. You can choose among these by considering all the pros and cons so that you won’t regret it later.
Step 3: Select a hosting plan or sign up for a website builder subscription
You must take care of your hosting choice as well. Consider that all the CMS also come with integrated hosting solutions. But here you can go with the web hosting provider of your own choice with fast web page load speed, strong uptime rates, different integration options, reliable security tools, and affordable pricing.
Step 4: Choose & Customize Themes or Templates for Your Site
Content management system design has integrated templates and themes that you can use as per your website’s purpose and style. All the available themes are customizable and decide the overall look of your site. Similar to plugins, templates can also be paid or free having a direct impact on the safety and quality.
Step 5: Fill in General Settings
Set up necessary settings such as SEO, user roles, permalink structure, and privacy preferences to proceed further. These details will help to distribute tasks among the team members and provide users with a better experience.
Step 6: Select & Install the Plugin
Make a website with CMS using different plugins or extensions ranging from social media integrations to eCommerce integrations. Plugins are available both free and paid but it will be good to go with the paid as they are more reliable and secure during the website development process.
Step 7: Add Pages to Your Site
While creating a website development roadmap, don’t forget to add how many pages you want to add to your website. The more pages you will add, the lengthier and more intricate your website will be, therefore, decide carefully. It will also affect the overall website development cost and consumed time.
Step 8: Upload Content
When you have finished the web design customization, it’s time to upload the content on web pages. Web content management systems will help you in this process as most templates have pre-designed content related to the particular niche. Businesses can also replace the content with their details such as text, photos, media files, etc. using the CMS’s text editor.
Step 9: Test and Review
Before publishing the website, it is necessary to test and review it in terms of performance, functionality, and appearance. Once you are satisfied with the functionality and design, make the website live for the audience to see.
Amazing Benefits of Content Management Systems
There are various benefits of content management systems that make them a preferred choice for businesses to build and manage websites. The following are those benefits-
- Multi-channel Management
- Security
- Increased User-Friendliness
- Data Analytics
- Ease of Maintenance Including Updates
- Cost-Effectiveness
- Extendable Functionality
- SEO-friendly Features
- Developer and Community Support
- Customization Options
- Simplified Collaboration and Team Content Building
- Easy Content Scheduling
- Accessible All the Time
- Mobile-Friendly
- Faster Installation and Upgrades
- No Coding with Content Management Software
1. Multi-channel Management
Multi-channel management is provided by CMSs involving generating, managing, and delivering consistent content across different digital platforms such as social media, websites, mobile apps, etc.
With the amazing content management system features, it is ensured to provide smooth content distribution leading to brand consistency, improved user experience, and effective content updates.
2. Security
The best CMS examples such as WordPress, Drupal, and others offer continuous security patches and updates to safeguard the website against cyber threats and vulnerabilities. It is one of the amazing WordPress CMS advantages as it offers its users role-based access control, authentication, and encryption to secure data.
3. Increased User-Friendliness
Content management systems excel in user-friendliness by offering easy-to-use interfaces to create websites effortlessly. These include customizable templates, drag-and-drop editors, and no-coding required methods. This way, all technical and non-technical users can create, modify, and publish content.
4. Data Analytics
CMSs offer integrated data analytics tools to provide website performance insights. Here businesses must know how to use these tools best to track metrics like user engagement, page views, referral sources, and more. Users can make informed decisions by analyzing this data.
5. Ease of Maintenance Including Updates
Content management systems are helpful for website maintenance and updates. All the users can manage to create & edit content along with regular updates such as blog posts or new pages without coding. CMSs also provide automated plugin updates and security patches to streamline site maintenance.
6. Cost-Effectiveness
Content management systems come with cost-effectiveness by removing the need for massive custom development. It already has pre-built templates, interfaces, and plugins reducing the cost of initial setup and ongoing maintenance. With this, businesses are able to manage professional websites without any need to hire dedicated developers.
7. Extendable Functionality
CMSs offer extendable functionality via modules, plugins, and extensions. It is why businesses obtain custom CMS development services so that they can get such benefits and they can acquire better websites with features such as social media integration, eCommerce, SEO optimization, and more. With the extensibility, users are empowered to customize and enlarge their websites’ capabilities.
8. SEO-friendly Features
CMSs comprise SEO-friendly features to increase website visibility via customizable meta tags, header tags, and URLs. Alongside this, built-in sitemaps benefit search engines crawl and indexing pages proficiently. It prioritizes fast loading times and mobile responsiveness while augmenting user experience.
9. Developer and Community Support
Popular CMS platforms such as WordPress, Drupal, etc. have vast and active user communities, forums, etc. that make it easier to search for solutions, best practices, and troubleshooting tips.
While getting Drupal or WordPress development services, businesses get robust development support via APIs, documentation, and tools advancing in customization and extension of functionality.
10. Customization Options
CMS platforms provide extensive customization options enabling users to alter their websites to specific requirements. These options comprise selecting templates and themes, altering layouts, adjusting fonts and colors, combining plugins for extensive functionality, implementing eCommerce features, building custom post types, and fine-tuning SEO settings.
11. Simplified Collaboration and Team Content Building
CMS-based collaboration platform Streamlines teamwork leading to effortlessly generating, altering, and managing content in real-time. CMS provides a centralized platform to simplify content creation processes and ensure continuous branding and messaging. It leads to efficient teamwork, improved productivity, and consistent content development for better engagement.
12. Easy Content Scheduling
Content management systems offer effortless content scheduling to plan content publication at particular times. With an attractive and intuitive interface, this automation ensures reliable and timely content delivery, increased audience engagement, and free up time for users so that they can focus on other tasks.
13. Accessible All the Time
Cloud-based CMSs are accessible 24/7 allowing users to create and streamline content anytime from anywhere. This consistent availability fosters smooth collaboration, timely publishing, and efficient updates, augmenting user engagement and complete operational productivity. This is why every CMS development company ensures to create cloud-based CMSs as these are highly preferred by businesses.
14. Mobile-Friendly
Content management systems enable mobile-friendliness with the help of responsive and appealing design templates and tools. It also ensures that websites and content adapt to different screen sizes and devices automatically. With mobile optimization, CMSs are able to augment user experience, engagement, and content accessibility.
15. Faster Installation and Upgrades
The main reason why a web portal development company uses CMSs is the quicker installation and upgrades benefit provided by them. Compared to custom-built systems, CMSs have pre-designed templates and modules to reduce initial setup time. Here, regular updates are also modernized via centralized management, guaranteeing security patches, improvements, and new features.
16. No Coding with Content Management Software
The main reason why businesses are going for CMSs is because of ‘no coding’. It eliminates the need to write codes that enable non-technical users to manage digital content easily. Even if you want to obtain full-stack development services to create a website, there is still no need for coding.
Why to Choose SemiDot Infotech for Developing a Content Management System?
As a leading software development company, SemiDot Infotech has set a benchmark in the industry by delivering hundreds of successful projects to date. Over a decade, it has grown by having a specialty in developing software solutions including content management software. Our experienced team understands the possible technical intricacies and the best approaches required to create an efficient and robust system.
Being a pioneer in the industry, we also provide customized CMS to your specific needs to add specific features, functions, and design elements aligning with your branding and business requirements. We streamline our processes and tools to accelerate development procedures ensuring timely CMS delivery with high quality.
Conclusion
A well-designed and feature-rich content management system can make your overall website development procedure 10 times easier while making it traffic and customer oriented.
Hence, we have come up with the above guide to provide you with an understanding of what are content management systems and what benefits are associated with them.
Choose the best one as per your requirements and bring your products & services to the vanguard to attract your target audiences. To make your journey smoother, you can also build a content management system with the help of a top-notch software development company like SemiDot Infotech.
We will assist you with our best software developers following the best development methods and practices. Partnering with us will also benefit you with a comprehensive solution, higher chances of being successful, and expert guidance.
