A content management system, or CMS for short, is an application or piece of software that allows a user to manage a website without having to rummage around in the code.
They often come with a user-friendly admin panel in which you can create blog posts, add pages or products and manage users.
Content management systems are ideal for people who don’t have coding knowledge but would like to be involved in running their website.
Popular examples #
The biggest CMSs around are WordPress, Joomla & Drupal. WordPress takes the lions share as over one third of websites currently on the web are built with WordPress.
Which is the most recommended? #
In largely comes down to what your objectives are and personal preference.
In our humble opinion, we prefer WordPress.
We’ve been building with WordPress since 2016.
Sites built on WordPress have a huge potential for scaleability and extendibility. There are a over 50,000 plugins (external software) available that can turn your site into a marketplace, an online shop, a web app and more!
Also, WordPress is highly customisable and we’d argue it has the most user-friendly admin panel – but that may be because we’re so used to it by now.
It is worth noting that each content management system does have its own strengths and weaknesses though.
Why would you use a Content Management System? #
We’ve touched upon this briefly above, but the main reason you would opt for a content management system (CMS) is because it allows you to actively play a part in your website, should you wish.