Spotters guide to different types of CMS
This article gives an overview of the different categories, with examples and considerations that can help you decide which type of CMS is best for you.
An ill-advised choice of Web Content Management System (CMS) can leave you experiencing a multitude of problems:
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Lack of agility when your business needs to pivot
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High operational costs
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Vendor lock-in
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Difficulty finding good people to operate and manage your platform
Website builders
Website builders allow you to create and host a website with little or no technical knowledge. They are great for small businesses and startups, enabling you to rapidly put in place a digital presence at low cost, so you can focus your time, energy and money on more important things.
As your business matures, users often find that they are investing more and more in the platform to build new features, integrate systems or host additional sites. At this point it is worth evaluating if this type of CMS platform is still the right choice - it may be time to move onto something else before sunk costs get out of control or you find your productivity hampered by limitations in the platform.
Design agencies are increasingly packaging services around these platforms which result in original designs transformed into a working solution at very attractive cost. Be conscious of whether the underlying platform is the right tool for your longer-term needs before committing to these types of service.
Integrated CMS / Web platform
Examples: Wordpress, Drupal, Umbraco, dotCMS
These platforms provide a CMS with integrated website hosting. These are another great way to get started quickly, especially if you go for a vendor-managed cloud solution. Costs will vary and open source vendors have strong offerings in this category.
As the website is integrated you have less flexibility in the technology stack used, be it PHP, Java, .NET or something less common. Be sure that there is a good match here with your existing technical skillset, or be prepared to re-skill.
The close coupling between the CMS and website supports a wide range of features, either provided by the vendor or via third-party plugins. While plugins can quickly implement new features, a platform overly reliant on them for core functionality may lead to challenges in cost control, security, and maintenance.
Make sure key capabilities that matter to you are provided in the core product, or with vendor managed add-ons with transparent pricing.
Most platform vendors in this category will claim to be able to operate as a headless CMS, having REST APIs to retrieve published content, but they most likely will not scale or deliver content as efficiently as a pure headless vendor.
Agencies favour these types of platform as they can build standard solutions to create attractively priced fully-managed offerings for clients who do not want to 'own' the solution themselves. If you go with such a managed solution, but do not want to be locked-in to your solution provider, ensure there are provisions in the contract which ensure you have a license to the source code of your solution.
Moving away from such a platform can be a complex process, due to the integrated nature and dependency on proprietary technology or plugins, so should not be undertaken lightly.
Headless CMS
Examples: Contentful, StoryBlok, Contentstack, Strapi and loads more.
A headless CMS allows complete flexibility on how you build your website or other digital experiences. They are usually only available as a fully vendor managed solution (Software-as-a-Service or SaaS) which will give an easy to use interface for editing content. Comprehensive and well documented APIs or SDKs are provided for developers to integrate the content in any way your organisation requires, using many different technology stacks and programming languages.
A headless CMS well suited to organisations who have significant development teams and mature technology capabilities (or work with implementation partners who provide these). Technical teams are required to implement, integrate and manage the digital experiences, often by combining a set of composable capabilities from other vendors.
Such solutions can be costly to implement and manage, but are highly scalable, have reduced vendor lock-in and are easier to adapt to changing business needs.
As the website is decoupled from the CMS, some headless vendors can have a bewildering experience for website editors. If your primary channel for content distribution is the web, make sure you choose a headless vendor that has strong visual website editing capabilities.
Enterprise platforms
Examples: Adobe AEM, Acquia, Optimizely, RWS Tridion, Sitecore
These platforms are designed for the needs of large, complex organisations and are usually priced accordingly. Often referred to as Digital Experience Platforms (DXPs), they provide not only traditional CMS capabilities but also integrate with a comprehensive suite of products for managing customer experiences across multiple channels. Like an integrated CMS, they offer both CMS and web hosting but typically support many different architectures, including headless.
Many of these products were developed before the SaaS era, meaning their cloud offerings often lean towards PaaS (Platform-as-a-Service) rather than pure SaaS, requiring more technical expertise to run effectively.
Enterprise CMS and DXPs manage complex digital estates, supporting multiple brands, languages, and sites within a single platform. They offer tools for content management, personalisation, analytics, workflow, and digital asset management, often as part of a larger ecosystem. While these tools add value, they also increase complexity and cost. Vendors frequently use this to cross-sell other components once established in your organisation.
Given their extensive capabilities, finding skilled professionals proficient in implementing and operating these platforms can be challenging and costly. Additionally, transitioning away from them is a major undertaking due to their integration into broader business processes and reliance on proprietary technology and custom configurations
When evaluating Enterprise CMS and DXPs, be sure to consider not just the capabilities offered, but also the total cost of ownership and long-term vendor commitment, as these platforms are designed to serve as the backbone of your digital strategy.
Not a CMS
Examples: Hubspot, Shopify
Lastly there are many other platforms, which are not primarily designed for content management, but have CMS / website management capabilities built in. These include marketing campaign tooling, eCommerce platforms and mobile app platforms.
If your website or application is not content heavy and more focussed on other features like selling or campaigning then it may be more appropriate to start with one of these.
CMS capabilities tend to be limited, so before you grow, it’s worth thinking upfront about how easy it would be to integrate with a dedicated CMS platform at a later stage..
Additional information
There is a lot more to consider when choosing a CMS. Here are some further tips to help you make the right choice:- Even if your initial requirements are simple, make sure you understand how costs scale as your business grows.
- Consider whether a vendor-managed (SaaS or PaaS) platform is preferable for your needs or if you wish to manage it yourself or via an agency.
