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The 10 Top Content Management Systems (CMS) for Small Businesses in 2024

Updated
Rose Wheeler
By: Rose Wheeler

Our Small Business Expert

Many or all of the products here are from our partners that compensate us. It’s how we make money. But our editorial integrity ensures our experts’ opinions aren’t influenced by compensation. Terms may apply to offers listed on this page.

Whether you're strictly managing content or wearing multiple marketing hats, you'll need good content management system software. With the right CMS, you can not only publish pieces but also create a user-friendly experience and manage the lifecycle of your audience. Each CMS is different, but each also brings something uniquely specialized to your requirements.

A good marketing system and a good automation system may seem like very different things, but the right CMS is both of those at once.

Taking the pressure off the old 'jack-of-all-trades, master-of-none' approach, content management system software effectively manages all aspects for you so that your site can be the best it can be.

When you embrace the efficiency of a CMS, you are free to focus on other areas, assured of the machine-learning precision of a website and content portfolio that delivers.

With so many options out there to choose from, we've curated our top picks of CMS software, options that meet myriad needs and budgets, while still delivering a high-quality and user-friendly system.

Product Description Next Steps
Rating image, 4.20 out of 5 stars.
4.20/5 Circle with letter I in it. Our ratings are based on a 5 star scale. 5 stars equals Best. 4 stars equals Excellent. 3 stars equals Good. 2 stars equals Fair. 1 star equals Poor. We want your money to work harder for you. Which is why our ratings are biased toward offers that deliver versatility while cutting out-of-pocket costs.
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Weebly continues to attract and keep loyal users thanks to its user-friendly design and constant upgrades.
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4.10/5 Circle with letter I in it. Our ratings are based on a 5 star scale. 5 stars equals Best. 4 stars equals Excellent. 3 stars equals Good. 2 stars equals Fair. 1 star equals Poor. We want your money to work harder for you. Which is why our ratings are biased toward offers that deliver versatility while cutting out-of-pocket costs.
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GoDaddy Website Builder is a fast, beginner-friendly site builder that uses Artificial Design Intelligence (ADI). Customization is limited, making it ideal for simple websites.
WordPress.com
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4.00/5 Circle with letter I in it. Our ratings are based on a 5 star scale. 5 stars equals Best. 4 stars equals Excellent. 3 stars equals Good. 2 stars equals Fair. 1 star equals Poor. We want your money to work harder for you. Which is why our ratings are biased toward offers that deliver versatility while cutting out-of-pocket costs.
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WordPress.com is the world's most popular website builder due to its features and capacity for customization. The Blueprint covers its pros and cons, so you can decide if it's your best choice.
Wix
Rating image, 4.00 out of 5 stars.
4.00/5 Circle with letter I in it. Our ratings are based on a 5 star scale. 5 stars equals Best. 4 stars equals Excellent. 3 stars equals Good. 2 stars equals Fair. 1 star equals Poor. We want your money to work harder for you. Which is why our ratings are biased toward offers that deliver versatility while cutting out-of-pocket costs.
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A drag-and-drop site builder, Wix is an intuitive yet customizable CMS option for those with a tight budget.
Kentico
Rating image, 3.90 out of 5 stars.
3.90/5 Circle with letter I in it. Our ratings are based on a 5 star scale. 5 stars equals Best. 4 stars equals Excellent. 3 stars equals Good. 2 stars equals Fair. 1 star equals Poor. We want your money to work harder for you. Which is why our ratings are biased toward offers that deliver versatility while cutting out-of-pocket costs.
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Kentico, as a CMS, has an all-inclusive mindset when it comes to content management and beyond.
Bolt CMS
Rating image, 3.70 out of 5 stars.
3.70/5 Circle with letter I in it. Our ratings are based on a 5 star scale. 5 stars equals Best. 4 stars equals Excellent. 3 stars equals Good. 2 stars equals Fair. 1 star equals Poor. We want your money to work harder for you. Which is why our ratings are biased toward offers that deliver versatility while cutting out-of-pocket costs.
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Built with web developers in mind, Bolt CMS is an efficient content management system.
WordPress
Rating image, 3.70 out of 5 stars.
3.70/5 Circle with letter I in it. Our ratings are based on a 5 star scale. 5 stars equals Best. 4 stars equals Excellent. 3 stars equals Good. 2 stars equals Fair. 1 star equals Poor. We want your money to work harder for you. Which is why our ratings are biased toward offers that deliver versatility while cutting out-of-pocket costs.
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WordPress is one of the original site builders, with multiple plugins and an open-source nature, used to create many different types of websites.
HubSpot CMS
Rating image, 3.60 out of 5 stars.
3.60/5 Circle with letter I in it. Our ratings are based on a 5 star scale. 5 stars equals Best. 4 stars equals Excellent. 3 stars equals Good. 2 stars equals Fair. 1 star equals Poor. We want your money to work harder for you. Which is why our ratings are biased toward offers that deliver versatility while cutting out-of-pocket costs.
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HubSpot CMS is an excellent tool for marketers and content-focused web pages, with some unique limitations.
Squarespace
Rating image, 3.50 out of 5 stars.
3.50/5 Circle with letter I in it. Our ratings are based on a 5 star scale. 5 stars equals Best. 4 stars equals Excellent. 3 stars equals Good. 2 stars equals Fair. 1 star equals Poor. We want your money to work harder for you. Which is why our ratings are biased toward offers that deliver versatility while cutting out-of-pocket costs.
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Squarespace is a website builder that prioritizes professional looking pages and efficient publishing.
Magnolia
Rating image, 3.50 out of 5 stars.
3.50/5 Circle with letter I in it. Our ratings are based on a 5 star scale. 5 stars equals Best. 4 stars equals Excellent. 3 stars equals Good. 2 stars equals Fair. 1 star equals Poor. We want your money to work harder for you. Which is why our ratings are biased toward offers that deliver versatility while cutting out-of-pocket costs.
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Magnolia CMS offers intuitive content and page builder for multi-functional sites.
Drupal
Rating image, 3.30 out of 5 stars.
3.30/5 Circle with letter I in it. Our ratings are based on a 5 star scale. 5 stars equals Best. 4 stars equals Excellent. 3 stars equals Good. 2 stars equals Fair. 1 star equals Poor. We want your money to work harder for you. Which is why our ratings are biased toward offers that deliver versatility while cutting out-of-pocket costs.
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Drupal CMS is highly flexible and a good fit for those with coding experience.
Joomla
Rating image, 2.90 out of 5 stars.
2.90/5 Circle with letter I in it. Our ratings are based on a 5 star scale. 5 stars equals Best. 4 stars equals Excellent. 3 stars equals Good. 2 stars equals Fair. 1 star equals Poor. We want your money to work harder for you. Which is why our ratings are biased toward offers that deliver versatility while cutting out-of-pocket costs.
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Built for everyone from beginners to experts, Joomla delivers on its basic promise but does little to set itself apart.
Rating image, 4.20 out of 5 stars.
4.20/5 Circle with letter I in it. Our ratings are based on a 5 star scale. 5 stars equals Best. 4 stars equals Excellent. 3 stars equals Good. 2 stars equals Fair. 1 star equals Poor. We want your money to work harder for you. Which is why our ratings are biased toward offers that deliver versatility while cutting out-of-pocket costs.
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Bottom Line: Weebly continues to attract and keep loyal users thanks to its user-friendly design and constant upgrades.

Weebly is a popular and budget-friendly CMS built for ease and functionality. Whether you're new to building sites or a seasoned web designer, Weebly is perfect to create multipurpose sites or simple informative ones.

It has various free templates to choose from, all of which are easy to customize. You can start with a pre-built website that you could tweak to make it work with your design strategy. Alternatively, you can upload your logo to Weebly and build your site based on your brand's aesthetic.

With Weebly's drag-and-drop tools, you can add elements to your design and easily create pages using its predetermined spacing so that your content stays in place within reason. Although, you don't have complete control of your site as you would with WordPress, you have plenty of freedom to explore design ideas without worrying about "breaking" something.

A selection of Weebly theme options.

Weebly’s themes are easy to customize to match your brand's look. Image source: Author

Weebly is self-hosted, which helps with keeping things encrypted and secure. Another bonus of Weebly having its own servers is fast page loading.

It offers a free trial so that you can see if it's the right match for your business. Weebly offers a free plan with some limitations -- it must have Weebly advertising, and you can't have a custom domain.

If you don't want Weebly ads on your website, upgrade to the professional plan. For $12/monthly (when billed annually), you get a custom domain and e-commerce capabilities.

Weebly is an excellent choice for startups or entrepreneurs looking for a free site, portfolio, or an online shop.

Rating image, 4.10 out of 5 stars.
4.10/5 Circle with letter I in it. Our ratings are based on a 5 star scale. 5 stars equals Best. 4 stars equals Excellent. 3 stars equals Good. 2 stars equals Fair. 1 star equals Poor. We want your money to work harder for you. Which is why our ratings are biased toward offers that deliver versatility while cutting out-of-pocket costs.
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Bottom Line: GoDaddy Website Builder is a fast, beginner-friendly site builder that uses Artificial Design Intelligence (ADI). Customization is limited, making it ideal for simple websites.

GoDaddy Website Builder offers a beginner-friendly website builder that uses Artificial Design Intelligence (ADI) to help launch your site quickly and easily. It's relatively affordable to get started, plans start at $10/month, and all plans include 24/7 customer support and web hosting. GoDaddy offers a free 30-day trial to see if the site builder is right for your business.

GoDaddy can create a website in under an hour, making it perfect for beginners. You can build a blog, informational site, or even an online store quickly and easily. With built-in marketing tools, GoDaddy makes building and optimizing a site simple, regardless of your knowledge or experience.

What you gain in simplicity, however, you sacrifice in creativity. In terms of look and layout, you’ll find customization options extremely limited, and there’s no app store for plug-ins and add-ons.

If you need to code and customize your site, GoDaddy isn’t the best option. However, it can be a great choice for a no-frills, small business website.

WordPress.com
Rating image, 4.00 out of 5 stars.
4.00/5 Circle with letter I in it. Our ratings are based on a 5 star scale. 5 stars equals Best. 4 stars equals Excellent. 3 stars equals Good. 2 stars equals Fair. 1 star equals Poor. We want your money to work harder for you. Which is why our ratings are biased toward offers that deliver versatility while cutting out-of-pocket costs.
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Bottom Line: WordPress.com is the world's most popular website builder due to its features and capacity for customization. The Blueprint covers its pros and cons, so you can decide if it's your best choice.

Launched in 2005, WordPress.com is one of the most popular site builders used by top organizations such as Sony and CNN. Fans of the CMS love how it doesn't require coding skills to build a site, and its many plugins that help expand features and scale as your business grows.

Behind the scenes, you'll find two different dashboards you can use. The classic dashboard is available with your site and a newer version located at WordPress.com that's very similar to the original but organized differently. You can use either dashboard to update and manage your website.

With WordPress.com, you can build a website quickly using one of the 350 free website themes that come with its free plan. However, if you upgrade to a paid subscription, you'll have more theme options available for free and to buy.

The newer WordPress.com admin dashboard has left- and right-hand menus, content blocks in the middle of the page, and a menu option to go to the classic dashboard.

In the newer WordPress.com dashboard, the right navigation can be used to manage your website. Image source: Author

You can easily create blog posts and pages using the drag-and-drop block editor, access the media library to upload images and videos, and utilize plugins to build landing pages or integrate with other tools. If you're creating multiple pages, you can save them as a template, so you don't have to start over each time.

WordPress.com has a "forever free" plan, but it lacks useful features, such as plugins, custom domain, and support. It also has WordPress.com ads, which get removed when you upgrade to the business and e-commerce plans, which are $300/year and $540/year, respectively.

For site building and managing content, you can't go wrong using WordPress.com. It has plenty of tools to expand and scale, and you can make a beautiful website tailored to your brand aesthetic. Still, you'll have to upgrade to a top tier plan to get the features you truly need.

Rating image, 4.00 out of 5 stars.
4.00/5 Circle with letter I in it. Our ratings are based on a 5 star scale. 5 stars equals Best. 4 stars equals Excellent. 3 stars equals Good. 2 stars equals Fair. 1 star equals Poor. We want your money to work harder for you. Which is why our ratings are biased toward offers that deliver versatility while cutting out-of-pocket costs.
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Bottom Line: A drag-and-drop site builder, Wix is an intuitive yet customizable CMS option for those with a tight budget.

Wix is a huge player in the content management and website building game, hosting 160 million websites. It is all but especially designed for small businesses, restaurants, church websites, e-commerce, and portfolios, thanks to its ease of use and scalable building approach.

One of its best features is its ability to automatically optimize your site for mobile.

The foundation is solid and not too prone to change, which makes it excellent for smaller organizations, or if you are going it solo. That doesn’t mean hindrance and conformity, though, as you can optimize and customize according to your needs.

In fact, it is all about customizing your site. If you have a central image, logo, or aesthetic, you can start with that and Wix will optimize a theme around it.

Wix color selector tool for color mode and logo palette.

A site theme with colors based on a logo in Wix. Image source: Author

Wix automatically installs and upgrades security updates, so you’re always protected. Editing is a breeze, with its dashboard that works on mobile or desktop, including photo filters and text animations.

Building sites is a drag-and-drop process, too, so ease of use isn’t an issue. There are built-in help features, online resources, and customer support available to you, so you won’t feel lost.

The pricing is spot on, too. If you have a basic need, Wix has a free plan that never expires. However, if you need something a tad bit more professional, such as your own domain name or the ability to use e-commerce features, you’ll need to opt for a paid plan. They’re pretty inexpensive though, ranging from $13 to $39/month.

Wix is best suited for a smaller scale, though, as integrations are a bit more limited, and you can’t update your template after publishing.

Rating image, 3.90 out of 5 stars.
3.90/5 Circle with letter I in it. Our ratings are based on a 5 star scale. 5 stars equals Best. 4 stars equals Excellent. 3 stars equals Good. 2 stars equals Fair. 1 star equals Poor. We want your money to work harder for you. Which is why our ratings are biased toward offers that deliver versatility while cutting out-of-pocket costs.
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Bottom Line: Kentico, as a CMS, has an all-inclusive mindset when it comes to content management and beyond.

A super adaptable CMS, Kentico is user-friendly at its core. You don’t need to code much or create pathways from scratch, as it allows for multiple-user management, Google integrations, customer management, and more.

As a software fully integrated APS (APS.NET is a free, open-source, cross-platform framework for building web apps with varied programming languages), it is often preferred by digital marketers and IT-savvy managers specifically.

High customization is the name of the game, with tailored websites and state-of-the-art experiences, all without fear of security breaches or feeling lost, thanks to constantly dedicated support teams and safety updates.

Its editor is easy and simple enough for basic website builds. Still, it also offers the ability to add on more customizations as needed.

A really cool built-in feature? Its automatic translation ability, meaning it can support multilingual sites from the start. It simplifies the translation between audiences and vendors.

Widgets can be embedded and are easily set up by regular users, eliminating the need for ongoing developer maintenance.

It also prioritizes content efficiency, allowing for smart recycling of content, relinking, and cloning capabilities, so you don’t have to rebuild all the time.

Kentico dashboard organized in as a tile navigation menu with 22 tiles and a large prompt welcoming you to the platform.

The dashboard in Kentico is super intuitive and widgets can be added and removed as needed. Image source: Author

After your free trial, Kentico costs $7,999/year, but it comes with the features, support, and security to back up the pricing.

Bolt CMS
Rating image, 3.70 out of 5 stars.
3.70/5 Circle with letter I in it. Our ratings are based on a 5 star scale. 5 stars equals Best. 4 stars equals Excellent. 3 stars equals Good. 2 stars equals Fair. 1 star equals Poor. We want your money to work harder for you. Which is why our ratings are biased toward offers that deliver versatility while cutting out-of-pocket costs.
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Bottom Line: Built with web developers in mind, Bolt CMS is an efficient content management system.

If you value clarity and a straightforward approach, Bolt is the CMS for you. Built by and for front-end designers and developers, Bolt is intuitive at its core, modern in design, and easy to learn.

It is highly preferred by non-technical users, people like content editors who don’t do coding, because it allows the user to focus on producing and editing content, rather than jumping through hoops.

It’s single-minded in being a content management system and focuses on doing that really well rather than being distracted by bells and whistles. Also, it is open-source and so another free option, such as WordPress, for the budget-minded among us.

Bolt file screen on an iPad mobile view listing file folders and various image files.

Clean and organized, from files to templates in Bolt. Image source: Author

The templates are sleek, and the setup is quick and easy. It’s also fast to load, with a built-in cache system to keep page speeds up. The code is clean and maintainable, so it can be easily managed without a fleet of developers.

Security is tight, and bug fixes are quick. Overall, it is clean, purposeful, and efficient as a CMS option.

WordPress
Rating image, 3.70 out of 5 stars.
3.70/5 Circle with letter I in it. Our ratings are based on a 5 star scale. 5 stars equals Best. 4 stars equals Excellent. 3 stars equals Good. 2 stars equals Fair. 1 star equals Poor. We want your money to work harder for you. Which is why our ratings are biased toward offers that deliver versatility while cutting out-of-pocket costs.
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Bottom Line: WordPress is one of the original site builders, with multiple plugins and an open-source nature, used to create many different types of websites.

WordPress is pretty much all-inclusive and easy to use for all levels of content management. While it originated as a tool for creating blogs, it has massively expanded as a top choice for creating all types of websites.

WordPress lets you create entire web pages, publish and update content, and allow multiple users access with varying permissions, everything you need to maintain an active online presence.

Plus, it is designed to be user-friendly. Without having to worry about going into too much backend and coding, you can select readymade templates and follow in-depth guides on getting set up.

With over 50,000 plug-in options available, you can fully customize your site and your content to do exactly what you need. This makes WordPress an extremely ubiquitous and adaptable choice.

WordPress screen showing plugin options displayed as three columns of tiles. Summary of each plugin is in each tile.

You can choose from an abundance of easy-to-install features Image source: Author

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WordPress is free, open-source alternative to other market options. It comes SEO-ready, so you can start out of the gate with the ability to rank on search engines, allowing people to find you.

And with a variety of options on how you can use it, WordPress is an excellent choice for everyone, from beginners to more advanced site builders.

HubSpot CMS
Rating image, 3.60 out of 5 stars.
3.60/5 Circle with letter I in it. Our ratings are based on a 5 star scale. 5 stars equals Best. 4 stars equals Excellent. 3 stars equals Good. 2 stars equals Fair. 1 star equals Poor. We want your money to work harder for you. Which is why our ratings are biased toward offers that deliver versatility while cutting out-of-pocket costs.
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Bottom Line: HubSpot CMS is an excellent tool for marketers and content-focused web pages, with some unique limitations.

Built by marketers for marketers, HubSpot CMS is a top content management system.

To get the biggest barrier out of the way first, it is pretty expensive. In fact, it’s one of the most expensive CMSs on this list, starting at $400/month minimum, plus a mandatory $1,000 onboarding fee.

But with that cost comes some pretty amazing features, so if you have the budget, HubSpot CMS may be your best bet.

As a content management system, HubSpot CMS is designed with a marketing bent, making it excellent for creatives, e-commerce sites, basic pages, and more.

It’s also built with non-techies in mind, so it’s very easy to use, as well as having some amazing support in the form of online resources and dedicated account managers.

While you may be used to split testing for emails and landing pages, HubSpot CMS takes that facility a step further and lets you do the same thing with your webpages, which is pretty unique. And very helpful.

HubSpot CMS page builder screen with a tooltip suggestion to A/B test different variations of the page.

Finding a top performer landing page gets exponentially easier with Hubspot CMS. Image source: Author

HubSpot CMS also takes on the dirty work of analyzing search engine algorithms and optimizing your pages.

From giving tips as you’re building to automatically calling out fields and backlinks that will help you rank, SEO is very easy with this system. You also have access to built-in Google Analytics, site hosting, content transitioning, and dynamic content options.

Squarespace
Rating image, 3.50 out of 5 stars.
3.50/5 Circle with letter I in it. Our ratings are based on a 5 star scale. 5 stars equals Best. 4 stars equals Excellent. 3 stars equals Good. 2 stars equals Fair. 1 star equals Poor. We want your money to work harder for you. Which is why our ratings are biased toward offers that deliver versatility while cutting out-of-pocket costs.
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Bottom Line: Squarespace is a website builder that prioritizes professional looking pages and efficient publishing.

Squarespace, much like Wix, is one of the original players in the e-commerce website management software world. The platform has grown to encompass many types of sites and is often seen as one of the biggest alternatives to Wix.

One of its main attractions is all about aesthetics, with a bevy of professional themes and templates. Squarespace lets you create a website that looks sleek and professional.

Building and managing content in Squarespace is too easy, thanks to its drag-and-drop tool and its templates that act intuitively as you build. Very similar to WordPress, it offers several extensions to let you customize it as you need.

Squarespace template selection page with filters options by category and previous tiles of individual themes.

Chic themes make designing your site a breeze. Image source: Author

You can really get down to details with its style editor, and it's even easier to integrate high-quality images, thanks to the ability to add on searchable Unsplash and Getty images.

Lastly, the built-in analytics dashboard makes tracking KPIs simple to do so you can easily adjust your strategy. And if you're still not convinced of it's usability, check out our visual, step-by-step guide to Squarespace.

The cost is pretty reasonable, too. After your two-week free trial, you can purchase plans starting at $12/month which allows you up to 20 pages, or upgrade to a $40/month plan with unlimited bandwidth and Squarespace's e-commerce tools.

Magnolia
Rating image, 3.50 out of 5 stars.
3.50/5 Circle with letter I in it. Our ratings are based on a 5 star scale. 5 stars equals Best. 4 stars equals Excellent. 3 stars equals Good. 2 stars equals Fair. 1 star equals Poor. We want your money to work harder for you. Which is why our ratings are biased toward offers that deliver versatility while cutting out-of-pocket costs.
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Bottom Line: Magnolia CMS offers intuitive content and page builder for multi-functional sites.

Similar to HubSpot in its one barrier, Magnolia CMS can deter some based on pricing: that is, the fact that they don’t provide any. You have to contact a rep, explain your needs, and begin a free trial before you can find out what it will cost you.

If money, and the ability to invest extra time in something that may not pan out, isn’t really an issue, though, then Magnolia is a top option.

With multiple customizations available and a philosophy based around multitasking and efficiency, Magnolia CMS is a top choice for enterprises, IT businesses, startups, and even government websites.

If your site must have a lot of capabilities, Magnolia is king. In fact, it may even be overkill on power and ability for a more straightforward site.

Magnolia loves organization, and that extends to content management. It can auto-recycle old content and organize everything into levels: smaller blocks, tags, and labels, so you can quickly find old content you are looking for, repurpose pieces, and direct website visitors to what is most relevant.

Magnolia CMS screen showing grid of content labeled by pages, stories, etc.

Content organized down to the last detail in Magnolia CMS. Image source: Author

It also keeps you on top of things with notifications, system backups, detailed cookie tracking, integrated AI search capabilities, and a customer support team at the ready.

Rating image, 3.30 out of 5 stars.
3.30/5 Circle with letter I in it. Our ratings are based on a 5 star scale. 5 stars equals Best. 4 stars equals Excellent. 3 stars equals Good. 2 stars equals Fair. 1 star equals Poor. We want your money to work harder for you. Which is why our ratings are biased toward offers that deliver versatility while cutting out-of-pocket costs.
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Bottom Line: Drupal CMS is highly flexible and a good fit for those with coding experience.

Another open-source CMS, Drupal boasts a knowledgeable community of designers, developers, editors, builders, etc.

Because of this wealth of expertise, Drupal is an excellent CMS choice for large websites requiring a lot of bandwidth, constant uptime, and a professional look. It’s the preferred system of The Economist and even the White House.

Drupal is very flexible, so you can adapt your site to almost any use. Though the development side is a bit tricky (expect to hire a developer), the user experience is very intuitive. It comes purposely bare-bones, so you can add on and download only those plugins you need.

It has many downloadable themes and site customizations. Plus, it auto-optimizes for mobile versus desktop, so you can capture the widest audience. Another great feature is its drag-and-drop capability, so building a page is like stacking LEGOs into place.

The editor tool is visual, so, aside from developing, the actual editing is intuitive, requiring no coding.

Drupal's content page with a list of content with details about title, author, etc. and a navigation menu on the left-hand side.

With Drupal, you can easily organize, review and edit content. Image source: Author

Like the majority of open-source systems, Drupal is free, though, since it is coding-heavy to build, the development costs outside of Drupal itself can get steep.

Rating image, 2.90 out of 5 stars.
2.90/5 Circle with letter I in it. Our ratings are based on a 5 star scale. 5 stars equals Best. 4 stars equals Excellent. 3 stars equals Good. 2 stars equals Fair. 1 star equals Poor. We want your money to work harder for you. Which is why our ratings are biased toward offers that deliver versatility while cutting out-of-pocket costs.
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Bottom Line: Built for everyone from beginners to experts, Joomla delivers on its basic promise but does little to set itself apart.

What The Ascent looks for in a great CMS solution

A great CMS has a few non-negotiable features: it's accessible, easy to collaborate, support-friendly, customizable, organized, search engine-optimized and metrics-ready. We look for these characteristics in each system.

How SEO-friendly is it?

You can't have a successful business without an online presence anymore, for the most part. And the way to an online presence is visibility. If you can't be found quickly on a search engine, you don't carry as much weight or professional appeal. And the algorithms that can help you rank are impossible to figure out without AI and computer coding.

A good CMS is one that is SEO-ready for you. It optimizes your pages, gives insight into keywords, and directs the necessary backlinks/coding, so you will have maximum visibility.

Is the content easily customizable and professional looking?

A good site should look professional. Gone are the days of GeoCities and AngelFire looking cool. Your website needs to be sleek and knowledgeable.

And, since each type of business requires different things, the ability to customize is a must. An e-commerce site looks different than a restaurant website which looks different than a portfolio site and so on.

How is support?

If you're a marketer or business owner, you're most likely not a coder. And when it comes to technology, bugs are bound to pop up, and things are bound to go wrong.

When that happens, you can't figure them out on your own, without possibly making them worse, so good and knowledgeable support is a must to keep your site functioning.

What is the pricing -- what value do you get for your dollar?

There's no way around it -- money matters. Whether you are working on your own or within an organization, you'll have a budget.

Of course, low cost is valued, but you also must take into consideration the value you get for your spend.

If a system is free, it still should work well. And if it's expensive, you should be getting all the bells and whistles.

Is it user-friendly?

There's nothing harder for a creative or a business manager than being thrust into a technological nightmare.

At the end of the day, you just want the easiest path to getting your content published. A good CMS shouldn't make you waste your time wading through unnecessary steps and overly complicated processes.

How your business can benefit from using a content management system

With so many moving parts and so much content out there to publish, a business is only as good as its efficiency and reliability. That's where a CMS is a lifesaver.

Stay updated without the hassle

The beauty of using a CMS is that it is built for automatic upgrades and updates. You don't need to worry about researching when security updates come out, or manually coding in new upgrades. A good CMS handles all that for you, automatically.

Easy and secure collaborations

You can have as many cooks as you need, without them messing up the kitchen.

With a CMS, you can allow others just what access they need, and nothing more. Meaning you can have guest authors or teammates publish as needed, without giving them your login info or control of your site.

SEO-friendly out of the box

Rather than hope you're hitting the right notes to rank in the search engines, CMS software usually is SEO-friendly out of the box, or with the help of an easy plug-in. You can rest easy, knowing your content is optimized.

Track audience behavior

Data is power. You'll only grow a business or an audience if you can have insight into audience behavior.

Content management software comes with dashboards and reporting features that let you see what content performs best, allowing you to tweak content for different demographics.

Don't feel technically and technologically overwhelmed

CMS software already does the tech part for you, so you can feel confident using it as a non-coder. Layman's terms abound for the regular folk among us.

No computer science background? No problem. Content management systems are designed to be as user-friendly as possible so you can focus on getting your work out there.

Manage from anywhere

Thanks to web platforms, all you need is a username, password, and an internet connection to manage your site.

Most content management systems allow you the freedom of managing and updating from a desktop, an app, or a mobile platform, so you can stay on top of things from wherever you are. The software takes care of syncing, so your site is always updated.

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