Let’s say you are comparing CMS Hub, WordPress, Joomla and Drupal, Shopify. After some research, you will find that CMS Hub is better suited for enterprise-level sites, WordPress for different types of websites – online stores, informational sites, etc., Joomla for membership sites, and Drupal for high-traffic sites that have a lot of data. Shopify in turn for online stores.
These are examples of different types of websites you can create using a CMS. In this post, we’ll look at various criteria you can use to choose the right CMS platform for your business. Next, we’ll explore a variety of CMS systems so you can find the one that fits your unique website creation needs and goals.
How to choose the right CMS system
The right CMS platform for your business will match the needs and goals of your site. Some of the most important factors to consider are ease of use, customizability, security, and pricing.
If a platform offers the exact functionality you’re looking for but is out of your budget, then it’s not the best choice for you. On the other hand, a cheap platform that will require a lot of maintenance and extensions to meet your needs is also not a perfect choice.
Let’s take a closer look at each of these criteria below.
Easy to use
Ease of use is an important factor to consider when choosing a CMS, as it has a significant impact on your team’s workflows. The ideal platform is easy for all sides of your team to use.
Possibility of customization
Choose a CMS, see what customization options are built into the dashboard, how many extensions are available, and whether you can edit the source code. If you need to create a website with minimal development resources.
Security
Ideally, you’ll rely on a secure platform to keep your site safe.
Pricing
Budget plays an important role in almost every decision you make about your business. When it comes to your CMS meeting your needs, your visitors’ expectations and your budget.
1. CMS hub
As the only combined CMS and CRM, CMS Hub by HubSpot is designed to help businesses easily build and manage a website that’s optimized for every device and every visitor.
It is important to note that there are two versions available, but we will limit our focus to CMS Hub Professional below.
The best for
Small to large enterprises as HubSpot scales with you
Key findings
- Integrates with HubSpot’s marketing, sales, service, and CRM tools
- CMS apps and templates available in the HubSpot Marketplace
- A globally hosted CDN, 24/7 threat monitoring and a built-in WAF keep your site safe
- It offers two premium plans
Easy to use
CMS Hub is a powerful platform for users with little or no technical knowledge. With CMS Hub, you can manage, optimize and track the performance of your content with the same platform you used to create it.
Because CMS Hub integrates HubSpot’s marketing, sales, and service tools, you can also capture leads, run A/B tests, create email campaigns, and track contact-level insights right in your dashboard.
Security
Unlike open-source CMS platforms, HubSpot selectively partners with third-party vendors and applications that can integrate with existing portals. This means you don’t have to keep up with plugin compatibility or maintenance to make sure your site is secure.
Pricing
CMS Hub offers two tiers, Professional and Enterprise, at different prices.
Designed for fast-growing companies, CMS Hub Professional costs $300 per month. To set up two domains on your brand, custom CDN configuration, serverless features and more, you can upgrade to the Enterprise level. CMS Hub Enterprise is $900 per month.
Average cost: Plans are $300 or $900 per month
it was responsive and automatically optimized for mobile devices. This helps websites get additional spikes in mobile traffic without even requiring a developer to intervene.
2. WordPress
It is a platform that has greatly evolved over time and nowadays is suitable for creating a website for any business – corporate business, e-commerce, training and many more.
The best for
Small to large businesses
Key findings
- Beginner friendly
- The largest collection of plugins and themes
- Plugin and site maintenance can take time
- Costs vary by domain registration, hosting and premium plugins and themes, as well as build and support
Easy to use
WordPress is designed to be easy enough for beginners with no coding knowledge. Its dashboard is intuitive so any user can change the look of their site, install a plugin, change their permalink settings, add blog posts, and more.
Possibility of customization
WordPress has one of the largest collections of plugins and themes available for download to customize the design and functionality of a site. There are over 57,000 plugins in the official directory and approximately 31,000 WordPress themes available for download or purchase.
However, you should make sure that these plugins are compatible with your site and updated. If they are not, then they can pose a serious security risk.
Here is the place to mention that integration with almost all CRM systems is possible.
Security
Every CMS is vulnerable to hackers and malicious users. Open-source CMS systems with outdated or unsupported parts of their code are particularly vulnerable to attack. 49% of infected WordPress sites in 2019 were running an outdated version of WordPress.
Outdated or incompatible plugins can also make sites built on open-source CMS systems more vulnerable to attacks.
This is why site owners should regularly update their software and plugins.
However, some updates may not be compatible with all extensions on your site. Therefore, software updates and add-ons can require significant administrative effort, especially for larger web projects.
Pricing
As an open-source software, WordPress is free to download. You still have to pay for a domain name, hosting, and any premium plugins or themes you want to install.
While this means that the cost of development and maintenance of WordPress sites can vary dramatically, the average cost is relatively moderate.
Average cost: $190 to $400 per month for maintenance + one-time fee/year of $200 for domain and hosting
3. Drupal
Drupal is a highly flexible open-source CMS aimed at a wide range of developers, marketers and agencies. A CMS allows marketers with more basic experience to create a site from a template or developers to create a site that can handle large amounts of data and high traffic.
The best for
Developers and companies that have significant technical resources
Key findings
- Aimed at developers
- A wide selection of highly configurable modules and themes
- Highest reputation for security among open-source platforms
- The cost of building and customizing a site typically ranges into the thousands
Easy to use
Because Drupal is designed by developers for developers, you’ll need to have some knowledge of PHP, HTML, and CSS to take advantage of the full power of Drupal. You will also need to spend more time setting up and configuring your site than with WordPress, for example.
Possibility of customization
With over 46,000 modules available in its directory and thousands of free themes.
However, unlike many WordPress plugins and themes, Drupal modules and themes are highly configurable. This means that if you have the necessary coding skills, you can use these resources to create a site that does exactly what you want.
Security
According to data from the Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures system, Drupal has the fewest infected sites.
To keep the platform secure, Drupal has a group of 40 community members who provide bug fixes and security updates every month and major updates every year. Since these updates are not automatic, site owners must hire a team for all updates.
Pricing
Like WordPress, Drupal is open-source software that is free to download. However, the costs associated with building and managing a Drupal site are much higher than WordPress, especially for non-technical users.
Since Drupal is designed by developers for developers, you will likely need to hire a developer or agency to build and design a Drupal site. Building and customizing a company site ranges from $15,000 to $42,000, depending on the scale of the web project.
Average cost: $15,000 to $42,000, depending on the scale of the web project.
4. Joomla
Designed to be the go-to open-source CMS marketplace, Joomla combines the flexibility of Drupal with the user-friendliness of WordPress.
The best for
Larger companies and individuals with technical know-how
Key findings
- A middle ground between WordPress and Drupal in terms of ease of use and price
- 6000+ extensions available but difficult to install and manage
- The lack of built-in functionality to schedule automatic updates leaves sites vulnerable
Easy to use
Joomla has more out-of-the-box features than most open-source CMS systems. With its built-in functionality, you can manage hundreds of users, create pages in multiple languages, and create custom post types that use different templates or themes. You can also configure many of your site settings to change your articles, banners, menus, media, redirects, and SEO settings.
Possibility of customization
Despite Joomla’s robust built-in functionality, you are not limited to the features that the platform provides.
Pricing
As with the other open-source platforms mentioned above, you will need to pay for domain registration, hosting, themes, and support to build and manage a Joomla site. Costs associated with hosting and site design are generally higher for Joomla sites than WordPress, but lower than Drupal.
Average cost: $700 to $6,500 for website development and maintenance
5. Shopify
Shopify is a hosted e-commerce platform designed for online retailers to create and manage an online store.
The best for
E-commerce
Key findings
- Perfect for first-time shop owners
- A limited selection of themes and apps
- Handles backups and software updates for you
- It offers three premium plans ranging from $29 to $299 per month
Easy to use
Shopify makes running an eCommerce store as easy as running a WordPress.com site. Although you won’t have as much control over its appearance and functionality, you will get a range of features, security and support to help you manage your site.
Possibility of customization
However, you don’t have the option of code changes as well as customization here. Most importantly, since Shopify is a proprietary platform, you can’t modify its code.
However, you can change the look and functionality of your site by choosing from over 70 themes and approximately 5,700 free and paid apps in the official Shopify store. Many of the apps allow integrations between Shopify and other platforms like HubSpot to fill in all the gaps you need to run your business.
This choice is limited, especially compared to the CMS platforms mentioned above, which offer thousands of templates and plugins.
Security
To sell online and accept payments from Visa, Mastercard, American Express or Discover, your store must be PCI compliant. With Shopify, you don’t need to invest time and money to get PCI Level 1 certified. All Shopify stores are automatically PCI-compliant by default.
Pricing
Shopify is a proprietary platform that offers three paid plans. Starting at $29 per month, Shopify plans include web hosting, SSL certification, and a Shopify subdomain (yourname.shopify.com). If you want a custom domain, it will be an additional cost.
For additional locations and other advanced features like vouchers and coupons and more reports, you can upgrade to Shopify for $79 per month. As your business continues to grow, you can upgrade to Advanced Shopify for $299 per month for even more analytics and discounts on payment processing fees.
Average price: $29, $79 and $299 per month plans + website development and maintenance fee
6. Magento
Magento is an Adobe-owned e-commerce platform that offers almost unlimited possibilities for store owners. While Magento offers two versions, Magento Open Source and Magento Commerce, we’ll focus on the more popular self-hosted option below.
The best for
Experienced eCommerce store owners and sellers
Key findings
- Learning the platform and its features takes time, especially for beginners
- 3800 extensions available in Magento’s Extension Marketplace
- Security patches and updates must be installed manually
- The average cost to build a Magento store starts in the thousands
Easy to use
Like Drupal, Magento Open Source is an extremely flexible platform that you can use to create a site that does exactly what you want. However, it will take time to understand and explore all the platform’s out-of-the-box features and extensions — even if you have experience in website development.
Possibility of customization
Now that you’ve explored Magento’s built-in features, let’s say you want to add some extra functionality to your site. You can go to Magento’s Extensions Marketplace to install or integrate any of the 3,800 add-ons and apps available.
Security
Magento regularly releases patches and security updates to address vulnerabilities exposed in its source code. You can use the free security scan tool to get notifications right in your dashboard when these updates are released, so you can get them done as quickly as possible.
Pricing
Magento Open Source is free to download and use. Compared to WordPress, domain registration and hosting costs are relatively the same, but premium apps and themes cost more for a Magento site. Since Magento is a more complex platform than WordPress, it is more likely that you will need to hire a developer to help you with the setup and customization process.
The total cost of building and running a Magento store varies due to these variables, but a basic Magento store starts at $20,000 and can go up to $40,000.
Average cost: $20,000 to build and customize
7. PrestaShop
Like Joomla, PrestaShop is designed to be the middle ground in the e-commerce CMS market, combining the power of Magento with the simplicity of Shopify.
The best for
Shop owners and salespeople with some technical experience
Key findings
- A middle ground between Shopify and Magento in terms of ease of use and price
- Over 6000 additional modules and themes are available
- You must enable SSL and regularly update the software to protect the store
- Add-ons and support plans are expensive
Easy to use
Getting started with PrestaShop is more difficult than getting started with Shopify for two main reasons. First, PrestaShop is an open-source platform. This is good because it means you can use the underlying software for free and modify its code as you like. But it also means you need to find a hosting provider before you can start building your store. You will also need to create a database before uploading the software to your server using an FTP client.
Possibility of customization
PrestaShop offers over 3900 modules and 2200 themes. With so many plugins available to change the look and functionality of your site, PrestaShop can host large online stores that have an extensive product catalogue.
Security
As with any open-source CMS, the task of securing your PrestaShop store falls primarily on your shoulders. To secure your store, you can enable SSL on your site, update your software regularly, add code to your .htaccess file, and follow other best practices.
You can also purchase a security module such as Security Pro to get a firewall, DDoS protection, two-factor authentication, anti-SPAM, anti-malware, and automatic backups for your store.
Pricing
As an open-source platform, PrestaShop is free to download and use, but it is not a zero-cost e-commerce solution. You will need to pay for a custom domain, hosting and SSL certificate (if not included in your hosting plan). You will likely need to purchase several premium modules — including a security module — to integrate various software programs with your online store as well.
Average cost: $153 to $560 per month + one-time development fee
8. Webflow
Webflow is a “visual” content management system for web designers who want to focus on creating and customizing sites without worrying about hosting, security, or website performance.
The best for
Designers and marketers with design skills
Key findings
- Ideal for experienced designers
- Offers full control over the design of your site
- Get AWS Shield and built-in security features like SSL certification and 2FA
- It offers multiple hosting plans at different price points
Easy to use
Webflow Designer looks like Photoshop in a browser. You can drag and drop elements onto a canvas and style them to create a fully customized site.
While you don’t have to understand HTML, CSS, and web design concepts like CSS Grid and Flexbox — it will help simplify the design process if you do. That’s why Webflow is best suited for experienced designers and agencies building websites for clients.
Possibility of customization
With Webflow, you have complete control over the appearance of your site. You can choose from over 150 free and premium pre-built templates and customize them, or you can start from scratch and design every single detail yourself.
Security
Because Webflow is primarily hosted on Amazon Web Services (AWS), every Webflow-hosted site has the protection of AWS Shield, which protects against DDoS attacks, XSS cross-site scripting, and other security issues.
Pricing
Building your site is completely free — you only buy a site plan and custom domain when you’re ready to go. Site plans start at $12 per month and go up to $36 per month. E-commerce plans range from $29 to $212 per month. Corporate plans are more expensive and require you to contact them for pricing.
Average cost: Plans range from $12 to $212 per month + $15 per year for a user domain, more for enterprise plans.
Conclusion
In conclusion, we would like to advise you to take more time when choosing a platform to build and manage your website to ensure that it meets your requirements and provides the necessary customization and functionality. We are here to advise you for free on choosing a platform to manage your website.
