As I sit to write this article, the first question that I would like to address is ‘What is a CMS.’
What is CMS?
A Content Management System (CMS) is a tool or set of tools used to manage digital content for websites. Content-editing teams can create, edit and publish digital content via a CMS to the website. It minimizes technical complexities, allowing businesses to focus on creating high-quality content. By offering an affordable and user-friendly solution, a CMS enables companies to efficiently manage and share their content without the need for a dedicated development team.
When it comes to selecting a CMS, there are a multitude of options available which often makes the task of choosing the right CMS one filled with confusion and stress! To make life easier when doing that, we’ve come up with this guide that can help you find the CMS that’s most suited to your needs!
Now that we know what a CMS is, the next logical question that comes to mind is “ Why all the talk about CMS?! Can we just not use one? If we do, what are the advantages? “ To address this, let’s first understand the importance of using a CMS.
Do we need a CMS and can it be added later?
The first question to ask yourself is “Do we really need a CMS?”
The answer depends…
Developers create hard-coded websites which can only be updated by anyone with a development background. The benefit of this approach is that one can reduce the development costs associated with building CMS components. However, on the flip side, updating content might be slower than having a CMS. Also, maintaining a high-quality codebase is critical to prevent performance degradation over time.
In terms of cost, hard-coded websites are cheaper to build since there’s no SASS behind them and businesses only pay for hosting and the domain. However, the additional development and maintenance costs might make it an expensive choice. Not to forget, there might be access issues to the hosting environment causing delays and hiccups.
On the brighter side, if you are trying to get something out in a hurry, this might be the way to go as you can always add it later.
It all boils down to factoring in the priorities in terms of cost and timing. When going for this option, make sure that the architecture is planned out end-to-end and integration is simple. If not properly planned, the conversion might turn out to be the exact opposite of its purpose - more time-consuming and costly.
Now that we’ve established the use of a CMS, let’s dive deeper into understanding the options.
So, what are the options?
There are tons of options out there, the most popular being: Wordpress, Squarespace, Webflow, Wix, Contentful and Storyblok. Generally, a CMS to build a website falls in the following 3 categories:
1. Online website building platforms (SAAS)
Online website building platforms are the easiest tools that one has access to for building a website these days. The most popular in this category are Webflow, Wix and Squarespace. These tools come loaded with pre-built themes and plugins to serve different use cases. They mostly have a drag and drop based interface which makes it easy, fun and interactive to build layouts and pages. Webflow and Wix even offer a great animation system where (with some learning) one can build awe inspiring interactions.
Another great thing about them is that they require very little maintenance because their backend updates frequently and automatically, so any security vulnerabilities and performance issues are addressed by the service itself.
These tools do their best to fulfill various needs but in the case of something custom (which the tool doesn’t support out of the box), they provide escape hatches to handle that. Now this is a tricky road to take as these escape hatches are where things might go wrong and the website might not scale very well. The other foreseeable drawback is that you will have very less control over the codebase since it’s a managed codebase by the service.
So, all in all, if you’re not looking for too many customizations and custom UI, this option can be your best bet. It’s cheaper, faster and you don’t need a deep understanding in tech to get started!
2. Coupled CMS
A coupled CMS is basically a software where frontend and backend logic is combined. Wordpress is one of the most popular types with a market share of 42%. The reason behind its popularity is its extensibility, marketplace and large developer community. There are other softwares out there as well which are pretty similar to Wordpress, like Joomla and Drupal.
In the case of a coupled CMS, the interface is defined by the service, but components, page templates and UI logic can be defined by the developers. This allows better control over the codebase versus SASS services. Since there are several plugins in the marketplace, even some of the trickiest use-cases can be solved by plugins very quickly, which can drastically cut down the development time. You can also buy pre-built themes and extend them properly to serve your use cases.
Conversely, plugins and themes do need frequent updates. Plugin and theme developers frequently push new updates to address security and performance issues, but the theme admin needs to update all the components manually. The scalability also depends on various factors like the quality of the theme’s code, workflow used for content creation and updation. Since the frontend and backend code is coupled, you are not able to use the latest frontend frameworks like React. We have also seen a lot of security and malware issues if not maintained and set up right.
So, who should choose a coupled CMS? Those who have quality developers who can make good decisions to fulfill your requirements. There are lots of choices and making the right choice is crucial with these systems. If your business has some complex requirements, you have plugins available in the marketplace, and you don’t want to invest in building something custom, this option can be good for you.
3. Headless CMS
In a headless CMS the frontend and backend logic is decoupled. Since the codebase is decoupled, the development team only has to worry about the frontend logic. Some popular examples of Headless CMS are Storyblok and Contentful.
With Headless CMS you can build tailored custom components and manage compositions and pages on the backend editor. Developers can also leverage the latest frontend frameworks like React, Vue and Svelte, and use libraries from NPM to shorten the development time. Websites built using a headless CMS generally scale very well because developers have complete control over the codebase.
A Headless CMS also offers plugin systems, but generally frontend developers need to manually define the integrations to third parties. Developers also need to manually update the libraries used in the project to avoid security and performance issues.
If your project has a lot of customizations, custom UI that need a tailored solution, and you want to make it scalable, a Headless CMS is a good choice for you.
Making the Right Choice
Remember, there’s no one-size-fits-all solution. First, thoroughly evaluate your project’s requirements and future use-cases, and then go in to making a choice based on the following:
If you want to have a website up and running quickly with the least customizations, you might opt for online website building platforms.
If your business has complex use cases and you want to reduce the development time by using plugins, a coupled CMS and plugins might be best fit for you.
If you worry about scalability and flexibility but can invite in a tailored solution, a Headless CMS could be your best bet.
Another important tip is to go with what your team feels most comfortable with. Understanding that you can easily get support from the platform, your agency/freelancer, or your internal team is important when that critical 2AM update needs to happen. Those are the times where it's really not about the money but the level of support and sophistication needed to reach your goal, that dream project!
Well, that’s all I have for now! I hope this assists you in moving away from the constant anxiety of trying out various CMS options and genuinely helps you in selecting the one best suited to your needs.
