Content Management System Selection Guide
~9 minutes
TLDR
Choose CMS platforms based on content complexity, team capabilities, and long-term scalability needs rather than popularity alone.
CMS selection significantly impacts project timeline, maintenance requirements, and long-term scalability. WordPress dominates with 65% market share, offering extensive plugin ecosystem and theme options but requiring security maintenance. Webflow provides visual development with hosting included, ideal for design-focused teams but with higher costs. Headless CMS options like Strapi, Contentful, or Ghost separate content management from presentation, enabling omnichannel content distribution. Static site generators like Gatsby or Next.js with headless CMS offer exceptional performance and security. Evaluation criteria include content complexity, user roles and permissions, SEO requirements, e-commerce needs, and developer skill levels. Total cost of ownership includes licensing, hosting, development time, and ongoing maintenance. Security considerations vary by platform—managed solutions reduce security burden while self-hosted options require active maintenance. Performance benchmarking should test real-world scenarios with actual content volumes.
CMS Selection, WordPress, Headless CMS, Content Strategy, Platform Evaluation