When I was creating my portfolio website a few years ago, I didn’t have much knowledge of CMS platforms. But I knew I did not want to deal with codes, learn complex systems, suffer from limited customizabillity, and invest hundreds of dollars.
In my experience i.e. of building a basic website to display work and offer services, WordPress and Wix worked the best. But your requirements may be different.
Depending on what your business is, you may need to prioritize more factors like security, performance-optimization, scalability, the ability to customize, and technical support, among other things.
In this blog, I have covered the best CMS platforms, along with their pros and cons as well as one unique feature that might be just the thing you need for your business. You will also find a comparison table below.
Table of Contents
- Overview of CMS Platforms
- List of the Best CMS Platforms
- How to Choose a CMS Platform
- Summary
- Frequently Asked Questions
Overview of CMS Platforms
A Content Management System, or CMS platform, is software through which you can build, grow, and manage your website. CMS makes creating and editing a website easy and allows you to organize all the content on your site.
More often than not, with a CMS, you don’t have to have a lot of technical and coding knowledge.
Not only can you edit content but also design templates, store media files like images and videos, manage your team and assign them tasks, and add new features by using plugins. That’s a lot!
Market Share of CMS Platforms
Despite hundreds of content management systems available, just three — WordPress, Shopify, and Wix — control nearly three-quarters of the market as of March 2025.
In the table below, you can see the top content management systems powering websites today, along with their market share.
– Source: w3tech
Historical Growth Trends
Things are changing fast in the CMS world. WordPress is still the king, but its grip is loosening a bit as it went from holding 63.1% of the market to now 62.5%. Shopify is on a consistent rise, becoming more popular for online stores.
Wix and Squarespace are also doing well, gaining popularity among users. On the other hand, Joomla and Drupal aren’t doing as well as before.
Platforms like Magento (acquired by Adobe Systems) and Webflow are holding their ground.
It’s interesting to see how the market is shifting. It is definitely becoming more and more competitive. These market shares highlight that people have changing needs and preferences when it comes to building websites.
– Data reveals the changing landscape of CMS platforms. / Source: ThemeIsle
Difference Between CMS and Website Builder
It’s easy to get confused between a CMS and a website builder since both are used to create websites. But they’re different tools. The following table will help you gain clarity.
| Feature | CMS Platform | Website Builder |
|---|---|---|
| Hosting | Typically self-hosted or can choose your hosting provider. | Hosting is provided by the website builder platform itself. |
| Ease of Use | Moderate to advanced learning curve, may require technical knowledge. | Very easy to use with drag-and-drop functionality, beginner-friendly. |
| Scalability | Highly scalable, suitable for both small and large websites. | Limited scalability, best for small to medium websites. |
| Content Management | Advanced content management with flexibility for blogs, ecommerce, and more. | Simplified content management, often focused on small websites. |
| Plugins and Extensions | Offers a wide range of plugins/extensions for extra functionality (e.g., WordPress). | Limited or no access to external plugins; built-in features only. |
| Customization Flexibility | Highly customizable, with access to code for advanced customization. | Limited to pre-built templates and features; minimal coding required. |
List of the Best CMS Platforms
Based on their market share, reviews, and overall popularity in the communities, following are the best CMS platforms.
| CMS Platforms | Initial release | Written in | g2 Ratings | Starting Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| WordPress | 2003 | PHP | 4.4 (9,166) | Free |
| Shopify | 2006 | Liquid, JS, CSS | 4.4 (4,578) | $29/mo |
| Wix | 2006 | Velo | 4.2 (1,676) | $14/mo |
| Squarespace | 2003 | Ruby, PHP, Java | 4.4 (1,070) | $18/mo |
| Joomla | 2005 | PHP | 5.0 (382) | Free |
| Drupal | 2007 | PHP | 3.8 (317) | Free |
| Magento | 2008 | PHP | 4.0 (236) | Free |
| Webflow | 2012 | HTML, CSS, JavaScript | 4.4 (588) | Free or $14/mo |
| PrestaShop | 2007 | PHP | 4.3 (153) | Free |
| OpenCart | 2005 | PHP | 4.3 (104) | Free |
| Weebly | 2009 | PHP | 4.2 (473) | Free |
| Typo3 | 2004 | PHP | 3.9 (34) | Free |
| HubSpot CMS | 2006 | HUML, CSS, HTML | 4.5 (1,751) | Free or $25/mo |
| BigCommerce | 2009 | Ruby, PHP, Java, Python | 4.2 (528) | $29/mo |
| Shopware | 2000 | PHP | 4.1 (150) | $600/mo |
| October CMS | 2014 | PHP | 4.5 (4) | Free or $29/license |
1. WordPress
– Source: WordPress.org
Well, we all know this one. WordPress.org is our top recommendation for the best CMS platform.
Users often seek ideal CMS Hosting that helps them set up their website with ideal performance. It is no surprise that the most popular CMS globally accounts for 62.5% of the CMS market.
What Sets It Apart: Largest plugin ecosystem with more than 100K free and paid themes and plugins.
Best For: Bloggers, content creators, ecommerce stores, digital agencies, and businesses.
Pros and Cons
✓ Supportive community
✓ Offers much extensibility
✓ Supports SEO to increase website traffic
✓ Flexibility and freedom
✓ Easy to use without needing a developer
✗ Website owners need to pay for a domain name and a hosting account with a web host
✗ WordPress is not responsible for security and backups
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2. Shopify
– Source: Shopify
Shopify is one of the best CMS platforms and many people’s choice globally to sell online. You don’t have to worry about technical things like hosting or updates. Plus, Shopify has an enormous library of apps and themes so you can customize your online store
What Sets It Apart: Integrated payment solutions and a smooth setup process.
Best For: Entrepreneurs and small businesses looking to launch online stores with minimal technical knowledge.
Pros and Cons
✓ Easy to use, even for beginners
✓ Has a wide range of themes and apps
✓ 24/7 support through live chat
✗ Charges a percentage of your sales
✗ Less flexibility over store’s code compared to some open-source platform
3. Wix
– Source: Wix
Wix is a user-friendly, cloud-based platform that offers a free plan. Its customizable drag-and-drop builder makes it easy to create pages that suit your taste. Plus, Wix builds mobile-optimized sites.
What Sets It Apart: It has AI-driven design options (Wix ADI).
Best For: Individuals, small businesses, and freelancer.
Pros and Cons
✓ Automatically optimize all mobile sites
✓ Automatically installs all security updates
✓ Many pre-made templates
✗ Unable to change templates once chosen
✗ Difficult to download and export data
4. Squarespace
– Source: Squarespace
Squarespace started around the same time as WordPress. It’s includes everything you need to build a website.
Squarespace is great for online stores. It has really nice templates and lets you sell physical or digital products. You can even use other tools to help with shipping, marketing, and customer service.
What Sets It Apart: It is focused on design and aesthetics.
Best For: Creatives like designers, artists, and photographers, looking to showcase portfolios or ecommerce stores.
Pros and Cons
✓ Reviewers have found it to be easy to use
✓ It integrates with Getty Images to make sourcing images easier
✗ You would have to upgrade your plan to sell products that start at $40/per month
✗ No phone support
✗ Limited customization
5. Joomla
– Source: Joomla
Joomla is an open-source CMS with a lot of flexibility. For those who require custom-type posts, it comes with lots of different templates and extensions. Installing Joomla is not beginner-friendly, but is ideal for developers and experienced website creators.
It’s often used for creating complex websites, such as corporate websites, online communities, and even ecommerce stores.
What Sets It Apart: Highly customizable, with control over content management structures.
Best For: Developers and larger websites that need more dynamic content structures but don’t want to go full enterprise
Pros and Cons
✓ A large pool of extensions that gives plenty of options
✓ Many design options
✓ Constant feature updates
✗ You may face compatibility issues with some extensions
✗ Complex system
6. Drupal
– Source: Drupal
Drupal is another open-source CMS software that lets you build a highly customized website that processes a lot of data.
Drupal-based sites have high levels of security and are difficult to hack. It provides free installation and helps with transferring an existing Drupal site. It updates regularly.
What Sets It Apart: Advanced security features and extreme flexibility with custom content types.
Best For: Large corporations, government websites, and institutions with complex, scalable content management needs.
Pros and Cons
✓ Great for websites with a large number of pages
✓ Support is available from the community
✓ Offer a convenient way of interacting with social networks
✓ There are many modules that you can use to improve your website
✗ Hard to change the appearance of your website
✗ Expensive customized themes
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7. Magento
– Source: Adobe
Magento (now Adobe Commerce) is a powerful open-source CMS platform from Adobe, the world’s largest software firm. A free version of Magento is available for users to download. It includes robust features to help you begin, run, and develop your business professionally.
What Sets It Apart: Extremely scalable and customizable for large-scale ecommerce businesses.Â
Best For: Enterprises and large ecommerce companies that need full control over their online stores and can also afford a development team.
Pros and Cons
✓ There are many third-party extensions for additional functions
✓ You can find and select products based on category
✓ Provides many payment methods such as credit cards
✗ Overwhelming features for beginners
✗ Expensive to hire developers
✗ Expensive if you want to upgrade from free
✗ Doesn’t work without dedicated hosting services. You need a host.
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8. Webflow
– Source: Webflow
Webflow is unique because it combines a visual website builder with a content management system. See the difference between the two here.
It’s made with designers and developers in mind, offering high level of control and customization over your website’s looks and functionality.
What Sets It Apart: Lets designers create websites without code, but also gives them full control (CSS, html)
Best For: Designers and web developers who want more creative freedom without coding from scratch.
Pros and Cons
✓ Design flexibility
✓ Wide range of pre-built integrations
✓ Several features for search engine optimization
✗ May require more technical knowledge compared to other options
✗ Limited third-party integrations
✗ Can be comparatively pricey
9. PrestaShop
– Source: PrestaShop
PrestaShop is another popular CMS platform and it has a lot of features plus a helpful community. It is user-friendly and great for selling products online, perfect for beginners and experts both.
What Sets It Apart: Open-source with large international community and flexibility in pricing options.
Best For: Small to medium-sized online stores.
Pros and Cons
✓ Budget-friendly
✓ Supports multiple currencies and language
✓ Reliable payment gateways
✗ No support team
✗ Lack of scalability (you can’t grow to a bigger ecommerce store)
10. OpenCart
– Source: OpenCart
OpenCart is also an open-source ecommerce platform, and unlike PrestaShop, it is designed for businesses of all sizes. It offers a plethora of features and customization options and allows you to configure shipping rates, methods, and carrier integrations.
What Sets It Apart: Lightweight and highly extensible.
Best For: Small businesses and startups looking for a free ecommerce solution.
Pros and Cons
✓ The setup process is fast and easy
✓ Easy-to-use admin dashboard
✓ OpenCart’s Cloud Store version charges no fees (unlike Shopify, BigCommerce, etc)
✗ Integrating extensions can be expensive
11. Weebly
– Source: Weebly
You’ve probably heard of Weebly. It is yet another cloud-based website builder that does not need you to know coding.
Weebly offers different plans for different needs. There’s a free one and then paid plans with more features like unlimited storage and a domain name.
If you have a small business, there’s a plan for you, too, that includes extra tools like password protection and tax calculators.
What Sets It Apart: Websites created on Weebly are automatically optimized for mobile devices.
Best For: Small businesses and hobbyists.
Pros and Cons
✓ Sell unlimited products and get shipping help
✓ Free SSL security
✓ Budget-friendly
✗ Limited customization
✗ Social media integrations are faulty
12. TYPO3
– Source: Typo3
TYPO3 has open-source scripts that advanced programmers use to find various functionalities. It can handle websites in several languages as it grants users a wide range of permissions. You can assign users to editor groups.
What Sets It Apart: Strong support for enterprise-level content management and scalability.
Best For: Corporations and large websites needing multilingual and multisite capabilities.
Pros and Cons
✓ You can easily change the permissions of individuals who work on your site
✓ You can customize TYPO3 in any way you desire
✗ Not easy to install and set up
✗ Lack of themes
13. HubSpot CMS
– Source: HubSpot
HubSpot CMS Hub is an awesome choice for all businesses searching for an all-in-one website management system. It’s part of HubSpot’s larger suite of marketing, sales, and customer service tools.
What Sets It Apart: Native integration with HubSpot’s CRM and marketing tools, making it powerful for inbound marketing.
Best For: Marketing-driven companies and startups that want an all-in-one solution for website management, CRM, and lead generation.
Pros and Cons
✓ Integrates easily with their email marketing tool and sales CRM
✓ Content features to target specific visitors to your website page
✓ Has built-in security features
✗ High cost
✗ Only has a free trial, yet no free version
14. BigCommerce
– Source: BigCommerce
You must have heard of this one. BigCommerce is great for building an online store because it handles everything. So, like Shopify, you don’t have to worry about any of the technical stuff.
Plus, BigCommerce offers a free domain name, but you can also use your own custom one. The CMS has a trial plan, which means you can test it out before making the final decision.
What Sets it Apart: Built-in ecommerce tools with multichannel selling capabilities (eBay, Amazon, etc.).
Best For: Growing businesses and established brands who want less reliance on third-party apps.
Pros and Cons
✓ Allows selling in multiple currencies
✓ Scaling is convenient
✓ Can handle growing traffic and sales volumes
✓ Strong features
✗ Charges a percentage of your sales, which can increase costs for high-volume stores
✗ Compared to open-source platforms, you have less control over code
15. Shopware
– Source: Shopware
Shopware is known for its flexibility, scalability, and extensive features. It is an open-source ecommerce platform.
While it primarily focuses on ecommerce, it also has some CMS functionalities for managing website content.
What Sets it Apart: Flexibility and scalability with a focus on customer experience.
Best For: Mid-sized to large ecommerce businesses.
Pros and Cons
✓ Suitable for both b2c and b2b
✓ Can handle growing traffic and sales volumes
✓ Community support is great
✓ Easily integrates with other systems and tools
✗ Has a steep learning curve
✗ Complex set up
16. October CMS
– Source: October CMS
October CMS is an open-source content management system (CMS) designed specifically to build modern websites and applications. It is known for its clean UI, powerful features, as well as strong community support.
What Sets it Apart: Powerful CMS built on the Laravel framework.
Best For: Developers and businesses that prefer a modern and lightweight CMS without bloat, with full control over the code and development process.
Pros and Cons
✓ Set up is easy
✓ Quick development of web apps and sites due to the Laravel framework
✗ Support is very expensive
How to Choose a CMS Platform
Just because a couple of CMS platforms are popular does not mean they are perfect for your specific needs. Not to forget, choosing a CMS will be an important decision for your business. After all, its the foundation of your website i.e. your online presence.
For Small Businesses
This is a tricky one because there are so many categories of small businesses. But we know one thing for sure. You need something that is affordable and easy to use. Therefore, your best bet is WordPress.
Wix and Squarespace are also popular choices.
For Ecommerce Stores
Needless to say, if you’re selling online, it is better to choose a CMS that has dedicated ecommerce features. Look for things like product management, payment processing, and shipping integrations.
Shopify, as the trends have shown us, is growing super fast so you can check that out. Magento and BigCommerce are also pretty good options.
For Digital Agencies
Digital agencies need to build a multi-purpose website. They will need portfolios like freelancers and creatives but also need to sell their services. So, you require high customizability and a very flexible CMS. Scalability is another important factor.
WordPress and Drupal are popular choices because of their plugin ecosystem. Other good options are Joomla and October CMS. You have to make the choice based on your team’s technical expertise, budget, and the level of customization you are looking to get.
For Bloggers
As a blogger, you need something basic, easy to use, and, most importantly, optimized for content creation. You will also need plenty of plugins for different tasks like marketing, search engine optimization, security, and maintenance.
No wonder most bloggers use WordPress. Big blogs like TED, TechCrunch, and Windows Blogs are all made on WordPress. Therefore, we recommend you follow their steps, especially if you are a beginner.
Questions to Ask Before Picking A CMS
- How easy is the CMS to learn and use?
- Does the CMS have the features you need, such as ecommerce, blogging, or membership management?
- What is the cost of the CMS platform, including hosting and any additional fees?
- Can the CMS handle your website’s growth?
- Is there a large and active community of users and developers?
Summary
While choosing a CMS is a crucial decision for your business, it is important to make sure your decision is not random or based on what everyone else around you is doing. You need to pick what works perfectly for you.
In this blog, I have not only covered the best CMS platforms. I have also included who each one works best for and what sets it apart from the rest of the names. Make sure to evaluate things like customizability, scalability, budget, and community support before making the final call.
Q. Which is the best CMS platform?
- The best CMS platform depends on your specific needs and preferences. Popular options include WordPress, Wix, Squarespace, Shopify, and Drupal.
Q. What is the most common CMS?
- WordPress is the most widely used CMS platform.
Q. What Is a Headless CMS?
- A headless CMS is a content management system that separates the front-end (what users see) from the back-end (where content is managed). This allows for more flexibility and customization.
Hafsa Tahir
Hafsa is a content marketer who has been in the organic growth space for the past three years. With her background in Psychology and UX, she enjoys reading users' minds and is keen to try the most creative product marketing angles. Her copies scream: "you're not just a paycheck to us". Loves to crack unfunny jokes, pay gym fee and not go, and write psychologically disturbing short stories for some reason.
