If you’re planning to build a new website, one of the first decisions you’ll need to make is which Content Management System (CMS) to use. There are dozens of different platforms available, all promising to make it easier to create, manage and update your website, and choosing between them can be surprisingly difficult, particularly if you’re not particularly technically minded. Having worked with a wide variety of content management systems over the years, I’ve developed some fairly strong opinions about which ones are worth considering, although I don’t necessarily think there’s a single platform that’s suitable for every business.
In fact, one of the mistakes I frequently see is businesses choosing a CMS based on what their web developer happens to prefer, rather than what actually makes sense for the website they’re trying to build. While developers will naturally have their favourite technologies, there’s little point spending thousands of pounds developing a relatively straightforward website using a complicated system when something considerably simpler would do the job perfectly well.
WordPress – Still My First Choice
For most business websites, I’d probably recommend WordPress, which has become by far the most popular content management system in the world. According to W3Techs, WordPress accounts for approximately 65% of websites using an identifiable CMS, which is an extraordinary achievement when you consider how many alternatives are available.
Originally developed as a blogging platform, WordPress has evolved into a remarkably flexible system capable of running everything from simple personal blogs to large corporate websites and ecommerce stores. One of its biggest advantages is the enormous number of themes and plugins available, allowing you to add functionality without necessarily having to develop everything from scratch.
Personally, I particularly like the flexibility WordPress offers when building bespoke websites. With the right theme and a few carefully selected plugins, you can create something that’s relatively straightforward for clients to manage without restricting what developers can achieve. Its integration with tools such as Advanced Custom Fields also makes it possible to build more complicated page layouts while keeping the administration interface reasonably simple.
WordPress 5.9, released in January, has also introduced more extensive full site editing functionality, allowing users of compatible block themes to customise areas of their websites that would previously have required changes to the theme itself.
However, WordPress isn’t perfect. Its popularity makes it a frequent target for automated attacks, and poorly maintained installations can become vulnerable, particularly when websites contain outdated plugins. It’s also surprisingly easy to turn a perfectly good WordPress website into a slow, unreliable mess by installing dozens of unnecessary extensions.
Nevertheless, for most conventional business websites, I think it remains difficult to beat.
Shopify – Probably the Best Option for Ecommerce
If you’re primarily interested in selling products online, however, I’d be inclined to consider Shopify before automatically choosing WordPress.
Shopify is a hosted ecommerce platform, meaning much of the technical infrastructure is managed for you. Rather than worrying about configuring servers, maintaining payment integrations and installing security updates, you can concentrate on managing your products and fulfilling orders.
Its administration interface is relatively straightforward, and the platform includes many of the features required to run an online shop, including inventory management, payment processing and integrations with delivery and marketing services.
The downside is that you’re paying an ongoing subscription, potentially alongside additional charges for applications and payment processing. You’re also more restricted in what you can change compared with a fully self-hosted system, particularly if you require unusual functionality.
Of course, WordPress has WooCommerce, which is an excellent ecommerce solution in its own right. However, if I were setting up a relatively straightforward online shop without any particularly complicated requirements, I’d probably choose Shopify simply because there’s less technical maintenance involved.
What About Wix and Squarespace?
Wix and Squarespace are two other platforms worth considering, particularly for smaller businesses that want to manage their websites without employing a developer.
Both offer hosted website builders, with templates and visual editing tools that allow users to create websites without needing to understand HTML, CSS or PHP. For somebody running a small business who simply needs a handful of pages explaining their services, this can be an attractive proposition.
However, I’ve never been particularly enthusiastic about using these platforms for more complicated websites. Although they’ve improved considerably over the years, I still find them restrictive compared with WordPress, particularly when it comes to implementing bespoke functionality or making more technical changes.
There’s also the issue of portability. With WordPress, you can generally move your website between hosting providers relatively easily. With a hosted website builder, moving to another platform can involve rebuilding substantial parts of your website.
That doesn’t necessarily make Wix or Squarespace bad choices, but it’s something I’d consider before committing to either platform.
Are Joomla and Drupal Still Worth Considering?
Joomla and Drupal have both been around for many years, and there was a time when they were commonly considered alongside WordPress for business websites.
Drupal, in particular, remains a powerful platform for complex websites with sophisticated content structures, user permissions and integration requirements. However, it generally requires more technical expertise to develop and maintain, which can make it unnecessarily complicated for smaller businesses.
Joomla occupies something of a middle ground, offering considerable flexibility without necessarily requiring the same level of development knowledge as Drupal. However, its popularity has declined significantly compared with WordPress, and I struggle to think of many situations where I’d actively recommend Joomla for a completely new project.
That’s not to say existing Joomla or Drupal websites should immediately be rebuilt, particularly if they’re working perfectly well. However, when starting from scratch, I’d want a fairly compelling reason to choose either over the alternatives.
Does Your CMS Affect SEO?
This is something I’m frequently asked, and the short answer is that Google doesn’t particularly care which content management system you’re using.
You can achieve excellent search engine rankings with WordPress, Shopify, Drupal or almost any other reasonably competent platform. What matters is whether your website can be properly optimised, loads quickly and provides useful content that search engines can access.
However, some content management systems make the technical aspects of SEO considerably easier than others. I’d recommend checking whether you can edit page titles, meta descriptions, URLs, redirects and other important elements without needing a developer every time you want to make a change.
WordPress is particularly flexible in this respect, especially when combined with plugins such as Yoast SEO. Shopify also provides most of the essential functionality, although certain aspects of its URL structure are less flexible.
So Which Would I Choose?
Personally, I think the decision is relatively straightforward for most businesses. If you’re building a conventional business website, WordPress would almost certainly be my first choice. If you’re setting up an ecommerce store, I’d seriously consider Shopify, while Wix or Squarespace might be perfectly adequate for smaller websites where ease of use is more important than flexibility.
For larger organisations with particularly complicated requirements, Drupal or a bespoke solution might be worth investigating, but I’d be cautious about introducing unnecessary complexity simply because a developer prefers working with a particular technology.
Ultimately, the most important thing isn’t which CMS has the longest list of features, or even which one is technically the most sophisticated. It’s whether the system allows you to manage your website effectively without spending a fortune on development and maintenance.
After all, your customers probably couldn’t care less whether your website is running WordPress, Shopify or something else entirely – they just want it to work.