Choosing a CMS: what to look for

A content management system (CMS) is the part of a website where content gets edited: texts, images, blog posts, products. The right choice makes everyday changes simple for the people who make them. The wrong one makes every change feel like a project.

There’s no best CMS, only one that fits. These are the questions that lead to it.

1. Editing: who changes what, and how often

The most important question isn’t technical:

• Who edits? One person, a marketing team, several departments, external authors?
• What do they edit? Texts on existing pages, new blog posts, whole new pages with their own layout, products and prices?
• How often? Daily news, a weekly post, a few changes a year?

A site that changes a few times a year needs something very different from a magazine with five authors. Answering these questions first narrows the field quickly.

2. Approaches: the main families

• Classic CMS (WordPress and similar): content, design and website live in one system. A very large ecosystem of themes and plugins, and many people already know how to use it. It runs on a server with a database, so it needs regular updates and care.
• Headless CMS: an editing interface for content only; the website itself is built separately and fetches the content. Very flexible, works well for several channels (website, app, newsletter) and for multiple languages. Editors get a clean interface; the layout stays consistent because it’s defined in code.
• Site builders: hosted all-in-one services. Editing and design happen visually in the browser, hosting and updates are handled by the provider. Convenient for simple sites; limits show up with special requirements and when moving away.
• Static sites with Markdown: content lives in text files next to the code, and the site is built into plain HTML. Very fast and with little to maintain, ideal when content changes rarely or the editors are comfortable with text files. This site works that way.

3. Criteria: what to compare

Beyond the editing question, these points matter:

• Editing experience: a preview that shows how a page will look, clear fields instead of a blank page, roles and approvals for larger teams.
• Languages: for multilingual sites, how translations are linked and kept in sync.
• Structure: whether content can be modelled as types (team member, event, product) instead of free-form pages.
• Maintenance: what has to be updated, how often, and by whom.
• Performance: how fast the resulting pages are, and how much work that takes.
• Ownership: whether content can be exported cleanly if the system ever changes.
• Integrations: shop, newsletter, booking system, CRM.

4. Plugins: power and responsibility

Plugin ecosystems are a big strength of classic CMS: almost every feature exists as an add-on. Each plugin also adds code that has to be kept up to date and comes from a different maker. A good rule is to keep the list short: only plugins that are actively maintained, from makers with a good track record, and only for features that are really used.

5. Training: making editors comfortable

The best CMS is the one people actually use. A short handover with the real content, a few written notes on the most common tasks, and sensible limits (fixed layouts instead of endless options) make editors confident. Content stays consistent, and the design stays intact.

6. Decision: matching the system to the site

A rough guide:

• Few changes, high speed, little upkeep: a static site.
• Regular posts, one or two editors, many ready-made features: a classic CMS, carefully maintained.
• Several channels or languages, larger teams, custom design: a headless CMS.
• Simple site, editors want full visual control, hosting handled: a site builder.

The short version

• Start with people: who edits what, and how often.
• Four families: classic CMS, headless CMS, site builder, static site.
• Compare editing, languages, structure, maintenance, performance, ownership, integrations.
• Plugins: few, actively maintained, actually used.
• Training makes editors confident and keeps the design intact.

If you’re unsure which system fits your website, get in touch.