What is a CMS?

The acronym CMS, literally “Content Management System” in French, is a category of website.

To fall into this category, the site must meet these criteria:

• Can be used simultaneously by several individuals
• Suggest a content publishing channel
• Allow form and content to be dealt with separately

One CMS also allows you to structure the hierarchy of site content (categories, pages, articles) and site users by giving them precise titles and specific permissions (administrators, contributors, etc.).

There are two types of CMS: en Open Source and Owner.

‍

‍

Open Source CMS

‍

An open source solution is code that is designed to be accessible to the public: anyone can see, modify, and distribute that code at their convenience.

This type of software is developed collaboratively and distributed by the community and is based on peer review. Open source software is often cheaper, more flexible, and more durable than proprietary software.

‍

‍

Drupal, Joomla, Typo3, SPIP: the histories

These CMS have existed for over 20 years and are recognized. They make it possible to deploy large sites with refined management of roles and content publishing workflow. Unlike WordPress, these CMS are more complex to use and generally require longer and therefore more expensive developments. In addition, they suffer from smaller catalogs of modules and themes, which results in a decrease in their market shares and a relatively low distribution percentage.

‍

Prestashop, Magento: CMS dedicated to the merchant

Prestashop, a French solution, and Magento, recently acquired by Adobe, are the most advanced Open-Source merchant CMS solutions on the market. To a lesser extent WordPress offers this functionality through its Woocommerce extension, but it is not intended to process a large catalog of products unlike Prestashop and Magento, offering richer functionalities and allowing interconnections and the application of advanced business rules.

‍

Craft CMS, Concrete5, Ghost CMS: the challengers

New solutions are emerging on the market. Craft CMS, which is more commercial management oriented, Concrete5, for its part, oriented to simple sites, and Ghost CMS, more oriented to blog. Despite their quick handling qualities, their power is still limited due to their sometimes limited functionalities.

‍

WordPress ultra dominance

Undisputed leader, WordPress is the most used CMS in the world with 65% market share (source Kinsta). It also represents 43% of websites in the world, i.e. more than 2 sites out of 5!

Originally designed to create blogs, it is used for any type of project thanks to numerous extensions.

‍

‍

Strapi, Prismic... the headless CMS, the future

Traditionally associated with a theme, this new generation of CMS breaks the codes and completely separates content administration from visual rendering. This technology opens up new perspectives and allows for an improved user experience with reduced load times.

The advantages of an Open-Source CMS

• For the most popular, a large community offering a very large catalog of extensions.
• Open, therefore offering all possibilities for complementary development
• You are the owner of your site!

‍

The disadvantages of an Open-Source CMS

• Less secure, the source code being accessible to anyone
• More fragile, you have to regularly update the core, modules and theme.

‍

‍

Proprietary CMS

‍

Proprietary CMSs developed by companies are strict in their use, unlike open source CMSs. In fact, they are specially designed and their code is developed in SaaS, so outside developers cannot access the source code. However, some offer some flexibility

Wix, the precursor

Wix was founded in 2006. It is a platform designed to facilitate the creation and management of websites. The idea is to be able to very easily and quickly design a website without the need to know how to code.

To do this, Wix has developed very aesthetic templates and a range of tools designed to help users in their projects. However, this solution quickly finds its limits in terms of functionalities and customizations when you need a site that is at least substantial or specific.

‍

Webflow, the most qualitative

Webflow is a bit special CMS. Using a “drag and drop” system, it allows the creation of low-code websites without extensive development skills. But unlike its competitors, Webflow is mainly aimed at website designers.

The great strength of this solution, apart from its intuitive interface, is that it allows you to quickly design ultra-personalized sites with unique designs and optimized SEO, all with integrated hosting.

‍

Shopify, the ultimate merchant solution

Shopify is a SaaS e-commerce solution. In other words, a monthly rental that includes hosting and maintenance to facilitate the creation of an online store.

But Shopify also knows how to adapt to the needs of its users, and this is a big advantage thanks to two functionalities: APIs and Applications.

APIs allow you to create almost any custom feature for your Shopify website. Applications allow you to instantly add features to your online store in a few clicks. Apps can be free, subscription-based, or paid. Finding the right application is also part of the work of the agency that takes care of the development of your site.

‍

‍

The advantages of a proprietary CMS

• Easy to use
• More secure, because the code is not freely accessible
• Stable, it is updated automatically
• Profitable for small structures and small projects, their economic model being based on subscription

The disadvantages of a proprietary CMS

• Less flexible, you generally have to stick to the available functionalities
• Closed, you own the content but not the site
• Closed, migrations to other CMS can be complex or expensive, or even impossible

‍

‍

So how do you choose a CMS?

‍

Thus, the choice of the CMS must start from your request and will depend on a certain number of criteria to determine which one will be the most suitable for your website: the necessary level of development, specific functionalities, the needs for future developments, possible migration or the overall cost are some of the aspects that must be taken into account before making this choice. It is the role of the agency you are contacting to identify your needs in order to best adapt the technical solution that it will send you.

Although WordPress remains the mastodon of the market that is often preferred because of its many qualities, the strong growth of Shopify still leaves it in the place of choice for e-commerce sites; low-code alternatives are also becoming a recurring suggestion, especially when demand is accompanied by a marketing strategy to be deployed.

‍

Appendices: Sources

https://www.blogduwebdesign.com/qu-est-ce-qu-un-cms/

https://www.redhat.com/fr/topics/open-source/what-is-open-source

https://kinsta.com/fr/part-de-marche-de-wordpress/

https://blog.lesjeudis.com/cms-open-source-ou-proprietaire

https://28racine.com/cms-open-source-ou-cms-maison-quelle-solution-choisir/

‍

‍