Choosing A CMS: How To Pick The Right One for Your Website

Currently, WordPress is used by 23% of all websites worldwide and is the most popular CMS with a 61% market share. So from its origins as a simple blogging platform, WordPress has evolved into an extremely successful CMS, used by just about everybody.

Well not everybody, because as we know there are lots of other CMSs available. WordPress just happens to be the most popular one. So if you are just starting and you need a new website, should you simply follow the herd and use WordPress? Or are there other CMSs that might best suit your needs?

To help clarify your thoughts, let's look at four lesser-known CMS alternatives to WordPress, which are quite popular in their own right. Whilst their market shares are much smaller than that of WordPress, each of these CMSs has a dedicated following. So let's compare them with WordPress:

WordPress

This system is a relatively easy-to-install out-of-the-box CMS that is extremely user-friendly. It can be up and running in its most basic configuration quite quickly. For out-of-the-box performance, there is typically little need to write custom PHP code, and there are thousands of plugins and themes available. It can be deeply customized and can be a very unique site.

WordPress is best used by do-it-yourselfers or people who just want a basic blog, and are happy with the themes found online.

ExpressionEngine

With ExpressionEngine (EE) every website is built from the ground up, so each website is unique and no two are alike. You do need a developer to set up and upgrade EE, as it needs coding knowledge, but once it is set up, EE can be very user-friendly. The disadvantage is that EE is not free and involves a small license fee.

EE is great for e-commerce website development, membership sites, and for those who like to tinker under the hood and design their custom website.

Drupal

This is said to be the hardest CMS, but also the most flexible, and it is free to download. There are lots of free themes and plugins, and it is extremely powerful and flexible. It is also highly customizable but you do need at least a basic knowledge of HTML and PHP and experience fixing faults and errors if they occur.

Drupal is best used for sites that require high security (lots of government and enterprise-level businesses use Drupal), discussion boards, multi-lingual tools, and sites that need a lot of customization.

Craft

Similar to WordPress, Craft focuses more on the content of your site but is a more pared-back version of WordPress. It is highly customizable, but you do need to learn the Twig syntax for complete functionality. There are no themes, sliders, or other design tools, but it is highly scalable and can be used for anything from blogs right up to large corporate sites.

SilverStripe

Silverstripe is highly flexible, scalable, and customizable, but is more of a framework than a CMS. It's better for ecommerce sites than blogging sites and it is free to download. You will need some coding experience, however, so it's best to have a developer set this website up for you. Once it's installed and your website has been designed, the back end is fairly intuitive and easy to manage.

In conclusion, if you have no coding experience and have the time to design and tinker with themes and plugins, then WordPress is the best CMS. At the other end is Drupal, which is really for developers, and in the middle are Craft, EE, and Silverstripe, all of which to some degree or another, require some knowledge of coding.