What is a CMS? Content management systems explained

Short answer: a CMS, or content management system, is software for running a website. It lets you create, edit and publish text, images and pages through an ordinary interface in your browser, without writing code. WordPress, Webflow, Wix and Shopify are examples of systems many businesses use.

What does CMS mean?

CMS stands for content management system. The point is that anyone who can write an email should also be able to update the website.

Without a CMS, the text sits directly in the code. Every change, even a new phone number, needs a developer. With a CMS, you log in, make the change and press publish.

How a CMS works

Most CMSs have three parts:

1. An admin area where you write and edit content, upload images and manage pages.
2. A database where the content is stored.
3. Templates or a theme that decide how the content looks to visitors.

Because content and design are kept apart, you can change the design without rewriting the text, and write new text without touching the design. Many CMSs can also be extended with plugins, for forms, e-commerce, multiple languages or SEO.

The most popular CMSs

According to W3Techs, WordPress is used on 40.1 percent of all websites, which is 58.6 percent of all sites using a known CMS (October 2026). Shopify (5.4 percent) and Wix (4.2 percent) are far behind. Here is an overview of the most common options:

None of them is best for everyone. A system that is perfect for an online shop can be overkill for a consultant with five pages, and the other way round. For a side-by-side look at the builders, read Best website builder and Wix vs WordPress.

Open source or hosted service?

The biggest choice is often not which brand, but which model:

Open source, such as WordPress

The software is free and you can host it with any provider. You own everything and can move whenever you like. The downside is that someone has to handle updates, security and backups. A WordPress site that nobody maintains becomes slow and vulnerable over time. Read WordPress maintenance and security.

Hosted service, such as Webflow, Wix or Shopify

You pay a monthly fee and the provider handles hosting, security and updates. It is convenient, but you depend on their features, prices and rules, and moving the site later can be awkward.

What is a headless CMS?

A headless CMS only manages content. The website itself is built separately, often in a modern framework, and fetches the content through an API (Sanity). That gives a lot of freedom, high performance and the ability to reuse the same content across channels, such as a website and an app.

The drawback is that it needs developers. For most smaller businesses, a traditional CMS or a website builder is the simpler choice.

How to choose the best CMS

Ask these questions before you decide:

1. Who will update the site, and how often? An interface that feels easy for your team is worth a lot.
2. What does the site need to do? Show information, take enquiries, sell products or take bookings?
3. Do you need several languages? Not every system handles that equally well.
4. Which systems should it connect to? CRM, booking, newsletters or accounting software such as Xero or QuickBooks.
5. How important is it to be able to move? Own the code yourself or rent a platform?
6. What does it cost over time? Count licences, plugins, hosting and maintenance, not just the start-up cost.

Thinking of building the site yourself? Read How much does a website cost? first.

CMS and SEO

Your choice of CMS affects how easy it is to be found on Google. Check that you can:

• write your own title and meta description for each page
• set the page URLs
• get an automatic sitemap
• add alt text to images
• keep the site fast, even with many plugins

Most modern systems manage this, but the implementation decides. Google's SEO Starter Guide is a good checklist. If you want the basics first, read What is SEO?