Our honest assessment
As you have noticed on this website, a lot of the CMSs are quite similar. Finding the ultimate CMS that will fit all of your business goals perfectly is tricky.
So what is the difference? Are the CMSs really that similar?
Well yes and no – It’s a question of where you look.
The result that each CMS provides is mostly the same – meaning that you need a webshop to sell your products. Now a webshop can be built in every e-commerce CMS. So In the end, you will own a webshop, that can be maintained by a non-technical staff.
The main difference
There are obviously many differences between website builders and CMSs. However, the main difference is to be found in two places.The journey to the result and the day-to-day use afterward.
The journey is mainly the cost and the technical aspect. For the staff developing the project, and for your accounting department, the difference is huge. Developing Sitecore, Episerver or Magento project is very different from developing, for example, a WordPress or Umbraco project.
Some CMSs are very costly to build and maintain, while others are open source, ergo cheaper. Smaller ones could cost a fraction of the price of the larger paid CMSs. In other words, the final result will be mostly the same regardless of the chosen CMS.
After the development, comes the day-to-day use. The UIs of the CMSs are quite different, so make sure to choose a CMS with a UI that fits the need and technical skill level of your editors/content creators.
So how do you decide?
First of all, we recommend that a collaboration between your marketing, internal IT, sales, and accounting considers the budget and the goals/KPIs.
Feel free to use the handy overview, that you can find on one of the previous pages.
As we see it, the very most important thing to look for, when wanting to build a web project, isn’t the CMS used, but rather who builds it – especially if you’re getting external help from a digital agency.
There’s a load of great agencies to choose from, especially here in Denmark. Don’t look for a given CMS, look instead for an agency that’s the best fit for you. An agency that understands your goals, and is willing to challenge your ideas.
Don’t be afraid of switching to another CMS either. Learning to use a modern CMS takes no time. So if you find an agency that suggests for example Drupal instead as an alternative to the WordPress that you’re used to, then don’t be discouraged.
We would always argue that finding the right partner for your organization is, by far, the most important task.
Now don’t tell the other agencies out there, that we have said the following, but do note though, that one general tip about CMSs from us, is that we recommend that you choose a CMS, that loads of agencies can support. It is risky to bet everything, on a technology, that only a few agencies can support and maintain.
It differs from country to country, which CMSs that are popular. Umbraco is hugely popular in Denmark, but mostly unknown in most other countries.
Our recommendation
Depending on the scope of the project, we typically recommend any widely supported open source CMS. This is true for mayor web projects as well.
Unless you have a concrete need, for the specific features that the expensive CMSs such as EPiserver and Sitecore provides, we would in most cases recommend WordPress, Drupal or Umbraco, since these three are capable of mostly the same, but can be developed and maintained for a fraction of the price.
In conclusion: Not every CMS is the perfect fit for any problem. In the end, the CMS and the web project should never be anything but a way to solve a business or organizational problem.
Thank you for reading our whitepaper with comments on 17 of some of the most popular CMSs.
We would love to hear which problem you’re looking to solve and provide our recommendation, on how best to solve the problem with the tools and CMSs available.
We will be very pleased to take part in your quest. You can visit our website: www.html24.dk or contact us on +45 42 41 61 60 or via mail on info@html24.net.