Making Your Next Content Management System (CMS) Decision Easier

We like to say that most CMS platforms share about 80% of the same features and functions for any standard use case. It’s the remaining 20% of the features that will typically separate one CMS from others for unique organizations. 
 

With that said, every industry expert and trend setter in the CMS business will likely tell you that content management systems as we have traditionally known them are evolving. In the near future, headless, or decoupled CMS platforms, will power more websites than the CMS platforms we know of today. The traditional enterprise CMS platforms, due to that pressure of potential erosion of customer base, now promote a more holistic vision for CMS. They are now making efforts to be seen as that core digital experience platform to build upon.
 

While we may agree that headless, or API-driven/syndicated platforms are becoming the norm for nimbler yet governed applications, there has not been any dramatic slow down of traditional CMS platform initiatives and implementations from our vantage point. 
 

In a way, our digital projects are starting to look a lot like the rest of our everyday life options. Niche, single-purpose streaming services are popping up for content. Want to only buy Disney shows? Well, that is certainly coming your way. Want to only offer a single product e-commerce experience that also syndicates your company’s corporate press releases? Well, that is available through JAMstack e-commerce options like SnipCart and Stripe coupled with a headless CMS like Kentico Cloud. All of that can be accomplished without major server installation scenarios and configurations you would factor in with typical CMS implementations. The drawback would be a more decentralized administrative and cost management load.
 

Our experience with installing and customizing content management systems (CMS) is extensive. To illustrate that point, early in our company history (circa 2002), we believed in pursuing and building our own scalable and customizable CMS to fill a gap we saw in the marketplace. Since then, our team has deployed countless CMS platforms for our clients. We currently monitor performance, plugins, versions and up-times for hundreds of our client sites daily. We also are able to see on a daily and weekly cadence what requests, problems, concerns and suggestions come in to our Digital Support Team related to a CMS. 
 

So, can you tolerate decentralization? Would you prefer a more all-in-one solution? Who knew that choosing a CMS platform could be so interesting, right?
 

Below, you will find a breakdown of some frequent requests we receive regarding CMS platforms from our clients. We invite you to certainly do your homework and review each of the specific features should they matter to you, by no means is this the end of your discovery process. Read up or give us a call. Don’t hesitate to reach out to us should you want to talk through it and do some test-driving scenarios.
 

For your education and benefit as you make a decision, you will find a breakdown of four effective CMS platforms and the most requested features relevant to today’s trends: Kentico, Umbraco, Wordpress and Drupal.

 

We use the following keys to depict how a typical CMS implementation would satisfy a feature:

Need a partner in this decision? Shoot us a note or give us a call. We know all the questions to ask to help you sort out your own decision-making matrix.