Most Popular CMS Platforms For Website Development

The modern world is developing steadily. New and advanced web technologies keep emerging every day. Therefore, if you wish to mark your online presence as a business enterprise, you can opt for CMS-based (Content Management System) website development, as there are lots of enterprise cms platforms. It is estimated that around 43.6 percent of websites around the world make use of custom-made CMS web development solutions.

Going with the best web development company, website development can become seamless and rewarding. For leading web development, you have abundant platforms to choose from that enable you to create the desired type of website for your business goals.

Most of the leading companies offering reliable website development services offer access to several platforms for you to choose from. However, selecting the right CMS or Content Management System is quite challenging due to the wide range of options available. Let us help you decide the same.

An Insight into Content Management System (CMS)

What is a cms platform - A CMS or Content Management System is regarded as the application that allows you to post and manage content on the website in a highly intuitive manner. With the help of custom CMS development services, you can easily design a website without having any understanding of the underlying code.

Usually, web pages or websites are written with the help of sources like JavaScript, HTML, CSS, and other programming languages. If you go forward with designing a website using these programming languages (without CMS), then you will be required to get an in-depth understanding and expertise in the same.

CMS platforms are known to solve the given problem by enabling you to design a website without learning to program or writing down lengthy codes. In addition to laying down the content for your website, a dedicated CMS platform can also help you with indexing your content, making changes to the same, and formatting it with the help of visual editors.

You can easily confuse a CMS platform with a typical website builder. You should know that a website builder is a type of tool that is useful in creating websites without any prior coding knowledge. In most cases, website builders accomplish this task by making use of the visual drag-and-drop feature. However, these website designing tools are immensely simpler, do not feature advanced customization options, and deliver minimal control on how you set up the entire website.

On the other hand, it can be more difficult to use CMS without any technical knowledge. Based on the type of CMS solution that you use, you can make use of additional features that can be installed with the help of ‘extensions’ and ‘plugins.’ Let us help you know about the best CMS platforms out there for your web development project.

Choosing the Best CMS Platform for Website Development 2021

There are various types of CMS platforms available in the website development domain. Which one should you pick up? Before deciding on a particular CMS platform, here are some essential factors you should consider:

• Ease of Use: You should look for a CMS platform that is easy to use. The platform should offer the overall ease of creating and editing content. This usually implies having the typical drag & drop feature. This allows you to add a wide range of elements to the web pages. The platform should be quick and straightforward to use. You should also be capable of making changes on your site once you have published the same.

• Design Options: The CMS software solution that you use should offer ample website design templates to use. The platform should also enable you to easily customize the given designs as per your specific requirements.

• Portability of Data: You should select a great CMS platform having the necessary tools or features to allow you to seamlessly export data while moving it elsewhere. For instance, you might decide to choose a different platform or a completely different hosting company. With the unique feature of data portability, the CMS platform that you choose should make it easier for you to move the data around in a hassle-free manner.

• Add-ons and Extensions: Not all websites tend to be the same. This is why it is crucial for the selected CMS platform to be available with all essential features that will fulfill all the requirements of your website. Add-ons and extensions help in solving this problem. These are regarded as separate software solutions that you can consider installing on the CMS platform. These software solutions help in extending the features of the existing CMS platform while adding new ones whenever required.

• Support Options: While all CMS platforms are committed to making the process of website development as straightforward as possible, you can still have some doubts or queries. You should find out what help and support options are available for you when you choose a particular CMS platform.

Some CMS platforms or service providers will feature a useful collection of important FAQs. There might also be the presence of a dedicated customer care team. Some others will feature an active, wide community that is available for your help at any time.

• The Overall Cost: Some CMS platforms tend to be completely free. There are others that are available with a monthly fee. Even when you have access to the free CMS web development platforms, you might be required to pay for the third-party extensions, web hosting services, and designs. Try finding out as much as possible about the possible pricing structure for the web development services USA before selecting the CMS platform. For the best outcomes, you can consider choosing services from the best CMS development company.

Top Best CMS Platforms 2021 for Website Development

Here is our detailed guide into some of the best CMS platforms to get the best results from website development.

#WordPress.org

It is the leading choice when it comes to getting access to the best CMS development services. It is one of the most famous CMS software solutions in the given domain. Moreover, it is known to power around 35 percent of the websites on the internet. It is important to note that you should not get confused with WordPress.org and WordPress.com.

WordPress.org serves to be a free, open-source Content Management System community that has been designed specifically for blogging. However, nowadays, the platform is being used by a majority of other online stores or websites. On the other hand, WordPress.com is a leading blog hosting platform.

As far as content management system solutions are concerned, WordPress.org delivers impressive experiences. It is simple to publish new pages and posts. Moreover, you also get access to a highly functional and powerful editor that allows you to format the content seamlessly. To top it all, the given CMS platform also offers support for additional features like regular updates, user registration, a large and helpful community, and so more.

Pros

• Offering freedom and flexibility to build all types of websites –auction sites, online stores, membership sites, blogging platforms, and so more.
• There is no requirement for any technical skills or coding expertise. With the help of the feature-rich WordPress Block Editor, you can easily go forward with creating attractive web pages on the website.
• You have complete independence to ensure the lucrative option of making money online out of your website in any way you want.
• You can come across a myriad of WordPress plugins and themes –both paid as well as free. The presence of these tools or features enables you to include a wide range of add-ons to the website –including photo galleries, contact forms, and so more.
• WordPress CMS platform is designed excellently for offering support for SEO or Search Engine Optimization. With this CMS platform, you can easily create SEO-friendly categories, URLs, and tags for the respective posts. You also get the chance to choose from a wide range of SEO plugins to allow you to do more.
• There is the presence of a large and supportive website development community through WordPress.org. As the CMS platform is open-source, you can easily join other interactive platforms like its Facebook Group to resolve problems as and when they arise.
• org offers a great deal of extensibility. Therefore, it is regarded as the ideal CMS platform for both experts and beginners alike.
• With this CMS platform, you can easily download all the content in XML format. Therefore, it becomes easier to move to a completely different system if you wish to do so.

Cons

• You will be required to set up the hosting as well as the domain name for the website. Moreover, you will also be responsible for other tasks like backups and security. For optimal results, you can choose services from a reliable custom mobile application development service provider.
• As WordPress.org offers access to a myriad of options along with ample flexibility for website development, it can sometimes feel overwhelming – especially if you are only starting out. This is why most beginners prefer using the plugin of drag & drop feature in WordPress.

Pricing

In itself, WordPress.org costs nothing. However, as you need the domain name and host, you need to pay for that. A domain name could cost around $9 to $15 per year and a hosting account can cost around $7.99 per month.

#Drupal

It is yet another popular open-source Content Management System platform. It is regarded as the CMS platform that is behind the design and development of some of the leading websites like The Economist. It is also accredited for designing a wide number of university websites.

If we talk about drupal website development, Drupal serves to be a great platform for website developers. It is especially great to use if you are aimed at designing a website that is highly customized and requires the handling of a large amount of data. The most striking feature of this CMS platform is that it offers access to immense flexibility –particularly when you wish to deal with custom post variants. It also provides a higher degree of control over the users and their respective permissions. It is also capable of handling multi-lingual websites that are out of the box.

There are other areas wherein Drupal holds a class of its own. For instance, its advanced taxonomy system is highly powerful in comparison to its potential customers. Additionally, Drupal is regarded as a highly secure CMS platform in comparison to other platforms.

Pros

• It is immensely easy to add content on this CMS platform. There is flexibility for custom content types along with various other options for content management.
• There are several types of modules available that can be included on the website. These function just like WordPress plugins.
• You get access to relevant support for website development with the help of reliable community support options –quite similar to other CMS platforms like WordPress.org.
• With Drupal, you can be assured of easy user management. There is the presence of a built-in system for creating new roles and specifying the permissions.

Cons

• When you are using Drupal as the CMS platform, it can be confusing to analyze how you can change the appearance of the website or include extras. It is not as beginner-friendly as WordPress.org.
• Most websites that are developed using the Drupal CMS platform have a highly customized theme. It can turn out expensive for your web development project.

Pricing

Drupal is also a free CMS platform. However, there can be additional prices for custom CMS website development with the help of Drupal. For a standard Drupal project, ensuring custom development, it can cost around $10,000.

#Joomla

It is another popular option for a free and open-source CMS platform for designing interactive and user-friendly websites. For Joomla Website, Joomla offers access to a wide range of multiple extensions and templates to use for designing attractive websites. The platform is free to be used. However, you will require a domain name and web hosting solutions that are paid.

Joomla was released in the year 2005. Therefore, like WordPress.org, it has been used by leading website development companies for several years. Joomla comes packed with a wide range of interesting features. To top it all, most web hosts offer the ease of one-click installation solutions for website development. However, it is considered the ideal CMS platform for experienced website creators or web developers. It might not be a great option for beginners.

Joomla serves to be a great option if you are managing several custom post types. This implies that the given content management system is ideal if you wish to design and run a website that is not significantly based on textual content. A platform is a great option for membership sites as well. To top it all, Joomla delivers multilingual support to the developers. This implies that you are not required to make use of extensions or plugins for adding more languages to the website. The given CMS platform also allows you to make use of multiple themes or templates at once –for a wide range of content variations.

Pros

• Joomla offers abundant flexibility along with several options. It is regarded as a great choice if you look forward to designing something attractive or complicated.
• While Joomla is considered specifically useful for web developers, it can still be used even when you do not have ample expertise with technical or coding language. It offers the overall ease of creating and editing content on the website.
• Just like WordPress.org, it is an open-source content management system platform. Moreover, you also get access to ample community support in case you have any doubts.
• You can make use of the Joomla platform for running e-commerce stores as there are several extensions available for this functionality.

Cons

• It can be said that Joomla is slightly complicated to use and execute. Based on what you wish to do with it, you can consider hiring reliable web development services from the experts.
• There is the absence of multiple options with respect to additional extensions with Joomla. If you are used to leveraging content management systems like WordPress.org –having thousands of plugins and themes for extending the core functionality of the website, you might not be excited to make use of Joomla for web development.
• You can experience some level of compatibility issues in case you have an abundance of multiple modules or extensions installed.

Pricing

Joomla by itself is completely free. You will be required to pay for the domain name and web hosting for supporting Joomla. You can find yourself paying for some extensions for adding more functionality to the website.

#WooCommerce

It is one of the most popular e-commerce platforms in the world. The most striking feature of this platform is that it is immensely flexible and delivers great ease of use.

If we talk about woocommerce website development, WooCommerce cannot be considered as a truly CMS platform in itself. Rather than this, it is known to run as a plugin on the famous WordPress platform. Therefore, if you wish to make use of the functionalities offered by WooCommerce, you need to install WordPress in your system in the first place.

Pros

• WooCommerce is made available as a free-to-use software system. However, you will require a proper host and a domain name to run WooCommerce.
• You can come across a myriad of themes on WooCommerce. Therefore, it becomes extremely easy to design your website the way you want it.
• WooCommerce is also available with a wide number of extensions –referred to as WooCommerce plugins. These plugins or extensions are responsible for including a series of functionalities in your website.
• You can consider selling both digital as well as physical products with the help of the WooCommerce domain name. At the same time, you can also consider selling affiliate products with the help of affiliate links.
• You can consider fully managing your inventory with the help of WooCommerce. This makes it simple to keep track of what you already have in stock with respect to your online store.
• WooCommerce is made available with PayPal & Stripe payment functionalities by default. You can also look forward to including additional payment gateways with the help of add-ons and extensions.

Cons

• There is a wide range of options available with WooCommerce. It can, therefore, become overwhelming –especially if you are designing a website as a beginner.
• On technical grounds, WooCommerce works with any given WordPress theme. However, if you wish to go with the themes that are especially made for WooCommerce, then you might require extended support.

Pricing

The WooCommerce plugin is free by itself. However, you will be required to pay additionally for the extensions and plugins for the online store. You will also be required to pay for the domain name and web hosting account.

#Chamilo

It is a slightly different platform from other CMS platforms. This is because it is designed especially for a particular domain of websites –learning websites. As a matter of fact, Chamilo is rightly referred to as the LMS or Learning Management System platform. It is a particular type of Content Management System.

Read the blog- How to Hire the Best eCommerce Website Developer?

With Chamilo, you are capable of designing or developing a learning platform to deliver online courses –ranging from simple to highly complex. The classes that you create can include multimedia elements, text, and multiple-choice questions. At the same time, you can also set up assignments with the help of this interactive CMS platform. In case you are searching for the CMS that will deliver the ease of online learning, then this is the right one for you.

Chamilo serves to be a great option if you are in need of a platform capable of handling multiple program mentors. Moreover, as a leading learning development platform, Chamilo offers the ease of designing excellent learning lessons.

Pros

• Serves as a powerful content management platform for the creation of online courses
• Allows multiple teachers to work simultaneously.
• Allows you to create interactive quizzes, assignments, conditional questions, and other vital learning materials

Cons

• The main downside to using Chamilo as the CMS platform is that this development platform is not as active and famous as other CMS platforms.

Pricing

The starting price for using Chamilo is around $300 per year. With this, you can get access to free trials and the free version as well.

Conclusion

Choosing the right CMS for website development is all about analyzing the specifications of the project. All the leading CMS options tend to have some pros and some cons. Therefore, you should take the decision properly.

If you are confused about the same, you can always hire professional help for the best outcomes. You can hire the best website development services from the best open source development company for optimal results.