CMS:

CMS is the abbreviation of content management system. It is the software application that enables users to create, edit, manage, collaborate on, store and publish digital content. CMS is used to build broad range of websites from simple blogs and personal websites to large scale enterprise level websites and online stores.
These systems provide cost-effective and efficient way to control/manage and publish digital content making it smoother for individuals and businesses to maintain their online presence.

Importance of CMS:
Recently, over 64 million active websites are using CMS. Approximately 1000-2000 CMS are available in the market. The number of CMS is increasing day by day. Each CMS has its own features and target market.

10 Best CMS Platforms:

1- WordPress:

WordPress is the most popular CMS. Over 43.2% of all websites use WordPress. It is an open-source software well known for its scalability and flexibility. Its source code is freely available for anyone to use, modify and distribute. Furthermore, its gallery of over 58,000 WordPress Plugins helps the users in creating any kind of website.

Advantages:
1- The cost is directly proportional to requirements and budgets of individuals and businesses.
2- You can customize it by using extensive gallery of free WordPress themes and plugins.

Disadvantages:
1- Not all themes and plugins of WordPress are reliable or of high quality.
2- It lacks personal customer support. Rather it relies on forums, documentation and tutorials.

Best for:
WordPress facilitates the users of all level. WordPress was originally developed as a blogging platform. It creates and publishes blog post and offers a broad range of plugins and themes. WordPress can be used to create business websites, ecommerce websites and membership websites.

Cost:
To use free WordPress software, users require web hosting and a domain name. Some hosting companies provide both in a single package. Cost will be mentioned as per Host-techno schedule.

Main features:

User management:
It assign roles and access to different user types such as editors, creators, authors, administrators, contributors and subscribers.

SEO Friendly:
WordPress is abbreviated as for Search Engine Optimization. WordPress having multiple useful features improves your website’s ranking in search results.

Built in Comments:
WordPress allows visitors/traffic to comment on posts and pages.

2- Joomla:

It is an open source CMS that powers over 2% of all websites. It is highly customizable and is well known for its flexibility and scalability. It has
multiple features such as modules, templates and plugins that can be used to extend and enhance its capabilities.

Advantages:
1- It manages website with multiple sub-pages efficiently.
2- It uses Two-factor authentication to prevent break-ins.

Disadvantages:
1- Joomla can be more complex and difficult to use specially for beginners.
2- As Joomla has a wide range of plugins and extensions, some may be outdated or poorly coded which can result compatibility issues and security vulnerabilities.

Best For:
It is best for creating medium to large scale websites and online applications that require a high degree customizability, flexibility and extensibility.
It is best for professional websites managed by number of people. It is well-suited for websites that require complex CMS such as corporate portals, Online magazines and e-commerce stores.

Cost:
As per Host-techno

Main Features:

SEO Friendly:
It helps visitors in finding appropriate information on a website using smart search feature or built-in search tool.

Multilingual Support:
There are more than 70 languages available for websites using platforms’ core software.

Banner Management Feature:
It creates advertising compaigns to monetize the website.

3- Drupal:

It is typically designed for professional web developers. It is well-known for its flexibility and scalability. Its flexible Application Programming Interface architect supports different digital platforms. It has built-in features which play vital role in better performance and security. Websites using Drupal get higher web traffic than other CMS Softwares.

Advantages:
1- As CMS conducts regular security tests, it is less vulnerable to cyber security threats.
2- Built-in modules help to extend the functionality of websites.

Disadvantages:
1- It may require some technical expertise like coding knowledge of PHP, CSS and HTML.
2- IT can be slower than other CMS platforms specially on Shared hosting. Managing Drupal can be time-consuming i.e; updating to new version.

Best For:
It is best for large and complex websites. For Example: Enterprise websites, e-commerce websites, social networking websites, Government websites and educational websites etc

Main Features:

Marketing Compaigns:
Drupal creates automated marketing Compaigns to attract the traffic.

Multilingual Support:
There are more than 100 languages available for the websites. It supports multiple languages due to which multilingual websites are created that cater to global audience.

Personalized experience:
It creates a personalized customer experience using data from geolocation, browser history, device type etc

4- Magento:

Magento is the open source e-commerce platform used by large online retailers. It is highly secured . Its area of focus is security, SEO and customization to optimize all kinds of e-commerce websites. It manages a large number of products and orders.

Advantages:
1- It can manage multiple stores in various locations using different languages and currencies.
2- Content management is responsive to mobile devices.

Disadvantages:
1- Complex initial design.
2- Customizing design and listing products is time-consuming.

Best For:
Magento is best for businesses that require flexible e-commerce platform that can handle a large volume of products and transactions.

Cost:
Three different versions of Magento influence cost to use the platform. Magento is open source and free to use but require web hosting provider
and a custom domain. Cost as per Host-techno’s pricing plan.

Editions of Magento:
It is available in two editions.
1- Magento open source (Community Edition) is free to use.
2- Magento Commerce (Enterprise Edition) requires license fee and offers additional features, tools and support.

Main Features:

Payment Processing:
Secure payment gateway using WorldPay and cyber source.
Product Management:
It allows businesses to easily manage their products including catalogs, pricing etc
Touch Sensitive Features:
The backend admin dashboard is touch sensitive allowing users to make edits easily.

5- PrestaShop:

It is a free, open source e-commerce platforms allowing individuals and businesses to create and manage their online stores smoothly. Over 300,000 active online stores are using this platform. Its comprehensive interface incredibly helps to enter and supervise products easily.

Advantages:
1- It is well-known for its user-friendly interface and intruitive navigation making it easier to create professional online store without having extensive technical knowledge.
2- It offers broad range of themes and features.

Disadvantages:
1- It depends on extensions and plugins which can be expensive.
2- It lacks scalability to grow into larger e-commerce store.

Best For:
It is best for small to medium sized e-commerce business.

Cost:
This platform is free but it requires domain name and hosting provider. Cost as per Host-techno pricing plan.

Main Feature:

Payment and Shipping:
It supports wide range of payment options like PayPal, Stripe, Skrill, Worldpay and offline processing many shipping options like FedEx and UPS.

SEO Friendly:
It regulates meta titles, descriptions and URLs to boost content.

Multiple Store Administration:
It administers multiple online stores that share common components and features.

6- Concrete CMS:

It is an open source CMS Platform serves the users who have minimal technical knowledge. It allows users to edit their website by simply dragging and dropping content into place. Over 1 million users are getting benefits from its services.

Advantages:
1- It offers user-friendly interface.
2- It serves with built-in SEO tools which add meta descriptions and create URLs and sitemaps.

Disadvantages:
1- There is no community of developers or documentation.
2- There is no automate option while making changes/variation.

Best For:
This platform is best to create complicated websites for medium to large sized businesses.

Cost:
As they do not offer domain name, So it is necessary to purchase domain name from anywhere else

Main Features:

Marketing Tools:
You can add social media profiles such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter or LinkedIn profiles just to boost your website/Brand.

Responsive Design:
All websites on Concrete CMS perform the same on different devices.

Security:
It is highly secured as you can use SSL, login history, content approval, audit trail, captcha and email verification to protect a website.

7- Contentful:

Contentful is a headless content management system which means content is not connected to a we page. It uses Application Programming Interface (API) to manage content as data. This platform is challenging to understand. Non-technical users face difficulty while using it.

Advantages:
1- It is flexible with various types of digital content.
2- It is adaptable to all digital platforms from web browsers to mobile applications.

Disadvantages:
1- It mostly focuses on back-end without adjusting the actual layout.
2- It requires technical knowledge to create content on various platforms.

Best For:
It is best for individuals or businesses creating a custom site that incorporates other digital platforms.

Cost:
There is a free option for those users who already have a domain name and web hosting provider. Additional features and support will charge you cost.
Cost as per Host-techno pricing plan.

Main Features:

Developer tools:
Contentful offers many tools and features for developers including API, SDKs.

Content Modeling:
It allows you to create your own content models and fields and even provide control over structure and presentation of your digital content.

Integrations:
You can integrate additional application from Contentful and third party cloud software to optimize tools, features and functions.

8- Site Core:

It is unique platform that helps you create your corporate websites with remarkable features. Integrations of Sitecore with other platforms like search, community, marketing automation and e-commerce platforms enables users in delivering a reliable hosted solution making it different from other CMS Platforms in the market. It is built on ASP.NET.

Advantages:
1- It has user-friendly and intuitive interface. It possesses features that allow for more support of data privacy and security in compliance with latest General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR).

Disadvantages:
1- It is more expensive than other CMS’s.
2- It is deprived of Support, Community and Updated documentation.

Best For:
Sitecore is best for large scale entities.

Cost:
The cost may vary because it depends on license that is based on visits per month, concurrent users, non-production installations and add-ons

Main Features:

Analytics:
It provides incredible analytics tools allowing you to track user behavior, measure engagement and get insights into digital marketing efforts.

Personalization:
It offers advanced personalization features allowing you to deliver content to users according to their interests and get insights a website’s visitor’s display.

Marketing Automation:
You may set up marketing compaigns to automatically respond to visitor’s actions on websites.

9- Umbraco:

Umbraco is one of the best WordPress alternatives that is open source and easy to use CMS based on Microsoft’s .NET framework. It provides enterprise level support.

Advantages:
1- It has strong security model that helps to protect websites and application from security threats.
2- It displays content on numerous digital Platforms.

Disadvantages:
1- However, it has an active community of developers but it does not provide them much support.
2- Availability of many plugins declines for extended functionality.

Best For:
Umbraco is best for businesses dealing with different types of content.

Cost:
This platform is free as it is an open source. User may have to purchase web hosting and domain name. Cost as per Host-techno pricing plan.

Main Features:

Multilingual Support:
You can create and administer multilingual content on editor directly.

Customizable Template:
You may create unique content or custom components for your websites.

Rollback:
You can track changes and analyze different versions of Web content.

10- Site Finity:

This platform helps you build and manage websites, intranets and mobile applications. While using this, businesses can engage and retain visitor’s journey.

Advantages:
1- You can get insights to help optimize visitor’s Journey and experience.
2- It offers a drag and drop interface to create and edit web pages.

Disadvantages:
1- It offers limited third-party integrations.
2- There is no automatic upgrading System.

Best For:
It is best suited for large enterprises with complex requirements like high traffic management.

Cost:
It offers licensing and subscriptions that will charge you cost. This cost may vary depending on needs of individuals and businesses. Additionally, there is 30 days trial to check the Platform.

Main Features:

Digital Marketing:
You may send marketing emails to keep visitors updated and interested.

Social Media Management:
It manages your Facebook, Google, Twitter, Instagram, Microsoft, LinkedIn and GitHub.

Responsive Design:
All sites on SiteFinity perform the same on different devices.