A website that grows with you – find the perfect CMS
Benno Purin
Director Clients & Operations, Co-Founder @ Digit-One
Whether you're a small or a large company, the advantages of having your own website are obvious. For anyone who doesn't work with website design and development, though, keeping that website current can be difficult. Fortunately there are content management systems that make the process considerably simpler. In this article you'll find out what a CMS is, which types are on the market today, and which one best suits your requirements and your company.
What is a CMS and why does it matter?
A content management system (CMS for short) allows digital content to be created, edited, organised and presented collaboratively in a website context. With little time spent learning it, even users without technical experience can maintain and look after their own website quickly and easily through a graphical interface.
What advantages do CMS platforms offer websites?
1. Most changes need no programming knowledge
With just a few clicks and drag and drop, CMS platforms make it very easy for users to fill remarkably good-looking websites with dynamic content — all without programming knowledge or deep technical understanding. Whether it's a handcrafted, personalised blog or an up-to-date website with product listings, there's a suitable CMS for every use case.
2. Updating web content yourself
A CMS gives you the freedom to take control of your own website. If you want to update it, you generally no longer need our help — log in and make the changes yourself! CMS platforms also already offer many different functions for integrating your existing content smoothly, along with plugins, templates, themes and so on.
3. Restyling individual sub-pages and creating new content
In a CMS, the content in the backend (pure data) is separated from the layouts in the frontend (the actual page you can open in a browser). That way layout and content can be changed and adjusted independently of one another. So the content can stay as it is while only the visual presentation on the website changes, or new pages can be built from existing modules with the same layout but new content.
4. Effective collaboration and flexible access permissions
A CMS is a tool that gives several people access to the website and offers them a space in which they can work on different pages together at the same time. Because each user is assigned their own account with a tailored access role, tasks can be divided up and assigned to editors. That makes editing the collected content easy to manage.
5. Tools, plugins and themes for optimising along the marketing funnel
For a coherent website strategy that can meet both your needs and those of your customers, the choice of CMS is essential. The most popular CMS platforms come equipped with all the integrations an online marketing strategy requires. Those include tools that help companies increase their traffic, deliver an SEO strategy or send newsletters.
6. Keeping the website secure
An encrypted website that meets today's standards helps protect you from hacking attacks. That's particularly relevant for anyone running e-commerce sites, since those collect more customer data and process payments. With a CMS, regular security updates and testing from us keep you on the safe side.
7. Affordable, fast maintenance
Even updating a relatively static website can be difficult. Without a CMS you need web developers to make changes and look after content. Aside from the associated costs, it also takes time before updates become visible on the site. With a CMS you can therefore save both time and money. A CMS is often so easy to operate that you could even carry out website maintenance yourself if you needed to.
Which CMS platforms are there?
Typo3
Unlike other CMS platforms such as Joomla or Drupal, Typo3 was developed specifically for corporate websites with complex page structures and multilingual content. That's why Typo3 is used above all at larger companies, for example to manage internal network systems — because unlike common CMS platforms, Typo3 can manage more than one website from a single installation. Typo3 is therefore an excellent fit for that purpose.
Webflow CMS
Depending on the type of project, we use Webflow. A decisive factor in that choice is the volume and complexity of the content. Content is edited on-site, meaning changes or adjustments can be made directly within the layout. The content is set up in the backend as a collection. Through different editorial levels and editing rights, different team members can view and edit different collections. Using Webflow and its CMS means being limited to their server environment. There are also monthly licence costs for using it.
WordPress
WordPress is the best-known CMS across a wide range of industries and use cases. It offers not only ease of use but also reliability and flexibility, giving you a broad range of options when editing your site. With WordPress there are no limits on visual or technical requirements. With our own distinctive structure we deliver a module-based, highly flexible backend that's easy to build and easy to fill. Thanks to WordPress's large community and market presence, a great many integrations with a wide range of other tools are possible. And there are no licence costs, because WordPress is an open-source CMS.
Which is the most popular CMS for websites?
WordPress! With a market share of 62.6%, 18 million installations worldwide and an ever-growing number of extensions, it's the undisputed number one among content management systems. Its numerous plugins and integration options make the design and development possibilities almost limitless. WordPress also has a large community, so a suitable solution can be found for any problem.
Conclusion on CMS platforms for websites
Even if in some cases there's nothing that can replace experience in building websites, these newer systems have nonetheless fostered the creativity of everyone involved — external web designers, business owners, or simply the people working inside a company. Always take your time choosing a CMS, because while changes within a system will most likely go smoothly, moving to a different system (from Joomla to WordPress, say) will always be very difficult.
More than half of all websites use some form of CMS. That has considerably lowered the barrier for people with less technical understanding to create professional, perfectly functioning and responsive websites. We recommend — and ourselves rely on — WordPress as a CMS. With our optimised, modular architecture we combine all the advantages WordPress brings with a flexible approach and maximum simplicity in operation and comfort in maintenance.