The 12 Best Content Management Systems of 2020

codeaware GmbH

codeaware GmbH

25. Jun. 2020

When planning a website, the big question often is: Which Content Management System should I use? After all, there are virtually thousands of such systems – from in-house developments, proprietary to open-source systems with strong support from their respective communities.

Before we compare the most popular Content Management Systems, let’s answer the question of what a CMS actually is.

Wikipedia says the following:

A Content Management System (CMS, German: Inhaltsverwaltungssystem) is software for collective creation, editing, organization, and presentation of digital content (Content), mostly for use in websites, but also in other media forms. These contents can consist of text and multimedia documents. An author with appropriate access rights can, in many cases, operate such a system with little or no programming or HTML knowledge, as the majority of systems have a graphical user interface.

In short, a CMS allows you to easily manage pages and content, like media (videos, photos, documents) but also texts without much prior knowledge. Anyone who has ever created a Word or Excel file can usually also operate a CMS.

To get a feel for using the most popular CMSs, below is a list of the 10 most used products – of course including their advantages and disadvantages.

From this graphic, it’s immediately clear that the market is overwhelmingly dominated by the most popular CMS, WordPress, by a wide margin. Far behind and not even in the top 10 is CMS Typo3, which is still popular among large companies.

The most popular CMS, WordPress, is particularly popular for its ease of use and installation, not only in the blogger scene but also more and more large companies are taking advantage of WordPress. Typo3, on the other hand, requires in-depth programming knowledge, not least because of its own TypoScript language. The installation and maintenance here are also significantly more complex – compared to the winner.

In second place is Shopify, especially popular for webshops and shop solutions, as a webshop can be created here without much effort. This would have to be installed and adapted in WordPress first through a plugin. Shopify has moved up in the list of the most popular CMS recently – probably triggered by the Corona crisis and the strengthening of online trade.

In conclusion, however, it should be mentioned that everyone must decide for themselves which CMS is most suitable for their activity. Each CMS has its advantages, but of course, also disadvantages.

Table of Contents

1. WordPress with 63.6% market share
2. Shopify with 4.3% market share
3. Joomla with 4.0% market share
4. Drupal with 2.7% market share
5. Squarespace with 2.4% market share
6. Wix with 2.4% market share
7. Bitrix with 1.7% market share
8. Blogger with 1.7% market share
9. Magento with 1.3% market share
10. OpenCart with 1.0% market share
11. PrestaShop with 0.9% market share
12. Typo3 with 0.6% market share
13. Conclusion

1.

Category: Blog Software
Year of Release: 2003
Programming Language: PHP
German-speaking: yes
License: GPLv2 (or later)
Number of Plugins: over 56,900 (as of June 2020)

Originally, WordPress was developed as a Content Management System for creating a web blog. Due to the variety of community plugins, everything from shop systems to complex corporate sites can now be created without any problems. It is comparatively easy to develop your own plugins and designs, thus creating tailor-made functions for your own web presence.

A disadvantage of WordPress is that it is not possible (without special plugins) to provide multilingual websites. Likewise, complex user permissions cannot be assigned with a WordPress system without various plugins. Since this CMS is by far the most popular, there are plenty of plugins for these purposes that still provide these functions.

It is also worth mentioning that this CMS is very simple and intuitive to use, and thus can be worked with after only a short period of acclimatization. Likewise, a so-called MultiSite environment can be set up with the basic functionality. For this, a single WordPress installation can deliver content for different domains. The maintenance thus reduces to a single WordPress instance.

2.

Category: E-Commerce System
Year of Release: 2006
Programming Language: not specified
German-speaking: yes
License: proprietary (from 29 USD/month – as of June 2020)
Number of Plugins: about 3,200 (as of June 2020)

With Shopify, it’s possible to easily create your own online shop. The hosting and server maintenance are directly taken over by Shopify.

Apart from about 70 ready-made themes, the design can also be customized with CSS and HTML if necessary. Additional functions can be retrofitted via the so-called App Store.

It’s also worth mentioning that some large companies like Google, General Electric, and Tesla also rely on Shopify. (Shopify Plus)

3.

Category: Content Management System
Year of Release: 2005
Programming Language: PHP
German-speaking: yes
License: GPLv2 (or later)
Number of Plugins: over 7,500 (as of March 2020)

In third place of the most used CMS is Joomla, with only a 4.0% spread. Compared to WordPress, it supports multilingual pages out of the box – however, a MultiSite environment is not possible without plugins.

Those who would like to run a blog with their site must – compared to systems like WordPress – do some preliminary work and configure Joomla for this purpose. The reason for this is that Joomla only offers “pages” as a content type by default, for example, whereas WordPress offers “posts” and “pages” from the start.

The rights system is a bit better configurable than, e.g., WordPress. Here, even without plugins, own user groups can be created and configured. The setup of finer permission levels, therefore, makes it somewhat more complex, but also more flexible.

The entry and operation due to the somewhat larger base functionality are a bit more complex, but otherwise still simple and intuitive.

4.

Category: Content Management System
Year of Release: 2000
Programming Language: PHP
German-speaking: yes
License: GPL
Number of Plugins: over 45,000 (as of June 2020)

Drupal, unlike the other CMSs, offers support in building communities, in the sense that users can create their own weblogs, post in site-owned forums, etc. The permission system is very granular and sophisticated. With modules that are available in large numbers for Drupal, the functionality can be extended as desired.

A disadvantage of Drupal compared to the previous Content Management Systems is that for an update of the “core” – the basis of the CMS – it must be manually replaced via, e.g., FTP. A simple updater via the backend is not available for this. It must, therefore, be considered when choosing the CMS that updating it takes a bit more time. To avoid putting the site into maintenance mode for too long, a reliable update strategy should be planned in advance.

5.

Category: Website Builder
Year of Release: 2003
Programming Language: not specified
German-speaking: yes
License: proprietary (from 9 €/month – as of June 2020)

A website can be created using drag-and-drop. Available are ready-made templates and designs. In certain tariffs, it is possible to incorporate own HTML code – a complete editing of the templates is not really possible. Editing via the graphical configuration is, of course, possible. As long as no special designs need to be implemented, this is thus no obstacle.

With Squarespace, an online shop can also be set up from a certain tariff.

Whether Squarespace is suitable for large company websites is questionable. As a portfolio page / web blog or first website for startups, however, it is definitely suitable.

6.

Category: Website Builder
Year of Release: 2006
Programming Language: not specified
German-speaking: yes
License: proprietary (Basic version free, “Connect Domain” from 4.50 €/month – as of June 2020)
Number of Plugins: over 250 (as of June 2020)

Like Squarespace, Wix is a website builder. A website can be created via drag-and-drop using a graphical editor. There are over 500 templates to choose from. Note: Once a template is chosen, it cannot be changed without losing all content.

For security reasons, own HTML code is only incorporated as an iFrame (sandbox). Clearly, this affects flexibility.

Wix offers to create a website for free. However, this does not allow for a custom domain – advertising is also displayed. A custom domain is only possible with the premium tariffs. From the “Combo” tariff (8.50€/month – as of June 2020), Wix also no longer displays any advertising.

As for Squarespace, whether this product is suitable for large company websites is questionable. As a portfolio page / web blog or first website for startups, however, it is definitely suitable.

7.

Category: CRM
Year of Release: 2012
Programming Language: PHP
German-speaking: yes

Bitrix24 is software that offers internal communication, task management, and CRM. Websites and landing pages can also be created using a website builder.

8. Blogger

Category: Blog Software
Year of Release: 1999
Programming Language: not specified
German-speaking: yes

Blogger.com or blogspot.com allows you to create your own blog for free. All that’s needed is a Google account – after all, this is a product bought by Google in 2003. There is no “Premium” version or similar – also no extensions – therefore the flexibility is greatly limited. It is generally possible, however, to create your own template/design with XHTML.

For a simple blog, this option is certainly feasible, especially since creation is almost child’s play. A custom domain can also be set up for the blog.

9.

Category: E-Commerce System
Year of Release: 2008
Programming Language: PHP
German-speaking: yes
License: OSL (Open Source License)
Number of Plugins: over 5,200 (as of June 2020)

Compared to Shopify, Magento can be operated on your own server. The range of functions can be extended at will with thousands of plugins – self-developments are also possible. Magento allows you to operate multiple shops on different domains with different assortments.

As with many open-source products, a free Community Edition as well as a paid Enterprise Edition are offered here. Customers of the Enterprise version receive direct support from Magento. A hosting variant is also offered for the Enterprise version. No specific prices are mentioned on the official website – these are provided individually upon request. They are likely to start at about 22,000 or 40,000 USD / year.

10.

Category: E-Commerce System
Year of Release: 2009
Programming Language: PHP
German-speaking: yes
License: GPLv3
Number of Plugins: over 13,000 (as of June 2020)

OpenCart is also a shop system. Compared to the other listed shop systems, the large number of plugins is striking here. Thus, it is possible, even without much programming knowledge, to solve various functions simply through a plugin.

11.

Category: E-Commerce System
Year of Release: 2007
Programming Language: PHP
German-speaking: yes
License: OSL (Open Source License)
Number of Plugins: over 3,900 (as of June 2020)

Compared to Magento, the installation and configuration are not quite as complex. The user interface for PrestaShop is more intuitive. For smaller shops, PrestaShop might therefore be preferable.

Unlike Magento, however, there is no official support for PrestaShop. The largest community is French-speaking – mainly because PrestaShop was developed in France.

12.

Category: Content Management System
Year of Release: 1998
Programming Language: PHP
German-speaking: yes
License: GPL
Number of Plugins: over 1,300 (as of June 2020)

Typo3 is considered the flagship of CMS. It offers almost unlimited possibilities. Unfortunately, it is therefore very complex and often requires more time to learn than other products. Multilingualism, multi-site environments, extensive rights management, and caching are just some of the features supported.

Due to its diverse capabilities, it places higher demands on the server than other Content Management Systems.

The site is configured using the TypoScript language. Not only for this reason is extensive experience necessary for the deployment of this system.

Conclusion

As can be seen from this small selection, there are several ways to achieve each requirement. Especially the strong market presence of WordPress and website builders like Wix and Squarespace shows that the desire for an own presence on the Internet is very pronounced. For companies, these builder systems are often not suitable – but there are plenty of alternative offers that can fulfill all wishes here too.