CMS stands for Content Management System and it does just that. It literally allows you to control and manage the content within your website wherever you may be. This fairly uncomplicated system enables you to easily add, delete or edit text and images in your site instantly as well as provide you unlimited number of pages and a full site-search engine.

A CMS web presence allows you to manage your website despite not having any technical knowledge, HTML experience or website design. Even just a little experience with Microsoft Word would equip you with the basic knowledge of its navigation.

Here is a list of five CMS platforms that you can install as your own host with a description on its strengths of what it can do for your website.

1. WordPress
Strength: Marketing

Probably the most well-known due to its host and self-hosted options, WordPress is a free and open source so you can install it on your own host with no issues. Starting out as a blogging platform, WordPress’ plugins have added so many features that you can practically do anything with it.

There’s no need for programming or HTML experience as editing can be made using any normal web browser from anywhere in the world, even with your iPhone. Moreover, it eliminates calls to your CMS web design company for any changes because you’re already a certified DIY when it comes to managing your website so scratch problems on delays of getting new content online off the list.

2. Concrete 5
Strength: Easy Content Editing

concrete5A website with heavy content or it has many pages with static information that needs to be changed or added to frequently would do well with Concrete 5. Also a free and open source, it’s best if you’re aiming for a simple CMS that enables you to edit content easily and tweak a bit of the design.

3. Joomla
Strength: Customization

Unlike WordPress which maintains a similar look even when using different themes, Joomla sites don’t look anything alike because a user can customize everything. Joomla is powerful because you can do almost anything with e-commerce site but then there’s are many setting and tweaking involved to get it running; hence, if your site is more than a blog that has major text content and a YouTube video, Joomla works best.

4. Drupal
Strength: Security

Not so different from Joomla, Drupal is a bit more flexible and secured. Also a free and open source, Drupal comes with plugins that tend to be the same while Joomla has a lot of paid plugins.

5. Textpattern

Strength: Simplicity Flexibility

textpatternA CMS that’s a cross between Concrete 5 and Drupal, it’s easy to install and use but requires many tools for customization and tweaking. If you wish to install it and add content, that can be done but if you need to create your own design or tweak, you can do so too. If you want to create your own design and you have an idea of how to code your pages then Textpattern would be ideal as it exposes the code for pages while making CMS easy to use.

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