Almost every small or big business has a decent website today. And to manage a website, you need an easy-to-use CMS ( Content Management System). Though there are quite a few CMS available to help you to manage your website easily, we are breaking it down further to a few of the best ones.

In this article, we’ll discuss the top 5 CMSs, then it will be up to you which one you may choose.

What is a CMS?

A Content Management System is an application that allows you to publish content on your website, without any technical knowledge. For example, you are a businessman, who has an aesthetic website to represent his business online. But how are you supposed to run it? How will you add content in it? Of course, you don’t know how to code.

For this purpose, you need a CMS. And today, we have a lot of CMSs available, that not only allow you to add content in your web, but enable you to format it using visual editors, and more.

Is CMS also a website builder?

Many people confuse a CMS with a website builder. But they are far cry from each other. A CMS only lets you do simple changes to your website and a little bit of customization.

On the other hand, a website builder is a completely different and more complex thing. A website builder is a tool through which you develop a website – layout, functionalities, customizations,etc.

CMS hardly requires any technical knowledge – just simple drag and drop. On the other hand, a website is only developed by someone with adequate knowledge required to develop a website, using a website builder.

CMS like WordPress does offer you plugins that may enhance the functionality of your website but to a certain extent. Of course, you cannot do any customization without any coding knowledge.

Best CMS options for 2019

1. WordPress

WordPress was supposed to be a merry blogging platform, in its early days. Though the tools is far beyond from ‘just a blogging platform’ today, it is easy to use and lets you make immediate changes to your content, by simple drag and drop. You can also customize it to your heart’s content using plugins and themes (of which you have thousands to choose from).

You can publish posts, create new pages, install plugins to add different features to your website. The platform also supports user registration, gets regular updates, and features a large community, at your disposal to help you in any tech issue.

WordPress features include:

• Includes insightful publishing and content management options.
• With its powerful editor, you can format your content with ease.
• Is highly customizable, due to thousands of plugins and themes.
• Has a strong community that helps in problem-solving.

2. Joomla

Joomla is another popular CMS like WordPress. Though it is not as beginner-friendly as WordPress is, it can be more flexible in some aspects. It is ideal for a website that doesn’t contain much text content and offers more features.

Joomla is a great option if you need to manage a lot of ‘custom post types’. For example, a membership-based sites, where you don’t have to much text content but need more flexible options to manage your posts.

Above all, you don’t have to use plugins or extensions to add more languages to your site. Joomla also enables you to use multiple templates or themes, for different types of content. Some of the key features of Joomla are:

• It offers excellent support for custom post types.
• Provides advanced user management options to manage your posts.
• Includes multilingual support.
• Supports using unique templates for each page.

3. Serendipity

Serendipity is a user-friendly CMS that suits small blogs. It is the most lightweight CMS, as compared to our previous picks. Due to its built-in dynamic caching settings, it offers excellent performance for most websites.

Coming on to the functionalities, you can extend what the platform can accomplish using themes and plugins. Moreover, there is a front-end and back-end specific plugin option to make finding the tools you want simpler.

A couple of key features of serendipity are:

• It Is perfect for performance-oriented websites.
• It provides access to a large selection of themes and plugins, that come handy in customization of your website.

4. Dotclear

Dotclear is another one in the list of top CMS options available in 2019. If you’re looking for a straightforward blogging experience, then this will come handy for you. 

The platform features an editing experience, that is similar to WordPress. Moreover, it enables you to write your posts in plain text, HTML, and even Wiki syntax.

Dotclear also enables you to generate RSS feeds and add new functionalities to your site by using plugins and themes.

Let’s have a look at some of the key features of Dotclear:

• Simple to use and set up.
• It supports plain text, HTML, and Wiki syntax.
• It lets you easily generate an RSS feed for your site.

5. Drupal

Drupal is another very fine open source CMS, that is equally good as the other picks are. Though it lags behind WordPress and Joomla in market share but it is flexible and is still in use.

Drupal and Jumla share same strong areas in their design, for example, they both a flexible system for dealing with custom post types. 

Most importantly, it gives you a high degree of control over your users and their permissions. Moreover, it can handle multilingual sites out of the box. There are a few other aspects as well, in which Drupal is in a class of its own – like its taxonomy system.

Some of its key features include:

• It offers a flexible custom post creation and management system.
• Encompass advanced user management and permission settings.
• Like Joomla, it includes support for multilingual sites out of the box.
• Has a thorough taxonomy system.
• Boasts impenetrable security for your website.