This post was created with assistance from ChatGPT.
A content management system, aka a CMS, is software that helps users create, manage and publish digital content online. Put simply, it’s the software that allows you to build and manage your website content. There’s no denying that choosing the right CMS is essential in 2026. With so many options available, it can be overwhelming to determine which platform is best for your needs. CMS technology evolves rapidly, and choosing the right platform in 2026 is about flexibility, scalability, and long-term viability.
In this post, we’ll help you understand what to look for when choosing a CMS, compare popular options, and share our predictions for 2026. You’ll walk away feeling confident you can choose the right CMS software for your website needs.
Key Factors to Consider in 2026
Choosing the right CMS doesn’t have to be overwhelming. Here are some key criteria to consider when selecting a CMS for your website.
- Purpose of the site: Will your website be a publishing platform, an e-commerce store, a portfolio, a community, all of the above, or something else?
- Ease of use vs customization: Do you need drag-and-drop simplicity or are you looking for developer flexibility? These aren’t opposites—if money is no concern. Usually, you end up balancing these two goals.
- Scalability and performance: Once you cover the basics—do the pages load quickly and can the site be upgraded easily—you want to think about these concepts in a more strategic way such as: How well can the CMS handle your business’s needs as it grows? How can it better assist you to meet your goals? How well does it handle needing to change?
- Security: Does the CMS offer best-practice built-in protections, regular updates, a good security record? Are its third-party plugins and apps reliable?
- Integration capabilities: How easily can you integrate APIs, third-party services, or headless CMS options?
- Cost: What is the price for the software, and are there additional costs for hosting, plugins, or add-ons?
Asking these questions will help you narrow down the options and find the CMS that best fits your website’s needs.
CMS Options
Popular CMS platforms include:
WordPress
Pros:
- Free and open-source
- Get a website running quickly “out of the box”
- Huge ecosystem of plugins and themes
- With the help of an experienced WordPress developer, customization can be easily achieved.
Cons:
- Limited control over advanced functionality if you’re not a developer
- Open-source means performance, security, and stability are mostly depend on hosting and setup
- Can become bloated if many and/or poorly built plugins are used
- Requires ongoing maintenance (updates, backups, security)
- Note: There’s both a hosted and a non-hosted version of WordPress
Best use: Personal blogs, marketing sites, and content-driven websites that don’t require highly complex or custom functionality.
Notable features: Flexible block editor, so many plugins for extra functionality, customizable themes, strong SEO.
ExpressionEngine
Pros:
- Well-established and highly reliable CMS with a strong track record for large and complex websites
- Extensive customization options allow developers to tailor content structures, workflows, and functionality to exact requirements
- Scalable and secure, making it suitable for organizations that need enterprise-grade performance and control
- Flexible content modelling lets teams handle diverse types of content without forcing workarounds
Cons:
- Upgrading can be difficult
- Limited add-ons compared to platforms like WordPress or Wix CMS
- Ongoing maintenance and hosting responsibilities fall entirely on the organization
Best use: Organizations that want a secure, scalable CMS with deep customization capabilities. Especially good for complex content structures, sites that have multiple groups using and editing the website, and growing orgs that need a platform that can evolve over time.
Notable features: Flexible content modelling, robust security, highly scalable for complex websites.
Craft CMS
Pros:
- Flexible and powerful, allowing very granular control over content structure, templates, and functionality
- User-friendly control panel that makes content editing straightforward for non-technical teams
- Highly extendable through plugins, modules, and integrations, giving developers the tools to build exactly what a project needs
- Great balance of developer freedom and editor usability
Cons:
- No plug-and-play templates or themes, so most designs require a custom build
- Requires skilled development resources to do any structural / admin work
- Smaller community than WordPress, which can make finding third-party plugins or solutions more limited
- Ongoing maintenance and hosting responsibilities are entirely on the organization
Best use: Organizations with skilled design and development teams—or trusted partners—who want a unique, highly customizable website with precise control over both content and design.
Notable features: Highly flexible content modelling, easy e-commerce integration with Craft Commerce.
Wix
Pros:
- Quirky drag-and-drop editor makes website creation fast and accessible for non-technical users
- Wide range of built-in tools for SEO, e-commerce, booking, and forms without needing additional plugins
- Hosted platform that handles security, updates, and maintenance, reducing technical overhead for site owners
- Templates and design options allow small businesses to get professional-looking sites quickly
Cons:
- Can become expensive as your site grows or if you need advanced features
- Limited flexibility compared to open-source or developer-focused CMS platforms
- Less control over hosting, backend, and performance optimization
- Customization beyond what Wix’s editor offers can be challenging without code
Best use: Small business owners or entrepreneurs who want a simple, all-in-one solution to launch and manage a professional website with minimal technical involvement.
Notable features: Drag-and-drop editor, built-in SEO, e-commerce, booking, and contact forms.
Squarespace
Pros:
- Wide variety of professionally designed, ready-to-use templates for fast setup
- All-in-one platform handles hosting, security, and updates, so minimal technical knowledge is required
- Built-in tools for blogging, e-commerce, SEO, and analytics make it easy to manage a complete website from a single dashboard
- Intuitive editor allows for straightforward customization while maintaining a polished, consistent design
Cons:
- Limited flexibility for highly customized designs or complex functionality
- Less control over backend, hosting, and performance optimization compared to open-source CMS
- Fewer third-party integrations and plugins compared to WordPress or developer-focused platforms
- Scaling large or complex sites can become restrictive without workarounds
Best Use: Ideal for users or small businesses who want a good-looking, predictably functional website without the need for heavy customization or complex brand-specific designs.
Notable features: All-in-one website builder with hosting, templates, blogging, e-commerce, and analytics.
Predictions & Trends for 2026
With technology rapidly changing, it’s essential to consider what the future holds. We are already seeing an increase in AI-assisted content creation and management as the use of AI (LLMs and other generative tools) gains greater prevalence. A CMS equipped to integrate with AI can give you an edge over one that doesn’t.
Cloud-native SaaS CMS platforms represent a growing share of web content management. With automatic updates, built-in security, and cloud scalability, they remove many traditional pain points of managing complex websites. Looking ahead, we can expect these platforms to evolve even further, offering more specialized capabilities, AI-assisted workflows, and real-time collaboration, making them a compelling choice for organizations that want all this in one package.
Increased adoption of headless CMS for multi-platform publishing mark a shift toward content-first, omnichannel experiences. (Headless publishing is when your CMS doesn’t handle publishing the content—that happens in a separate tool or in flat files, while the CMS is just the main repository of content, serving it up to a range of channels.)
Businesses can now deliver personalized content across an expanding ecosystem of devices, from smart displays on appliances to voice apps to wearable tech. We can expect richer integrations and faster deployment cycles, making multi-platform publishing more seamless and efficient than ever.
Security and privacy are factors with a growing important to drive CMS choices. Businesses need platforms that have strong data protections, both for security and privacy reasons.
As you assess your specific needs before choosing a CMS, it’s important to identify the most critical criteria for YOUR website. There’s no one-size-fits-all solution, which is why there are so many CMS options to choose from! We can help take the guesswork out of it and guide you to the CMS that is right for you. Send us a message and let us assist you with your decision.
