Choosing the right Content Management System (CMS) is one of the most important decisions for building a professional, scalable website. In 2025, CMS platforms have evolved to offer more flexibility, SEO tools, AI-powered editing, and built-in ecommerce options — helping businesses manage and grow their online presence with ease.
In this guide, we’ll compare the best CMS platforms in 2025 — from beginner-friendly website builders to advanced, open-source, and headless CMS options — so you can find the perfect fit for your project, whether it’s a blog, online store, or enterprise site.
What is a CMS Platform?
Short for Content Management System, a CMS platform allows you to create a website, publish, edit, and manage its content. Instead of having to develop a system from scratch to build your website, by using a CMS, you can skip that part, and you don't need to know how to code or design to make your pages.
The CMS gives you all the infrastructure necessary to put a website online, and you can focus on the content and visuals of the website. The platform usually provides pre-built templates that you can fully customize.
It also comes with a content editor where you can modify, review, and publish texts, images, and videos on your page. Another advantage is that you usually have the option to include several people as website managers, assign roles, and configure their access permissions.
Why Use a CMS Platform
No Coding Experience Required
Everyone can build a website with a CMS platform because the coding part that is needed to make web pages available is taken care of. You don't need to know how to code. You can edit and publish content without having to write any piece of code.
Collaborative Work
Whether your team is working remotely or in the same office, you have the opportunity to add all of them to the content management system software. It's possible to keep track of the website updates inside the same platform, complete and assign tasks in the CMS platform, and follow up on the results.
SEO
The best CMS platforms available provide you with SEO tools, which are extremely important to conquer organic visibility and make sure that your pages are seen as relevant by search engines. This can help them to appear on the first search results pages of keywords related to your products and company sector, increasing the number of visitors to your website, and even the number of sales.
Blogging
Counting on a CMS makes it much easier to create a blog and maintain it. You will have a content editor to publish and edit articles. You also may enjoy several tools to personalize the text, for example, put words in bold and italic, the font type, and add hyperlinks, images, and videos.
How to Choose a CMS Platform
The best CMS platforms available online have some factors in common that you should pay attention to before choosing the one you prefer.
Easy-to-use Interface
High-quality CMS platforms must provide an easy-to-use interface so that you can quickly learn how to enjoy all of its features. You should be able to create, manage, and edit content without any hustle.
Personalization Tools
Check if the CMS platform provides customization tools to allow you to create personalized pages. That's essential to design an attractive website that's aligned with your brand's visual identity.
Customer Support
All CMS platforms should offer multiple communication channels for customer assistance, such as live chats, email, and telephone. They must be available 24/7 as well, so you can count on expert help to fix problems anytime you need.
SEO
When analyzing the CMS features to choose the one that fits your needs best, don't forget to see if it has built-in SEO features. This way, you can build a website that is optimized to be able to rank on the first search result pages at Google and other search engines.
Scalability
Certainly, you intend to grow your business with time and it may entail the need to add other pages and sections to your website. Considering it, the CMS must have the necessary tools to allow you to scale up without affecting your website performance.
Security
What security measures does the CMS platform take to make sure your website and your visitors and customers' data are protected? It's essential to count on a safe system, which takes all the necessary precautions to prevent hack attacks and data leaks.
Price
The price is another important factor when it comes to selecting CMS platforms. You will see that many of them offer various plans, and the price varies according to the features it contains. Set your budget, and make a list of the tools you prioritize to select a CMS that has a suitable price and provides what you wish.
6 Best CMS Platforms in 2025
1. Wix - Best CMS for Begginers
With over 260 million users, Wix stands out as a great CMS choice for small businesses and beginners. It provides you with an easy-to-use editor where you can create multiple pages with separate sections. You can edit how they look with the drag and drop feature, and use the CMS to manage the content.
You also have the choice to use artificial intelligence and ask the Wix AI assistant to generate content for a page, edit your text, create a full section, or redesign your site theme, for instance. All you need to do is explain what you want, and the AI will give you options to choose from.
The Wix content management system is structured so you don't have to edit a page's appearance every time you add new content. One thing that caught our attention is that if the same information appears on multiple pages, you can change it once, and the modification will be made on every page.
Another feature we found very useful is the presets. They are ready-to-use dynamic pages that will work as the foundation to add and manage your content. You can choose the preset based on the type of content you want to put on your website, for example, a portfolio, news, recipes, or services.
The presets will grow as your content grows, so you can put as much content as you like, without affecting the page design. It's possible to use more than one preset in different sections of your website, and manage them in the "Collections" part of the Wix CMS.
We like that Wix provides SEO tools that will help you grow organic traffic. This CMS has an SEO setup checklist, identifies issues, and gives you recommendations to improve your results. It also shows important metrics about how well your site is functioning, such as site speed and uptime.
Wix allows you to create your site for free, but the free plan has some limitations, such as a Wix-branded URL and advertisements that will be displayed on your website. Every paid plan includes a custom domain, web hosting, and AI creation tools.
The "Light" plan is the one recommended if you are starting now. It offers a free domain for 1 year, 2GB storage space, multi-cloud hosting, and you can add 2 site collaborators. The most advanced plan is the one called "Business Elite," which gives you unlimited storage space, an advanced developer platform, and you can have up to 100 website collaborators.
Key features:
- Pre-built website templates
- Drag-and-drop editor
- SSL certificate
- SEO tools
- Analytics
- Responsive design
- Online ordering system
- 24-hour reservation system
2. WordPress - The Most Popular CMS
CMS platforms WordPress
Used by around 43% of all websites in the world, WordPress holds the title of the most popular CMS. There are many reasons for that: Its CMS makes it much simpler to keep your website content always updated.
Besides, it offers over 50,000 plugins that you can install to add new features to your site and track key performance indicators as well.
The WordPress editor divides each page you create into blocks, which makes it easier to add and update content. First, you will select the page you wish to edit, then you can create another block or click on the one you will modify. You have the option to copy and paste a text or write it in the editor, for instance. It's also possible to add media files, such as images and videos.
Another advantage of using WordPress is that it offers more than 1,000 pre-built templates, so you don't have to create your website from scratch. You will find themes for blogs, portfolios, business websites, stores, and much more.
WordPress is perfect if you want to have a blog. In the "Posts" section of the dashboard, you will see all of your posts in a list. It's possible to edit, delete, and add new ones with just a few clicks. With the "Stats" section, you can keep track of your website metrics, like the number of visitors, comments, and likes.
This CMS platform provides a free plan with 1GB storage, unlimited pages, themes, an AI assistant limited to 20 requests, unrestricted bandwidth, and unlimited users. However, you won't be able to install plugins, customize colors and fonts, and it doesn't include ecommerce features.
According to WordPress, the most popular plan is the "Premium", while the "Business" one is indicated for developers.
Key Features:
- Customizable themes
- Mobile-friendly design
- 24/7 customer support
- Search engine optimized
- SEO tools
- In-depth stats
3.SITE123 - Best Free CMS Platform for Beginners
CMS platforms SITE123
Site123's editor has an intuitive interface, which is great for beginners. You can choose from over 180 pre-built templates to start building your pages. Once you select one, you can define which pages to add, personalize the design, and include the content using the drag-and-drop feature.
There is also the option to use the AI assistant to generate content. You just have to click on the section that you want to modify the text, click on the AI button, and then the artificial intelligence will give you text suggestions.
Navigating through the editor is very simple. We found it easy to explore the tools and customize the elements of all the pages. For example, you can change the color palette, images, and the text font and size.
With the app market, you will find multiple integrations to your website, such as Google Analytics, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and JivoChat as well. Another valuable tool is the "Website Advisor". It shows SEO issues that need to be fixed, and what you should do to improve.
One advantage of SITE123 is that it offers a free CMS plan for life. However, this option only enables you to own a subdomain. This means that your website address would have the suffix "site123", which isn't recommended if you are creating a business website. A suffix with only ".com", for example, gives more credibility.
The free plan also includes 250 MB of storage and 250 MB of bandwidth. On the other hand, the Premium one provides you with a free domain for one year, 3GB of storage, 3GB of bandwidth, and you can have an ecommerce store.
Key features:
- Intuitive website editor
- Responsive web design
- Free hosting
- SEO tools
- Sell online
- 24/7 customer support
4. HostGator - Best for Non-Technical Users
CMS platforms HostGator
With over 2 million websites hosted on its platform, HostGator has a website editor with a user-friendly interface that matches the needs of people who don't have technical expertise. It provides solutions not only to create your website as you wish but also allows you to choose the shared hosting plan that suits your company better.
Instead of using a drag-and-drop editor, you just need to answer some questions, and Gator Builder will automatically make your pages using an optimized layout and industry-specific design. It also provides a 99.9% uptime, guaranteeing that your website will be available.
HostGator has analytics features as well, which enable you to measure and keep track of important metrics and better understand your audience's behavior. Enjoy the SEO tools too, so you can enhance your pages to rank better on search engines.
Key features:
- Intelligent builder
- Easy analytics
- Image Library
- Mobile responsiveness
- LogoMaker
- Search optimized
- 24/7 customer support
5. Webnode - Best CMS for Multilingual Websites
CMS platforms Webnode
With Webonde, you can create different types of websites using one of its pre-built templates. There are more than 100 options to choose from, divided into categories like "Business & Consulting", "Food & Restaurants", and "Beauty and Fashion".
After selecting your template, you will be able to reorganize all the page elements by dragging and dropping them, and add new content as you wish.
Webnode's website editor is easy to use. It facilitates visualizing the whole website structure, while you can edit the pages by blocks. If you want to have a blog, there is a section dedicated to it, where you can create drafts, schedule posts, and define SEO details like the meta-description and meta-keywords.
Another option to create your website is to use Webnode's AI. You will have to describe the type of website you have in mind, and the artificial intelligence will generate a website design based on that. The AI can also be used to generate texts. This feature isn't included in the free plan, though.
It also has a great advantage, which is the possibility of launching your website in multiple languages. You can add the new languages in the website settings, but this feature is only available for paid plans.
Used by more than 50 million websites, Webnode's "Standard" plan includes a free domain for one year, 3GB of storage, 10 GB of bandwidth, an AI assistant, website statistics, and you can have 100 membership registrations.
Key features:
- User-friendly
- Reliable hosting
- SEO tools
- HTTPS for safe browsing
- Edit on any device
- Pre-built templates
- Responsive design
6. GoDaddy - Best All-In-One CMS Platform
CMS platforms GoDaddy
GoDaddy's website editor has an intuitive interface that makes it easier to create a website, even if it's your first time doing it. You can count on a step-by-step guide that explains what each tool serves for. There is also a checklist to help you set up your website and not forget any important details before publishing it.
You will find over 100 pre-built website templates to select the one that suits you best, and they can be fully customized. All of the templates have a mobile-friendly design, and you have the option to install GoDaddy's app on your mobile devices and edit your website from them.
We also appreciate the fact that GoDaddy focuses on centralizing all you need in a single platform. You can use it not only to manage your website, but also your social media channels and email.
For instance, it's possible to connect to Instagram and track your post performances with GoDaddy. The Studio tool allows you to design posts for social media as you want.
The GoDaddy website builder has 3 plans. With the "Basic", you have a custom domain, SEO tools, an AI assistant for content creation and writing, free professional email, live chat, contact forms, and access to GoDaddy Studio.
The "Premium" plan has all that, but gives you the option to add a booking tool to your site, you can take online payments and deposits, and manage unlimited ads on Google and Meta.
The "Commerce" plan, as the name suggests, is recommended if you want to have an online store because it allows you to sell an unlimited number of products and services. It includes a set of tools for selling online.
Key features:
- Customizable themes
- Backup and restore
- Image library
- SEO tools
- Web analytics
- Marketing tools
- Sell on Facebook and Instagram
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