Best Content Management Systems

In the simplest terms, a content management system (CMS) is a software solution that creates, manages, stores, and tracks digital content. A content management system serves as the infrastructure for a website or storage system so businesses and users can instead focus on their content itself, and its presentation if it is an outward-facing platform.

Content management systems can be used to manage content on a single computer but are more often times leveraged to create and organize content for an entire business or on a website. The types of content that can be hosted are virtually endless; content management systems can host everything from simple text documents to massive datasets to video and images.

Content management systems can vary greatly in functionality, with some serving mainly as content storage or website templates and others providing broader collaboration and project tracking functions.

Given content management software’s flexible nature, these solutions can be employed in a number of useful ways. Virtually every business employs at least one content management system, if not more. For most, it’s built into day-to-day activities and flies under the radar.

Teams might use a business content management system to create text documents, collaborate on them in real time, and then store them for later use. Storage can include both a personal space and a collaborative space, with the ability to easily move content from one to the other.

Marketing representatives can refer to a digital asset management system to quickly search for and retrieve relevant logos, media files, and other brand-specific assets that would otherwise be difficult to track.

Businesses of all sizes manage records for their employees using a secure enterprise content management system that provides ample storage space and permissions functionality. It can quickly label and file away hundreds of documents that would otherwise take hours of manpower to manually review.

Web content management systems can serve as a portfolio or resume for individuals looking for an inexpensive, professional digital space to market themselves and their work. WCMs offer artists and writers a platform to have their work published and presented without working with an outside entity.

Business content management – The most recognizable content management systems are business content management software solutions. These solutions are often used for personal use to manage, store, and share files, pictures, and videos, but business-centered versions also exist that consider compliance and governance guidelines as well. Business content management systems can also integrate with other content management systems, but are distinct in their predominant collaborative functions.

Digital asset management – Business content management software is similar to, but distinct from, digital asset management (DAM) software, in that the latter focuses primarily on the curation of brand-specific media files. Digital asset management systems are predominantly used by marketing and operations teams to manage their online brand presence. For this reason, DAMs provide powerful import and export capability, optimized processing, and automatic file type conversion tools.

Web content management – Another popular type of content management system is the web content management (WCM) system, which focuses on the creation, editing, and publishing of text, graphics, and audio and video files. Web content management systems offer front-end templates for users to choose from, so they can focus primarily on their content. This makes them popular with bloggers and artists.

Enterprise content management (ECM) – Enterprise content management (ECM) systems are utilized by businesses to house and manage bulk content including documents, records, product information, and emails. ECM is very similar to the rest of its CMS siblings but offers more in-depth security and compliance controls. ECM systems also provide additional process automation features to reduce the time spent doing redundant filing, labeling, and searching.

Headless CMS – In the wake of a rapidly diversifying digital landscape, an emerging type of content management system is headless CMS. Headless CMS provides only the necessary backend for a content management system, allowing the developer to use any front end they want. This provides extensive customization options and is useful when developing sites that will be viewed from a variety of devices.