8 Factors to Consider When Choosing the Best Content Management System (CMS)

1. CMS or Digital Experience Platform (DXP)?

While traditional CMS platforms are designed to manage website content and be one part of a larger ecosystem, Digital Experience Platforms (DXP) provide comprehensive solutions for delivering omnichannel digital experiences. DXPs like Adobe Experience Cloud or Sitecore not only handle content but also include features such as personalized experiences, digital asset management, e-commerce, AI-driven insights, and customer data integration, among many others.

At Happy Cog, we typically advise our clients on one of two paths, depending on their needs.

1. Deploy a "one size fits most" DXP. These systems attempt to accomplish the vast majority of your goals, often out-of-the-box or with some basic configuration. All of the various features integrate for a cohesive customer experience (CX) and your team will use a single platform for a majority of its marketing initiatives. Since they are more robust, these systems typically come with lofty licensing fees. However, a tradeoff can be that some areas lack the features of separate solutions. It is doubtful that a DXP will meet your needs exactly, and customization will be required, further increasing costs.
2. Deploy a CMS that excels at content management, but doesn't necessarily have broader DXP features. With this option, companies will deploy additional tools/platforms that are purpose-designed for your exact needs, and integrate them all together as required. This typically is a greater up-front effort, as we need to stitch together multiple systems, but together we can choose each component to meet your unique needs and those of your customers. Components can also be rolled out over time based on your company's evolving needs. This option will give you more flexibility, but can come at greater expense in terms of additional development time and management overhead.

Key questions to ask:

• Will a given DXP platform's broader capabilities meet your specific needs? Or do you require more flexibility to meet the demands of your customers?
• Will a DXP replace other systems you are currently using, such as a DAM or CDP? How will a DXP fit into your larger MarTech stack?
• Will a given DXP meet your specific needs for content management, or are there more appropriate CMS options available that are better suited to your requirements?

2. Headless or Traditional CMS?

One of the most significant decisions is whether to go with a traditional CMS (monolithic) or a headless CMS. A traditional CMS handles both the front-end (presentation layer) and back-end (content management). In contrast, a headless CMS decouples the content from the front-end, allowing developers to use APIs to deliver content across multiple channels (websites, apps, POS systems, etc.). Read our Headless CMS guide here.

A headless CMS like Contentful or Strapi is ideal for businesses focused on omnichannel content distribution. Headless also allows for using frontend technologies that might be more popular or might be a better fit for your organization, such as React. If your website pulls data in from many sources (such as a CRM, CDP, ERP, etc.) you may want to consider headless as it allows for swapping out these tools more easily in the future. However, if the project mainly revolves around a more typical website, a traditional CMS may be more efficient and cost-effective.

Key questions to ask:

• Will your content need to be deployed across multiple platforms, like mobile apps or IoT?
• How much flexibility does the project require for custom front-end development?
• Is it advantageous to be able to swap out the CMS in the future without rebuilding the website UX and third-party integrations?

3. Platform Popularity and Longevity

Technologies come and go, and the popularity of the platform is an important consideration. Popular CMS platforms like WordPress, Drupal, and Contentful have large, active communities of developers and users, which can be a significant advantage. These platforms often benefit from extensive documentation, frequent updates, a wide range of plugins, and timely security patches. Additionally, the larger the user base, the more likely you are to find third-party integrations and skilled development firms familiar with the platform. Opting for a popular CMS ensures that you have access to a wealth of resources, reducing long-term risks and support challenges. This is true for your content authors as well. While any CMS should be user friendly and have an exceptional author experience, your team's existing familiarity with a given platform can make a difference.

Additionally, your CMS choice should complement your organization's existing tech stack. Consider the programming languages, frameworks, and databases your IT team is comfortable working with. For instance, if your developers specialize in JavaScript, a headless CMS option with strong API support may be the best fit. On the other hand, if the team has expertise in PHP, options like WordPress or Craft CMS could be more efficient.

Key questions to ask:

• Which CMS platforms will be supported and updated for years into the future? Which are waning and might not be as popular in a few years time?
• How flexible is the CMS in terms of customizing and integrating with your preferred tech stack?

4. Hosting Options

The hosting environment will have a major impact on the performance, security, and scalability of your CMS. Some platforms are cloud-native (e.g., Contentful, Webflow, or HubSpot), providing automatic scaling, security, and management, which all but eliminates your IT overhead. Others, like WordPress or Drupal, are self-hosted (typically in the cloud, such as AWS), giving your (or our) team more control over server configuration but requiring more ongoing management. There are hybrid models as well, such as WordPress VIP, Kinsta, or Acquia which take traditional CMS platforms and bring them to the cloud without having to manage your own IT infrastructure.

Key questions to ask:

• Is your team (or agency) ready to manage self-hosted environments, or would a managed cloud solution better fit your needs?
• What are the performance and security requirements, and how does the CMS's hosting environment address them?

5. Third-Party Integrations

For most businesses, a CMS is only part of a broader digital ecosystem. You'll likely need to integrate third-party tools like CRMs, e-commerce platforms, search tools, marketing automation systems, or analytics software. Some CMS platforms offer robust ecosystems and app stores for easy integration, while others require custom development. WordPress, being the most popular CMS on the internet, is typically a leader when it comes to third-party integration availability and plugins. Other hosted options might excel with content management, but integrating with custom data sources and platforms can be a challenge. Not all integrations are created equally, so how your CMS fits into your larger MarTech stack needs to be evaluated.

Key questions to ask:

• Does the CMS offer out-of-the-box integrations with the key tools your team and your customers use?
• How easy is it to build and maintain custom integrations when required?

6. Author Experience (AX) and Ease of Use

Consider the experience of the content creators and authors who will use the CMS daily. An intuitive and user-friendly interface is essential for improving productivity and reducing the learning curve for non-technical team members. You don't want anything standing in the way of your team crafting and publishing timely content.

Different CMS platforms treat AX differently. Some are more "data focused", and are largely meant for inputting data into text fields. These systems typically follow a template model, with each page type having a rigid look and feel. On the other end of the spectrum, there are more "design focused" platforms such as Webflow and Storyblok, which allow content editors to not only enter necessary content, but have far more robust tools for designing custom, rich experiences without needing to write any custom code. Most platforms are somewhere in-between, and each is geared towards different needs.

At Happy Cog, author experience (AX) is something that we carefully plan for, design, and implement with all of our CMS projects. Beyond designers and developers, we have dedicated AX Leads who architect and implement the content management interfaces to ensure your team can get their jobs done as quickly and efficiently as possible, with minimal distractions, support requests, or involvement from developers. Just about any modern platform can facilitate a great author experience, but this typically comes down to the skill of the team that is implementing the CMS.

Key questions to ask:

• How user-friendly is the CMS for non-technical content creators?
• Will the CMS platform provide AI enablement to speed up content and asset creation?
• Does the CMS provide a seamless workflow for creating, editing, and publishing content that matches my organization's needs?
• What needs will we likely have in the future, and how might those affect the platform we choose today?
• Does my CMS agency have dedicated AX Leads/AX Engineers?

7. AI Enablement

Artificial intelligence can bring a lot of value to content creators beyond generating copy and imagery. For example, AI can help with brand governance, ensuring authors are creating content that fits with the broader organizational vision and identity. Rather than rely on individual writers to follow written guidelines, LLMs can be trained on voice and tone, flagging content that strays from accepted brand strategy. AI can also assist with developing related content and recommending taxonomies and tags, further simplifying the task of creating new pages, reducing the amount of time it takes to write and publish new content.

Bringing generative AI capabilities directly into the CMS interface can be a game changer for marketing teams, and these capabilities should be a factor when choosing a platform. Some platforms have these capabilities baked into the system out-of-the-box, while others provide this through third-party integrations or plugins. Either way, your CMS should have AI capabilities to assist your team with their workflows and automate tasks.

8. Cost

Last but certainly not least, cost is a crucial factor when selecting a CMS. It's important to consider not just upfront license costs, but total cost of ownership as well. Long-term expenses can mount over time, including hosting, maintenance, and platform upgrades – all of this is before you consider future enhancements and modifications as your business and customers evolve.

Open-source CMS options like WordPress or Drupal do not require up-front license costs, which (when built and deployed correctly), can lead to massive savings. A lower entry cost does not necessarily equate to a lower total cost of ownership though (although it certainly can), as these systems can require more development hours and hosting fees.

On the other hand, enterprise-grade solutions like Sitecore or Adobe Experience Manager (AEM) offer more out-of-the-box features but come with higher licensing fees – often approaching or exceeding 6 figures. You'll need to consider your short and long term budget when evaluating options.

Key questions to ask:

• What is the total cost of ownership, including up-front costs, maintenance, hosting, and upgrades?
• What are our future plans, and will a chosen CMS fit those needs in the years to come, or will we need to replatform again?

Happy Cog Can Help

These eight factors are only the beginning. The CMS is a foundation to build upon, it isn't a complete solution. You need to get the foundation right so you can have a platform that can grow with the changing needs of your business and your customers. Get it wrong, and you'll likely be going through a costly replatforming a few months later, or stuck with a CMS that doesn't meet your needs for even longer.

If you're going through a CMS evaluation process or plan to in the future, reach out to Happy Cog. We can lead you through your options after performing a thorough analysis of your needs and those of your stakeholders and clients. Regardless of the platform that is ultimately decided upon, we can help you get there. Contact us for more information.

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