WordPress (27+ Million Live Websites)
WordPress continues to lead the market by a wide margin. In terms of the entire Internet (websites built with or without a CMS), 35.6% are WordPress websites.
WordPress is open-source software, meaning it’s free to download and use. However, creating and uploading your WordPress website requires the purchase of a custom domain and hosting.
Another benefit of WordPress is that the platform offers thousands of professional themes, and you can install virtually any feature via thousands of plugins. Most plugins are free (premium plugins are available for specialized uses), and WordPress themes generally range from $15 to $60+.
Pros:
- SEO-friendly features
- Mobile-friendly features
- User-friendly
- Blogging functionality (WordPress software was created for blogging)
- Ecommerce functionality
Cons:
- WordPress is user-friendly, but it can be challenging to learn and manage if you’re new to the platform.
Wix (3.8+ Million Live Websites)
Wix is another all-in-one website builder designed for the complete newbie. It’s also fully hosted, and Wix manages all the technical details.Wix offers a free, limited plan. Premium upgrades are included in paid packages, which start at $13 – $39 a month for basic websites and $23 – $500+ a month for business and eCommerce websites.
Wix is best suited for solo-entrepreneurs or small businesses of any type; however, its eCommerce and blogging capabilities are lacking compared to those of Shopify and WordPress. Similar to Squarespace, it’s limited if you want to customize your website heavily. Customizing may require the assistance of a developer.
Wix’s SEO features have been lacking in recent years, but the popular CMS platform has improved. For small businesses, this is not a problem, but medium-to-large companies will find better results on a more robust platform.
Pros:
- SEO-friendly features (better in recent years)
- Mobile-friendly features
- User-friendly
- Blogging functionality (not as robust as WordPress)
- eCommerce functionality (not as robust as Shopify)
Cons:
- Cost – there’s a monthly fee to use the platform; however, Wix offers a free, limited plan
- Features and customization are somewhat limited for more established businesses
Squarespace (2.2+ Million Live Websites)
- Percentage of websites in the top 1,000,000: 1.44%
- Sites using Squarespace: Southern Methodist University, BiblioCommons, Skyscanner
Squarespace is a drag-and-drop website-building platform that doesn’t require installation on your hosting server since it’s not open source. Similar to Wix, Squarespace has hosting, SSL certificates, support, and other features built into the platform. All of these are included in the fee pricing, ranging from $12 to $40 a month.
Squarespace is known for its clean, modern templates. Its aesthetic leans toward simple and elegant, and the templates include a lot of white space.
Joomla(1.5+ Million Live Websites)
- Percentage of websites in the top 1,000,000: 1.69%
- Sites using Joomla!: SendPulse, iTWire, UK National Crime Agency
Even though Joomla! is among the most popular CMS platforms, it’s still far from the leader, WordPress, which is way out in front in terms of market share.
That said, Joomla! is a viable CMS for many types of websites. It’s free and open source like WordPress, and will also require the purchase of a custom domain and hosting to set up. One-click install is available with most hosting providers.
Similar to WordPress plugins, Joomla! offers extensions that allow you to customize your website’s features.
Pros:
- SEO-friendly features
- Mobile-friendly features
- Blogging functionality
- eCommerce functionality
Cons:
- Not very user-friendly for newbies
Shopify (1.4+ Million Live Websites)
- Percentage of websites in the top 1,000,000: 3.74%
- Sites using Shopify: Penguin Books, Fashion Nova, SkyMall
Shopify is an industry leader in the eCommerce space. In contrast to the first four popular CMS platforms, Shopify is SaaS (software as a service). You pay the platform a fee (from $29 to $299 a month) to manage your store’s technical details such as hosting, security, SSL certification, other functions you need to operate your store.
Progress Sitefinity (1.4+ Million Live Websites)
- Percentage of websites in the top 1,000,000: 0,26%
- Sites using Progress Sitefinity: PepsiCo, NYC Department of Education, The TJX Companies
Progress’s Sitefinity is one of the many products this company has to help companies with digitalization. Sitefinity has a quote-based pricing structure so they can offer a perfect match for your needs. You can try out their platform by either downloading the trial version or setting up an online sandbox. The first is recommended for developers, whereas the second option is easy for regular users
GoDaddy Website Builder (1.2+ Million Live Websites).
- Sites using Progress GoDaddy Website Builder: National Blue Beret, Norwegian Air, KVGC Radio
GoDaddy Website Builder is a beginner-friendly platform when you don’t have the time or resources to develop a fully custom website. The pricing starts from $10/month with a yearly payment. If you want an eCommerce viable option, then the costs start from $25/month.
Weebly (935+ Thousand Live Websites).
- Percentage of websites in the top 1,000,000: 0,29%
- Sites using Progress Weebly: City of Johnstown, Chicago Public Schools, Northwestern Medical Group
Weebly was launched over a decade ago and was fairly recently acquired by Square, Inc. They offer a free limited version for basic websites and you get online store features with the free plan as well. The paid plans start from $6/month with annual payments and the more feature-packed eCommerce solutions start from $12/month.
Drupal (562+ Thousand Live Websites).
- Percentage of websites in the top 1,000,000: 2.87%
- Sites using Drupal: Council on Foreign Relations, Harvard University
Like WordPress and Joomla!, Drupal is free, open-source software that will require a custom domain purchase and installation on your hosting server. The software also offers themes and modules that allow you to customize your website’s features and functionalities.
Why choose Drupal over WordPress? While WordPress is easier to use, Drupal is a powerhouse that focuses on complex social publishing community sites that are content-heavy and house large databases.
Blogger (459+ Thousand Live Websites)
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- Percentage of websites in the top 1,000,000: 1.19%
- Sites using Blogger: Planet Mozilla, NewsNow Tech Blog
Blogger is a free blogging platform owned by Google. Google hosts these blogs, so your domain name will include the blogspot.com subdomain. You also have the option of setting up hosting and redirecting your Blogger domain to a custom domain of your choosing.
Here’s a summary of the most popular CMS platforms:
- WordPress (free, open-source)
- Wix (free to paid all-inclusive solution)
- Squarespace (paid all-inclusive solution)
- Joomla! (free, open-source)
- Shopify (paid all-inclusive eCommerce solution)
- Progress Sitefinity (paid all-inclusive solution)
- GoDaddy Website Builder (paid all-inclusive solution)
- Weebly (free to paid all-inclusive solution)
- Drupal (free, open-source)
- Blogger (free blogging platform)