What Is a Content Management System?

A content management system, or CMS, is software that lets you create, organize, publish and update digital content without writing code. Marketing and editorial teams work in an interface while the CMS takes care of structure, permissions and publishing.

This article explains what a CMS is, what it is used for, which features matter, what the types of CMS are and how a CMS differs from a digital experience platform (DXP). In this article, CMS means content management system, not the other uses of the acronym, such as the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services in the United States.

What is a content management system?

A CMS is software that separates content from its presentation. Writers enter text, images and documents. The CMS stores and organizes them, then displays them on a website or portal using page templates defined by technical teams.

CMS stands for content management system. The term web content management, or WCM, is used when the CMS is focused on websites.

What is a CMS used for?

A CMS is used to produce and publish content as a team, in an organized way, without relying on a developer for every change. It covers five uses:

• Create and edit content in a visual editor with structured fields.
• Organize content by section, content type and metadata.
• Control publishing with roles, approval workflows and version history.
• Publish to one or several sites in several languages.
• Reuse the same content across several pages or channels.

The CMS features that matter

Eight features make the difference when you choose a CMS:

• Visual editing and preview: see the page as it will be published before it goes live.
• Permissions and approval: who creates, who reviews, who publishes.
• Multilingual: manage the versions of each page in several languages.
• Multisite: run several sites or brands from the same tool.
• Integrations: connect to existing tools such as a CRM, a database, a search engine or authentication.
• API: deliver content to other applications.
• Security and performance: access management, updates and load handling.
• Accessibility: an editing interface and an output that follow standards such as WCAG.

Types of CMS

Five types of CMS stand out by architecture, license or hosting:

The criteria combine: a CMS can be both hybrid and cloud, for example. To go further, read what a headless CMS is, the benefits of a hybrid CMS, open source CMS or everything you need to know about cloud CMS.

CMS, WCM and ECM: what is the difference?

CMS is the general term. A WCM is a CMS dedicated to websites. ECM, or enterprise content management, covers the management of company documents: storage, archiving, approval workflows and compliance of internal documents and records. A CMS publishes content for an audience. An ECM organizes documents inside the organization.

CMS use cases

A CMS meets a wide range of needs. For example:

• A corporate website where marketing teams publish pages and news.
• A set of multibrand or multicountry sites managed from one tool with shared content.
• A customer or partner portal that presents content to authenticated users.
• An intranet that distributes news and reference documents to employees.
• A multilingual site where every language version follows the same approval workflow.

Where a CMS stops

A CMS covers content: creating it, organizing it, publishing it. To personalize the experience for each visitor, analyze the customer journey and orchestrate several channels, a digital experience platform (DXP) takes over by bringing together the CMS, customer data and integrations.

CMS or DXP: which one to choose?

A CMS is used to publish and govern content. A DXP takes over when you also need to use visitor data and coordinate several channels.

For a detailed comparison, read DXP vs CMS: which is right for you and what is a digital experience platform.

How to choose a CMS

Six criteria help you decide:

1. Governance: roles, approval, traceability.
2. Multilingual and multisite: the number of sites, brands and languages to manage.
3. Integrations: the tools and data to connect.
4. Security: access management and updates.
5. Editor experience: a visual editor that teams adopt.
6. Total cost: license, hosting, operations and evolutions.

To go further, read choosing the best multilingual CMS, 9 questions to ask yourself when choosing a multisite CMS and 10 strategic criteria for choosing the best enterprise CMS.

The CMS with Jahia

Jahia is an enterprise CMS and DXP for multisite, multibrand and multilingual projects. The platform unifies content management, customer data and integrations: the CMS governs content, the DXP personalizes and orchestrates the experience. Jahia helps large organizations create, manage and evolve their websites and portals at scale, with a built-in CDP and hybrid publishing, which combines visual editing and API delivery. To discuss your project, contact us.