CMS comparison, the complete guide to create your website

1. How to compare CMS ?

As you know, there are many platforms on which you can create your showcase or e-commerce website! We have compared them for you.

These platforms are called in the jargon of "CMS" for Content Management System.

Thanks to a CMS, the creation of a website has become very simple and does not necessarily require technical skills.

But before choosing your CMS with our detailed comparison of CMS, here are the basic functionalities that your CMS must allow you to perform.

Create a design easily

All CMS offer templates that you can customize to create a website that reflects your image.

Some CMS also allow you to precisely modify the page model: add a text block, quote or image for example.

Write articles and create pages easily

When you compare your future CMS, don't forget to choose the tool that seems easiest to use.

Indeed, to write articles and create website pages, most CMS offer a relatively functional word processing module.

This is the case, for example, of CMS where you can use the "drag and drop" function to move the elements of a page.

An evolving website

Whatever your ambitions and projects for your company, it is necessary to understand that your CMS must adapt to your needs!

To do this, you can install what are called plugins or modules. They allow you to add features to your website. For example, on a showcase website you can add a calendar module so that your customers can make appointments with you directly.

So make sure you choose a CMS that offers you such possibilities to develop your business!

An efficient website

What could be more annoying and completely counterproductive than a website that takes a long time to load?

For that, don't forget to evaluate the performance criteria of your CMS! A CMS that has few features natively and therefore uses a lot of plugins will take longer to load...

Beware of this! This is a very bad point for your natural referencing and especially for the user experience.

The question of price

Obviously, not all CMS are accessible to all. Some will be free but their additional functionalities will come at a cost... Others will be paid for but will include a high level of maintenance.

Finally, be sure to consider the additional costs of installing the CMS: hosting, maintenance and domain name registration (the address of your website).

In any case, you can keep an eye on the preferred payment method: should you pay the entire cost of the website in one go or is the subscription monthly?

You can also find some information about the price of a website.

To help you choose the CMS for your website, here is our comparison which highlights for each CMS :

• its interesting features
• its advantages and disadvantages
• its price

2. Wagtail

Wagtail is a CMS that exists since 2015 based on a Django framework. It has been designed to be simple, ergonomic and especially its back office is accessible for a ordinary individual.

This CMS evolves very quickly and each update allows to take advantage of new features.

With Wagtail, it is easy to add new stones to a website: and for good reason, it is designed to be extensible and this is one of its greatest strengths.

If you decide to create your website with Wagtail, it is obvious that you will need to be accompanied by a web design agency. Indeed, Wagtail requires some knowledge to be installed and configured. Once this is done, the back-office is very easy to use!

In our opinion, Wagtail is the best CMS for creating a website that meets the criteria of performance and security! That's why we use it with our clients.

✅ The advantages of Wagtail CMS:

• The interface is very light: websites are only faster!
• It integrates a powerful and open source search engine (Eslasticsearch).
• Wagtail embeds a web editor very easy to use and with an accessible interface.
• Pages can be fully articulated and modified by the back-office user in the blink of an eye.
• It is possible to build almost any kind of website by adding new bricks without increasing the weight of the website.
• Possibility of integrating features: payment ticket, CRM, event management system...
• A/B testing functionality to optimize websites.

❌ Disadvantages of Wagtail CMS:

• A beginner will not be able to take advantage of all its features or in any case will need to be accompanied.
• To learn more about this CMS, check out our dedicated page on our Wagtail CMS presentation.

3. WordPress

WordPress is the most widespread CMS: and for good reason, it was able to respond to the blogging craze more than fifteen years ago.

Today, it is estimated that more than 40% of websites use this open-source CMS: blogs, showcase sites or e-commerce websites.

Its great advantage compared to other CMS? Its ease of use, regardless of the user's technical background.

It is very easy to install and especially, thanks to its large community, many templates exist and are ready to use to meet the needs of people who want to create a website.

In fact, the tool is often preferred to create a blog or a showcase website!

✅ Advantages of Wordpress CMS:

• With WordPress, it is easy to create showcase or e-commerce websites by adding additional plugins.
• The back-office is relatively simple to handle which makes it accessible to all: it is probably the most famous CMS of all.
• There are many WordPress themes (templates) available for free download on the web or for a fee.
• It is possible to come and implement new features on WordPress with the many modules and plugins that are released every day by the WordPress developer community.

❌ The disadvantages of the WordPress CMS:

• A known and recognized CMS can be subject to attacks and hacking attempts. Quite often, it is the un-updated plugins or themes that will infest your website. It is therefore necessary to ensure that they are updated and provide backups of your database.
• To put the website online (choice of hosting, purchase of domain name), it will be necessary to provide support for beginners.
• Wordpress sites are not known for their speed: this is often lacking on this CMS especially in the case of websites that use Builders (Divi for example).

💰The price of WordPress CMS:

The installation of the WordPress CMS is free. If you choose a free theme, it will not cost you anything.

However, if you choose a paid theme, the price can be double: from less than 50€ to more than 500€.

You will also have to consider the purchase of a domain name and hosting. For information, this can cost between 10 and 200€ per year.

4. Joomla

Joomla is another popular CMS platform that works with templates or add-ons.

Joomla is quite easy to install and configure.

This CMS does not require advanced technical skills, however it is an ideal platform for developers or web designers.

Indeed, native options can be interesting to set up when you have a technical background (customization of rights, multi-site management ...)

✅ Advantages of the Joomla CMS:

• Joomla is a plural CMS: accessible to beginners but also quite powerful and interesting when you master its language to build a custom website.
• The interface and the handling of the users is easy to create, modify and delete pages.
• The user management is very advanced to control access to the back office and give permissions to team members.
• You can create a multilingual website very easily without the need for an add-on.

❌ The disadvantages of Joomla CMS:

• Joomla being a lesser used CMS in general, there is a smaller community to offer themes or extensions compared to a CMS like Wordpress.
• It will be more difficult to create a more complex website with Joomla: risks of slowness.

💰The price of Joomla CMS:

The Joomla platform is free but you will have to equip yourself with a hosting space and a domain name. You can also use paid plugins.

Reminder: it can cost you on average between 50 and 200€ per year.

5. Drupal

Drupal is also an open source CMS written in PHP. It is the third content management system used in the world (behind WordPress and Joomla).

Drupal is distinguished by its power compared to WordPress and Joomla!

It is often used by web agencies or developers when developing a complex or custom project. Moreover, Drupal is based on a complete Framework, which makes the quality of its APIs and its coding conventions very accessible for a developer.

Obviously, this implies surrounding yourself with professionals to take advantage of all the qualities of Drupal.

✅ Drupal CMS advantages:

• Drupal is a powerful tool for all website creation needs.
• This CMS is also very modular: many themes and plugins allow you to evolve a website project.
• Drupal is also secure because many updates are offered.
• It is possible to get help from the Drupal community if you have any questions.

❌ Disadvantages of Drupal CMS:

• Drupal is still a CMS that is more for developers in any case to install it and modify the appearance of the website.
• Moreover, most websites that run on Drupal use themes that are quite expensive to purchase.
• If you need a CMS for a blog, Drupal is surely not adapted: its heaviness will be a brake for the development of your website.

💰 The price of Drupal CMS:

The cost of a website developed on Drupal will depend on your project: showcase website or blog. You will most likely have to call upon a developer or a web design agency to help you anyway.

So count their intervention and the cost of hosting and domain name (between 50 and 200€ per year on average).

👉 Learn more : How to estimate the cost of creating a showcase site?

6. CMS comparison for an e-commerce website

6.1 Prestashop

Prestashop is a very famous open source CMS for the creation of e-commerce websites. It is a French CMS, often praised for its ease of use.

It allows you to create an online store in a very short time and without spending a fortune. It is a recommended platform to start in e-commerce.

Several features are available on the CMS and for additional features, the catalog of modules is large.

With Prestashop, it is possible to create, set up and launch your store with just a few clicks and most importantly without any programming knowledge.

✅ Advantages of Prestashop:

• A great level of configuration of product sheets.
• There is a large number of Prestashop themes and add-ons to create a custom store.
• The price of Prestashop remains very affordable to launch his store.
• The order and product management interface is easy to adopt.

❌ The disadvantages of Prestashop:

• To choose a theme, you will have to pay.
• To access a satisfactory level of theme customization, you will need to hire a developer.
• The natural referencing tool is not very developed on Prestashop.

💰The price of Prestashop CMS:

As with WordPress for example, you will have to pay for your hosting space and domain name (between 50 and 200€ per year).

Most of the modules and themes are not free: you will have to add this cost!

6.2 Magento

Magento is a powerful open source CMS dedicated to e-commerce websites.

Compared to the previous CMS, Magento is particularly aimed at medium and large companies, or in any case at complex and ambitious projects where different levels of customization are mandatory.

Its interface, although complex, uses the codes of word processing software for the creation of product sheets.

From the interface, you will also find all the information you need to manage your online store:

• sales management
• customer management
• delivery information
• update on the orders in progress

Magento features are numerous and constitute the basics for an e-merchant: manage discount coupons, create customer segments, integrate a catalog in .csv...

✅ Advantages of Magento CMS:

• The level of customization of the CMS is powerful.
• It is possible to manage a large number of products and customers without hindering the speed of page loading.
• It is possible to connect different payment methods (Paypal, bank transfer...).

❌ Disadvantages of Magento CMS:

• Magento remains a technical CMS that requires the assistance of developers or experts to configure your store.
• There are few Magento themes and their cost can be between 50 and over 500€ euros.

💰The price of Magento CMS:

Magento is a self-managed software, it means that you will have to plan the cost of hosting your website. For the hosting of a store, the cost is often higher than a blog or a showcase website. Finally, you will also have to acquire a domain name.

Also count on the intervention of a Magento developer (sought-after and rare profile), a web agency or the purchase of a theme.

6.3 Shopify

Shopify is an all-in-one platform. More than a CMS, it is an e-commerce platform that offers you a hosting space and a domain name.

Thus, you can quite easily create your e-commerce website without involving a web developer. Security and tool updates will be done automatically.

This type of platform is preferred for the launch of an online store. When there are many products, it becomes more complicated to manage and other solutions like Magento or Prestashop are needed.

Shopify works on a monthly basis. A commission is taken from the transactions.

✅ Advantages of Shopify CMS:

• Shopify is very easy to take in hand unlike other CMS proposed in this list: it is accessible to those who have no technical notion.
• There is no need to worry about the cost of hosting or updating the website: everything is included in the subscription.
• All offers also include the creation of a store with products but also the creation of blog articles, the payment module...
• Interesting features can be subscribed: logo creation, pay slip or business card generator...

❌ The disadvantages of the Shopify CMS:

• With this platform, your website does not really belong to us, Shopify remains proprietary.
• Shopify is not suitable for e-commerce stores with a large catalog of products.
• In terms of add-ons: they are quite few unlike other CMS.
• Finally the themes and templates are few: there is a risk that your store looks a bit like all stores unless you customize it (HTML/CSS).

💰The price of Shopify CMS:

There are three monthly packages depending on your needs:

• Basic Shopify ($29/month)
• Shopify ($79/month)
• Advanced Shopify ($299/month)