Looking for the best CMS in 2025?
Here are 12 things to look for and why
User-Friendliness
The CMS should cater to both technical and non-technical staff with an intuitive user interface that simplifies content editing and management. This ease of use is essential for efficient daily operations.
Flexibility and Customizability
It's vital that the CMS can adapt to the specific design and functionality needs of your organization. Support for custom themes, templates, and plugins or extensions can greatly enhance its capabilities, making it a versatile tool for your team.
Scalability
As your organization grows, so too should your CMS. Whether it's managing increasing amounts of content, handling more traffic, or adapting to evolving business needs, the CMS must maintain performance without compromise and scale accordingly.
Security
A robust set of security features is critical to protect your website and its underlying data. Choose a CMS that provides regular security updates, strong user access controls, and comprehensive data backup options to safeguard your assets.
SEO Features
Optimizing content for search engines is a must, and the CMS should facilitate this with built-in SEO tools. These include customizable meta tags, SEO-friendly URL structures, and capabilities for integrating with various SEO plugins and tools.
Support and Community
Access to a supportive network can significantly enhance your CMS experience. This includes not only professional support from the CMS provider but also an active community of users and developers who can offer advice and share solutions.
Cost-Effectiveness
Evaluate the total cost of ownership of the CMS, considering both upfront and ongoing expenses such as licensing fees, hosting, maintenance, and potential costs for additional features or plugins.
Integration Capabilities
The ability to seamlessly integrate with other business tools, such as CRM systems, e-commerce platforms, email marketing software, and analytics tools, is essential for creating a cohesive technology ecosystem.
Content Workflow Management
For teams, especially larger ones, the CMS should support sophisticated content workflows. This includes capabilities for content creation, review, approval, and publishing, along with features like version control, scheduling, and permissions management.
Mobile Optimization
With the increasing prevalence of mobile users, the CMS must support responsive design or have capabilities to manage mobile-specific versions of content, ensuring accessibility and optimal viewing on all devices.
Multilingual Support
For organizations operating in multiple regions, the CMS should accommodate content creation and management in various languages, including support for right-to-left text for languages such as Arabic and Hebrew.
Performance and Speed
The CMS should be optimized for fast loading times, which is crucial for both user experience and SEO. Features like caching, image optimization, and efficient code management can significantly enhance site performance.
For more in-depth insights, download our detailed guide "How to choose your next CMS" and receive four comprehensive checklists to help you build a dynamic and effective website:
Use our four comprehensive checklists to:
Understand the risks of choosing the wrong platform, including technical setbacks, compatibility issues, and wasted resources.
Explore all considerations for choosing the right platform, from user needs and market research to budgeting and digital maturity.
Uncover less-obvious factors that will make a big impact on your decision, such as total cost of ownership, user adoption, vendor support, and future-proofing.
Pinpoint the key functional and technical requirements you need, like those below (and many more).
"Most of our clients come from enterprise CMS platforms. Despite heavy investments in complex solutions, they haven't achieved their marketing goals and find content management slow. Switching to Kentico’s user-friendly technology is a relief for them."
"The fact that I can store all my media, update forms, bullet points, FAQ’s, and more in one place gives me great peace of mind when making real-time updates to the website. The admin hub is well organized and easy to use, and it doesn’t take away from the great user experience on the website."
Download the guide
Discover four checklists, each with commonly considered questions—and the answers to them. Simplify your research process and get closer to making the right decision for your business.