15 Best and Most Popular CMS Platforms in 2021 (Compared)

Are you wondering what CMS platform to use for building your website?

A CMS (Content Management System) platform lets you easily create a website without understanding any code (at least for most of them). There are lots of CMS options available, which means you might struggle to choose the best CMS for your needs.

In this article, we’ll be explaining why it’s so important to choose the right CMS platform for your website. We’ll also share our top picks for the best CMS platforms along with a comparison.

Best CMS platforms compared

What is a CMS Platform?

A CMS platform (content management system platform) is a piece of software that allows you to easily manage content and create a website.

Normally, web pages are written in HTML, JavaScript, and CSS programming languages. If you were to build a website without a CMS platform, then you would need to learn these languages and write a lot of code.

CMS platforms solve this problem by allowing you to make a website without writing code or learning programming.

Unless of course, you’re looking for a developer-friendly CMS which means you already know how to code.

How to Choose the Best CMS Platform for Your Website?

There are lots of different CMS platforms out there, so which one should you pick? Before you we jump to our CMS platform comparison, here is what you should look for in a good CMS.

Ease of use

You want a CMS that makes it easy for you to create and edit content. This often means having a drag and drop interface, so you can add different elements on your pages.

It should be quick and straightforward for you to make changes to the content on your site after publishing it.

Design options

Your CMS software should offer you plenty of website design templates to choose from. It should also allow you to easily customize those designs to your own requirements (ideally without writing code).

Data portability

A great CMS platform should have tools for you to easily export your data and move it elsewhere.

For instance, you may later decide to choose a different platform or a different hosting company. Data portability makes it easier for you to move around with complete freedom.

Extensions and addons

Not all websites are the same. This is why it is impossible for any CMS platform to come with all the features that would fulfill requirements for every website.

Extensions and addons fix that problem. These are separate software that you can just install on your CMS software to extend its features and add new ones when needed. Think of them as apps for your CMS platform.

-Popular CMS Platforms are

1.Blogger

The Blogger front page

Blogger has been around since 1999. As you can tell from the name, it’s a CMS platform that’s specifically geared up for blogging. It’s a free service provided by Google.

Blogs on Blogger normally have blogspot in the domain, though it’s possible to use your own domain name instead.

We’ve got an article looking at WordPress vs Blogger and a guide on how to switch from Blogger to WordPress.

Pros

Blogger is easy to get started with. You can set up a blog in minutes, and it’s well designed for writing and publishing posts.
There are a number of gadgets that you can add to your blog for free so that you can include things like a contact form and even ads on your blog.
Your blog is hosted by Google. You don’t need to install anything, update anything, or pay for hosting.
Blogger offers a generous amount of space. There’s no limit on how many posts you can have per blog, and you can have up to 20 static pages. Your images are stored in Google Drive, so they’ll count towards your 15GB limit there.

Cons

If you want to run a website that isn’t a blog, Blogger won’t be the best CMS platform for you. It doesn’t have any eCommerce features, for instance.
While all the themes available are free, they’re pretty basic. You can modify them a bit, but you can’t create your own themes. If you want something more specialized, you’d need to hire a designer.
While you can export your posts if you want to switch from Blogger to WordPress, you’ll need to copy your pages over manually.

Pricing

Blogger is completely free and you won’t be charged anything, unless you choose to buy a custom domain name.

If you do buy a domain name, it’s best to get it from a domain registrar, not from Blogger itself. That way, you can more easily move your site away from Blogger in the future.