The 7 most popular CMS systems at the moment

Craft CMS

Flexible and extendable
Craft offers a high degree of flexibility and customization - ideal for developers or organizations with specific needs. The CMS is intuitive and user-friendly, making the work of content managers easier. Craft supports multilingual sites out of the box, making it suitable for international websites. Moreover, Craft can be used headless, allowing for good integration with modern frontend frameworks.

Costs and customization
Craft CMS is not free: the licensing model can be more expensive than some other CMS options. Although the interface is user-friendly and there is a lot possible with existing plugins for Craft, any customization may require additional development time.

Unique features
Craft CMS stands out for its flexibility, robust content management capabilities, and support for both multilingualism and headless implementations. Ideal for developers and designers who need tailor-made solutions.

Strapi

Headless, open source
Strapi is a headless CMS, which means you can manage the frontend and backend independently and use different frontend frameworks. The CMS is very flexible and customizable via APIs, which is ideal for developers. Because Strapi is open-source software, it is free to use and modify.

Technical learning curve
Setting up and customizing Strapi requires more technical knowledge than traditional CMSs like WordPress. Although growing, the community is not yet as large as that of some other CMSs.

Ideal CMS for developers
Strapi is perfect for developers looking for a flexible, API-based solution that allows them to integrate various front-end technologies.

WordPress

Easy to use, large community
WordPress is easy to use, even for beginners. That's why it is so well-known. The interface is intuitive and requires little technical knowledge. With thousands of themes and plugins, you can add almost any functionality you need. Due to the vast user base, there is a lot of support available, from forums to extensive documentation.

Target for hackers, poor performance
Because of its popularity, WordPress is also well-known among hackers: with many users, it is an attractive target. Regular updates and security plugins are necessary to address this. Additionally, websites can become slow if many plugins are installed or if the site is not well-optimized.

What does WordPress excel at?
Especially in its ease of use and flexibility. It is ideal for bloggers, small businesses, and even larger enterprises that want a versatile website without in-depth technical knowledge.

Contentful

Scalable content distribution
Contentful is also a headless CMS - ideal for content distribution across multiple channels. It is scalable and can handle large amounts of content and traffic. Contentful offers numerous integration possibilities with other tools and services.

Price and learning curve
Contentful can be very expensive, especially for larger organizations with a lot of content. Additionally, there is a reasonable learning curve, especially for users without a technical background.

Multi-channel
Contentful stands out due to its strong focus on multi-channel content distribution and scalability, ideal for large enterprises and content-intensive organizations.

Joomla!

Internationally deployable, easily expandable
Joomla! offers extensive possibilities for users who want more advanced functionalities than WordPress. Multilingual management is built-in, which is ideal for international websites.

Just like with WordPress, there are many extensions and templates available for Joomla!.

Learning curve, limited community
The CMS has a steeper learning curve compared to WordPress, which can be a challenge for beginners. Although there is a community, the support is not as extensive as with WordPress.

How does Joomla! distinguish itself?
Joomla! is particularly strong in managing multilingual websites and offers more advanced content management capabilities. It is a good choice for medium to large websites that need more advanced functionalities.

Directus

Directus is an open-source, database-first CMS that runs directly on your existing database. It works completely headless and API-driven and has a modern, user-friendly interface. However, the implementation requires technical knowledge, and the community is smaller than that of larger players like WordPress or Drupal. What is unique about Directus is that you don't have to adjust your existing data model: you can start working with it right away.

Advantages:

• Open-source and database-first: works directly on top of your existing database.
• Completely headless and API-driven.
• Beautiful, user-friendly interface.

Disadvantages:

• Requires technical knowledge for implementation.
• Smaller community than WordPress or Drupal.

Prepr

Prepr is a headless CMS that includes personalization and recommendation features by default. It operates API-first, making it suitable for multichannel content distribution. Because it is fully cloud-based, it can easily scale with the needs of an organization.

On the other hand, the SaaS model brings recurring costs and Prepr is less known than larger players, resulting in a smaller community.

What makes Prepr special is that it combines CMS functionality with personalization and marketing capabilities, making it particularly appealing to content and marketing teams that want to work data-driven.

Advantages:

• Headless CMS with built-in personalization and recommendation features.
• API-first, suitable for omnichannel content.
• Cloud-based and scalable.

Disadvantages:

• SaaS model means recurring costs.
• Less known than larger players, so smaller community.

Unique features:

Combines CMS functionality with personalization and marketing features, which makes it interesting for content and marketing teams that want to work data-driven.

Choosing the right CMS, how?

The choice of a CMS largely depends on your specific needs and technical skills. WordPress offers versatility and simplicity, Craft CMS provides customization for developers and supports multilingualism and headless implementations, Strapi and Directus offer flexible headless solutions, Contentful and Prepr are ideal for scalable content distribution, and Joomla! offers powerful multilingual and advanced functionalities. Each of these CMSs has its own strengths that set it apart from the rest.

Curious which CMS suits you best? We would be happy to take you on a CMS safari to find out.