Best Web Content Management Software
Web content management (WCM) systems allow users to create, edit, and publish digital content such as text, embedded audio and video files, and interactive graphics for websites. For users that do not have coding skills, these systems make the process of uploading and writing content simple by offering theme-oriented templates for unique design. WCM systems are generally used in collaborative scenarios where multiple team members can monitor and manage web content. WCM solutions are most frequently used by digital marketing and creative teams. WCM systems can be plugged into third-party hosting platforms that provide more complete website management functionality. Some of the best web content management software can integrate with marketing software, third-party CMS tools, or content analytics software. Others may provide functionality for digital asset management and web design. They share features with enterprise content management (ECM), digital experience platforms (DXP), and e-commerce platforms.
To qualify for inclusion in the Web Content Management category, a product must:
Best Web Content Management Software At A Glance
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Content Hub provides tools to create, manage, and personalize content across the entire customer journey, addressing the modern challenge of producing high-volume, multi-channel, personalized content
HubSpot Content Hub is a platform that centralizes content creation, management, and optimization, integrating with other HubSpot tools for a streamlined workflow. Reviewers appreciate the platform's user-friendly design, built-in SEO guidance, personalization options, and performance analytics, which simplify content creation and tracking. Users experienced issues with the platform's high pricing for advanced features, limited customization options, and a steep learning curve for beginners.
786,179 Twitter followers
Webflow is the AI-native Website Experience Platform that empowers teams to build, manage, and optimize visually stunning websites and web apps with the speed, security, and scalability today’s leadin
Webflow is a visual website builder that allows users to design, build, and manage complex websites without heavy reliance on coding. Users like Webflow's user-friendly interface, flexibility, customization options, and the ability to add custom code for additional functionality, enhancing the overall workflow and efficiency of designing complex pages. Reviewers experienced performance issues with Webflow, particularly on larger projects, including frequent loading problems, lagging, and slow responsiveness, and found the platform's navigation difficult to manage as projects scale.
1 Twitter followers
Umbraco is a leading open-source .NET Core CMS with over 700,000 active installs worldwide and a vibrant community of over 220,000 members. Since its inception on February 16, 2005, Umbraco has remain
3,526 Twitter followers
WordPress.org is the official platform offering the free, open-source WordPress software, enabling users to create and manage websites on their own web servers. This self-hosted solution provides comp
612,204 Twitter followers
Wix Studio is the website building platform for professional designers, developers, and marketers. With high-end design capabilities, streamlined workflows, and robust business tools, it empowers f
Wix Studio is a platform that allows users to create and design websites with various features and integrations. Users like the flexibility of Wix Studio, its user-friendly interface, the variety of design options, and the ability to create shoppable sites, as well as the support for custom code and integrations. Reviewers experienced issues with customer service, high fees, limited website themes, difficulties with initial setup, and limitations in features such as font size adjustment for different platforms, migration from regular Wix build to Wix Studio, and effective addition of custom HTML, CSS, and JavaScript code.
389,311 Twitter followers
Built on an AI-powered foundation, Adobe Experience Manager is a comprehensive suite of composable content services that empowers your team to create and deliver the right across websites, mobile apps
957,057 Twitter followers
Duda is the leading website development platform empowering digital marketing agencies and SaaS companies to build and manage their customers' digital presence. Duda’s award-winning low-code no-code p
Duda is a platform designed for building websites, offering features such as design tools, project management, and regular updates. Reviewers frequently mention the ease of use, the platform's constant evolution with new features, and the excellent support team that often resolves issues within a day. Reviewers experienced limitations depending on the complexity of a project, difficulties with some advanced customizations, and issues with the platform's AI help bot.
14,034 Twitter followers
The Content Operating System—a fully customizable all-code backend for content-driven websites and apps. Power all your content operations from a single platform with a feature-rich content workspace,
14,775 Twitter followers
Yext (NYSE: YEXT) is the leading local brand visibility platform built for a world where discovery and engagement happen everywhere — across AI and traditional search, social, websites, and direct com
Yext is a platform that allows users to manage their online presence, including business listings, reviews, and social media accounts, across multiple platforms from a single dashboard. Users frequently mention the ease of use, the ability to manage multiple locations, and the convenience of having all business information in one place as major benefits of using Yext. Reviewers mentioned issues with the platform's user interface, difficulties in duplicating posts, high pricing, and a lack of customization options as some of the drawbacks of Yext.
21,865 Twitter followers
Jahia is a content management system (CMS) and digital experience platform (DXP) designed to assist organizations in creating modern websites and portals. This robust solution is particularly well-sui
5,747 Twitter followers
Sitecore is a global leader in AI-enabled digital experience software. Its next-generation platform, SitecoreAI, helps brands plan, create, personalize, and deliver content across every channel — webs
19,516 Twitter followers
Whatever you imagine – whether it’s a global news platform, an ecommerce experience, a learning app, a content hub, or something entirely unique – you can build it with Hygraph. Hygraph is the lead
5,120 Twitter followers
Milestone increases acquisition by enhancing digital experience and content visibility. We do this with a digital experience platform and add to it as much or as little service as you need to help yo
63 Twitter followers
Storyblok is a headless CMS that enables marketers and developers to create with joy and succeed in the AI-driven content era. It empowers you to deliver structured and consistent content everywhere:
9,249 Twitter followers
Pantheon is the website operations (WebOps) platform top developers, marketers, and IT use to build, launch and run their Drupal, WordPress and NextJS websites. Pantheon includes all of the tools p
22,599 Twitter followers
Learn More About Web Content Management Software
What is Web Content Management Software?
Web content management tools exist to organize, store, distribute, and protect content that users intend to publish on the web. Types of content include, but are not limited to, text documents, photos, videos, web graphics and animations, and more.
The platforms provide users a repository that can assist in brand development and content curation for diverse organizations. Whether it’s a blog, an online store, personal portfolio, or website for a political campaign, WCM tools can help prepare and organize content for exposure.
In many cases, WCM tools offer an assortment of templated web pages, from which site administrators can browse and choose. This assists organizations that wish to have a respectable web presence but lack the ability to create code in a professional capacity. Some WCM solutions offer drag-and-drop features that make websites more customizable, while others have more limitations. Some even make room for HTML-savvy employees to input their knowledge to customize websites that match their unique vision.
Web content management tools provide both a back end and a front end to operations. The back end is where administrators log in to edit pages, update content, and access communications that may have been submitted through comment boxes or other forms. This is where settings and features can be adjusted, depending on an organization’s subscription level. The front end of a WCM tool is the website itself. It’s the homepage that users land on, the contact page where visitors get in touch with the organization, or the team page where users learn who is behind the magic.
Many web content management tools are geared toward users with a marketing mind. The goal of most any website or organization is to grow a large, loyal usership or customer base. WCM tools can help with these efforts by providing tools for A/B testing, lead generation, and automation of content release.
A key difference between web content management tools and other CMS platforms (business content management, enterprise content management) is that WCM tools can both prepare and publish content. Business and enterprise content management tools assist with content creation, distribution, and storage, but provide no option to publish. Their usage is more limited to internal efforts. An organization might use an ECM tool to store company reports and HR paperwork, but utilize a WCM tool to update its public blog.
Why Use Web Content Management Software?
Web content management tools are unique in their ability to create front-facing websites for an organization to attract current or potential clientele. Some need no code with their templates and drag-and-drop features, or they can allow for the input of HTML. The features that define the difference between WCM tools and website builders are the back-end, admin-facing capabilities. WCM tools can be helpful for marketing teams, lead generation for sales, data storage, and file organization by putting all of these functionalities in one place.
Web content management systems can be used to solve a variety of problems frequently encountered by digital marketers. In their reviews, users reported establishing a blog presence, increasing web traffic, and designing and administering digital content without coding knowledge as three of the most significant business problems solved with web content management solutions.
WCM tools can be used to increase impact within a company’s marketing efforts. Web content management software can allow for the creation of landing pages and analyze visitor traffic and data for specific marketing campaigns. Administrators can automate content publication and integrate the WCM tool with existing emails to simplify email marketing campaigns.
Blogs have become an increasingly popular way to share content. Free from the confines of a main web page, blogs allow for a greater level of creativity and provide a new platform to connect with a target audience.
Web content management tools greatly assist in the creation of a quality blog––this is mainly due to ease of content customization and the scalability features these solutions provide. Working alongside CMS tools, web content management software allows users to easily edit and manipulate digital aspects of a blog, giving multiple admins complete control over content and overall appearance. With autonomous blog power, fresh content with strategic SEO practices helps establish a credible platform, leading to higher-quality material and more page visits.
Increasing web traffic is a top priority for many businesses. Web content management systems, coupled with CMS tools and specialized plugins, offer features that help boost SEO and create a stronger community around content using social media.
Social media plugins help weave all forms of content together. Websites or blogs managed by a web content management system can be automatically generated into RSS feeds that not only allow for greater content cohesion, but can increase the number of subscribers and readers to a site.
A common limiting factor for website and blog designers is lack of HTML or basic coding knowledge. Web content management systems help mitigate this problem with WYSIWYG editors and other tools specifically designed for non-coders.
WCM tools with drag-and-drop functionality enable better ease of use and allow for greater customization with fewer pain points. Automated templates provided by WCM software provide users with a central hub for all types of content, allowing for consistency and brand establishment across all channels.
Who Uses Web Content Management Software?
Web content management (WCM) systems allow users with limited knowledge of web programming languages to create, edit, and publish digital content such as text, embedded audio and video files, and interactive graphics for websites.
Web content management software can be useful for any individual or company looking to create a website or blog painlessly. The goal of any web content management tool is to ensure users can easily create and publish content, even users without design or coding experience. Part of what makes web content management solutions so popular is their incredible ease of use.
These systems are typically utilized by creative teams, digital marketers, and web developers, making the process of uploading and writing content simple. However, companies with content creators in multiple departments will often have access to a WCM to guarantee an efficient workflow.
Web Content Management Software Features
Web content management products can vary widely, but all of them have approximately the same base features at their core. These are features you can expect in most, if not all, web content management systems.
Content Authoring – Drafting and publishing content is intuitive and non-technical.
Rich Text Editor – Formatting content is straightforward and painless.
Versioning – Keep track of incrementally changing versions of the same content.
Plugins/Widgets/Apps – Available gadgets and modules suit the needs of your site and are easily incorporated onto the page.
Approval Process – Can easily institute an approval routing process between authors and editors.
Content Scheduling – Easily schedule content to be published at a certain time and in a certain order.
Asset Management – System allows the storage and management of rich media files.
Internal Search – Able to search your content based on keyword, metadata, tags, etc.
Content Repository – Content—both published and yet-to-be published—can be intuitively managed, edited, tagged, approved, and stored.
Additional Web Content Management Software Features
Plenty of web content management products have started offering additional features aside from the typical functionality expected. There is plenty of variation within WCM products, and these are examples of a few of the features we have seen offered by some.
Prebuilt Templates – The software provides a wide breadth of free or purchasable site templates that are attractive and suited to your web pages' needs.
Mobile Templates – Effective mobile templates are available and easily customizable.
Branding/Themes – Consistent design elements across sites (including personalized brand components) unites web pages into a coherent online presence.
Customization – The visual appearance of web pages can be easily customized to fit your site’s needs.
User Community – The system has a large and interactive community of users.
SEO – Pagination, page headers and titles, meta tags, and URL structure all contribute to site SEO.
Flexible Navigation Structures – Users are able to build out different and multiple taxonomies to store and index content.
User Access and Permissions – The ability to grant access to select data, features, objects, etc., is based on the users, user role, groups, etc.
Internationalization – Enables users to view and interact with the same content in multiple languages.
Dashboard and Reports – Access pre-built and custom reports and dashboards.
Application Programming Interface (API)/Integrations – This specifies how the application communicates with other software. APIs typically enable integration of data, logic, objects, etc., with other software applications.
Enterprise Scalability – Provides features to allow scaling for large organizations or an expansive web presence.
Potential Issues with Web Content Management Software
The resources required to effectively maintain a digital brand aren’t cheap. Open-source implementations have the added cost of developer resources, which can be fulfilled in house or through contracted services. Even proprietary vendors with customer support often still require substantial resources to configure and troubleshoot the system. This cost persists for sites that need continual customization or recur when a firm decides to upgrade software versions.
