WordPress, Joomla!, Drupal, and other such content management systems are commonly talked about on the web. In fact, studies indicate that content management systems (CMS) power around 26.3 percent of the web. That percentage should only go up, because CMS is the best way to power a website. The question must then be asked, what is CMS?

CMS allows web designers to set up their clients with a template to which content can be added via an administrative interface. It is used commonly for blogs or shopping carts that contain content which is constantly being updated. With CMS, every page of content (whether that be text, images, video, etc) contains variables which can be changed by the website owner.  This means the site owner doesn’t have to call up his developer just to adjust some text, replace an image, or add a menu item.  The owner can do it himself.

If you’ve ever set up a blog with WordPress, Blogger, TypePad, or the like, you’ve used a content management system. The administration area, where you login to type a new post, is known as the backend to CMS.  The backend is where a user can administer his/her blog.  However, as you may have guessed, CMS doesn’t stop with blogs.  CMS is used for e-commerce, social media, podcasting, and even normal websites!

Most of the best CMS out there are free and open source.  They include WordPress, Joomla!, Drupal, SilverStripe, and many more.  As a web designer, I encourage all my clients to go the route of CMS, because it can help give them the independence to update their site without having to use me as a crutch. Allow me to set you up with a CMS website today!