What is a content management system (CMS)?

Wikipedia has all the answers: “A content management system (CMS) is a computer application
that allows publishing, editing and modifying content, organizing, deleting as well as
maintenance from a central interface.” For websites, a CMS is a software package that runs on
the web server and has two essential functions:

• A back-end, password-protected area that allows the user to create, edit, and manage
content that shows up on the website.
• A pretty, nicely designed front end that displays that content.

A properly implemented CMS should save the website owner time and effort by simplifying
the website update process, and it should save web developer time by not requiring specialized
knowledge to update the website once everything is set up. This combination immediately
impacts your bottom line by saving you money through reduced ongoing development costs
while making you money through improved speed-to-market for outreach and marketing efforts.

While there are many systems available – some for a price and some free (open-source) – we at
Relish Studio like to use the free ones, such as WordPress or Drupal.

Got it. Now list some benefits of a content management system.

Unless you like to do things the hard way, a content management system will offer the following
(not an inclusive list):

• It’s free software. It may not be free to pay a developer to set up, but there are no license
fees or costs to purchase the software.
• It provides a word processor-like interface to create and edit content that goes on your
website.
• A CMS allows you to easily upload images to your website and insert those images into
content you create. (It also works for documents!)
• It provides a menu system so you can create a navigation for your website and easily add
pages to your sitemap.
• A CMS builds your pages using templates: once a design is implemented in a CMS,
common elements like the header and footer of all the web pages are defined in one spot.
Need to change your company logo? Just update the header template file.
• It includes loads of useful plugins: Many platforms have a whole ecosystem of plugins
that extend the functionality of your website. Need to add a photo gallery? There’s a
plugin for that. Need SEO tools? There’s a plugin for that. Need to pull in a gallery of cat
photos from your Instagram feed? Yup, there’s even a plugin for that.

The main selling point of a CMS is that is comes with a lot of functionality out-of-the-box.
Paying a web developer to create a custom CMS would cost a lot of money and, most likely, not
offer all the benefits you could get using one of available open-source options.

Aren’t content management systems a security risk? Doesn’t WordPress get hacked a lot?

I’d be a liar if I said that content management systems were 100% secure. Truth be told, nothing
is completely secure. “Absolute security is a myth” is one of the most often repeated phrases in
security circles. That said, a properly maintained content management system is as secure as
most other online systems. Maybe not as bulletproof as VISA’s computer network, but certainly
secure enough that millions of websites feel comfortable using them (about 75 million websites
use WordPress, for example).

The beauty of an open-source CMS such as WordPress is that it wasn’t built and vetted by just
one web developer – thousands of web developers and users contribute to the function and
security of the system. Security updates and bug fixes are frequent and it doesn’t take a web
developer to apply them since it’s often a task completed by simply clicking a few buttons. If
you keep your CMS up-to-date and practice basic security procedures (e.g. have strong
passwords), a CMS can be very secure.

You’re a web developer. Would you use a CMS for your own project?

Yes. Yes I would. Any sane person would want to minimize the amount of effort to get work
done. Smart web developers don’t reinvent the wheel and have no issues using solutions that are
available and have been tested to work. For instance, this website is built in WordPress; creating
this blog post is akin to writing a new Word document. In my younger years, I would have
scoffed at using a CMS unless I built it myself (while failing to see the irony that I was using a
computer operating system and tons of other software I didn’t make myself). The older I got, the
more I realized that there are a lot of very, very smart people building wonderful things that I am
free to use to make my life as a web developer and web publisher easier. Open-source content
management systems are one of those wonderful things. Does a CMS solve all problems? Nope.
But it sure makes a lot of things easier to manage.
CMS vs HTML: Why Use a Content Management System?

The prospect of launching a website still feels incredibly exhilarating — even for those who have
already launched numerous websites in the past.

But if you’re new to the game, you may have conducted some research and found that some web
developers prefer to code websites in HTML, while others prefer to use something called a CMS
(Content Management System).

Confused? We don’t blame you, which is why we’ve put this guide together to help you
understand the difference.

What is HTML?

HTML stands for HyperText Markup Language. It is a markup language used by website
creators to develop and design web pages. It is definitely not the only language used by
webmasters. There is XML (Extensive Markup Language), GML (Generalized Markup
Language) and LaTex, just to name a few — but HTML is the most common.

Without HTML, we would have web pages that would look no less interesting than a page of
unformatted text. HTML allows us to add style to text, insert and format images, embed video,
customize fonts, add color, and a whole lot more.

What is a Content Management System (CMS)?

CMS stands for Content Management System, which is essentially software that helps you to
build a website. It may provide you with templates, and it will definitely give you a way to create
and manage digital content — most often through a user-friendly WYSWYG editor which is
similar to using Microsoft Word.
Common CMS’ include Tumblr, WordPress, Joomla, Wix, and Drupal.

On the more advanced side of the spectrum, you’ll find ECM (Enterprise Content Management),
which does everything a web CMS does, and then some. It supplements a typical web CMS
features by facilitating collaboration in the workplace by integrating digital asset
management, eCommerce, and document management into the mix. Going a step further, you’ll
notice how most ECMs are becoming DXPs (Digital Experience Platforms), which help brands
personalize content, deliver content to IoT devices, and much more.

CMS vs HTML: What is the difference?

It is important to note that almost every website is made with using HTML and CSS (Cascading
Style Sheets) coding language. The question is, was it coded from scratch, or is the web page
using a CMS to piece the page together more easily?

You see, with a CMS, you can often use pre-built templates to launch web pages more quickly.
You can then customize those templates to make them your own. This is obviously a lot faster
than coding something from scratch, and is especially useful if you have no coding knowledge.

But besides that, there are some significant differences between HTML-only websites and CMS-
powered websites.

1. Website management

If you decide to create a website that only has one or two pages that will rarely need updating,
then using HTML might be ideal.

However, for more businesses, a broader, more dynamic website is needed. A CMS solution is a
better option if you’re creating a large website with multiple pages, or if you plan to make
changes or additions to your website down the line. That’s because a CMS will make it easier to
do things like edit existing pages, publish new pages, add an online store, create web forms, and
so forth.

2. Time to market

One notable reason why many businesses tend to opt for a CMS platform is that it accelerates the
production of a website or websites. Most CMS platforms come with a host of pre-built themes.
But the main setback to using these pre-built themes is that your website won’t stand out or come
across as unique. So you would need some knowledge of HTML or CSS to customize the design.

For HTML-only websites, you need to design, code and setup your website from scratch. And in
terms of cost, setting up an HTML-only site can get expensive, especially if you’re going to hire
outside help to program your website.

3. Customization

Besides overhauling the design of a theme on a CMS, making changes to a static page (or any
other type of page), whether it is changing a photo or adjusting the text, is pretty much painless,
thanks to its frontend user interface. Whereas, on an HTML website, design changes are more
difficult. You have to change all the pages one by one manually, and you also have to edit the
site’s CSS to make the necessary adjustments.

4. Multi-user support

If you tend to create a large website with multiple services, features, and a blog, then a CMS is
perfect since most CMS solutions give you multi-user support. With a CMS, user accounts can
easily be created, and you can assign a role (i.e. admin, contributor etc.) to each user. It is
particularly useful to have this feature if you’re regularly updating product pages and publish
blog articles on your site.

5. Previews and testing

The beauty of having a CMS is that you can preview your website with the click of a button, so
you can make any changes that you see fit. This is much harder when you’re building an HTML-
only website.

In many cases, you would have to copy and paste your HTML coding onto a plain text file, save
it, close it and then open it with your browser so you can preview your site. This is a bit long-
winded, and if you do spot an error, it is much harder for you to correct as you will have to comb
through your coding to seek out the anomaly that is causing the issue.