How To Choose A Content Management System

With so many content management system (CMS) options out there for small and mid-market companies, how do you choose the right one for your company?

Start with what you like and dislike about your current CMS, the functionality your website needs, and how important search visibility and performance are to your business. At Whittington Consulting, we consider HubSpot and WordPress for website redesigns. The right choice depends on how well each handles your requirements and who will maintain the website after launch.

When we redesign websites, we evaluate which content management system will fit the company’s needs. The purpose of this article is to break down several content management options, considerations for choosing a content management system, associated costs, and what you need to consider from a maintenance perspective.

We know you have a lot of options, so our hope is that this honest assessment will help you evaluate your options and choose the right software for your business.

How To Evaluate Content Management Systems

Before you compare software, take a look at the website you already have. If your company uses a CMS, what do the people working in it like and dislike? That gives you a useful starting point for evaluating a replacement.

We focus on three questions:

• What works well in your current CMS, and what gets in the way?
• What functionality must the website have, and can the CMS handle it elegantly?
• How important are search engine optimization, AI optimization, and website performance?

These are useful questions to ask before your website redesign, while you can still compare options and identify what your new website needs to do.

Our experience is that you can make almost any content management system work for posting digital content for your business, but the "right fit" really depends on how you plan to use your website to generate sales and the level of user-friendliness you'll need during the process of updating your website.

We also are covering content management systems here for small and mid-market companies. If you are considering a platform with more advanced capabilities, ask what development resources and licensing costs it will require. Make sure those costs fit the functionality your business actually needs.

Considerations

Are there any licensing fees?

Open source content management systems like WordPress are available without a licensing fee for the core software.

While there are no licensing fees for open source content management systems, there are costs to take into account. Open source content management system software may be free, but you’ll have to purchase or lease a web server (called “web hosting”), with costs that depend on the hosting service and your website’s requirements. There might also be fees associated with updating or upgrading your software, or adding extensions or plugins if you need specific functionality that the content management system doesn’t offer “out of the box.”

Proprietary content management systems, on the other hand, cost money to use. Some charge monthly fees, while others charge for the license. HubSpot and Webflow, for example, offer paid subscriptions.

Make sure you ask what fees apply to the CMS solution that you're considering. Also ask about hosting costs, installation fees, etc. that might impact the overall cost of your project.

Is editing content easy? Can non-technical staff update and maintain it?

Once you have a new website, you’re going to want to keep it up to date by editing content as your products or services change, and you'll need to add new content like blogs and landing pages for lead generation. As you’re talking to providers, find out how easy it is to do things like add a blog, update text, edit a form, insert an image or upload a document. Also, ask what the process for adding or removing web pages is like.

We recommend asking for a thorough demonstration of a content management system before making your decision. You’ll be able to get a first-hand look at how you will accomplish tasks like adding/removing pages, editing pages and adding images or documents.

Remember: you want to make sure the CMS is user-friendly and intuitive for tech-savvy and non-tech-savvy staff members alike.

In our experience, the key to a user-friendly content management system is the company that sets it up for you. A provider that has experience working with a particular system will have a process for learning about your needs and developing the content management system with those requirements in mind.

Can web analytics be integrated?

No matter which content management system you choose, you should make sure you can have the ability to track key performance metrics. You'll want to check to see how the CMS integrates with analytics tools like Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager, and Google Search Console.

We work with companies that want their websites to generate leads and new business, and so marketing automation and CRM integration becomes critical. Most content management systems can hook into a marketing automation platform or CRM, but some offer turnkey integrations which feed contacts directly into the CRM along with web visit history.

For some companies, measuring phone calls from their website is important. If that's true for you, make sure your content management system will work with call analytics solutions.

How well does the content management system support SEO and AI optimization?

The last thing you want is a CMS that has a negative impact on your search engine optimization efforts.

At a minimum, the content management system should allow you to do the following:

• Create search engine-friendly URLs: For example, those that look like this… www.example.com/page/subpage, not goobledygook like this.... www.example.com/page124xyz_54?id=abc.
• Allows you to secure your website with an SSL certificate (HTTPS browsing)
• Allows you to write unique, appropriate, informative titles and descriptions for pages
• Create redirects for old, unpublished pages
• Render a sitemap file automatically for Google Search Console
• Render a responsive, mobile-friendly website

One often overlooked consideration when evaluating a content management system is page load time. Slow-loading pages create a bad experience for your website visitors. Ask how the proposed design, hosting, and plugins will affect performance, and review a representative page on a phone before making your decision. Our web development tips for better SEO explain other technical considerations to discuss with your designer.

AI optimization belongs in this conversation, too. Google’s 2026 guidance for AI search features emphasizes useful content and a clear technical structure. Ask whether the CMS will let you publish helpful, accessible content that search engines can crawl and index. Choosing a CMS alone does not guarantee that your website will appear in AI search results.

Is the platform secure?

Security of your CMS is important to your business. If your website is breached or attacked and becomes unavailable, visitors may be unable to reach you or submit an inquiry.

It’s prudent to do your research about platform security. WordPress core, themes, and plugins need ongoing updates. WordPress’s security guidance, updated in January 2026, recommends staying current and keeping backups so you can recover if something goes wrong.

Our recommendation is to plan for WordPress maintenance at least monthly and have a good backup plan. Security updates may need attention sooner; a monthly schedule is not a reason to leave a known vulnerability unpatched. If your company will not commit to that upkeep, either internally or through a provider, HubSpot is the better choice for the website projects we handle.

The point here is to know your risk, and take steps to prevent security issues by not ignoring regular updates and other security measures.

Will the CMS work with my IT configuration or server?

You need to check whether a proposed CMS will work within your IT and server constraints.

For example, some website hosting providers aren't compatible with certain content management systems. Check with IT or have your designer do some homework to make sure you don't end up with a website that doesn't work with your web server or hosting account.

You may also need to check what access limitations IT has set for your organization. Make sure your team can reach both the public website and the CMS editing tools from your office network.

Can I have multiple users and set up different roles/permissions?

Naturally, more than one person may need access to manage content on your website. Multiple user accounts and roles come in handy for a number of situations.

In a midsized organization, you may have a number of people who need website admin access. For example:

• The marketing team may need access to change website copy and add blog articles
• The sales team may need access to lead information in the connected CRM, rather than access to edit the website
• Your administrative professionals may need to add news or press releases
• Your product/service delivery team may need access to change product specifications and upload documents
• The IT team will need access to upgrade software and support the content management system

If you have outside vendors who assist with design or content production, you may want to limit their access as needed, or restrict them from sensitive information or features, like a client email or lead database.

Take into account who will be using your content management system and how much access you anticipate they’ll need, and work with your web designer to find a CMS with multi-user and multi-role support.

Can the CMS platform support multiple websites?

If your business or organization runs multiple websites, find out if you can easily consolidate and manage those websites from one place. Depending on the platform and setup, multi-site capabilities may include:

• You can access and edit your websites from one dashboard. You won't have to log into 2 or 3 or 4 sites (or more).
• Content can be shared across multiple websites. You only have to add or edit something once, and then it will update across all sites.
• You can set your users' roles and permissions once, and they'll be in place for every website.

So, be sure to check if you can manage multiple websites through your CMS.

Can I generate e-newsletters to send out to my customers?

A content management system may also make it easy to facilitate marketing and sales activities.

For example, your CMS could enable you to publish an email newsletter to your subscribers. Some content management systems make it possible to create the email for archival purposes on your website and send it via a third-party tool. Other systems will even send the email for you, eliminating the need for another third-party tool.

Can I integrate my CRM system with my CMS?

In our professional opinion, your website should be connected to your CRM via a marketing automation platform. Your website forms should feed your CRM the contact information you collect, such as name, email address, and company. If sales needs lead scoring or web visit history, confirm that the proposed integration supports those features and that tracking respects visitors’ consent choices.

You want to be sure that your CMS can integrate with customer relationship management tools like Salesforce, so that your website leads are fully accounted for. You want your CRM data to be as complete and as accurate as possible, and it should all start with the data you collect from your website.

Can my CMS help me with my online lead generation efforts?

To support lead generation through your website, you’ll need to be able to easily publish new content and set up both forms and landing pages to collect visitor contacts.

An integrated platform can make that work easier, but third-party tools can also connect your website to a CRM. Ask for a demonstration of the setup you’ll actually use: can your team edit a form, publish the page, and see the resulting contact information in the right CRM record?

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What Are the Most Popular Content Management Systems?

W3Techs tracks CMS usage over time, which can help you understand how widely a platform is used. A popularity ranking won’t tell you whether a system handles your website’s functionality or fits the way your team works.

For our website redesign projects, we consider HubSpot and WordPress. Webflow is another option to include in your evaluation. Below, we explain the differences that matter to the kinds of websites discussed in this article.

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The Best Content Management Systems for Small and Midsize Companies

Here is a starting point for comparing WordPress, HubSpot, and Webflow. The first two are the platforms we use for website redesigns; Webflow is included as another option for readers to evaluate.

WordPress

WordPress is an open source content management system. It can be a better option for more technically advanced websites, provided you have the resources to maintain it.

Companies that don’t update WordPress core, the themes and the plugins on a regular basis risk having their sites compromised. We don’t feel that this is a reason not to use WordPress, but it’s something to be aware of.

WordPress can also be integrated with your marketing automation and CRM, which makes it a good option for companies that wish to use their website to generate new sales leads and gather sales intelligence.

From a cost perspective, you’ll still need web hosting, an SSL security certificate, and you’ll need to schedule regular WordPress upgrades to keep the software running smoothly. Include plugin subscriptions, maintenance, and backups in your budget.

For more information, see WordPress’s website.

Full disclosure: At Whittington Consulting, many of our client's websites run on WordPress.

HubSpot

HubSpot’s Content Hub includes its website CMS. HubSpot is a good choice when your company is comfortable with a proprietary CMS and needs a tight connection to HubSpot CRM or Salesforce. That connection can be worth the added subscription cost when it supports the way your marketing and sales teams work.

Because HubSpot manages the CMS platform, your team does not need to maintain WordPress core, themes, and plugins. You still need to manage your website content, account access, and integrations.

Before choosing a plan, confirm which features are included. HubSpot’s product and services catalog lists separate products and subscription tiers, so don’t assume a CMS subscription includes every marketing automation feature. HubSpot’s Salesforce integration documentation also lists the subscription and Salesforce access requirements you need to check.

For more information, see HubSpot’s Content Hub website.

Full disclosure: Whittington Consulting is a HubSpot partner, and many of our client websites run on HubSpot.

Webflow

Webflow is another option to consider when evaluating a website CMS. Its visual CMS lets teams manage structured content, such as blog articles, through collections and page templates.

If you are considering Webflow, test the functionality your website needs, the editing experience, and the proposed CRM connection. Review the plan’s content limits, permissions, and integration costs before committing.

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Which Web Content Management System is Right For Your Business?

For the website redesigns we handle, the choice is between HubSpot and WordPress. Start with your current CMS, the functionality you need, and your priorities for SEO, AI optimization, and performance. Then ask which option your team can realistically maintain.

What’s right for your company depends on many of the considerations above, but should focus on:

• Cost, not only to buy the content management system (if proprietary), but also installation, support, and maintenance. To get a good idea of cost, you must consider the total cost of ownership and upkeep, not just the cost of the software.
• The importance of lead generation and the ability to integrate with a CRM. If a tight connection with HubSpot CRM or Salesforce is important, HubSpot is worth a look. Confirm the features and subscriptions you will need before comparing costs.
• Expertise needed to implement and update. You may need external help setting up your content management system, or you may have internal employees who can do the job. Consider who will be updating the website and demo software to understand how easy it will be to maintain and update content.

I hope this explanation has been helpful. Since this is such a technical topic, it can be difficult to understand. If you need help sorting through your options, we invite you to contact us and have a discussion.

Last updated: October 2026