CMS evaluation: tips for choosing the right CMS

The following tips will help you to make the choice of the right content management system and explain how we proceed with our customers in the evaluation.

First of all: We do not want to adapt the wishes, requirements and problems of our customers to the possibilities of a single “house” CMS (content management system).We put much more the functional requirements, reconciliation, personal wishes, future ideas and preferences in the foreground in order to evaluate the most suitable CMS - or several solutions.

Technical aspects

Of the time, the focus of the content management system is mainly put into the foreground.Here the internal IT often has your fingers in the game.In many cases, however, the CMS has very low contact points to the internal IT or systems.We therefore recommend that the technical aspects be taken into account, but these should not be in the foreground.

Digital strategy

The internal digital strategy - if available - should definitely be taken into account when choosing the CMS.So you don’t run the risk of landing in a dead end.Current or future transition and third-party systems are thus set in context with the content management system so that processes in connection with your website can be automatically automated.

Scalability

We see the website - or an online shop - as a central piece of the puzzle of online marketing or even its digital business.Therefore, make sure that the chosen CMS solution can be expanded and growing needs meets.The possibility of providing third -party systems (keyword: headless CMS) can later bring clear advantages.If in doubt, simply think a little greater than previously assumed.

Open Source

Open source solutions have numerous advantages.Open source is nothing more than software, the source text of which can be opened to the public and viewed by third parties.

We have summarized a few points below:

• mostly free / no license costs
• Depending on the size & community, quick innovation and many existing solutions in the form of plugins / extensions
• No vendor lock-in (that is, you are not so closely bound to a provider that a change to another is actually impossible)

Additional tip: Be sure to pay attention to the ongoing, annual costs!These are, for example:

• Operating costs for hosting or similar
• Any license costs
• Costs for additional plugins / extensions (can get into the money with WordPress and Shopify OFTS times)
• maintenance costs (e.g. updates, hot or bug fixes)
• Support costs
• Further development (be sure to budget the ongoing further development)

System architecture

When choosing the content management system, also take into account change systems and third -party solutions that you would like to use currently or in the future.In addition to the CMS, this can be an online shop, CRM (Customer Relationshop Management), ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) or others.We not only recommend relying on a horse in the form of an ‘all-in-one’ solution, so that you remain flexible and, in the event of a future change, do not have to build everything at once.

Iterative, agile approach

In the digital world, we have the advantage that a product does not have to be 100% finished when published.We can easily and continuously expand a website, online shop or other web app.This step -by -step procedure offers numerous advantages, but it requires a scalable solution (see above).We often speak of so -called MVP (Minimum Viable Product) - it is the first minimal solution with which we go live and already offer added value.Based on the MVP, we learn from user feedback & behavior and thus prevent larger undesirable developments.

Conclusion: What is the best CMS?

If we were now calling this a content management system here, we would contradict ourselves.If you were looking for a single naming here, you have skipped our tips directly above and now only read the conclusion 😜 But yes, we too have our preferences, as is the case with every agency.However, we are constantly examining new alternatives or systems that run into the evaluation due to tips above.

In the area of websites, these are currently:

• Neos
• Strapi
• Cloudrexx
• Wordpress

In the area of online shops / eCommerce:

• Sylius
• Shopify
• WooCommerce

Let yourself be advised

Are you currently in the evaluation phase of the right CMS solution?We would be happy to advise you in this area with the system architecture in context with your digital system landscape.