A Content Management System, or CMS, is software that enables people to manage online content efficiently. A CMS enables people who don’t know how build a website to still maintain and run their own site regardless. A CMS is also an incredible time-saver for people who do know how to build websites, but who would rather spend time creating content.

We (Broad Ribbon Designs) use CMSs for both groups of people — our clients who mostly fall into the first category, and other clients along with ourselves in the second category. The site you’re reading this on uses Concrete CMS, for example, as we eat our own cooking so to speak.

The ‘content’ that is ‘managed’ can be anything: web pages, news articles, newsletters, blog articles, or photo journals (also called photo blogging). Ecommerce software is also a form of CMS, albeit more specialised.

While we have worked with other software (usually when ‘inheriting’ a new client’s legacy setup), our go-to ecommerce software is& OpenCart and our two general-purpose CMSs are Concrete CMS and Silverstripe.

We like to have a pick of two, as Concrete CMS is simply better for some things while Silverstripe is better for other things.

Feel free to get in touch if you’d like to discuss the setup of a CMS for your own needs, whether ecommerce, general blogging, or a complex multipurpose site. We can lay out for you the common pros and cons we’ve seen over many years, and help suggest a best-fit approach to take.