What is a CMS (content management system)?
A CMS is a software tool that allows you to create, edit, and publish content. While early CMS software was used to manage document and local computer files, most CMS systems are now designed exclusively to manage content on the Web.
The goal of a CMS is to provide an intuitive user interface for building and modifying webpage content. Each CMS also provides a web publishing tool that allows one or more users to publish updates live on the Web. The editing component is called the content management application (CMA), while the publishing tool is called the content delivery application (CDA). These two components are integrated together in a CMS to streamline the web development process.
Several web-based CMS tools are available. The following are some of the most popular ones:
- WordPress – free web software designed for creating template-based websites or blogs
- Blogger – Google’s blogging tool designed specifically for maintaining a blog
- Joomla – a flexible web publishing tool that supports custom databases and extensions
- Drupal – an open source platform often used for developing community-based sites
- Weebly – a web-based platform for building simple personal and business websites
- Wix – a collection of web publishing tools for creating a highly customizable website