How to choose the right CMS for your website

Why is the choice important?

A website today must do far more than present information. It should be able to:

Attract and convert leads

Support sales processes through cases, guides, and product information

Build credibility and authority via content

Provide customer service to existing customers

In other words: your CMS becomes the engine of your digital presence.

Want the full step-by-step guide?

First step: Know your needs

Before you dive into technical systems, you need to be clear on what your website should achieve.

Ask yourself:

What is the goal of the website – lead generation, sales, branding, or customer service?
Which systems should it integrate with – CRM, marketing automation, analytics, or ERP?
What type of content will we produce – articles, whitepapers, cases, or login-based portals?
Can the system scale with us as our needs evolve?

Learn more about defining your needs in our whitepaper on CMS selection.

What types of CMS exist?

Once your requirements are in place, the next step is to explore the different CMS categories:

Open Source (e.g., WordPress, Drupal, Joomla, Typo3, Umbraco) – offers high flexibility and full control over content and functionality. These solutions are robust, scalable, and adaptable to almost any scenario. WordPress, for instance, is known for its user-friendliness and wide community, making it accessible to editors and powerful for developers. However, they require a professional approach to maintenance, security, and performance.

All-in-One platforms (e.g., HubSpot CMS, Webflow, Squarespace, Wix Enterprise) – combine CMS, e-commerce, marketing, and analytics in one system. They’re often easy to get started with and highly user-friendly. The trade-off is limited flexibility and dependency on the platform’s framework.

Headless CMS (e.g., Contentful, Strapi, Sanity, Kentico, Prismic) – provide maximum technical freedom and allow content delivery across multiple channels with top performance. On the other hand, they require a strong development team and higher investment to realize their full potential.

In our whitepaper, you’ll find a clear comparison table to easily see the strengths and weaknesses of each solution.

How to make a reliable choice

To ensure a strong decision, we recommend that you:

Create a shortlist of 2–3 systems
Book demos with vendors
Test the systems yourself in practice
Calculate total cost of ownership (TCO) over 3–5 years
Speak with references already using the system

Get the full step-by-step process in our free whitepaper.

Conclusion

Choosing a CMS is a strategic investment in your company’s digital future. The right system won’t just give you a functional website – it will act as a driver of growth, relationships, and customer experiences.

At Iternum Digital, we help organizations every day to identify, implement, and develop CMS solutions that match their needs.

Want to know which CMS is the best fit for your organization? Download our whitepaper and gain deeper insights into the process here.