CMS or no CMS: that choice determines how you manage your website, what the maintenance costs and how fast and secure the site is. There is no universally right answer — it depends on how you work.
What exactly is a CMS?
A CMS (content management system) is software on your web server that lets you manage the content of your website yourself. You log in to an admin environment and edit texts, images and pages there.
The best known is WordPress. Another well-known example is Joomla.
Without a CMS, your site consists of ready-made pages. You then have your web builder make any changes.
Where does the real difference lie?
At its core, the decision is a trade-off. What you gain on one side, you give up on the other:
Independence
- Publish yourself at any time.
- Ongoing maintenance: the core, themes and extensions need to be kept updated and secure.
Peace of mind, speed and security
- No software you need to keep up to date.
- For changes, you depend on someone else.
When is a CMS the better choice?
- You publish oftenNew articles, vacancies or news items every week or every day.
- You work with several peopleSeveral colleagues work on the site and you want to arrange roles and permissions.
- You have a large online shopWith lots of products, stock and orders.
- You want integrationsWith other systems, via ready-made extensions.
When does a website without a CMS work better?
- Your content is largely stableServices, about us, contact, references.
- Speed and security come firstYou value maximum speed and a minimal attack surface.
- No unnecessary costsYou do not want annual maintenance costs for software you do not need.
- You would rather have it taken care ofYou like the idea of someone else taking care of the changes properly.
You can read how such a site works technically under HTML websites without a CMS.
A simple rule of thumb
How often do I really want to change something myself?
“Almost daily”
- Then a CMS pays for itself.
“A few times a year”
- Then, with a CMS, you are structurally paying for management you hardly use.
- A static site is then usually more affordable, faster and more secure.
Still in doubt?
You will find a more extensive comparison, including costs and vulnerabilities, at a CMS or not.
Would you also like to take the environmental aspect into account? Then take a look at the comparison of CMS versus HTML.
The choice is not irreversible: a site can still move to a CMS later, or the other way round. How the latter works in practice is explained at Converting a CMS website to HTML.