CMS Platform Guides

Choose a platform to read about

• Platform guide

  WordPress: Self-Hosted Software or WordPress.com Plans

  Open-source software you host yourself, or the hosted WordPress.com plans. Full ownership against less upkeep.

• Platform guide

  Webflow: Visual Design Control on a Hosted Platform

  A visual builder that designers like, with hosting included. Check the code export rules before you commit.

• Platform guide

  Wix: An All-in-One Builder That Stays on Wix

  An all-in-one builder with business apps built in. Fast to start, but the site cannot be hosted anywhere else.

• Platform guide

  Squarespace: Polished Templates With a Narrow Exit

  Clean templates and a store on every plan. The export file leaves out store, portfolio and several other page types.

• Platform guide

  Shopify: A Platform Built Around the Checkout

  A hosted platform made for selling. Plan price, card rate and app costs all scale with the store.

• Platform guide

  Drupal: Structured Content for Larger Sites

  Open-source software for large, structured sites. Powerful and free to license, but a developer is part of the cost.

• Platform guide

  Joomla: Open Source With a Fixed Release Rhythm

  Free GPL software with built-in user groups and languages. A steady two-year cycle sets your upgrade calendar.

• Platform guide

  Headless CMS: Content Without a Built-In Website

  Content stored once and sent to a site, app or anything else. Flexible, but you also fund the front end.

How the guides are organized

Every guide follows the same outline so you can read two side by side and compare like with like. Each starts with what the platform is and the kind of site it was built for. A pricing section reproduces the plan table from the official pricing page, with the billing term spelled out, because the gap between yearly and monthly billing can be large. A selling section explains what a store adds in plan upgrades and fees. A section on leaving quotes the platform's own export documentation, since that is where hosted platforms differ most. Each guide ends with strengths, limits and our reading of who the platform tends to fit, labeled as a view rather than a fact.

A key-facts box sits beside each guide on wider screens and below the contents list on phones. It uses the same data as the comparison filter, so a price you read in a guide matches the price the tools use.

Three families of platform

The eight platforms fall into three groups, and knowing which group you are leaning toward narrows things quickly.

Hosted builders and commerce platforms. Wix, Squarespace, Webflow and Shopify rent you a finished service. Hosting, security and updates are included in a subscription. They are the quickest way to a working site and the hardest to leave, to varying degrees.

Self-hosted open-source software. WordPress, Drupal and Joomla are free to license and run on hosting you choose. You own every file and can move whenever you like, and someone has to keep the software updated. WordPress.com offers WordPress as a hosted service for owners who want the software without the server work.

Headless content systems. Contentful, Sanity and Strapi store content and deliver it to a website or app built separately. They suit teams with developers and content that appears in more than one place.

Where to go next

If you already know your shortlist, the comparisons put pairs side by side. If you are starting from scratch, the how to choose a CMS guide helps you write down what your site has to do, and the platform wizard suggests a starting point and explains its reasoning.

Prices and support dates on every guide were checked on November 4, 2026. Platforms can change plans at any time, so confirm the figure on the official page, linked in each guide's sources, before you buy.