Announcing the Top Rated Content Management Systems for 2019

Megan Headley
Megan Headley
February 6, 2019
Awards, Marketing

Announcing the Top Rated Content Management Systems for 2019

TrustRadius Top Rated

Today, we awarded the 2019 TrustRadius Top Rated badges for Content Management Systems. The TrustRadius Top Rated awards are the most trusted in the industry because they are an unbiased reflection of customer sentiment, based solely on user feedback and satisfaction scores. Top Rated awards are the voice of the market and are not influenced by analyst opinion, the vendor’s company size, popularity, or status as a TrustRadius customer.

Content Mangement Systems (CMS)

Content Management Systems (CMS) allow users to create, publish, and manage digital content, typically on a website. However, more advanced CMS and/or Digital Experience Platforms (DXP) enable users to manage content across digital channels. Some popular CMS use cases are on content-heavy websites such as blogs, news sites, eCommerce sites, corporate sites, and intranets. While different types of CMS may have different areas they focus on, most include these capabilities; a WYSIWYG editor, content creation tools, content indexing, document format management, content versioning and archiving, and content publishing with templates or a wizard. More advanced CMSs may include other features such as the ability to create personalization rules based on site visitor activity or demographics that control which users see specific content.

Here are the winners:

Squarespace

Squarespace is a website building tool that enables users to design customized websites and gain insights on user engagement with a set of built-in marketing tools. It includes design features such as website templates; ability to add a portfolio, blog, or online storefront to a website; calendar and google maps integrations; website template mobile compatibility;  integrations with Adobe Creative, Getty Images, and Google Drive; free/unlimited hosting; and 2048-bit certification for all Squarespace websites. Squarespace also offers a set of marketing capabilities such as email campaigns, SEO tools, social integration, and site visitor analytics. The majority (63%) of Squarespace users on TrustRadius are from small businesses. Reviewers note that Squarespace has a wide variety of templates to choose from and a clean-looking and easy to use design interface.

“You’d have to try very hard to create an ugly site when you’ve got such robust templates to work with. Plus design fundamentals like ample white space and color palettes are built in to the design process.[…] Squarespace has beautifully-designed add-ons that clients ask for (such as adding a dynamic map to their site which shows their shop’s location). These options require no jury-rigging and dovetail with the design of the site.”

Verified User | Employee in Marketing | Marketing and Advertising Company

[easy-tweet tweet=”Squarespace has beautifully-designed add-ons that clients ask for.” user=”trustradius” template=”qlite”]

WordPress

Wordpress TRScore

WordPress is an open-source website design tool and blogging platform that allows users to create and customize their own websites, domains, blogs, and eCommerce sites. It includes features such as a library of website themes to choose from, mobile compatibility, social integrations, ability to embed or upload media, site visitor analytics, and SEO tools. WordPress also integrates with many Google applications including G Suite, Google Search Console, Google Analytics, Google Drive, and Google Photos. A large portion (39%) of WordPress users on TrustRadius are from small businesses. Reviewers comment that a large library of themes and availability of plugins and integrations are two of WordPress’s strengths.

“The content management part of WordPress is pretty robust. Based on the complexity of the themes and plugins used on the site, WordPress allows users to create a variety of websites from just a simple personal blog to a full-fledged e-commerce website. It suits most common user needs, but the themes are big part of the platform…”

Verified User | Project Manager in Information Technology | IT and Services Company

[easy-tweet tweet=”The content management part of WordPress is pretty robust.” user=”trustradius” template=”qlite”]

Weebly

weebly tr score

Weebly is a website building tool that specializes on helping users design eCommerce sites. It provides users with features such as a drag and drop website building tool, design templates, domain name customization, SEO tools, form creation, free hosting, media embedding capabilities, site visitor analytics, and more. Weebly also offers users a variety of eCommerce site building tools that include shopping cart, secure checkout, inventory tracking and management, and filtered product search capabilities. Almost half (49%) of Weebly users on TrustRadius are from small businesses. According to reviewers, the WYSIWYG editor and ease of use for individuals without much technical experience and are two of Weebly’s strengths.

“It’s one of the easiest to use drag and drop website builders, while still having extensive features.[…] The drag and drop interface makes it very easy to add all types of content, including images, text, video (and YouTube videos), embeddable applications and more.”

Robbin Block | Creative Marketing Strategist | BLOCKbETA Marketing

[easy-tweet tweet=”Weebly: It’s one of the easiest to use drag and drop website builders.” user=”trustradius” template=”qlite”]

Wix

wix trscore

Wix is a free website design tool, with premium plans available, that provides users with unique website design capabilities. For example, after answering a few questions about what users would like to do with their new site, Wix Artificial Design Intelligence (ADI) will build a personalized site for users based on this information. Wix Code also enables users to create virtually anything on their website inside the Wix editor. Wix also offers common CSM features such as website templates, media galleries, blog creation, SEO tools, content management, ability to set up an online storefront, and mobile web optimization. A large portion of Wix users (44%) on TrustRadius are from small businesses. Reviewers emphasize that Wix’s ADI service, design flexibility, and easy to user interface enable them to get up and running with their new website very quickly.

“Wix is a great tool/utility for individuals or businesses looking to build a simple, but effective website. Business owners can go from website concept to published in less than an hour, showcasing their product without the overwhelming process of planning and designing from scratch.“

Dan Talvi | Teaching Assistant | GST BOCES

[easy-tweet tweet=”Wix is a great tool/utility for individuals or businesses.” user=”trustradius” template=”qlite”]

Drupal

Drupal trscore

Drupal is an open-source CMS framework software that has been published under the GNU General Public License and enables users across industries and countries to design and maintain websites. It includes many of the standard CMS features such as content creation tools, front-end website themes, media embedding capabilities, and an advanced user role classification and permissions system. Along with these features, Drupal also has a large community of users and developers that are constantly improving the software and are available for troubleshooting help. According to user demographic information on TrustRadius, Drupal is used evenly across company sizes. Reviewers note that the Drupal community and the security measures (e.g. role-based user permissions) in place are two benefits of using Drupal.

“Drupal’s community is big, prolific, and welcoming. Not only can you use other’s community contributions, but the community is always happy to help others building their own Drupal sites or custom modules and themes for the rest of the community. If you ever get stuck, the forums or Drupal Slack are incredible resources for assistance.”

Ben McClure | Head of Development Technologies | Top Floor Technologies

[easy-tweet tweet=”Drupal’s community is big, prolific, and welcoming.” user=”trustradius” template=”qlite”]

Progress Sitefinity

Progress sitefinity tr score

Progress Sitefinity is a CMS / DXP that enables users to create and manage content across digital channels. It includes features such as a WYSIWYG editor, a library of themes, website templates, content versioning, form generation, SEO tools, eCommerce capabilities. Progress Sitefinity also offers users a set of marketing tools to use in combination with its content creation and management capabilities. These include: site visitor analytics, email marketing, and audience segmentation tools. The majority (51%) of Sitefinity users on TrustRadius are from mid-size businesses. Reviewers note that Sitefinity has a number of ‘out of the box’ items that allow users to quickly create new types of content.

“Sitefinity is great at reusable templates and creating a single unified look and feel across an entire site while giving the ability to have custom content so every page doesn’t look like a copy and paste. This keeps end users engaged in specific content on the page while having the structured framework.”

Kevin Bloomquist | Computer Programmer | New England School of Law

[easy-tweet tweet=”Sitefinity is great at reusable templates and creating a single unified look.” user=”trustradius” template=”qlite”]

MS SharePoint

ms sharepoint tr score

From Microsoft, SharePoint allows individuals and businesses to build websites and intranets where they can store and manage content. Many organizations use SharePoint as an internal document management and collaboration solution. It can also be used as a CMS to publish and manage content/documents for specific audiences. One of SharePoint’s most common CMS use cases is as a company intranet where documents are made available to employees. It includes features such as a document library, collaboration tools, real-time document updating, record management, document security, content publishing, and a mobile application. A large portion (40%) of MS SharePoint users are from enterprises. Reviewers highlight the ability to collaborate with team members on a document in real-time and the ease of integration with other Microsoft products as two of MS SharePoint’s strengths.

“It is great for collaborating on a single document when there are multiple users at different locations and to update the document in a real-time version so all users have the most current document with all the changes and the ability to make changes within a project team. It allows for consistency throughout an organization.”

Erica Weiner | Assistant Project Manager | Mahogany Incorporated

[easy-tweet tweet=”MS Sharepoint: It allows for consistency throughout an organization.” user=”trustradius” template=”qlite”]

Congratulations to the winners of the Top Rated Content Management Systems Award!

Top Rated Criteria

Products included in the 2019 Top Rated Content Management Systems list must have been in the top tier of their category TrustMap as of January 15th, 2019. To qualify for the Content Management Systems Top Rated Award, products must have at least 10 reviews written within the past year, a TRScore of at least 7.5 out of 10, and must receive at least 1.5% of the traffic in their category.  Every reviewer is verified and every review is vetted before publication. Products are plotted on the TrustMap based on end-user data, including users’ likelihood to recommend scores as well as buyer research patterns. To learn more about TrustMaps and Top Rated methodology, check out this page.

About the Author

Megan Headley
Megan Headley
Megan leads Research at TrustRadius, whose mission is to ensure TrustRadius delivers high quality, useful and, above all, trustworthy user feedback to help prospective software buyers make more informed decisions. Before joining TrustRadius, Megan was Director of Sales and Marketing at Stratfor, where she was in charge of growing the company’s B2C revenue stream through email marketing and other channels. She enjoys traveling, reading, and hiking.

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