Top Features for Content Management Software
Content management is the disciplined approach to creating, organizing, storing, and delivering digital information across its lifecycle. By leveraging Content Management Systems (CMS), organizations streamline publishing, collaboration, and personalization across websites, apps, and digital channels. The goal is to ensure the right content reaches the right audience at the right time, driving engagement, efficiency, and business outcomes.
Content Management software streamlines content workflows, reducing time and cost, and allows organizations to maintain a consistent brand voice and accuracy across all touchpoints. CMS platforms also deliver tailored experiences, boosting engagement and handling the growing volumes of content for large enterprises. To meet the organizational goals, the right features are significant in a Content Management software, and this article helps in detailing the top features for Content Management software.
Top Content Management Software Features
Availability/breadth of extensions
The range of extensions available in Content Management software spans nearly every aspect of website functionality, from essential tools like SEO and e-commerce to highly specialized custom integrations. This modular flexibility remains one of the defining strengths of CMS platforms.
Benefits:
- Extensions handle user roles and permissions, support membership sites, and enable interactive features such as forums, comment sections, and social media integration.
- Wide selection of themes, templates, and page builders (e.g., Elementor for WordPress) empowers users to shape the look, feel, and layout of their websites, often through intuitive drag‑and‑drop tools that require no coding expertise.
- Extensions improve site speed with caching and image optimization, while also strengthening security through authentication, patches, and backup solutions.
WordPress
WordPress is an open‑source publishing platform and Content Management system widely favored by bloggers. Renowned for its simplicity and flexibility, it enables websites to host blogging communities with centralized content control and moderation through a single dashboard. With its broad library of extensions, plug-ins, modules, and add-ons, WordPress allows users to easily customize their websites without building custom code. The feature is scored 9.2/10 on the TrustRadius review platform by WordPress users based on their usage experience.
“We use WordPress in a variety of ways, including blogging, standard page content, E-Commerce, and organic SEO integrations. Honestly, there’s a reason WordPress is the most used platform in the world – it simply works and works very well! Any type of online business idea that we have, there’s typically an easy-to-use WordPress solution for it. The vast majority of plugins available help us to quickly execute ideas, and its coding is also easy enough for us to custom-build anything necessary.”
Read Jeff’s full review here.
WYSIWYG editor
A WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editor in a CMS is a visual interface that allows users to create and format content, such as text, images, and links, while viewing the final layout in real time. By eliminating the need for coding, it simplifies publishing, accelerates workflows, and makes content creation accessible to non‑developers.
Benefits:
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Enables marketers and content creators to build and manage content without coding expertise.
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Accelerates content creation and updates, minimizing dependence on developers.
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Maintains visual quality and design integrity across all published content.
Squarespace
Squarespace provides tools for creating DIY blogs, online shops, and portfolios for visual art or music. Many of its templates are designed for specific industries and use cases; for example, restaurant sites can leverage built-in menu builders to streamline setup. Squarespace’s What-You-See-Is-What-You-Get editing tool allows users to build pages without writing code. The feature is scored 9.1/10 on the TrustRadius review platform by Squarespace users based on their usage experience.
“Squarespace is easy for non-technical employees and business owners to understand and use. Once it is set up, it’s easy to update information, photos, etc. The all-in-one model is convenient to avoid managing multiple subscriptions for various apps, plug-ins, etc and hosting/domains are included. However, it can also be pretty restrictive and frustrating at times, especially for designers/developers used to other platforms.”
Read Brittany’s full review here.
Mobile optimization / responsive design
Content Management platforms make websites mobile‑friendly by automatically adjusting layouts, images, and navigation for phones, tablets, and desktops. This responsive design improves user experience and boosts SEO, since Google favors mobile‑optimized sites. Tools like Elementor for WordPress or AEM let users tweak mobile‑specific settings, such as padding, size, and order, without changing the desktop version, ensuring fast loading and logical content flow with a mobile‑first mindset.
Benefits:
- Easy reading, simple navigation, fast loading.
- Google’s mobile-first indexing boosts ranking for mobile-friendly sites.
- Easier access to info and transactions on mobile devices.
Webflow
Webflow is a Website Experience Platform designed for modern marketing teams, enabling them to visually build, manage, and optimize websites that deliver both the consumer‑grade experiences audiences expect and the enterprise‑level performance businesses require. It helps users build webpages that work well on mobile devices – whether m-dot pages or responsively designed pages. The feature is scored 9.5/10 on the TrustRadius review platform by Webflow users based on their usage experience.
“Webflow is our primary tool for websites requiring more than a landing page and no direct integration with a database app like Airtable. We love its CMS features for our blog and selling digital products. It offers the perfect balance of a GUI and developer accommodations.”
Read William’s full review here.
Role-based user permissions
In Content Management software, Role‑Based Access Control ensures users receive only the permissions required for their responsibilities. Roles like Admin, Editor, and Viewer consolidate actions such as reading, writing, publishing, or deleting into predefined sets. This approach reduces administrative overhead, enhances security, and supports efficient teamwork by allowing quick adjustments through role reassignment.
Benefits:
- Limits access to sensitive data and functions, strengthening overall security.
- Simplifies onboarding and offboarding, making access control easier for large teams.
- Keeps users focused on relevant tasks by removing unnecessary features and distractions.
Salesforce CMS
Salesforce Marketing Cloud Personalization, previously known as Salesforce CMS, functions as a hybrid CMS that streamlines content delivery. Teams can author content once and publish it across multiple channels, while administrators define access levels and distribution rules to ensure contributors only engage with the content relevant to them. This approach enhances scalability, governance, and collaboration. Role-based permissions to perform actions, access, or modify data, are assigned to roles, which are then assigned to users, reducing the complexity of administration. The feature is scored 8.9/10 on the TrustRadius review platform by Salesforce CMS users based on their usage experience.
“Salesforce Content Management System (Salesforce CMS) has helped us to create, manage and put content across channels with ease. It helps in tracking data, creating custom content types. It can be integrated with Salesforce Platform and all other Salesforce products. It provides a unified view of customer’s data. The collaboration feature really helps to speed up the process of content creation as it provides real time collaboration among creators and editors.”
Read Abheer’s full review here.
API
APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) in Content Management software act like bridges. An API offers a standardized way to connect third‑party systems with software, enabling data creation, access, updates, and deletion. They connect the back‑end, where content is stored and managed, to the front‑end platforms people use, like websites, apps, or smart devices, making it easy to deliver content everywhere.
Benefits:
- APIs enable the use of any front‑end technology, supporting new devices (mobile, IoT, AR/VR) and scaling seamlessly as traffic grows.
- Developers can leverage their preferred frameworks and languages, focusing on building innovative user experiences instead of managing content storage.
- By decoupling front‑end and back‑end, teams can work in parallel, accelerating feature delivery and campaign launches.
Sitecore Digital Experience Platform
The Sitecore Experience Platform (Sitecore XP) is a digital experience solution for building websites and delivering customer experiences. It offers rapid content authoring, integrated personalization, testing, and optimization tools, along with robust analytics and marketing capabilities. The feature is scored 9.9/10 on the TrustRadius review platform by Sitecore XP users based on their usage experience.
“Sitecore is our enterprise CMS that we use to manage content on our Website. We have custom ecommerce integration in our Sitecore Headless implementation. The advance customization offered by Sitecore have enabled us to customize it as per our business needs and the headless capabilities have enabled us to use best of breed tools and technology to build our Frontend and host it on the platform of our choosing.”
Read Zaheer’s full review here.
Code quality/cleanliness
Code quality and cleanliness in Content Management platforms are essential for maintainability, reliability, and scalability. Well‑structured code simplifies understanding, modification, and extension, ensuring the system can evolve with changing business needs and technology. The code produced by the WYSIWYG editor is cleanly structured and fully compliant with the required validation standards.
Benefits:
- Implement immediate and thorough exception management to ensure code resilience and predictable behavior.
- High‑quality code reduces errors, minimizes crashes, and prevents unexpected downtime.
- Consistent standards and clear documentation make the codebase easier to navigate, enabling faster onboarding and effective teamwork.
Duda
The Content Management platform Duda empowers organizations delivering web design services to small businesses. The platform supports a diverse customer base, from freelance designers to established digital agencies. The feature is scored 9.3/10 on the TrustRadius review platform by Duda users based on their usage experience.
“I used Duda to build websites for clients. These would be independent soloprenereurs and non profit organizations. They don’t have a team to help make software updates, so Duda is the perfect CMS solution for them. I have used many CMS platforms over the last 15 years and I find Duda to be very user-friendly.”
Read Sarah’s full review here.
Content taxonomy
Content taxonomy in a Content Management software is a structured framework for organizing and classifying digital assets, such as articles, products, and documentation, into logical categories and relationships. By applying hierarchies (categories and subcategories) and metadata tags, it ensures assets are easily discoverable through search, navigation, and filters, while supporting consistent management across large repositories.
Benefits:
- Relevant content is always at users’ fingertips.
- Seamless UX with smart navigation creates a frustration-free experience.
- Consistent Management through governance tools keeps content organized and duplication-free.
Contentful
Contentful is a scalable content platform designed to power digital experiences. It centralizes content in a single hub, structures it for delivery across any channel, and connects seamlessly with hundreds of tools via open APIs and an app framework. Its decoupled architecture and agile workflows accelerate time to market while maximizing ROI from existing investments. The feature is scored 10/10 on the TrustRadius review platform by Contentful users based on their usage experience.
“Easy way to update content and add translation. Usage of Contentful apis to manage entries is also a handful for our business case. Contentful webhooks integrated with Buildkite api allowed us to run builds to generate static pages. Lastly we’ve used Contentful studio for composed layouts, this was a game changer since the marketing team was able to generate new pages without any development involved.”
Read this Verified User’s full review here.
Admin section
The Admin section of a Content Management software is a secure backend dashboard where authorized users log in to oversee and manage every aspect of a website. From creating and editing content to managing user roles, controlling site structure (templates and themes), setting permissions, monitoring activity, and configuring system settings, the Admin panel serves as the central hub for website administration, empowering even non-coders to maintain and customize their site.
Benefits:
- Create, edit, delete, publish, and schedule posts, pages, and media (images, videos, files).
- Add or remove users, assign roles (editor, author, admin), and define permissions for access and actions.
- Configure templates, themes, navigation menus, and overall site layout.
ManageWP
ManageWP is a centralized WordPress management dashboard that simplifies the administration of multiple websites. From a single platform, users can perform both individual and bulk updates, streamline routine maintenance, and oversee client or personal sites, regardless of where they are hosted. The feature is scored 9.8/10 on the TrustRadius review platform by ManageWP users based on their usage experience.
“We use ManageWP in our website development and support department. It is used to make updates to client websites that are on one of our website care plans, it manages the updates, checks for website vulnerabilities, alerts the team to any security or downtime, monitors the performance of the clients’ websites, and also allows us to easily send monthly reports to all clients.”
Read this Verified User’s full review here.
Choosing the Top Features For Content Management Software
With the growing boom in digital marketing, SEO content is in demand, and the right Content Management software can play a huge role in organizational success. This article, explaining the top features for Content Management software, helps determine which features are most important depending on the exact needs of a business.
To continue your research, explore the Content Management Systems on TrustRadius. You can compare products, read verified reviews, and find the solutions that best fit your needs. You may also find value in related categories and resources, including:
