When creating a site, your business will need the best content management systems (CMS) for its unique needs. During your research, you’ll need to try out a few CMS tools and take notes on which ones have the features and overall capabilities to make your dream website.

Best content management software for small businesses in 2022:

• WordPress
• Squarespace
• Shopify
• HubSpot CMS
• Weebly
• Wix

What to consider when choosing CMS software

Managing content effectively goes hand in hand with building a brand. The right software should not cover the basics; it should have capabilities that expand on what can it do? While still being simple enough to learn to use.

Building your website site to the ongoing maintenance of your content, the top CMS will be relatively painless to integrate and soon become an easy part of your daily routine. With that goal in mind, the best website CMS choices will be:

Flexible to customize

Right CMS should work as a seamless part of your operations. That means that any CMS we recommend should be flexible enough to match your business needs, provide functions you want, and not be a one-size-fits-all offering.

Easy to use

Easy to use means managing your website and content is so important, so it shouldn’t be challenging to do. The last thing you need is something complicated and not intuitive to use.

Without throwing in complex coding or time-consuming extra tasks, you should be able to navigate the dashboard, create new content, edit pages, access analytics, and more without ripping your hair out.

Able to synchronize and integrate with multiple software solutions

It’s syncing with your existing software or extending the system’s capabilities, and a good CMS website easily integrates with your other tools and apps. Syncing with your email system to market your site via social media, a top-choice CMS does it with ease.

Intuitive Content Management Dashboard

Our CMS should be easy to learn and fun to use. Not everyone is a developer. Most of us don’t have the patience/time/willingness to be all that into code, CSS, HTML, XML, or the like. We want to create great content, a format in the way we like or need it, and publish it.

Backups and Version Control

Your CMS should be providing basic backups and version control services. You should be able to restore your site if it gets hacked or revert to a page if you accidentally delete it.

The Six Best CMS Software Solutions for Small Businesses

WordPress

If you are looking for a free content management system, WordPress fits at the top of your list. Its open-source system. WordPress offers a lot of functionality to websites for very little financial investment.

Being a free and open-source content management platform, it powers more than 20% of websites out there. Saying with personal experience, it works like a dream. These are a few features that make a power punch.

• Low maintenance costs
• A large array of plugins
• Extremely SEO-friendly
• Hundreds of mobile-friendly WordPress themes.
• Active community forums and documentation.
• The ability to create photo galleries and embed audio, video, and more.
• The editor saves your work automatically every second.
• Built-in social sharing buttons.
• Built-in stats, site maps, and SEO tools.
• The ability to monetize your site the way you want.

Squarespace

If you prioritize a professional look and clean aesthetics, Squarespace is the content management tool for you. With a vast library of professional themes and templates that can search by industry, Squarespace builds a sleek site without you having to worry about coding or managing a complicated backend.

Squarespace templates use drag-and-drop technology to build and edit, making the whole design phase a breeze. It’s intuitive, and you can get more invested in the aesthetics without worrying about the infrastructure.

Squarespace integrates with Getty Images to make sourcing and implementing images easier.

The basic Squarespace plan starts at $12 per month, following a two-week free trial when billed annually. However, if you want to sell products, you’ll have to upgrade to the Commerce plan, it starts at $40 per month with an annual subscription.

Reasons to buy:

• Beginner friendly
• Intuitive UI
• Loads of themes

Shopify

Shopify is a platform for building a business online. The business model of Shopify is simple: Sell products from an eCommerce site hosted on the Shopify store. You can start small—selling a few hundred or a few thousand custom products — or grow your eCommerce website.

The possibilities are limitless – in terms of themes, checkout experiences, custom storefront tools, international selling tools, and more.

You also have complete control of your theme, which means you can create exactly what your customer wants. You can build anything from a one-page eCommerce site up to a massive online marketplace like Amazon or eBay.

Shopify’s SEO-friendly content management system also lets you easily add your own blog posts, products, product descriptions, news, events, or anything else you want to add to your online store. The CMS interface is streamlined and makes it easy to add, list, edit, and organize products.

With Shopify, you won’t have to worry about indexing either. It automatically generates sitemap.xml files, so new products and site changes get indexed right away, and your content appears on search engines quickly.

The platform also comes powered with built-in analytics to help you monitor your sales and progress.

• Drag-and-drop ordering of product images.
• Display multiple versions for each product.
• Allow products with different inventory tracking options, prices, weights, etc.
• Keyword tags to easily search for items and browse in your store.

HubSpot CMS

HubSpot CMS is natural at content management. Right off the bat, its intuitive content setup costs a lot. It is the most expensive CMS on this list, starting at $23 per month. And an enterprise $1200 fee per month. However, that pricing includes many features, giving you a lot of bang for your buck.

Built for creative and non-developers, HubSpot CMS has an excellent support system with an extensive library of resources and dedicated account managers.

It also has several cool features you won’t find in other places, including its ability to do A/B tests for web pages. Like split testing for emails, you can test and track the success of various versions of the same pages to determine a winning page.

Analytics and SEO are second nature to HubSpot CMS. It automatically analyzes search engine algorithms and optimizes your pages via tips as you are building or automatically calling out fields and backlinks that will help you rank.

Weebly

Weebly may well be a name that you’re familiar with. It’s an easy-to-use content management system that lets you set up a simple website within a matter of minutes. The platform uses a drag-and-drop format, so you can add features and media to your website easily. And by the same token, you can swiftly remove anything whenever you want.

There is a load of pricing options to choose from, all based on different business and personal needs. After the basic, free option, the cheapest plan is $12 a month (around £9.4, AU$17), which provides you with unlimited storage, a domain name, and Google Ads credit. There is a small business option, and that’ll set you back $25 a month (around £19, AU$34). For that, you get all the usual features, as well as handy tools like password protection and tax calculators.

• Wide range of plans
• Drag and drop website building
• Easy to add media to your site

Wix

Wix is all about being customizable and easy to use, whether you opt for a site built by Wix or use its drag-and-drop builder.

You can answer a few questions about your business (and your site’s wishlist), then upload a logo, and Wix will create a website for your business, giving you color palette options based on your logo. Or, you can skip the templates and create the site freehand, though still by dragging and easy editing.

Wix also automatically mobile optimizes all sites, so you can rank well in search engines, and your audience has an easy time browsing. Wix also automatically installs and upgrades security updates, so you’re always protected.

The pricing is affordable, with a free plan option that never expires. Then, for just $13 per month, you can connect a domain name, remove ads, and upgrade features, etc., making it a very budget-friendly option.

If you need to create an aesthetically pleasing static website, look no further! But if you need a full-fledged CMS tool with all the bells and whistles like role-based administration, then this is not the platform for you.

• Ease of use
• Impressive layouts
• Made for small scale businesses