Building your website with a CMS (content management system) is an easy task and provides an avenue for easy future management and control. The one hard part about it however is choosing the right CMS to use, particularly due to the fact that there are literally hundreds of them in existence. From big names such as WordPress down to the smaller applications including Anchor CMS it can be a tough choice working out what one best suits your needs and requirements. For the majority of website owners it’s often best to stick with some of the major applications due to their user friendly nature, even for beginners, and range of much needed features and options.

The 3 major players within the content management system category include WordPress, Joomla and Drupal, all of which are open-source and 100% free to use for both personal and commercial based websites. All 3 of these online applications are used by millions of websites around the world and boast support communities containing hundreds of thousands of users. Although they all operate as an online content management system, each one of them has their own perks, specific features and offered inclusions. In order to make the choice easier for you, the following comparison offers a little more in depth information on each CMS, giving you the ability to decide which one is best for you.

WordPress

WordPress has enjoyed the spotlight of being the most widely used online content management system for a number of years. It’s built with the end user, yourself, in mind which means it has an easy to use, yet intuitive, dashboard that allows you to manage and modify every single aspect of your website. On top of the default ability for customisation, WordPress also features more than 30,000 plugins, or addons, which are smaller applications that either modify and enhance existing features or add entirely new features and functionality altogether. It’s for this reason, along with the huge support community, that WordPress is so popular.

Some of the cool features found under the hood of WordPress include:

• 100% Open Source
• Theme customisation
• Plugin management
• Multi-author platform
• Visitor interaction
• RSS

WordPress is an easy to use content management system that puts online publishing right at your fingertips with an easy to use and understand dashboard. It’s a great CMS for running your own website in almost any industry such as health blogs, corporate websites and hobby blogs.

Joomla

Joomla, one the largest content management systems available, is a popular choice for those looking to supercharge their website with powerful and easy publishing options. Joomla provides the ability for companies and individuals to easily publish, edit and share content online through an easy to use administration dashboard with minimal to no prior online or and technical experience. The Joomla community is made up of website owners, online developers and a range of various web and graphic designers which means that gaining support relating to your website is relatively easy through the official Joomla discussion forums and various supporter websites.

With a range of options too large for a list, the following is just some of the core Joomla features:

• 100% Open Source
• User management
• Theme customisation
• Multilingual
• Extension/Addon management
• Easy to use dashboard

If you’re looking for a content management system that is easy to use and offers a great deal of functionality then Joomla might be the right option for you.

Drupal

Drupal is a leading free and open source content management system that is used by millions of websites around the world due to it’s reliability, flexibility and range of included features. Drupal makes it easy for website owners to publish a range of content and media with minimal steps while also offering an abundance of customisation options to both the design and core framework of the system. Drupal is relatively easy to use which means that those with little prior experience should have no problem publishing from, and maintaining, the powerful content management system.

Some of the powerful features included with the core Drupal application include:

• 100% Open Source
• Preconfigured distributions
• Theme customisation
• Secure
• Community Support
• Multilingual

Drupal, although easy to use, has the more complex administration dashboard which may lead to a little difficulty in getting used to it’s operation. However, once you’re familiar with the system it becomes an easy task to publish, share and modify your content.

Choosing The Right One For You

Each of the top 3 content management systems essentially offer the same list of features and functionality which means that your choice will more than likely be based of the layout and ease of use. You can visit the official websites for each application and find out further information to better choose the right one for you. One thing that may also be worth keeping in mind is that many web hosting providers offer specialised platforms designed for these content management systems such as WordPress hosting and Joomla hosting services.

In order to get started with a content management system you will need to register a domain name and sign up for a good web hosting plan.