Quality content is the backbone of digital marketing. In addition to having useful gadgets, every blogger must have good content for their website—a good content management system aids in attracting and retaining the desired target audience.

A content management system (CMS) is a software package that provides a platform which is web-based to create, organize, modify, and delete a site’s content. Being a necessary tool, it essential to have a reliable CMS that doesn’t disappoint. Considering the numerous options that are available, choosing the ideal CMS is not easy. With the advent of new technologies, newer digital content marketing and management systems are popping up in the market more and more regularly.

Let’s take a look at some of the most popular and recent CMS solutions on the market.

Ghost

Ghost CMS was first released in October 2013. It is a blogging platform that is very easy to use and operates on a minimum user interface that makes publishing and editing hassle-free.

A blogger can use the Ghost CMS for free by downloading and installing it on their web host server. There is a paid option, however, for those who don’t feel confident enough to set it up manually. The paid alternative, Ghost (Pro), offers users a 14-day trial period after which the user can decide whether or not to pay for it going forward.

Among its best features include:

• a suite of publishing tools
• fully-managed PaaS
• elegant Ghost themes

Additionally, it has a built-in markdown and supports SQLite for users who do not have MySQL.

The latest version, Ghost 2.13.1, was released on January 29, 2019.

Grav

Grav is a modern open source CMS that exemplifies both simplicity and speed as its stronghold. It was voted the Best Flat File CMS by CMS Critic in the 2017 People’s Choice awards, and the “Best Open Source CMS” in 2016.

Every one of its features exists as a plugin, therefore, to avoid having a bulky and complex system, users get to choose the plugins they’d like, which can be changed as and when to suit their needs.

Grav has minimal requirements. In addition to running without the need of a web server, it can operate on most hosting providers and devices.

It was initially developed in 2015 with the most recent version, Grav 1.57, released on January 25, 2019.

Statamic

Statamic CMS was initially developed in 2012. It is powered by Laravel, which is one of the most powerful PHP frameworks to have ever been developed. It is a flat-file content management system that keeps all of a user’s content in files. What’s more, there is no database between a user’s content and the application.

The advantage of this CMS is that a user has full access to their content, all of the time. Thus, designing and managing websites is not only easy but also fast.

Statamic`s latest version, Statamic 2.11.9, was released on January 23, 2019.

It was voted the Best Flat File CMS by CMS Critic in 2017 People’s Choice portion.

Umbraco

Umbraco is an open source CMS platform mainly for publication of content on an intranet and the World Wide Web. It deploys Microsoft-based infrastructure in the form of ASP.Net, SQL server SQL CE, Microsoft Windows, MySQL, and SQL Azure. The fact that it is a Microsoft CMS guarantees the security of the content.

Umbraco does not have ready-made templates that just need to be installed. This gives a user the freedom to add their preferred features to suit their needs. Users can download and install these website design packages even with zero coding knowledge. In addition, Umbraco is entirely free!

Umbraco is the brainchild of Niels Hartvig, who developed it in 2000. Since then, the system has undergone major upgrades that have seen the launch of newer versions. The latest version, Umbraco 7.13.1, was released on January 15, 2019.

Subrion

Subrion CMS was first developed in 2008. It is a powerful open source CMS that runs on PHP and MySQL software. It is free and incorporates features such as user SEO management tools, activity trackers, full source editors, plugins, and free templates.

Also, Subrion is fast and has a flexible admin dashboard that is easy to work on.

The latest version, Subrion 4.2.1, was released on June 14, 2018.

Final words

Conclusively, choosing the right content management system and blogging platforms depends entirely on the user’s needs. It is important to weigh up the advantages and disadvantages of each while finding a CMS that assures great content presentation and security.

The downsides?

When (or if) it finally comes time to sell your website there may be less of a market due to peoples unfamiliarity with the above options. If an eventual flip is your goal then staying with WordPress is likely a better option.

Problems may also may run over into any outsourcing work you need done as prices may be higher due to the specialized knowledge required so bear this in mind too.

Sources

1. https://www.dragonblogger.com/5-top-gadgets-every-aspiring-blogger-should-own/

2. https://www.dragonblogger.com/cmp-critical-digital-content-marketing-arena/

3. https://ghost.org/

4. https://getgrav.org/

5. https://www.cmscritic.com/awards/

6. https://statamic.com/

7. https://umbraco.com/

8. https://subrion.org/