Content Management System (CMS)

The term content management system refers to the systems used to organize digital content for the purpose of administration, organization, and control.

More specifically, content management systems have useful applications for websites, especially for websites that require a user interface for adding, editing, and managing the content of a website.

One major advantage of a CMS is its collaborative nature. Multiple editors can contribute, schedule or manage content to be published. Because the user interface is usually browser-based, a CMS can be accessed from anywhere by any number of users.

The second major advantage of a CMS is that it allows non-technical people who don’t know programming languages to easily create and manage their own content. The drag-and-drop editors of a typical content management platform allows users to enter text and upload images without needing to know any HTML or CSS (programming languages).

When a company uses a CMS to publish its web pages, it reduces its reliance on front-end developers to make changes to the website, making it quicker and easier to publish new web pages improving the digital experience for users and visitors.

When a company uses a CMS to publish content to other channels - like social, mobile apps and ecommerce, it can drastically reduce the amount of development a company needs to do and make it easier to distribute content to different channels simultaniously.

A website is a collection of web pages and related content that is identified by a common [[Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN)|domain name]] and published on at least one [[server]]. In contrast, a CMS or Content Management System, is a piece of software that allows you to store, manage and publish said web pages.

Most websites use a content management system, but you could make one without a CMS, writing directly in a programming language like HTML and CSS. More often though, it’s easier to use a CMS to manage content for the editor instead of building a website from code.