There are plenty of CMS platforms out there, but these are three of the most popular. They each have their pros and cons. Let's check out how they stack up against each other.
Depends on theme
Need a plugin
Integrates with PayPal, Stripe, and more
Need a plugin
Available in Business or higher plans
Available in CMS Enterprise
Need a plugin
Manual - substantial time commitment
Available in CMS Enterprise
Very customizable
Customizable (with technical knowledge)
Very limited customization
Need a plugin
Need a plugin
Need a plugin
Need a plugin
Very limited
Need a plugin
Need additional software
Need additional software
Very fast - builtin optimization tools for fast loading
Average to slow - plugins and themes slow down websites
Very fast - low customization options keep websites light
Additional cost
Additional cost
Large App Marketplace & open API
Very large plugin and theme community
Limited
High
Depends on hosting package - prone to attacks
Basic
Requires separate hosting - typically $10 - $50/month
Additional cost - typically $70 - $100/year
Basic
Additional cost
Additional cost
CMS Professional - $300/month
CMS Enterprise - $900/month
Average between $100 - $200/month
$16 - $46/month + additional marketing tools
Small, medium, and enterprise level businesses
Small and medium sized businesses
Startups and small businesses
Integrates with PayPal, Stripe, and more
Available in CMS Enterprise
Available in CMS Enterprise
Very customizable
Very fast - builtin optimization tools for fast loading
Large App Marketplace & open API
High
CMS Professional - $300/month
CMS Enterprise - $900/month
Small, medium, and enterprise level businesses
Depends on theme
Need a plugin
Need a plugin
Need a plugin
Manual - substantial time commitment
Customizable (with technical knowledge)
Need a plugin
Need a plugin
Need a plugin
Need a plugin
Need a plugin
Need additional software
Average to slow - plugins and themes slow down websites
Additional cost
Very large plugin and theme community
Depends on hosting package - prone to attacks
Requires separate hosting - typically $10 - $50/month
Additional cost - typically $70 - $100/year
Additional cost
Average between $100 - $200/month
Small and medium sized businesses
Available in Business or higher plans
Very limited customization
Very limited
Need additional software
Very fast - low customization options keep websites light
Additional cost
Limited
Basic
Basic
Additional cost
$16 - $46/month + additional marketing tools
Startups and small businesses
When it comes to choosing a content management software, you have a lot of questions to ask yourself:
HubSpot CMSThe HubSpot CMS is more than just another CMS. It is a CMS that turns your website into a lead generation and marketing tool. With connection to the free HubSpot CRM, you get additional functionality and transparency that you simply can't get with any other CMS. Creating smart content (content personalized to each visitor) is extremely powerful and valuable when it comes to speaking to what your visitors care about and who they are.
The price, at the outset, looks high. We get the question all the time - "WordPress is free, why would I pay $300 or $900/month for HubSpot CMS?" Well it's just not that simple. Just because a tool is open source and free to start, doesn't mean it's "free." With the HubSpot CMS, you're also investing in security, management, optimization, additional tools, and peace of mind. You don't have to worry about keeping plugins up to date, updating your software versions, protecting against hacking, or about having a slow website. It's all done for you.
We absolutely love the HubSpot CMS. So much so that we took the plunge and moved our website (this website) to the HubSpot CMS in April 2020. We believe that the HubSpot CMS is more than a website platform - it's a marketing, sales, and user experience platform. It arms us with all the tools and processes we need in order to increase website traffic, convert more of that traffic into leads, and close more deals. While we have only had our website up on the HubSpot CMS for a short time, we have already seen a substantial increase in traffic and leads. While the $300 or $900/month (we're on CMS Professional at $300/mo by the way) may seem high, it has really saved us time, money, and headaches not having to worry about keeping everything up-to-date and running smoothly. The platform is also extremely customizable. We have built out several custom modules and templates for our website (and client websites) and we were able to make them look, act, and function exactly how we envisioned without any limitations. We absolutely recommend the HubSpot CMS.
WordPressWordPress has two platforms - wordpress.org and wordpress.com. Wordpress.com is typically used more as a blogging platform (where WordPress originally started) and wordpress.org is the open source software that can be used to build your website. Having a free and open source tool is great, for the most part. It gives developers the ability to create new themes, plugins, extensions, widgets, etc. that can be used on any WordPress website. It gives those creative people the ability to create anything that their mind can dream up. On the flip side, it also creates an abundance of, well, crap. It's not uncommon to research, install, activate, and then deactivate and delete 2-4 plugins before finding the one that accomplishes what you're looking for.
Approximately 25% of all websites in the world are built on WordPress. It's by far the biggest player in this space because it is very flexible, there are millions of themes and plugins available (both free and paid), and you can get started very inexpensively. On the other hand - because it is the biggest player, it is far more susceptible to hacking. Hackers target WordPress websites because it is fairly easy to exploit plugins and themes that are not up-to-date and since all management of plugin and theme updates falls to you, it's easy to forget to update. Being diligent about keeping everything on your website up-to-date is vitally important.
We have been building websites on WordPress since we started our agency in 2014. We love WordPress and continue to build websites on WordPress. If you are looking for a customizable and fairly easy to use platform, WordPress can be a great option.
WordPress is a fantastic tool and you can find a plugin to accomplish basically anything you can think of - checkout our 10 Must Have WordPress Plugins. It is very appealing to use because it is a free tool to get started. If you are going this route, however, don't expect it to stay free. If you are wanting to build a fairly custom website you'll likely end up needing a premium theme (average between $50 - $100) or fully custom theme, premium plugins (there is a wide range of costs here), advanced hosting, CDN, SSL certificate, and someone to continuously manage your website and keep things updated so that you can mitigate your hacking risk (budget for at least 3-5 hours per month). It is also important to note that while you can do anything with WordPress, the more plugins you add, the more likely that you will have compatibility issues that could take your website down or impact functionality. And the more plugins you have on your site, the more avenues there are for hackers to get in. We love WordPress because of the flexibility and the fact that we can really create anything that we can dream up.
View more of our evaluation of the HubSpot CMS vs WordPress.
SquarespaceSquarespace has grown up a lot over the last several years. It is still, however, a better option for very small businesses and startups rather than growing small, medium, or enterprise businesses. The costs are very low at under $50/month, but you are also missing a lot of the customizable tools and design elements as well as SEO and marketing tools that you have with HubSpot and WordPress. Squarespace does make getting started very easy though. They have a variety of templates to use and building a website on your own is easier with Squarespace than either HubSpot CMS or WordPress.
Squarespace should not really be viewed as a scalable option. It's not for growing businesses that are hoping to really treat their website as their best salesman. It is a great place to get started and get a website up quickly. It is important to keep in mind that if you go the Squarespace route, you will need to find other tools to satisfy your other marketing needs. Squarespace is our least favorite of these three CMS platforms because SEO is virtually non-existent, there are no additional marketing tools, and the platform is extremely inflexible.
Have more questions about which CMS is right for your business or organization? Let's chat!
Our team has built and managed websites on all three platforms and can give you an understanding of what the development, design, and management process truly looks like.
Schedule a time to chat with our team!
