Is your content workflow a mess?
Your content is likely stuck in different silos. This makes it nearly impossible for your teams to collaborate and publish efficiently.
This disjointed process slows down your content velocity and makes it incredibly difficult to prove the ROI of your content efforts to stakeholders.
This highlights a wider problem in how companies use their tools. For instance, one report found that 40% of enterprises use their CMS only for video, showing a huge gap in leveraging platforms for broader operations.
The right platform can fix this. It helps you centralize your content workflows and finally eliminate that frustrating, time-consuming manual effort.
In this guide, I’m breaking down the best content management software for 2025. I’ll help you find a tool that unifies your operations and scales with your business.
You’ll discover solutions that unify cross-team collaboration, simplify content versioning, and provide analytics for a smarter, data-driven strategy.
Let’s dive in.
Quick Summary:
| # | Software | Rating | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | WordPress → | Scalable businesses & teams | |
| 2 | HubSpot → | Growing businesses & marketing | |
| 3 | Joomla → | SMBs & enterprises | |
| 4 | Drupal → | Enterprise & IT teams | |
| 5 | Squarespace → | User-friendly small businesses |
1. WordPress
Struggling with complex content management software choices?
WordPress offers intuitive design tools and blocks, streamlining your content creation.
This means you can create any website with flexible design tools, customize every detail, and see real-time edits without needing code.
Ready to simplify content operations?
WordPress provides intuitive editing and integrated features to manage your content, helping you build your site faster.
You can also extend your site’s capabilities with an extensive library of plugins for stores, analytics, newsletters, and social media integration. Additionally, recent improvements enhance security and ease of use, especially with Block themes, ensuring a smoother building experience.
Plus, you get robust community support, learning resources, and documentation to help you build for yourself, not by yourself.
While we’re discussing content operations, understanding best strategic planning software is equally important for cross-team alignment.
Key features:
- Flexible Design Tools: Utilize blocks and themes for intuitive site creation and customization, allowing you to design without needing to write code.
- Extensive Plugin Library: Enhance your site’s functionality with various integrations like e-commerce, analytics, or social media, giving you full control.
- Real-time Visual Editing: See how your content looks as you add, edit, and rearrange it with an intuitive block editor, accelerating your workflow.
Learn more about WordPress features, pricing, & alternatives →
Verdict: WordPress empowers you to manage content effectively with flexible design tools, real-time visual editing, and extensive plugins. These features make it an ideal open-source platform for businesses seeking the best content management software, ensuring scalability and user-friendliness for your team.
2. HubSpot
Struggling to unify your content operations for better ROI?
HubSpot’s AI-powered Content Hub provides all-in-one content marketing software for creating and managing content. This means you can easily craft engaging content for your audience, with help from AI.
You’re trying to balance customization, scalability, and user-friendliness, and HubSpot helps by providing an integrated, AI-powered content creation and management platform. This directly addresses your pain points of disjointed tools and slow content velocity.
Here’s how to simplify your entire content workflow.
HubSpot solves your content management challenges by centralizing creation, organization, updates, and distribution in one AI-powered platform. This eliminates silos and manual effort.
Its scalable CMS and brand voice features ensure your content is consistent and on-brand, while the Breeze content agent helps accelerate content creation in minutes. This means your team can produce conversion-optimized and on-brand content much faster.
Additionally, the ability to generate leads, automate marketing and streamline sales processes all on the same AI-powered platform means you can achieve measurable ROI through accelerated content velocity and improved overall efficiency, future-proofing your content infrastructure as you scale.
The result is a unified content strategy.
While we’re discussing content management, understanding online teaching software is equally important for educational content creators.
Key features:
- AI-powered Content Hub: An all-in-one platform for creating, organizing, updating, and distributing content, designed to streamline your entire content marketing process.
- Scalable CMS with Brand Voice: Ensures content consistency and brand adherence across all channels, supporting your growth without technical debt.
- Breeze Content Agent: Leverages AI to accelerate content creation, helping you produce conversion-optimized, on-brand content in minutes.
Learn more about HubSpot features, pricing, & alternatives →
Verdict: HubSpot’s AI-powered Content Hub is designed to solve your content management dilemmas, offering scalable content operations and seamless integrations. Its ability to create and manage content, backed by features like a scalable CMS and the Breeze content agent, makes it the best content management software for driving measurable productivity gains and unified workflows for your growing business.
3. Joomla
Struggling to manage your content operations effectively?
Joomla, an award-winning CMS, empowers you to build robust websites and powerful online applications. This means you can centralize your content and streamline workflows.
Its flexible and fully extensible nature, combined with thousands of free extensions and templates, enables unlimited design possibilities and seamless integration with your existing CMS. You can effortlessly adapt it to your specific needs.
This enhances your team’s productivity.
Joomla helps you tackle content management challenges head-on by providing a stable and secure platform. Your team can leverage its multi-user permission levels for clear content versioning and collaboration.
Plus, its mobile-friendly and search engine friendly features ensure your content reaches a wider audience, contributing to measurable ROI. You can get started quickly with free video training classes, making adoption smooth for your entire team.
Additionally, with over 10,000 extensions and templates, you can easily customize your site to fit specific needs and support rapid scaling without technical debt.
It’s truly a flexible solution.
If you’re also streamlining operations in other industries, my article on best auto dealer software covers specific solutions.
Key features:
- Flexible & Fully Extensible: Adapt and grow your content operations with thousands of free extensions and templates for unlimited design and functionality.
- Multi-User Permission Levels: Empower your team with precise control over content, facilitating seamless collaboration and efficient workflows.
- Search Engine & Mobile Friendly: Ensure your content is easily discoverable and accessible across all devices, driving increased engagement and visibility.
Learn more about Joomla features, pricing, & alternatives →
Verdict: Joomla offers powerful, extensible features like multi-user permissions and a vast library of extensions, making it an excellent choice as the best content management software for growing SMBs and enterprises seeking customization and scalable content operations.
4. Drupal
Struggling with complex content management platforms?
Drupal CMS offers intuitive tools designed for marketers and content teams, enabling you to launch your project quickly. This means you can create compelling content across more devices with structured content tools.
It addresses common pain points like vendor lock-in and high ownership costs, allowing your marketing team to drive digital strategy independently. This solution offers powerful digital experiences.
Drupal provides a fully composable CMS, letting you design a digital experience precisely to your vision. You can build sophisticated websites, ensuring tight integration between content and commerce. Additionally, its API-first platform allows design around your user needs, offering limitless flexibility. Plus, Drupal features enterprise-grade tooling, adhering to industry-standard privacy and security, which checks all the boxes for your IT team. The result is a unified, scalable, and accessible platform.
While we’re discussing software solutions for operational efficiency, my analysis of best long term care software might also be helpful.
Key features:
- User-centric experiences: Create versatile, structured content and integrate seamlessly with digital marketing channels, building compelling content across more devices.
- Lower cost of ownership: Benefit from no vendor lock-in and low-code/no-code options, empowering your marketers to independently drive digital strategy and publishing workflows.
- Limitless flexibility: Design your digital experience around your vision and user needs with a fully composable, open-source, and API-first platform.
Learn more about Drupal features, pricing, & alternatives →
Verdict: Drupal’s composable nature, user-centric tools, and enterprise-grade security make it a strong contender for the best content management software. With over 650k+ websites and 100+ certified partners, it helps organizations like Princeton University and the State of Iowa achieve unified, scalable, and accessible content platforms.
5. Squarespace
Struggling with content chaos and limited design options?
Squarespace provides an all-in-one content management system (CMS) that simplifies website creation and content hosting.
This means you can easily create, publish, and manage all your content with industry-leading website templates and intuitive tools. It addresses the challenge of balancing customization and user-friendliness.
Here’s your content solution!
Squarespace solves this by offering diverse website templates adaptable for any purpose, from portfolios to online stores. This allows you to start with a flexible design and customize it to fit your unique style.
Additionally, its drag-and-drop website builder means you don’t need any coding experience, simplifying content updates and site management. You can also leverage AI tools to generate personalized website copy and designs, reducing manual effort and accelerating content velocity. Plus, built-in marketing tools, including SEO and email campaigns, help grow your audience and optimize content reach.
The result is scalable content operations and measurable ROI.
If you’re also exploring ways to integrate content from your audience, my article on user generated content platforms can help.
Key features:
- Intuitive Website Builder: Design and manage your site without coding using a simple drag-and-drop interface and customizable templates, ideal for content updates.
- Integrated Marketing Tools: Utilize built-in SEO tools, social media integrations, and email campaigns to promote your content and engage your audience effectively.
- Comprehensive Content Management: Easily publish and manage diverse content, including blogs and membership content, with analytics to track performance and visitor engagement.
Learn more about Squarespace features, pricing, & alternatives →
Verdict: Squarespace is a strong choice for businesses seeking a user-friendly and visually appealing best content management software. Its robust templates, integrated AI tools, and comprehensive marketing capabilities help streamline content operations, reduce manual effort, and ensure a professional online presence without needing technical expertise.
6. Wix
Struggling to centralize your content and streamline operations?
Wix helps you overcome these challenges with intuitive website design features and over 900 customizable templates.
This means you can create a professional, business-ready website quickly, avoiding the complex technical hurdles often associated with building an online presence.
Ready to simplify your content management?
Wix empowers you to build an impactful online presence, ensuring your content is effectively managed and distributed. This means you can create engaging blogs to grow your community and drive traffic, or showcase your work with a professional online portfolio, all from one place.
You can also run your entire business from a single dashboard, managing everything from eCommerce sales and scheduling appointments to customer relationships with their CRM system. Additionally, built-in SEO tools help you optimize your content for search engines, and AI-generated email marketing campaigns allow for targeted promotion. Plus, with enterprise-grade security and reliable web hosting, your content is always secure.
The result is a unified platform that accelerates content velocity.
Before diving deeper, you might find my analysis of best content audit tools helpful for optimizing your content.
Key features:
- Intuitive Website Design: Create and customize your website using a drag-and-drop editor and AI tools, allowing quick deployment of new content without coding expertise.
- Integrated Business Solutions: Manage your content alongside eCommerce, scheduling, customer relationships (CRM), and marketing features, centralizing operations and reducing manual effort.
- Robust SEO and Analytics: Optimize your content for search engines with built-in tools and gain actionable insights from website analytics to drive data-driven content strategies.
Learn more about Wix features, pricing, & alternatives →
Verdict: Wix is an excellent choice for Marketing Directors and Content Managers seeking the best content management software that balances robust features with user-friendliness, enabling scalable content operations and measurable productivity gains.
7. Contentful
Is content chaos slowing your marketing efforts? Contentful offers a unified source for all your content, taking the stress out of managing and delivering personalized experiences. This means you can move marketing campaigns faster than ever before.
Contentful’s platform helps your team avoid the “wild copy+paste goose chase” by centralizing content. You can manage and update content across every channel from one hub. This makes it easy to deliver consistent, on-brand experiences without scattered tools.
Here’s how to work smarter.
Contentful solves content management challenges by delivering AI-driven digital experiences from a unified source. You can create and localize content within your brand guidelines quickly. This helps you personalize for every audience, channel, and region within the same interface.
The platform enables you to orchestrate consistent, on-brand experiences across websites, apps, and email, making it simple to manage content for multiple brands and markets. Additionally, you can measure and optimize performance at the component level, gaining a granular view of insights to continuously improve without slowing down. The result is content that works harder, so you can work smarter.
Get your content to convert!
Key features:
- Modular Content Architecture: Easily reuse, remix, and roll out content components across multiple channels, brands, and regions, accelerating marketing campaigns and ensuring consistency.
- AI-Powered Personalization & Automation: Leverage native AI for on-brand copy generation, audience insights, experimentation suggestions, and streamlined content workflows without developer assistance.
- Centralized Content Management Hub: Manage and update all your content from a single source, ensuring consistent, on-brand experiences across websites, apps, and more, eliminating chaos.
Learn more about Contentful features, pricing, & alternatives →
Verdict: Contentful’s modular content, AI capabilities, and centralized management make it an ideal choice for the best content management software, especially for teams seeking scalable content operations. It helps drive higher omnichannel engagement and measurable ROI through accelerated content velocity.
Conclusion
Ready to fix your content workflow?
Choosing the right CMS can be overwhelming. You’re looking for a platform that balances powerful customization with user-friendliness to truly streamline your operations.
The right choice makes a huge impact. A recent report revealed that 65% of Google search results are enabled through CMS adoption. That’s a massive visibility boost your small business simply can’t afford to miss.
So, what’s my top pick?
After reviewing all the options, WordPress.org stands out. It perfectly balances powerful flexibility and intuitive design, solving that core challenge for any growing business.
While a CMS helps manage your content, it also relies on robust data infrastructure. For deep insights, my article on best database management system covers essential tools.
Its intuitive block editor and extensive plugin library give you total control. I believe it’s the best content management software for building a scalable site without a developer.
I highly recommend you visit the WordPress website to see how you can start building your new site for free.
You’ll gain full control and scalability.
