CMS vs Website Builder: Pros and Cons of Content Management Systems & Website Builders

CMSs and website builders are two of the most common options when it comes to making a website. But there is still confusion about what those terms mean.

Both allow you to quickly and easily create a website using templates and standard content blocks, but the distinction is usually the amount of content they are designed to handle.

As the name implies, a content management system is designed to handle a lot of content. Think of a news site, web store, or blog. Whereas a website builder is meant to create an evergreen website, more like a brochure that gives important details about a business, organization, or person.

Not sure which to choose, CMS vs website builder? Let’s explore the benefits of both tools, compare the pros and cons of each, and outline where each one shines. Plus, we’ll help you pick the right tool for your needs.

What Is a Content Management System?

A Content Management System (CMS) is a software platform that allows users to create, manage, and modify content on a website without needing specialized technical knowledge like coding. It provides an easy-to-use interface and tools for publishing, editing, and organizing web content, making it accessible to individuals and businesses without extensive web development expertise.

A CMS empowers users to create, manage, and expand their websites efficiently and cost-effectively. Its customization options, scalability, and collaborative features make it an indispensable tool for businesses, organizations, and individuals looking to establish and maintain a robust online presence.

Key features include:

1. User-Friendly Interface: Most CMS platforms offer a graphical interface that simplifies tasks like writing and editing content, uploading media, and arranging page layouts.
2. Themes and Templates: Pre-designed templates allow users to create professional-looking websites quickly, with minimal design experience.
3. Content Editing Tools: WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editors let users create and format content visually.
4. Media Management: Easily upload, organize, and display images, videos, and other media files.
5. Extensions and Plugins: Add-ons or plugins can extend the functionality of a CMS, such as integrating eCommerce features, SEO tools, or contact forms.
6. Role-Based Access: Assign different levels of access to users, such as editors, contributors, or administrators.
7. SEO Tools: Many CMS platforms include built-in or add-on tools to help optimize content for search engines.

Whether you’re building a personal blog, an online store, or a corporate website, a CMS is a powerful tool to streamline the process and maintain control over your content.

Content management systems are ideal for anyone looking to share web content regularly like bloggers, news sites, and web stores.

Popular CMS Examples:

1. WordPress: The most widely used CMS, known for its flexibility and a large ecosystem of plugins and themes.
2. Joomla!: A robust CMS for creating complex websites with a focus on flexibility and user management.
3. Drupal: Ideal for high-performance websites that require advanced functionality and customization.

What Are the Benefits of Using a CMS?

A Content Management System (CMS) offers numerous advantages, making it a preferred choice for individuals and organizations managing websites. These benefits extend from saving time and money to enhancing collaboration and scalability, all while providing a customizable framework for creating and managing online content.

One of the primary benefits of a CMS is its efficiency. It allows users to create and manage website content quickly without needing extensive coding knowledge. Whether you are publishing a new blog post, updating product information, or rearranging page layouts, the user-friendly interface streamlines the process, saving valuable time for both individuals and teams.

Another significant advantage is cost-effectiveness. With a CMS, businesses can reduce their reliance on web developers for routine updates or changes. This autonomy not only lowers maintenance costs but also enables faster implementation of updates, ensuring the website remains current and relevant.

A CMS also offers excellent scalability, making it suitable for websites of all sizes. Users can start with a simple setup and gradually expand their site by adding more pages, features, or functionalities as their needs grow. This flexibility ensures that the CMS evolves alongside the user’s requirements without requiring a complete overhaul.

Customization is another key feature of a CMS. With a wide array of themes, templates, and plugins available, users can tailor their websites to align with their brand identity and specific needs. These customization options make it possible to create unique websites that stand out while maintaining a consistent and professional appearance.

Finally, a CMS promotes collaboration by enabling teams to work together on content creation and management. With role-based access controls, multiple users can contribute to the site while maintaining a clear division of responsibilities. For example, content writers can focus on producing articles, while administrators manage website settings, ensuring a seamless and efficient workflow.

What Is a Website Builder?

A website builder is a tool or platform that simplifies the process of creating and designing websites without requiring technical expertise in coding or web development. Website builders typically feature drag-and-drop interfaces and pre-designed templates, making it easy for individuals and businesses to build professional-looking websites quickly.

A powerful tool that combines simplicity, affordability, and functionality, a website builder is ideal for those who want to quickly establish an online presence without investing heavily in technical skills, time, or resources.

Key features include:

1. Drag-and-Drop Editor: Users can drag and drop elements (e.g., images, text boxes, videos) onto a page to create their desired layout.
2. Templates and Themes: Offers a library of pre-designed templates that cater to different industries and styles, allowing users to start with a solid design foundation.
3. Customization Options: Users can easily edit templates to match their brand, including colors, fonts, and layouts.
4. Integrated Features: Built-in tools for SEO, contact forms, social media integration, and analytics.
5. Responsive Design: Ensures websites look and function well on various devices, including desktops, tablets, and smartphones.
6. Ease of Use: No coding skills are required, making it accessible for beginners.

Builders allow you to quickly design and layout your website and is usually meant for smaller sites, typically one to five pages. While still powerful, they are usually not meant to support lots of content like blogs or product listings.

They are best suited for sites where the content does not change often and does not rely on new content being posted frequently. However, some site builders now include eCommerce and blogging features, making them more of a content management system.

What Are the Benefits of Using a Website Builder?

A website builder is an excellent tool for individuals and businesses seeking a fast, simple, and cost-effective way to create and manage a professional website. With intuitive interfaces and pre-designed templates, website builders offer a range of benefits that make them accessible to users with little to no technical experience.

One of the most significant advantages of using a website builder is its ease of use. Most website builders are designed for beginners, featuring drag-and-drop editors and visual interfaces that allow users to create websites without writing any code. This simplicity means anyone can build a fully functional and visually appealing website in a short amount of time.

Speed is another key benefit. Website builders streamline the entire process of creating a website, from choosing a domain and hosting to designing and launching the site. Pre-designed templates eliminate the need for creating layouts from scratch, allowing users to go live with their site in hours or days rather than weeks.

Website builders are also highly cost-effective, particularly for small businesses or individuals with limited budgets. They often bundle hosting, domain registration, and design tools into a single package, reducing the need to purchase and manage these services separately. This all-in-one approach simplifies budgeting and minimizes upfront costs.

Another major advantage is customization. Website builders typically offer a wide selection of templates and themes that can be tailored to suit your brand. From color schemes and fonts to page layouts and multimedia elements, users can create a unique online presence while maintaining professional aesthetics.

Many website builders also come with built-in features and tools that enhance functionality. These can include SEO tools, analytics, social media integration, and customer support options. Such features make it easy to add functionality without requiring additional plugins or technical expertise.

For those concerned about mobile usability, website builders often provide responsive design options. This ensures that websites look and perform well across devices, including desktops, tablets, and smartphones, providing a seamless user experience.

Lastly, website builders are designed to be maintenance-friendly. With automatic updates, secure hosting, and integrated support, users don’t need to worry about backend technicalities. The platforms handle much of the upkeep, allowing users to focus on their content and business goals.

Types of Website Builders

From standalone website builders to eCommerce builders, there are a variety of website builder tools. We have loosely grouped the main types of builders into the following three categories. However, this is only meant to give you an overview of the tools that are available.

If you are thinking of using a site builder, especially a subscription tool, we strongly recommend you compare the pros, cons, and costs associated with them. They are certainly convenient, but they are often more expensive than traditional web hosting.

Offline Site Builders

Offline builders are software tools you install to your computer, allowing you to design your own website based on a number of templates or content modules. Once you finish your site, you publish the files and need to upload them to your website. However, these tools only allow you to design your site. You need to purchase your domain and web hosting separately to put your site online. Offline builders usually cost a one-time flat rate and you can use the tool as often as you like.

Online Site Builders

Online builders are web-based applications that allow you to design your site through a web interface. Then you can either download the site files or even publish them directly to your site from the app. Some online tools charge a flat rate per page or per layout, while others charge a monthyl subscription. Like offline builders, you need to purchase your domain name and web hosting services separately. Offline and online site builders are sometimes called self-hosted site builders because your need to host your site yourself.

Hosted Site Builders

Hosted builders include web hosting along with the tools to create your website. This allows you to layout your website and immediately publish it to the web. This streamlines the process of getting your site online, removing the step of uploading it to your hosting account. However, hosted builders typically charge more than standard web hosting fees. These subscription sites often come with a free domain for the first year. Yearly domain renewal costs are usually higher than registering and renewing a domain separately. From higher hosting costs to more expensive domain renewals, you are paying more for the convenience of a turn-key website solution.

Hosted eCommerce Builders

eCommerce builders allow you to sell products from a website. They include most if not all of the same features of a hosted builder with the added benefit of being able to sell products. While you can customize the fonts, colors, and images of your site, you are usually limited in how many customizations you can make to the overall layout. In addition to including monthly hosting, these sites also serve as the payment gateway for your products. A paymen gateway charges you for processing the transation, usually a fixed, flat fee plus a small percentage of the product cost. Hosted eCommerce sites tend to charge more per transaction that other payment gateways. Again, this is because they offer the convenience of being able to easily setup your web storefront.

CMS vs Website Builder: How Are They Similar?

Content Management Systems (CMS) and Website Builders share several similarities, as both are tools designed to simplify the process of creating and managing websites. However, they cater to slightly different user needs.

Here’s a breakdown of their similarities:

1. No Coding Required: Both platforms enable users to build websites without requiring coding skills, making them accessible to non-technical users.
2. Templates and Themes: Offer pre-designed templates or themes to help users create aesthetically pleasing websites quickly and easily.
3. User-Friendly Interfaces: Both typically feature intuitive dashboards or editors that simplify tasks like adding text, images, and media.
4. Plugins and Add-Ons: Both often support additional tools or integrations (e.g., SEO tools, eCommerce functionality) to extend the platform’s capabilities.
5. Responsive Design: Help users create websites optimized for various devices, including desktops, tablets, and smartphones.
6. SEO Features: Include basic or advanced tools to optimize website content for search engines, improving discoverability.
7. Support for Media: Both allow users to upload and manage multimedia content like images, videos, and audio.

The lines between CMS vs website builder have blurred recently, with many builders adding blogging and eCommerce functionality. Some builders even allow plugins, one of the popular features of CMSs.

But if there are so many similarities between a CMS vs website builder, why does it matter? Well, the key issue comes down to the amount of content you need to manage. A content management system is designed to easily manage content, while website builders are meant to build a static site.

That’s not to suggest you can’t update the content in a web builder – you absolutely can do that. However, builders are best suited to minor updates to existing content. For example, you update your business hours, add a new certification, or link to a new social media account.

 

The Pros and Cons of Using a Website Builder

So far, you may have gotten the impression that CMSs are a better option than website builders. However, the solution you should choose depends on what you’re looking for. Let’s take a look at some of the pros of using website builders:

• They’re easy to use: This is the main selling point of website builders. To be fair, a lot of the popular options beat most CMSs handily in this area.
• You can find both hosted and self-hosted options: Whether you’d like to pick your own hosting provider or not, chances are you’ll find a website builder that suits you just fine.
• You can get a website up and running quickly: If you just need to put together a simple website, these types of tools can enable you to streamline the process and avoid fiddling with too many settings.

As far as negatives go, the there are two main problems with website builders:

• They lack features: While some hosted options offer robust features, most tools are lacking when it comes to options and scalability. That means it’s a lot harder to develop larger or more complicated sites.
• Hosted options cost more: Since you are paying for the ease and convenience, you can expect to pay more for hosted website builders. In comparison, most CMSs are free and open-sourced and separate web hosting fees are much more competitive.

That’s not to say that site builders don’t have their place. Just that you should consider your options and all the costs before making a decision.

The Pros and Cons of Using a CMS

In comparison, CMSs usually provide you with far more features than website builders. However, that’s not all they offer. Let’s go through the pros of using a CMS, one by one:

• They are usually free & open-source: Most CMSs are designed by a community with no direct upfront costs. There is a robust community of developers, designers, and strategiests there to help you achieve your website goals. But that’s not to suggest they are totally free. You still need to pay for a domain name and hosting. And there are some other costs to consider too. More on that in a minute.
• You can extend their functionality easily: Almost every CMS includes an extension or plugin system that enables you to add extra features with ease. Plus, you can outright customize the platform to your needs if it’s an open-source solution. While there are free plugins, most of the best ones use a freemium model. You can get the basic features free, but the more advanced ones come with a subscription fee.
• Themes enable you to create stylish websites faster: Most CMSs include their own theme features and easy to use design tools. Most alson have a catelogue of theme options you can easily select and install on your site. Like plugins, most are available free but require a subscription to unlock all the features.

But everything has a downside, even CMSs.

• Steeper learning curve: Most CMSs are relatively user-friendly, but they are still robust content management systems. And that means it can time some time to learn how to do certain things with them. While cdertain themes or plugins can simplify the learning process, they often come with added fees.
• They require regular updates and maintenace: CMSs are software. And means you need to keep your software update. The process is, usually, as simple as clicking a single button. But it is still something you need to keep track of. In contrast, hosted site builders handle all the updates themselves. It is worth noting that most CMSs allow you to turn on automatic updates that keep you software up to date automatically.

Again, you should weigh the pros and cons of a CMS vs website builder be making a decision.

CMS vs Website Builder: How to Decide Which Is Right for You?

When comparing a Content Management System (CMS) and a website builder, you need to go beyond the surface-level features and consider how each platform fits with your specific needs. Here are some key points to help your decide CMS vs website builder:

Target Audience and Use Cases

• CMS: Ideal for businesses, developers, or users with technical knowledge or access to developers. Suitable for websites requiring complex functionality, extensive customization, or long-term scalability (e.g., blogs, enterprise sites, eCommerce platforms).
• Website Builder: Best for individuals, small businesses, or hobbyists who want to quickly create a simple, visually appealing website without technical expertise.

Flexibility and Customization

• CMS: Offers more flexibility with access to the underlying code, allowing users to build highly customized websites. Plugins and integrations extend functionality significantly.
• Website Builder: Customization is limited to the options provided within the platform. While templates and drag-and-drop tools make it easy to personalize a site, there are restrictions compared to CMS platforms.

Ease of Use

• CMS: Generally involves a steeper learning curve, especially for users who need to set up hosting, manage updates, or troubleshoot issues. However, this can be mitigated by managed CMS hosting.
• Website Builder: Extremely user-friendly, with intuitive interfaces designed for non-technical users. It provides an all-in-one solution for creating and maintaining a site.

Scalability

• CMS: Highly scalable and suitable for growing businesses or websites with increasing traffic. Users can add new features, pages, or functionalities as needed.
• Website Builder: Limited scalability; it works well for small websites but may struggle to handle high traffic or complex functionalities without requiring a migration to a CMS.

Cost Structure

• CMS: Initial costs may be lower if using free software like WordPress, but additional expenses for premium themes and plugins can add up.
• Website Builder: Often includes hosting, domain registration, and design tools in a single subscription package, making budgeting straightforward. However, advanced features may require higher-tier plans.

Performance and Speed

• CMS: Performance depends on the hosting provider and site optimization. Users have control over speed improvements but must implement them manually (e.g., caching, content delivery networks).
• Website Builder: Performance is generally optimized by the platform, but users have less control over advanced speed enhancements.

Ownership and Portability

• CMS: Websites built with a CMS offer greater ownership of the content and data. Users can switch hosting providers or migrate the site as needed.
• Website Builder: Websites are often tied to the platform, making it difficult or impossible to migrate the site elsewhere without rebuilding it from scratch.

Security

• CMS: Security is the user’s responsibility unless using a managed hosting service. Users must install updates, monitor vulnerabilities, and configure backups.
• Website Builder: The platform typically manages security, including updates and backups, reducing the user’s workload.

Integrations and Add-Ons

• CMS: Offers a vast ecosystem of plugins, themes, and integrations for third-party tools, providing unmatched flexibility.
• Website Builder: Limited integrations and add-ons compared to a CMS. Features are often restricted to those built into the platform.

Long-Term Considerations

• CMS: A great choice for users with long-term goals who need a website that can adapt to evolving business or personal needs.
• Website Builder: Better suited for users with short-term goals or straightforward requirements, such as a portfolio or event website.

CMS vs Website Builder: The A2 Hosting Round Up

By now, you should have a solid understanding of which kinds of websites can benefit most from each type of tool. Let’s take a moment to sum everything up, to help you make a better decision:

• Website builders. Despite not offering as many features as a CMS, website builders pack more than enough functionality these days for simple websites. A quality website builder offers more than enough features to set up a quality brochure website. This includes a resume site, a page for your brick & mortar business or food truck, or small site for your organization. However, make sure you compare the cost of a hosted site builder to other website hosting options to avoid paying too much.
• CMSs: On the other hand, CMSs offer a broad range of features and customization options. Some, like WordPress, can be adapted to power almost any type of website, whereas others are more specialized (such as Magento for eCommerce). If you have big plans for your website and don’t want to limit yourself in terms of functionality, using a CMS is the way to go. You’ll just have to invest a little more time in learning the platform and setting up your site. Although they are usually free, you need to be aware of freemium plugins and themes that require monthyl or yearly subscriptions to unlock all of the features.

Whether a content management system or a website builder is the best choice for you, A2 Hosting has cost-effective Web Hosting options available. Get started with CMS Hosting for less than $5 per month with current insentives and choose from any of the popular content management systems. Or add our Site Builder to any Web Hosting plan for about the same amount. Plus, you get our ultra-reliable web hosting with premium hardware for the best speeds and performance. All backed by our no-risk money-back guarantee and our 24/7/365 in-house customer support. Take a look at our Drupal Hosting, Joomla Hosting, or WordPress Hosting or compare all of our web hosting plans now.

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