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Selecting the best content management system (CMS) for your requirements is essential since engaging and delighting website users is becoming increasingly dependent on high-quality digital content.
It’s likely that you’ve discovered Joomla after some investigation. Approximately 2% of websites currently utilize the well-known Joomla content management system (CMS). It’s easy to understand why: Joomla is free and strikes a good compromise between being user-friendly for novices and flexible for seasoned developers. Joomla can be used to create a website for almost anything, given a dedicated team and a few extra extensions.
Despite these advantages, Joomla might not be the best choice for your online endeavors. While some website owners might like to use a website builder so they don’t have to worry about technical aspects like hosting, others might desire even greater control over their assets and publishing.
Thankfully, there are lots of additional tools available that support various website kinds and degrees of expertise. We’ll examine some of the top paid and free Joomla substitutes in this post so you may publish the material you’re proud of on a website that gets a lot of traffic.
Improve Your Website with the Free CMS Software from HubSpot
What is Joomla?
Joomla! is a free content management system (CMS) that may be used to store, organize, and publish digital information. Joomla was introduced in 2005 and is now the second most popular content management system (CMS) behind WordPress. It is praised for its functionality and versatility.
Crucially, Joomla is open-source software, which allows anybody to view and alter the PHP source code.
Because of the thousands of free and commercial third-party extensions that have been created to improve the CMS’s capabilities, Joomla is now a strong option for websites in any area.
However, no CMS is ideal for everyone, even Joomla. The tool may have a steep learning curve for non-programmers, and some developers may prefer using an alternative open-source solution. Some people might think a fully hosted platform is preferable to a system like Joomla since it’s too basic.
Whatever your motivation, there are other options available. Let’s examine a few of the top ones.
Alternatives for Joomla
Drupal Content Hub WordPress
Shopify
Magento Online Store
Square footage
Wix Webly TYPO3 Content Hub
- Content Center
The content platform from HubSpot with an integrated content management system is called Content Hub. It’s a one-stop shop for creating and maintaining any kind of blog, online store, or organizational website. Content Hub is the only product on our list with a native CRM, designed with marketers in mind. All visitor actions on your Content Hub website are synchronized with HubSpot CRM, enabling easy lead generation and reporting.
In terms of page development, Content Hub is built around a drag-and-drop interface that lets you create beautiful websites without knowing any code. All you have to do is select a template and add your content to it. A global CDN, hosting, integrated security features, SEO tools, and unmatched customer service are all included.
Additionally, Content Hub is designed to work in tandem with other HubSpot technologies that enhance your marketing strategy, such as live chat, marketing automation, and call-to-actions (CTAs). You can accomplish everything in one location without having to look for third-party addons or switch between apps. Finally, for more specialized functionality, HubSpot collaborates with specific third-party apps that you may link with your HubSpot portal.
There are three pricing tiers for Content Hub: Starter, which costs $25 per month, Professional, which costs $500 per month (paid annually), and Enterprise, which costs $1500 per month (billed yearly). Content Hub free is another version that is offered without charge.
- WordPress
With WordPress powering almost a third of websites, it scarcely need an introduction. Initially introduced as a blogging platform, this open-source, free content management system has become the go-to free CMS for any web property. Nevertheless, WordPress works particularly well for online journals with lots of information, such as blogs and news websites.
Managing content is made easy with WordPress. You can use it to organize pages and articles using tags and categories, change the look of your site with a theme, and create layouts with its drag-and-drop block editor. By enabling site owners to designate various user roles according to permissions, WordPress also aids with team management. You don’t need to be a programmer to accomplish any of this; just be aware that you will be in charge of locating hosting and setting up security yourself.
Nevertheless, WordPress’s true strength is found in its plugins, which are app extensions that improve the functioning of your CMS. More than 50,000 WordPress plugins are available for free or purchase, and new ones are being added daily. Plugins can be used to enhance your SEO, add dynamic page components, or even transform your whole website into a community or store.
WordPress CMS pricing: It is free to use.
- Drupal
Drupal is the second most popular option available if you feel Joomla to be too restrictive and would prefer to have more control over the CMS for your website. This open-source, free content management system (CMS) was created by developers for developers, and to fully utilize its features, it requires knowledge of HTML, CSS, and PHP. It is more code-oriented than WordPress or even Joomla. For non-developers, this entails a far higher learning curve
Nonetheless, the system can be fully utilized by people who are prepared to embrace the programming aspect of things. With the backing of a thriving developer community, Drupal offers robust built-in features, security, more than 44,000 free third-party extensions, and thousands of free themes. Since everything is adjustable, you can create the precise website you like.
Just a quick note: If you’re interested in learning more about these top CMSs, we also offer a thorough comparison of Content Hub, WordPress, Drupal, and Joomla.
Cost: Drupal is provided without charge.
- The Shopify
It’s likely that those in the online retail industry are familiar with Shopify, a fully hosted ecommerce platform. You’ll get ecommerce capabilities like inventory management tools, multi-currency payment processing, and the option to sell products on other marketplaces like Amazon built right into your account as Shopify is all about online sales.
Shopify promises to provide everything you need to expand your online store in one place. It will host your website, offer security features like an SSL certificate, do routine website backups, and grant you access to thousands of app extensions to make up for any holes in your website.
Though there isn’t as much choice as with content management systems like WordPress, you can still customize your pages with over 100 free and premium themes for aesthetics. Even so, a better specialized e-commerce solution is hard to come by than this one.
Cost: There are three primary Shopify plans that are available: Basic Shopify ($29 per month), Shopify ($79 per month), and Advanced Shopify ($299 per month). Additionally, there is Shopify Plus for businesses and Shopify Lite for just $9 a month.
- Online store Magento
Similar to Drupal more than Shopify, Magento Commerce is a specialized e-commerce platform that allows you to customize your online store to meet your specific requirements if you know how to code or have access to a development team. Shopify, however, might be more suitable for you if you’re more concerned with the marketing aspect of your company and lack the necessary technical know-how.
However, Magento Commerce is a paid cloud e-commerce system, just as Shopify. It will take care of security and hosting, and use a CDN and image optimization to keep your sites loading quickly. You can add almost any feature you want to your store, such as comparison tables, coupons, product tiers and suggestions, and payment processing. Even more, you can use a single Magento to handle numerous online stores.
The extension marketplace, which has over 5000 products, can handle anything that Magento cannot handle on its own, such as adding a CRM or live chat. Since this method can be expensive if you use several extensions, we advise you to investigate the ones you plan to use.
Pricing: For details on prices, get in touch with sales.
- Square-space
Another one that you may be familiar with is Squarespace, a well-known website builder targeted at novice website owners seeking a simple fix. Squarespace’s no-code approach is well-suited for anyone seeking to quickly develop their online presence. It allows you to create, customize, and maintain your assets all in one location, eliminating the need to worry about sophisticated hosting, security, or mobile optimization issues. All of this is managed by Squarespace for a comparatively cheap monthly fee.
To be more precise, Squarespace’s page builder interface allows for both simple and complicated layouts and organizes page items using content blocks. There are numerous page templates that are designed for mobile devices, so you also won’t have to worry about starting from scratch. Additionally, native SEO and analytics tools will help you, enabling you to keep an eye on things.
As previously said, Squarespace is ideal for novice website owners and people who might lack the time or funds to manage a sizable website. Because of this, certain users might encounter platform limits; otherwise, Squarespace offers only what it appears to be. If you’re wanting to establish a highly customized website, think about your options. Conversely, Squarespace works well for portfolios, blogs, informational websites, and basic e-commerce.
Squarespace has four pricing plans: Basic Commerce ($26 per month), Advanced Commerce ($40 per month), Business ($18 per month), and Personal ($12 per month). Additionally, there is the enterprise solution Squarespace Select.
- Wix
Wix, another website builder that offers hosting, security, SEO capabilities, and an easy-to-use page builder, is frequently contrasted with Squarespace. Its monthly cost is also comparable. But the more than 300 different add-ons available in Wix’s app store set it apart from Squarespace. Though it isn’t as sophisticated as WordPress or Drupal, there are still many of integrations to work with and you won’t have to worry about your site’s technical details.
Wix is renowned for its drag-and-drop editor, which enables you to quickly create a website by customizing any of its more than 500 templates. Alternatively, you can use HTML and CSS to create your pages from scratch. Wix also includes helpful tips for online sales, which is a fantastic bonus for start-up companies.
Combo ($14 per month), Unlimited ($18 per month), Pro ($23 per month), and VIP ($39 per month) are the four pricing tiers that Wix offers. In addition, it provides an enterprise solution, customized business and e-commerce solutions, and a free plan with ads.
- Weebly
Weebly, the final specialized e-commerce website builder on our list, is perfect for store owners on a smaller budget because its plans are less expensive than those of Shopify and Magento, and there’s even an initial (ad-supported) free option.
You will, however, lose out on Weebly in comparison to other solutions. Compared to its rivals, the functionality is rather limited, but it still has the essential features that all online retailers require, such as shopping carts, inventory control, gift cards and coupons, and the ability to offer digital goods. Look through Weebly’s app store to see if there is anything you need. Additionally, your pages will be automatically optimized for mobile devices, and the page editor is user-friendly.
Cost: Weebly has three premium categories that are payable annually: Personal ($6 per month), Professional ($14 per month), and Performance ($26 per month). For basic sites, there’s also a free plan with ads.
- TYPO3
TYPO3 is a free, open-source, enterprise-level content management system (CMS) for those who want to go all in. It is designed to be used by large company marketing and development teams, and it can deploy extremely complex websites and multisites that need fine control over appearance and operation.
TYPO3 has strong capabilities that are useful for both marketers and developers. It comes with a toolkit for marketers that includes complex user roles and permissions, SEO tools, language translation, and the ability to generate and arrange media and digital assets across distribution channels. Similar to other open-source content management systems, TYPO3 enables you to delegate a lot of the laborious tasks to third-party extensions; hundreds are available in the extension repository.
In conclusion, give TYPO3 some thought if you’re prepared to invest a lot of time and energy into learning one of the most flexible CMSs available.
The cost of TYPO3 CMS is nothing.
- Satisfied
One thing unites all of the content management systems and website builders we’ve examined in this post: they’re website-oriented, which means they combine front-end publishing capabilities and back-end content management features on one platform. These technologies are ultimately used to create a website. However, what happens if you wish to share content via other platforms outside websites, such as mobile apps, display ads, and smart devices? Can that be handled by a conventional CMS?
Here’s when a headless CMS can come in quite handy. A headless content management system eliminates front-end publishing tools, or the “head,” and concentrates only on the content management component. Through an application programming interface (API), a headless CMS makes its content available. Put another way, this enables developers to create custom publishing apps that “ask” the headless CMS for material. Businesses can more easily maintain all of their content in one location and distribute it to any digital channel by using this “headless” strategy.
CMS solutions that are “traditional” just cannot.
Contentful has three pricing tiers: Community, which is free, Team, which is $489 per month, and Enterprise, which requires contacting sales.
One example of a headless CMS is Contentful. This enterprise cloud tool is regarded as one of the best available. Developers may handle the distribution aspect of things with it, while marketers and editors can manage content via the service. A headless CMS like Contentful supports distribution options that many “traditional” CMS solutions just cannot; it’s a more difficult procedure to integrate into your plan.
Contentful has three pricing tiers: Community, which is free, Team, which is $489 per month, and Enterprise, which requires contacting sales.
There Are Options Available
One thing is for sure: there is no lack of software and tools available to assist you with publishing your website and organizing your material. The all-in-one Content Hub, hosted options like Squarespace and Shopify, and free open-source CMSs like WordPress and Drupal are among them. To prevent any significant disruptions or software changes in the future, it is worthwhile to take some time to carefully consider your alternatives before making any significant decisions.
If you’re still unsure about what to look for in a content management system, consult our list of crucial features for a CMS to get some ideas and consider these while making your selection. The extra work up front will be more than offset by a CMS that best meets your needs.
