What is a Content Management System (CMS)?
Content Management System (CMS) is a platform for website owners to modify, create and rectify the digital content and functionalities on a website. CMS is used to avoid the coding language and perform changes to the website without coding as the platform presents the backend of the website to the owners through a management interface that can be operated by any person.
There are various CMS providers in the market with WordPress as the leading CMS platform for websites. CMS stores the data of the website and renders it in front of the website managers in a template-based form of the website. When developing a new website the design team creates all the necessary interfaces and connects them in the CMS to tie the user entry fields to specific page elements. The CSS of the page is used to control the output and flexibility of the variable content in the page template
CMS is so popular because there are many benefits of having a proper CMS for your website. Some of the benefits are mentioned below:
1) Low maintenance cost of the website
2) Faster content publishing
3) No dependency on coders for changing content on the website
4) It provides an opportunity to scale up your website
5) Helps in optimizing the website for SEO
Especially for an eCommerce website, where you have multiple products and you always require a system to add or remove products from the website. Many CMS systems are there exclusively for e-commerce websites and the most popular one is the Headless CMS for eCommerce. If you own an eCommerce website then you must check headless commerce.
How Does a CMS work?
A CMS consists of two major components - CMA and CDA. The content management application (CMA) enables the different non-coders to interact and change the content if required without involving any coding help. On the other hand, the content delivery application (CDA) transforms the content entered in CMS into templated that are presented on the website to the website visitors.
Some Popular Content Management Systems
You have unlimited options to choose as your CMS for your website but here we have enlisted some of the leading content management systems that are popular among the website owners due to their enhanced capabilities.
1) WordPress: WordPress is the most famous CMS platform in the world right now by a big margin. The usage statistics and market share of WordPress reported that WordPress now powers more than 38% of all websites on the Internet. That’s nearly 60% of all websites!
WordPress is not limited to some sort of blogging anymore. It has evolved over the years and has now evolved to a fully-enabled CMS platform for website owners.
2) Wix: Wix has been in the industry in recent years and has immensely received great popularity as an easy-to-use website builder and CMS. It is much less complexed in comparison to WordPress and is easier to use for non-coders. But it doesn't have many capabilities and functionalities when compared to WordPress.
3) Joomla: Joomla gets its name from a Swahili word meaning “all together,” which is a reference to the platform’s community of open-source developers.
Joomla is still somewhat difficult for the non-coders as it is more focused on developers. But, it provides a lot more customization for the developers which they are unable to find in WordPress.
4) Headless CMS: The headless CMS for eCommerce is a trending and new solution for many websites and this CMS is basically very easy to use and is most appropriate for websites because headless means a decoupled development environment. Here the backend is decoupled with the front-end and the web pages are prepared in a pre-rendered form and stored on the server with the help of APIs. This is the most used CMS and is considered to be the next big thing in website development as it helps in creating websites that are more scalable, secure, fast, and easy to manage.
Which CMS to choose?
Choosing a CMS is dependent on a lot of factors but considering that you have an eCommerce website then a headless eCommerce solution i.e. headless CMS would be the best choice as it will help you in getting more online sales and visitors than any other CMS would.
So, by now you might have understood the concept of content management systems and why they are so important for website owners these days. Hope this article helps you in choosing the right CMS for your website.
How Static Site Generators are different from CMS?
Static site generators are based on the latest JAMstack framework of web development that has been introduced recently and has disrupted the whole development ecosystem. So, you must be wondering how these static site generators are different from the traditional CMS and why people have moved to them for their business websites.
Well, it's all due to the benefits of headless web development and the way it has been shaping the headless commerce industry with its long-lasting benefits.
In today's times, no one likes to wait and that is why business owners need to have websites that are fast and immediately cater to their customer's requests and queries.
What is a static site generator?
Let's first try and understand what are static site generators basically.
So, a static website means that the developers build a web page that is stored as it is on the server and it is deployed to the user as it is on user requests. Whereas, a dynamic website is handled by a CMS that fetches data from the database and presents that on a web page on user requests. The web page is not stored as it is on the server.
So, the static site generators decouple the front end from the backend and store the web pages in a pre-rendered form on the server. This makes it very developer-friendly, fast, secure, scalable, and highly customizable for the developers.
Why CMS is not safe anymore?
CMS-powered websites have become very popular now and the popularity is even among hackers and due to the familiarity with the plugins and everything, the cyberattacks on these websites have increased to another level.
WP WhiteSecurity detects, for instance, 2,407 WordPress core, plugin, and theme vulnerabilities that users must constantly contend with – and the number is growing all the time. ITPRO reports that 90% of hacked CMS sites in 2018 were powered by WordPress, though sites powered by other CMS systems – including Drupal and Joomla – are also fraught with vulnerabilities.
Other than speed, there are many issues with a CMS-powered website because in CMS, the website is compiled after interaction with the backend and the data and that is what makes it slower than websites that are based on headless web development.
How Static site Generators Work?
When a user requests a certain webpage on a static site, then the request is sent to the server and the server presents the web page that is already stored in a pre-rendered form on the server. There is absolutely no connection between the database and web page and that is why it is fairly fast, powerful, secure, and highly scalable.
This is why if the decoupling is there, then it benefits the users, as well as the developers due to high customization and developers, are free to make any changes.
5 Reasons to use a static site generator
Static site generators are very famous these days and multiple agencies are providing static site generation services as well. If you contact a headless commerce development agency regarding a website project then you will understand why this is the best time to shift to this framework for web development.
Here are the top 5 reasons why you shouldn't miss the power of static site generators:
1) Low Maintenance: Since there is an absence of a database in static site generators, it costs low in maintenance as compared to that in a CMS.
2) More Flexible: Since the static websites are in the pre-rendered form on the server, they can be easily presented to the user on any device without any design complexity.
3) Fast: The static websites are fast even when you have a big website because every web page is different and already stored on the server to get displayed on user requests.
4) More Secure: Since there are no external plugins to get features in a static site, therefore it is less vulnerable to cyber attacks as compared to a dynamic website.
5) More Reliable: The static websites are robust and don't face a shutdown regularly because it is not dependent on any backend for information and data.
Conclusion
So, you must have understood the importance of headless web development by now and why it is being so much used these days by companies. These all benefits point towards one single goal of increasing web traffic and getting more and more customers on your website.
If you are also a business owner looking to leverage the power of static site generators then you may get in touch with Jamsfy, a headless commerce development agency that has been working on this domain for 2 years now and they have tremendously done great work for many brands in providing the benefits of static site generators through their experienced development team.
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