To give you an idea of how a content management system works, we're going to take a whirlwind tour of the WordPress interface (WordPress is a good example of a content management system). Let's start with creating a piece of content. Without a content management system, you'd need to write a static HTML file and upload it to your server (sounds complicated, right?). With a content management system like WordPress, you can just write your content in an interface that looks a good bit like Microsoft Word: That's a lot simpler, right? Similarly, to upload and manage media, like images, you can just browse the media library instead of needing to actually interact with your web server directly: The content management system isn't just a backend management interface, though. It also makes all of the content that you create show up for your visitors exactly like you want it to.

WordPress, which we showed you above, is the best example of a popular content management system. While there are certainly other content management systems in existence, WordPress maintains over a 65% market share on websites with a known content management system. Note that when we mention “WordPress”, we're not talking about WordPress.com. Instead, we're focused on WordPress.org, which is the website where the actual open-source WordPress content management system is stored. Beyond the self-hosted WordPress software, other popular content management systems include: Joomla Drupal Magento (for eCommerce stores) Squarespace Wix TYPO3 There are also lots of other less well-known content management systems that target themselves to large enterprises (with an expensive price point to match).

content management system CMS stands for content management system. CMS is computer software or an application that uses a database to manage all content, and it can be used when developing a website.