The excitement of owning a website is real but creating a website from scratch is not that soothing. However, website builders and CMS platforms have made it possible for everyone to create a full-fledged website without any technical hassle. Although with CMS, you need to have some technical awareness to add advanced customization, you can create flexible and functional websites for every business.
The decision to choose between a website builder or a CMS to build a website boils down to features, customization, and functionalities that you want to add to your website, and other factors such as your knowledge, budget, and security concerns.
Below, we have explained the differences between CMS and website builder based on their customization options, scalability, cost, and usefulness, to help you choose the best option for your website development project.
What is a website builder?
If you are a coding novice and want to develop a website without getting into the technical hassle of other web-building platforms, a website builder gets you covered with its no-coding interface. A website builder is a user-friendly tool with drag-and-drop functionality that helps you create, customize, and publish your website without any coding knowledge.
You can create a website from an empty canvas if you want, but the availability of professionally designed built-in templates adds exceptional ease to your website creation journey. A website builder usually comes with an extensive library of pre-built, niche-specific templates which you may choose from based on how you want your site’s front design to look.
Pick a template of your choice and use built-in features to simplify the website creation process. The drag-and-drop editor is a pivotal tool in your website creation journey as it allows you to visually design your web page just as you want by simply picking and dropping the element on the page.
You can try and test multiple layouts till you achieve the desired look but you are limited to using built-in features and tools offered inside the website builder. A website builder usually offers a domain name and hosting services in its plans and you may choose or change a plan to accommodate your needs. Some builders offer scalable plans if you want to grow your business in the future and ensure that data is safely transferred to the new plan if you upgrade your existing hosting plan. Some website builders also offer third-party integrations such as Google Analytics, payment gateways, social media, etc. to expand your site’s functionality
What is a CMS?
Do you know that more than 73 million websites are built on CMS? The numbers are soaring high due to the customization and flexibility this popular website-building solution offers. A content management system or CMS is a software application that lets you build a complete website by giving you more control over the web pages and elements while the content is managed, stored, and retrieved from the database. While open-source CMS like WordPress and Joomla are free and offer extensive modifications, proprietary CMS like Wix and Squarespace come with a licensing fee and offer more support.
With CMS, you get an infrastructure for building your website and you can effortlessly create and manage content just as you want. It offers multiple free themes which you may choose according to your choice, upload a third-party theme, or create your page layout from scratch. The drag-and-drop functionality is also available to help design your page easily. Since it is open-source, you are free to change any element with coding which means that you should have a bit of coding knowledge if you want to fully customize your website in CMS.
A CMS like WordPress, allows you to upload and/or install plugins to enhance the website functionality. There are thousands of pre-built free plugins and add-ons available. Once you choose a domain and hosting plan from a third party, you can install CMS software on the web server host. A CMS also lets you move your website from one server to another without affecting its data and design, saving you a lot of time and effort.
Website builder vs. CMS – the better option?
A website presence is crucial for every business that wants to thrive online. While a website builder offers a smooth website experience to beginners, a CMS platform offers extensive customization with a bit of technical knowledge.
When you start creating a web page with CMS, it looks like a blank canvas in the beginning that gradually gets into a structured form by adding elements, customizing them, and installing plugins and extensions. While you can change the code with CMS to enjoy limitless customization, this is not the case with website builders where you are pretty much dependent on the built-in features and functionalities.
A website builder is a rapid fast website building solution that is user-friendly and usually offers 24/7 available customer support. While both CMS and website builder have their significant goals, choosing the one between them entirely depends upon how you want your website to look like, what features and functionality you want, and what are your plans regarding its growth.
Let’s look into the comparison between a website builder and a CMS so you are aware of their capabilities and analyze which one caters to your requirements the most.
Which is more user-friendly – a website builder or a CMS?
Although both are user-friendly, the website setup process varies in both website builder and CMS.
Website Builder
A website builder offers multiple pre-made templates that are professionally designed and allow you to pick the template according to your niche. The drag-and-drop builder is used to visually construct pages without code and is highly friendly to beginners. You don’t have to understand coding when creating a website with a website builder which is one of the perks of using it to create a website. Some website builders offer domain and hosting in their plans that enable users to build a website quickly and easily.
CMS
Due to extensive functionality and features, building an advanced website with CMS requires a steep learning curve. They also have numerous professionally designed themes to choose from to start building your website. You can also install plugins and have additional features to enhance your site’s functionality which makes it time-consuming to build a website with CMS.
You have to add a domain and hosting separately and configure plugins which makes using CMS a little complicated for beginners. You don’t necessarily have to know coding to build your site in the CMS but to add advanced customizations to your site, coding knowledge is a must, however, this is the case for any website-building method.
Which is more cost-effective – a website builder or a CMS?
The cost of building a website with any of these options depends upon multiple factors which we will analyze here.
Website Builder
Some website builders offer free plans that let you build a website but with very limited options, and even for a limited time. Many website builders offer free domain and hosting in their paid yet reasonable plans for a specific duration along with other features which makes them a cost-effective solution with low upfront costs. A basic website builder plan costs $10 to $20/month while premium plans can go up to $100/month.
If you want to build a business website for your business, it is suggested to go for a paid plan to get complete control of the platform. Although most website builders can be used by beginners and non-coders, if you want to implement certain changes with a custom code, you might need to hire a website developer.
CMS
The CMS software is free but the cost of the website depends upon the site’s additional functionalities and add-ons. Although you can build a website for free using CMS, it will offer limited functionality. While building a website with a CMS, you have to purchase domain and hosting. And if you want a premium theme, that also adds up to the total cost. For example; if you want to create an e-commerce website with CMS, you have to purchase premium e-commerce and marketing add-ons that add up to the website cost. It may cost around $46 to $100 per year to build a basic website with CMS. Moreover, you might have to hire a website developer to create a custom website with CMS, if you don’t have enough coding knowledge.
Which is more customizable – a website builder or a CMS?
Let’s compare CMS and website builder based on how much customization you can do.
Website Builder
Most website builders offer numerous professionally designed, free templates as part of the basic plan and some builders allow you to purchase premium themes for an extra fee. Every template has a responsive design to provide a flawless experience to mobile users. With the website builder, you can add new elements and sections and customize the template such as changing the color and layout to build a website just as you want.
Some builders also allow you to write code for sections but not as extensive as CMS. So, with a website builder, the customization ability is limited, and excessive customization negatively impacts the website’s performance.
CMS
CMS offers numerous in-house themes and plugins to choose from based on your website and also gives you the freedom to upload a third-party theme and plugins. These theme layouts run smoothly across all devices and give your website visitors an unparalleled experience via mobile and desktop.
Building a website with a content management system comes with more customization than a website builder. It offers greater flexibility and allows you to modify and customize the existing theme to make it fit into your business identity, and install plugins to add new features beyond limits. If you are a coding pro, you can modify HTML, CSS, and even the underlying code to create a truly unique website of an advanced level.
Which offers more scalability – a website builder or a CMS?
Here we will look into the potential of both website builder and CMS to scale your website according to the traffic growth.
Website Builder
When creating a website with a builder, users are mostly dependent on the provider’s hosting. If the host changes, the user may have to rebuild the site from the beginning. Most website builders offer optimization features such as image size and placement to facilitate fast page loading speed. However, they may have limitations when it comes to handling high website traffic or complex applications.
CMS
CMS is considered more scalable than a website builder due to the immense power of CMS to accommodate the growing traffic of a website and data loads. Unlike a website builder, a CMS can integrate with several hosting providers and allows one to upgrade to a high-performing host without tweaking the website. It also offers optimized page speed, thanks to the CDNs, image compressing, code minifying, and ecosystem of themes and plugins to expand the website’s features and functionality as the needs grow. The flexibility of a CMS platform lets you manage extensive data volume without affecting the website’s speed and performance.
Which is more secure – a website builder or a CMS?
Let’s talk about the security features of both CMS and website builders to see which is more secure.
Website Builder
A website builder is considered secure due to its built-in security features which may vary depending on the builder. Most of them offer security updates to protect data from vulnerabilities but the frequency of updates might differ. Most website builders offer SSL certificates to ensure safe data transfer between the visitor and website builder, firewalls against outside attacks, and regular scanning to detect any malware.
While a website builder offers excellent security features, it is important to take additional measures as well to complement the built-in security features of the builder. Use strong passwords, ensure the security of the third-party tools when integrating with them, and create regular backups to avoid data loss.
CMS
CMS gives more control over security configurations by allowing roles-based access and restricted data access. Since the CMS offers more customization and integration with third-party plugins, it may pose security threats but with careful management, you may avoid these security vulnerabilities.
CMS platforms like WordPress have more resources to tackle security issues as they quickly identify suspicious activities and resolve them. You may take more control over your website security features by performing regular security audits and integrating third-party security tools for advanced security.
CMS vs website builder – which one to choose? A Quick Comparison
There is no definitive answer to this as both CMS and website builders add ease to your website creation journey. It is important to know your website goals and how extensive functionality you want to add to it before choosing the website-building platform.
Let’s look into a quick recap of how they both facilitate your website journey.
| Features | Website Builder | CMS |
|---|---|---|
| User-friendliness | High, beginner-friendly, no need to code. | Medium, friendly for every user but you need to have some coding knowledge if you want to add advanced customization to the site. |
| Setup duration | Fast website creation | Takes longer to build |
| Cost | Cost-effective, varies (often lower upfront, higher ongoing) | More expensive, varies (often higher upfront, lower ongoing) |
| Customization | Medium or limited | High or unlimited |
| Templates/themes | Limited selection, restricted to using pre-built templates | Vast selection, pre-built in-house templates, ease of uploading third-party templates |
| Hosting | Often included in the package, depends on the provider’s hosting plan, and in case of switching hosts, the website needs to be rebuilt. | Requires separate hosting, compatible with multiple hosting providers, and offers seamless host switching. |
| Features/functionality | Limited | Extensive with plugins |
| Security | Medium, built-in security features | High, ability to implement advanced security features and can easily integrate with third-party security tools. |
| Suitable for | Simple websites, individuals, non-technical users | Complex websites, large teams, developers |
| Examples | Wix, Squarespace, Weebly | WordPress, Drupal, Joomla |
Bottom line
Whatever platform you are choosing to create your website, it’s high time to build your website presence and expand your business online.
While a website builder is more user-friendly, a CMS gives you more control over your website. A builder offers easily accessible built-in tools to get your website up and running quickly but a CMS with the right plugins and extensions can take your website development journey to the next level.
Whether you choose a CMS or a website builder, it’s better to stick with it and explore its interface rather than switching to another option as it can be time-consuming and leave your site goals unaccomplished midway.
FAQs
Does a website builder offer a quick website-building experience?
Yes, a website builder helps you build a website within a short time. With domain, hosting, and a pre-built template in hand, you can design your website from the get-go. The easy-to-use interface offers everyone a rapid fast design process and gets your website up and running in no time.
Name some of the popular CMS platforms.
Some of the popular CMS platforms are WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, and Shopify.
Which is the more expensive way of building a website – a website builder or a CMS?
While a website builder is a cost-effective solution to build a website, a CMS platform is more expensive due to upfront costs including domain, hosting, and premium plugins and tools that you have to purchase separately.
Can I customize my website using a website builder?
Yes, a website builder lets you customize your website with a drag-and-drop builder that helps you add and rearrange your website elements. Some builders also allow you to add HTML or CSS code to add sections and customization to your web pages. However, the coding cannot be altered extensively as most website builders limit you from changing the code beyond a certain point. In the case of advanced customization, the website performance might be affected.
How much experience do I need to use a website builder?
The website builders are user-friendly and anyone can use them without expertise or experience. So if you are a beginner, the website builder is the right tool to build your website as it offers built-in templates and features that quickly develop a website without any coding knowledge.
