It’s amazing how often people use the term hosted CMS, and website builder interchangeably. Although both tools are designed to help you create an online presence with ease, the truth is that they’re very different services.
For instance, a hosted CMS allows you to manage a wide range of different content and tap into rich customisation options, so you can ensure you’re giving your customers the best experience. On the other hand, a free website builder usually limits you to create a simple theme for your website, with a few headers and navigation options.
Here are 8 reasons that a hosted CMS trumps any free website builder.
1. Create a More Compelling Website
While there are some free website builders out there that offer a range of personalisation options, the truth is that you’re only going to get so much out of a free tool. People simply don’t give the best website creation services away for free. If you want to create a truly unique and dynamic experience for both your admins and your users, then you need something more comprehensive – that’s where a hosted CMS comes in.
2. Help You Make the Most of your Content
While some free website builders might come with text boxes where you can enter content into your website, most won’t come with features that help you to manage that content, like post scheduling, or SEO tools. On the other hand, hosted CMS platforms are far more fleshed-out. They allow you to uncover the full benefits of creating content for your website, whether you’re designing copy for product pages or building out a blog to improve your online presence.
3. They’re Great for Beginners
While both CMS platforms and free website builders are generally easy to use, a CMS allows you to tap into everything you need to get your business up and running on the web. On the other hand, a website builder only gives you the initial blocks to get started. If you want to create the experience you would get with a hosted CMS on a website builder; you’ll need to learn a little bit more about coding, HTML, and digital languages.
4. A Hosted CMS is Great for Teamwork
Often, the best website experiences are built when people work together to create an exceptional online presence. When you’re developing your website, there are plenty of people who you may want to have an input into what you create. A hosted CMS allows you to allocate roles and solutions for people throughout your organisation, so you can work together on creating the right site for your customers.
5. Manage your Content in Real Time
A hosted CMS strategy allows you to manage and control your content in real-time. You don’t need to wait for developers to come and make changes on a template that you don’t really know how to use. Instead, anyone can be given the role of author and can begin to upload engaging and compelling content onto your site within a moment’s notice. This way, you have a greater chance of staying ahead of your competition.
6. A CMS comes with Plenty of Great Features
As mentioned above, while a free website builder allows you to work on what your site looks like with free templates and styles, a CMS gives you much more control over what you can accomplish. For instance, it could help you to launch a blog, with regularly-scheduled posts that help to keep your customers entertained. If you want to monetize your website, your hosted CMS could even help you to set up a powerful eCommerce channel too!
7. It Makes Site Maintenance Easier
Most free website building tools translate the template you create into a handful of code that your developer can implement to build your website. This means that if you want to change anything in your design or improve something, you’d have to go through hundreds of pages. A CMS makes life simpler by allowing you to make updates and add functionality without potentially closing the whole site down for hours or days at a time.
8. Updates are Automatic
Finally, because a hosted CMS works to keep your business presence running smoothly through the cloud, any updates to the software, security, or underlying structure of your CMS will happen automatically. This means that you don’t have to worry about criminals finding a way into your site through a vulnerable piece of code.