Guides
Choosing a CMS, without the sales pitch.
The decisions that come before any product choice: rent or own, database or files, and which tools deserve your shortlist. Written by CMS makers, with our bias declared up front.
Every guide is checked against each vendor’s own documentation, cited, and dated.
Start with the first question you haven’t answered
- Hosted vs self-hosted Before you choose between Squarespace and Webflow, or between Kirby and Craft, there is a bigger question underneath: do you want to rent a website platform or own the software that runs it? Here is how to decide, from someone with an obvious stake in the answer.
- The best flat-file CMS in 2026 Five flat-file content management systems worth your time, what each is genuinely good at, and where each one will frustrate you.
- A PHP CMS without a database Running a CMS with no MySQL sounds like a corner-cutting exercise.
- WordPress alternatives for freelancers If you build client sites for a living, the CMS decision is really a decision about the next three years of your evenings.
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The head-to-head comparisons put Total CMS next to one tool at a time, including where the other tool wins.
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