It's important to rightsize your CMS based on your business, industry, and audience. Rightsizing allows you to set your business up for success, without over-investing time, money, or resources. It can also help prevent unnecessary upgrades or replatforming projects down the line.
Rather than comparing a full list of features (which can be found all around the web), let's discuss some real-world examples of rightsizing your CMS.
Note: Lightburn is platform agnostic, but we specialize in a handful of platforms we believe are best in class and offer robust functionality based on a wide range of different client needs.
When to consider WordPress
WordPress is a widely adopted, open-source solution with big market share and easy-to-use admin interface. We love building on it and leveraging the Gutenberg editor — we even have our own custom theme. WordPress is best suited for service-focused SMBs looking to increase lead generation or sell simplified ecommerce products with WooCommerce.
✅ Use Case: We recently recommended WordPress to a mid-market, technology consulting client that had invested in a more expensive DXP platform but wasn't utilizing its advanced features. Ultimately, they wanted to simplify their website content and take advantage of a more familiar admin interface. Since their goal was lead generation, WordPress was a great fit.
When to consider Kentico
If you're a business or organization looking to consolidate your Martech stack or need more robust content management tools, Kentico is a great option. It has a bit of a learning curve for content managers and takes some development time to get started, but the payoff of combining CMS features and digital marketing functionality in a single Digital Experience Platform (DXP) can be tremendous. Kentico is a great choice to help you level up your marketing efforts and deliver personalized content.
✅ Use Case: Last summer, one of our destination marketing partners needed to improve website performance, access more robust content management features, and lay the foundation for personalized content. Because of this, Kentico was a great fit. We also regularly recommend Kentico for companies that need websites in multiple languages and advanced security features.
When to consider Umbraco
Open-source solution built on a .NET framework. Umbraco is a go-to for clients looking to stay within .NET for infrastructure and security reasons and want an intuitive content editing experience.
✅ Use Case: A nonprofit client recently chose to stay with Umbraco for their website upgrade and rebuild because security was a top priority and their team liked the editing tools. They wanted to minimize disruption and change management that would come with moving to a different platform.
When to consider Shopify
Shopify is a great option for small and medium-sized retail companies. We often recommend Shopify for clients looking to launch a store quickly or have limited custom development needs. The long list of out-of-the-box features and supported integrations means development can be swift and the learning curve low. If your products are more complex or you want to offer additional buying options (like subscriptions) additional apps may be required.
✅ Use Case: When one of our seasonal retail clients was looking to evolve their website, they were focused on making the site more visually appealing, wanted to offer an intuitive shopping experience, and create easy-to-manage workflows and inventory tracking for their employees. They also wanted to provide some product customizations, making Shopify a better fit.
When to consider BigCommerce
BigCommerce is ideal for businesses with complex ecommerce needs (multiple product types, sizes, group ordering) and offers advanced B2B commerce features (price lists, account-based pricing, payment terms).
✅ Use Case: We recently recommended BigCommerce to a manufacturing client based on the strength of the B2B features and product catalog management. BigCommerce was also recommended to another ecommerce business that needed highly configurable shipping options that allowed for multiple delivery addresses in one order.
Wondering how to choose the best CMS for your business?
If you're considering redesigning, redeveloping, or migrating your website, start by using this roadmap for selecting a CMS, or reach out to our pros and ask for a platform analysis.