Choosing a CMS for a small business website

The CMS question comes up in almost every website project. There are dozens of options, and most of them are genuinely good at something. The problem is that 'good at something' doesn't always mean 'good for your situation'. This guide covers the main trade-offs for small business owners who need to edit their own site without calling a developer every time.

What a CMS actually does ¶

A content management system separates the content of your site from the code that displays it. Without one, changing a line of text on your homepage means editing a file and redeploying the site. With one, you log into an interface, make the change, and it appears on the live site within seconds.

That sounds simple, but the implementation varies enormously. Some CMSs give you a visual editor that shows you the page as you edit it. Others give you a form with fields. Others give you a document editor that looks like a word processor. Which one suits you depends on how your content is structured and how comfortable your team is with abstract interfaces.

The three options we use most often ¶

Tina CMS renders the editing interface directly on the live page. You click on a heading, type the new text, and see it update in real time. For marketing sites with a predictable structure, this is the easiest experience for non-technical editors. The trade-off is that it works best when the content structure is relatively simple.

Sanity is a more structured option. Content is entered into a form-based interface, and the site pulls it in via an API. It handles complex content models well, including content that appears in multiple places or in different formats. The editing experience is less visual but more flexible.

Contentful is similar to Sanity in approach and is widely used in larger organisations. It has a strong ecosystem of integrations and good documentation. For a small business site with a straightforward content model, it can feel like more infrastructure than the project needs.

The question worth asking before you choose ¶

Who will actually be updating the site, and how often? If the answer is 'the founder, once a month, to update a news post', a visual editor like Tina is probably the right call. If the answer is 'a content team publishing structured product data across multiple channels', Sanity or Contentful will serve you better.

The CMS decision is worth getting right at the start of a project. Migrating content from one system to another after launch is time-consuming and often more expensive than the original build.

If you're planning a new site and want to talk through which CMS would suit your team, that's a good thing to include in your initial brief.