Top 15 Website CMS Platforms for Australian Businesses

What are website CMS platforms?

Website CMS platforms, short for Content Management System platform, is a software tool that simplifies the process of managing content and creating websites. Traditionally, websites are built using programming languages like HTML, JavaScript, and CSS. Without a CMS platform, creating a website would require extensive knowledge of these languages and significant coding skills.

The primary function of a CMS platform is to eliminate the need for manual coding by providing a user-friendly interface where users can easily create, edit, and manage content. This includes everything from text and images to multimedia elements and interactive features. By using a CMS platform, individuals and businesses can efficiently build and maintain websites without having to delve into the complexities of programming.

Moreover, CMS platforms often come with pre-designed templates and themes that streamline the website design process. These templates allow users to choose a layout and design that suits their needs and preferences, further reducing the time and effort required to launch a professional-looking website.

Discover the top 15 Website CMS Platforms for Australian Businesses

WordPress

WordPress is one of the world’s most popular website CMS platforms, powering over 43% of websites. Initially a blogging platform, it has evolved into a comprehensive CMS choice for individuals, small businesses, and large enterprises alike. It’s free, open-source, and boasts a vast library of plugins and themes. 

WordPress.com offers managed hosting, ensuring ease of use with built-in features suitable for users looking for a hassle-free website setup. In contrast, WordPress.org requires self-hosting and offers extensive plugin customization capabilities, ideal for those needing full control over their site’s functionality and design. As one of the prominent website CMS platforms globally and also in Australia, over 614,237 websites in Australia rely on WordPress for its flexibility, scalability, and extensive community support, making it a preferred choice for various business and personal websites alike.

Key Features:

• User-friendly interface: Intuitive dashboard for easy navigation and content management.
• Customization: Extensive theme and plugin options for tailored design and functionality.
• Content Management: Powerful editor supporting various media types.
• SEO-friendly: Tools for generating SEO-friendly URLs, meta tags, and integration with SEO plugins. 

Pricing: WordPress software is free, with hosting starting at $8/month. Domain name costs typically range from $9 to $20.

Adobe Commerce (Magento) 

Adobe Commerce, formerly known as Magento, is a highly scalable and feature-rich CMS platform specifically designed for eCommerce websites. Adobe Commerce supports a wide range of functionalities crucial for online retail success. 

As one of the leading website CMS platforms, Adobe Commerce provides robust tools and features tailored to meet the needs of modern eCommerce businesses. These factors make it an appealing option for retail businesses looking to establish or enhance their online presence in the Australian market.

Key Features:

• ECommerce Functionality: Adobe Commerce offers extensive eCommerce features such as inventory management, product catalogs, payment gateways, and order fulfillment, catering to the complex needs of online retailers.
• Page Builder: Featuring an intuitive drag-and-drop page builder, Adobe Commerce supports various content types including text, video, images, and promotional banners, allowing for flexible and dynamic page creation.
• Headless Commerce: With robust APIs for low latency and high performance, Adobe Commerce enables headless commerce approaches, facilitating content delivery across diverse digital touchpoints such as IoT devices, mobile phones, and AR/VR environments.
• SEO Optimization: Adobe Commerce includes built-in SEO tools and features to optimize eCommerce websites for search engines, enhancing visibility and driving organic traffic.

Pricing: Specific pricing details for Adobe Commerce are available upon request, reflecting its scalability and tailored solutions to meet the unique requirements of different businesses.

Watch more: Adobe Commerce Vs Magento: A Comprehensive Comparison 

Shopify 

Shopify is a leading CMS platform designed specifically for eCommerce businesses not only in Australia but also worldwide, offering a robust solution for creating and managing online stores. Shopify provides essential tools and features tailored to meet the needs of entrepreneurs and small businesses in the digital marketplace in Australia.

Key Features:

• eCommerce Functionality: Shopify offers comprehensive eCommerce features such as product management, inventory tracking, flexible payment gateways, shipping options, and more, empowering businesses to efficiently run their online stores.
• Responsive Themes: Shopify provides a diverse collection of responsive themes optimized for mobile devices, ensuring that online stores maintain a professional and user-friendly appearance across all screen sizes.
• Selling Across Social Media Channels: Integrating seamlessly with social media platforms like YouTube, Google, Facebook, and TikTok, Shopify enables businesses to directly sell their products to consumers via these popular channels.
• App Store: Shopify boasts an extensive app store where users can discover and integrate additional features and third-party applications to enhance their online store’s functionality and performance.
• Analytics and Reporting: Shopify includes built-in analytics tools that offer real-time insights into key metrics such as user sessions, total sales, and conversion rates. This data enables businesses to make informed decisions and optimize their store’s performance to stay competitive in the market.

Pricing: Shopify’s pricing starts at $24 per month when billed annually or $32 per month when paid monthly, making it accessible for businesses of various sizes and budgets.

Watch more: Top 10 Shopify Agency Partners: Elevate Your eCommerce Success

Joomla 

Released in 2005, Joomla is one of the pioneering website CMS platforms which are open-source CMS known for balancing ease of use with flexibility. It caters from simple blogs to complex corporate websites and ecommerce stores. 

Joomla offers extensive customization options, making it suitable for diverse website needs especially for dynamic markets such as Australia. Joomla is free to use but requires paid web hosting and domain registration. 

Key Features:

• Extensions: Over 6,000 extensions and multiple templates are available for expanding website functionality.
• Multilingual Support: Built-in support for over 70 languages facilitates multilingual website creation.
• User Management: Robust capabilities for creating and managing user accounts with varying access levels.
• Access Control: Granular control over content visibility and editing permissions

Pricing: Joomla software is free; costs include web hosting and domain registration.

HubSpot CMS 

HubSpot CMS stands out as a robust system among website CMS platforms worldwide within the larger HubSpot suite, renowned for its seamless integration with CRM, marketing automation, and other essential marketing tools. HubSpot CMS empowers Australian users with extensive content management capabilities. 

Key Features:

• Drag-and-Drop Editor: Intuitive editor for creating and customizing website pages and layouts without coding.
• Content Optimization: Tools for SEO, including built-in recommendations, meta tags, and XML sitemap generation.
• AI Content Assistant: Automates tasks, streamlines workflows, and generates content like single-page websites and social media captions.
• Memberships: Enables creation of membership-based content with access restrictions.
• Personalization: Smart content feature for tailored user experiences based on behavior and location.
• CRM Integration: Seamless connection with HubSpot CRM for managing interactions, targeted marketing campaigns, and data analysis.

Pricing: HubSpot CMS starts at $360/month with annual billing or $400/month when paid monthly.

Wix 

Founded in 2006, Wix has established itself as a leading all-in-one cloud-based website builder, serving millions of users across diverse industries and sectors in Australia and worldwide. Known for its intuitive drag-and-drop interface and extensive feature set, Wix empowers Australian users to create visually stunning and functional websites through their website CMS platforms without the need for coding skills.

Key Features:

• Drag-and-Drop Interface: Easy-to-use interface for creating and customizing websites without coding.
• Template Library: Wide range of templates for various industries and purposes.
• App Market: Offers additional features and integrations through an app marketplace.
• Custom Transitions and Animations: Provides animations like grow, fade, slide, and wiggle for enhancing user engagement. 

Pricing:

• Website Plans: Starting at $12.50/month
• Business and eCommerce Plans: Starting at $25/month
• Enterprise Plans: Available upon request

Optimizely 

Optimizely, previously known as Episerver, is a robust digital experience platform (DXP) that includes powerful website CMS platforms among its core offerings. Optimizely is designed to enhance content management, personalization, and digital marketing capabilities. With its comprehensive suite of tools, it aims to deliver exceptional digital experiences for businesses of all sizes in Australia.

Key Features:

• Content Management: Optimizely provides a comprehensive content management system that enables users to easily create, manage, and publish content across multiple channels.
• AI-Powered Recommendations: Utilizing AI technology, Optimizely delivers highly relevant content recommendations based on user behavior and preferences.
• AI-Powered Personalization: Optimizely’s personalization features allow businesses to tailor content and user experiences based on factors such as geographic location, browsing history, and engagement patterns.
• Integration and Extensibility: Optimizely integrates seamlessly with various third-party applications and offers extensibility options to enhance its functionality as per business needs.
• GraphQL APIs: To facilitate content delivery to digital touchpoints, Optimizely provides GraphQL APIs, ensuring efficient and flexible data retrieval.
• Drag-and-Drop Builder: Integrated with Optimizely’s A/B testing platform, the drag-and-drop builder enables users to conduct experiments and compare different website variations to optimize performance.

Pricing: Optimizely’s pricing structure starts at $79 per user per month for its content marketing platform, with a free tier available. Costs for other solutions are available upon request, which may pose challenges for smaller businesses or those with budget constraints.

Squarespace 

Squarespace is a popular website builder known for its blend of simplicity and design-focused features, catering to individuals, small businesses, and creative professionals who prioritize visually stunning websites. 

With over 160,235 websites using Squarespace Australia, Squarespace stands out by offering intuitive tools designed specifically to assist Australian users in effortlessly creating professional-looking websites.

Key Features:

• Drag-and-Drop Functionality: Squarespace simplifies website creation with its intuitive drag-and-drop interface, allowing users to effortlessly add and arrange elements such as text, images, videos, and forms to customize their website’s design.
• Integrations: Squarespace offers seamless integrations that enhance website functionality, including eCommerce capabilities, social media integrations, and essential SEO tools to optimize visibility and performance.
• Hosting: Squarespace provides reliable hosting services, ensuring websites are consistently accessible and eliminating the need for external hosting solutions, thus streamlining the development process for users.
• Professional Email: Users benefit from a custom professional domain and email solutions powered by Google Workspace, enhancing brand identity and communication capabilities.
• Squarespace AI: Leveraging AI technology, Squarespace assists users in launching online stores faster by generating on-brand product descriptions and page copies, facilitating efficient setup and management.

Pricing:

• Personal Plan: $17 per month
• Business Plan: $25 per month
• Commerce Basic Plan: $29 per month
• Commerce Plan: $55 per month

Ghost 

Ghost is a lightweight CMS platform that focuses on simplicity and content creation, catering specifically to bloggers and content creators who prioritize writing and publishing content effectively in the developed marketing field in Australia. Ghost offers essential tools tailored for streamlined content management and revenue generation through memberships and subscriptions. 

Key Features:

• Writing and Editing: Ghost provides a distraction-free writing and editing experience, enabling users to focus solely on creating content without unnecessary clutter.
• User Signups and Email Newsletters: Users can collect emails through their Ghost-built websites and send newsletter updates, fostering audience engagement and communication.
• Memberships and Paid Subscriptions: Ghost supports memberships and paid subscriptions, allowing content creators to monetize their content, offer promotions, and manage subscriber interactions effectively.
• Markdown Support: Utilizing Markdown, Ghost simplifies content formatting and styling, making it straightforward to write and publish articles with consistent formatting across platforms.
• SEO Tools: Ghost includes built-in SEO tools and features to optimize content for search engines, enhancing discoverability and reach.
• Customizable Themes: Ghost offers customizable themes that users can tailor to match their branding and design preferences, ensuring a personalized and cohesive website experience.

Pricing: Ghost’s pricing starts at $9 per month when billed annually or $11 per month when paid monthly, with pricing adjustments based on audience size, providing scalable options for different user needs.

Prismic 

Prismic transcends traditional CMS functionalities by evolving into a headless page builder designed to empower web developers and content teams to create high-performance, on-brand websites efficiently. 

With more than 400 websites in Australia using website CMS platforms from Prismic, Prismic’s innovative approach revolves around reusable components called Slices and AI-driven content creation capabilities to reach this market.

Key Features:

• Slices: Prismic’s Slices are reusable sections of a website, such as headers, hero sections, CTAs, and more, enabling content teams to assemble dynamic pages while maintaining brand consistency.
• Visual Page Builder: The visual page builder integrates Slices into a drag-and-drop interface, empowering marketers and content editors to create custom pages seamlessly without developer intervention.
• Slice Machine: This developer tool allows for the programmable creation of Slices, enhancing flexibility and customization options for developers to build complex web pages.
• Localization: Prismic simplifies multilingual content management with built-in translation tools and workflows, enabling seamless creation and management of content across multiple languages and markets.
• AI Page Creation: Prismic’s AI capabilities assist in content creation by generating prompts for creating Slices and refining website copies, optimizing messaging and user engagement.

Pricing: Prismic offers a free plan for personal projects, with paid plans starting at $10 per month per repository for teams on annual payments or $15 per month per repository for monthly payments. Each repository functions as an independent workspace with dedicated content, users, endpoints, and subscriptions, ensuring scalability and tailored solutions for diverse organizational needs.

Contentful 

Contentful is a headless CMS platform renowned for its flexibility and developer-friendly tools, empowering teams to manage and distribute content across various platforms and devices via APIs. Contentful stands out for its robust features and integration capabilities for Australian businesses such as AI Generator and live preview.

Key Features:

• AI Content Type Generator: Contentful streamlines content model creation by leveraging an AI-powered generator that facilitates custom content type creation through guided prompts, accelerating development processes.
• AI Image and Content Generator: Powered by OpenAI, Contentful provides users with AI-driven capabilities for generating images and content, enhancing content creation efficiency and versatility.
• Live Previews: Contentful offers live previews that enable content editors to visualize website updates in real time as they modify and publish content, ensuring accurate representation and seamless editing experiences.

Pricing: Contentful’s pricing structure starts at $300 per month for its base plan. While considered expensive, Contentful also offers a free plan, catering to varying budgetary and operational needs.

DatoCMS 

DatoCMS is also a headless content management system known for highlighting features such as a user-friendly interface and efficient content management and delivery across various platforms. Over 10,000 websites, including Polestar, use website CMS platforms from DatoCMS, which excels in simplifying content modeling and enhancing real-time collaboration tools.

Key Features:

• Content Modeling: DatoCMS offers a flexible content modeling system, empowering users to define and manage custom content structures and relationships tailored to specific organizational needs.
• Real-time Collaboration: DatoCMS facilitates real-time collaboration among teams, enabling simultaneous content creation and updates, and fostering productivity and workflow efficiency.
• API-First Approach: Built with an API-first approach, DatoCMS allows developers to interact with content programmatically via APIs, ensuring seamless integration with other systems and applications.
• White-labeling: DatoCMS supports white-labeling options, enabling users to customize the admin panel’s theme colors, logo, and domain to align with their brand identity, enhancing brand consistency across digital platforms.

Pricing: DatoCMS offers pricing starting at €149 per month for annual payments, with a monthly payment option available at €199 per month. This pricing structure provides flexibility and scalability for organizations of varying sizes and requirements.

Payload CMS

Payload CMS is an open-source, developer-first CMS focusing on a headless approach to content management. It offers an API-driven architecture, allowing developers to create custom frontend experiences with their preferred technology stack. Over 100 websites, including Microsoft Designer powered by DALL-E, use the website CMS platforms of Payload CMS.

Key Features:

• Payload Cloud: A cloud-based service handling deployment, including email delivery, database management, file storage, and website backups.
• API Integrations: Offers GraphQL, Rest, and Local APIs for flexible development and database interaction.
• Admin UI Whitelabeling: Customize the admin dashboard to match brand specifications.
• Authentication: Built-in authentication supporting login, logout, password reset, and email verification.
• Dark Mode: Supports both light and dark mode options.

Pricing: Payload CMS is free. Payload Cloud starts at $35/month.

Concrete CMS

Concrete CMS, formerly Concrete5, is an open-source solution designed for non-technical users. It features a drag-and-drop interface for building and editing websites without advanced web development skills. 

Key Features:

• Forms: Create online forms with validation, error detection, and CRM integration.
• Blogging: Supports RSS syndication, categories, and multiple authors.
• Commentary Support: Includes comment moderation, spam detection, sorting, and anonymous comment toggling.

Pricing: Concrete CMS is free. Hosting services start at $16/month.

TYPO3

TYPO3 is a powerful open-source CMS renowned for creating complex and enterprise-level websites. As one of the top website CMS platforms, it offers extensive features, high customization, and scalability.

Key Features:

• Flexibility and Scalability: Ideal for large, intricate websites.
• Multilingual Support: Advanced capabilities for multi-site and multi-language setups.
• Customization: Provides robust options for creating unique websites.
• Community Support: Benefits from a large and active community for resources and support.

Pricing: TYPO3 is free. Users need to cover costs like hosting and domain registration.

Why should choose SmartOSC for Website CMS Platforms development

SmartOSC is a reputable choice for website CMS platforms development for several compelling reasons:

• Expertise in Multiple Platforms: SmartOSC has extensive experience and expertise in developing websites on various CMS platforms such as Adobe Commerce (Magento), Shopify, WordPress/WooCommerce, and more. This versatility allows them to tailor solutions based on specific business needs and platform requirements.
• Proven Track Record: With a track record of successful projects and satisfied clients globally, SmartOSC demonstrates reliability and capability in delivering high-quality CMS solutions. They have worked with diverse industries, including eCommerce, retail, technology, and more.
• Customization and Flexibility: Whether it’s customizing existing CMS platforms or building bespoke solutions from scratch, SmartOSC provides flexibility to tailor CMS platforms according to unique business goals, user experience needs, and branding requirements.
• Comprehensive Services: Beyond development, SmartOSC offers comprehensive services including UX/UI design, integration with third-party systems, optimization for performance and SEO, maintenance, and support. This end-to-end service approach ensures a seamless development and deployment process.
• Client-Centric Approach: SmartOSC prioritizes understanding client objectives and delivering digital commerce solutions that align closely with business goals. Their collaborative approach and commitment to client satisfaction make them a trusted partner for CMS platform development.

In summary, businesses should consider SmartOSC for website CMS platform development due to our qualities ensuring that SmartOSC can effectively meet the evolving digital needs of businesses seeking robust and scalable solutions for website CMS platforms.

Conclusion

Selecting the ideal website CMS platforms can be daunting given the abundance of options available today. Our review of 20 solutions aims to simplify your decision-making process and guide you towards choosing the CMS that best suits your specific needs.

Ultimately, the selection of the optimal CMS platform hinges on your requirements and objectives. Make an informed decision today and build a website that aligns perfectly with your goals. Start optimizing your digital presence now with SmartOSC, contact us now!