Which CMS to choose in 2025? Comparison of classic and modern platforms
March 27, 2025
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8 minutes
In 2025, the choice of a CMS (Content Management System) for creating your website is broader and more complex than ever. Historically, WordPress has long dominated the landscape, but today newer platforms like Webflow or Framer offer attractive alternatives, each with its strengths and limitations. There is no longer a universal solution – each CMS excels in certain scenarios and shows its limits in others. So, which CMS to choose in 2025 for your project? In this warm and accessible article, we will compare the "historical" CMS (WordPress, Joomla, Drupal) with modern solutions (Webflow, Framer, Directus). The goal is to help you find the right tool depending on the type of site you want to create (blog, showcase site, dynamic application, custom site, etc.) and according to your profile (non-tech entrepreneur, developer, freelancer, marketing team, etc.). And let’s not forget: if your needs are very specific (real-time features, complex business logic, etc.), the 100% custom solution sometimes remains the best option.
The "classic" open-source CMS: WordPress, Joomla, Drupal
The veterans WordPress, Joomla, and Drupal have been around for decades and have proven themselves. These open-source CMS are installed on your own hosting and offer a huge flexibility thanks to their thousands of themes/extensions and their active communities. They require, however, more technical maintenance than a modern hosted solution.
WordPress – It is the undisputed heavyweight of CMS, powering a massive share of global websites. WordPress owes its popularity to its versatility and its huge community. Blogs, showcase sites, e-commerce stores, forums – anything is possible thanks to over 60,000 plugins and countless themes. Its large community and ecosystem make WordPress a powerful platform for businesses of all sizes. In return, you must accept to perform regular updates (core, plugins, themes) and manage security, or risk having a vulnerable site. Nevertheless, WordPress remains an excellent choice if you are looking for a solution accessible to non-developers while being highly customizable. It's a bit like the "Swiss army knife" of website creation.
Joomla – Launched in 2005, Joomla was once very popular and remains an intermediate option between WordPress and Drupal. This CMS natively offers advanced features such as multi-language management and very granular user access controls. It is often chosen for community sites, business portals, or organizational sites that require multiple levels of users. Joomla offers a good balance between power and simplicity, with robust security right from installation. However, its market share has declined, and its community is smaller today (fewer developers and extensions available compared to WordPress). For a complete beginner, the Joomla interface may seem less intuitive than WordPress, but for a medium-sized multilingual corporate site, it can prove to be very effective.
Drupal – Drupal is the champion of complex and custom websites. This other open-source CMS is known for its robustness, scalability, and high level of security. It is particularly popular among large institutions, governments, universities, or community platforms where content volumes are high and needs are very specific. Drupal allows you to model custom content types at will, manage taxonomies (categories, tags...) finely, and define user roles with very detailed permissions. In exchange, it presents a steeper learning curve – technical skills are required to get the most out of it, which makes it more suitable for experienced developers or agencies than for an average user. If your project requires a complex architecture, many integrations, and impeccable security, Drupal is an option to seriously consider. For a small showcase site, however, it would be like using a jackhammer to drive in a nail.
The next-generation CMS: Webflow, Framer, Directus
In recent years, new tools have reimagined website creation by betting either on no-code (visual design without programming) or on “headless” architecture (content managed via an API without imposed front-end). These modern solutions, often offered in hosted SaaS, eliminate some constraints of the old CMS while targeting different audiences.
Webflow – Webflow is both a web design tool and an online CMS. It bridges the gap between visual design and front-end development: concretely, Webflow allows you to design and publish sites without writing code while offering the option to add custom code if needed. Its drag-and-drop graphic editor gives pixel-perfect control to designers while generating clean code in the background. Webflow integrates a dynamic CMS (content collections, custom fields) and hosts your site on its high-performance servers. For whom? For designers, marketers, and entrepreneurs who want a custom site with elegant design without hiring a developer. Once the site is set up, the marketing team can edit the content via a simplified editor. Webflow shines with its ease of use and modern designs, all while offering solid performance (the HTML/CSS/JS is pre-generated statically for each page, which speeds up loading). However, be mindful of the paid model: the freedom and peace of mind that Webflow offers (maintenance and security managed by the platform) come at a monthly cost, which can rise for large or highly visited sites. It’s not open-source; you are tied to the platform – a choice embraced by many given the time savings and technical serenity it provides.
Framer – Framer is another tool from the design world that has transformed into a web creation platform. It shares similarities with Webflow (visual editing, included hosting), but its philosophy is even more focused on design and rapid prototyping. Framer stands out for its fast page generation and well-crafted animations by default, with a mobile-first and SEO-optimized rendering right from the start. It’s an excellent choice for creating a creative portfolio, a "wow" effect landing page, or any project where aesthetics take precedence and the content remains manageable in a few pages. The trade-off: Framer is a younger platform, with less extensibility for now (few plugins compared to Webflow) and the obligation to use its proprietary hosting service. In other words, Framer is perfectly suited for designers or small creative teams wanting to build a highly visual site in record time, without touching code. Its interface is particularly pleasant and modern, making content creation almost playful. However, for a large scalable site with very custom needs, you will quickly reach its limits – Framer still lacks maturity as a complete CMS and has limited large-scale third-party integration possibilities.
Directus – Directus represents another category of modern CMS: the open-source “headless” CMS. Unlike Webflow or Framer, Directus does not provide any visual web page editor – it’s a back-end solution that manages only content through an admin interface and exposes it via API (REST or GraphQL). Designed by and for developers, Directus is somewhat a content database with a ready-to-use admin layer. It makes no assumptions about your site (no notion of fixed "posts" or "pages"), making it ultra-flexible for structuring business data. In practice, a developer creates the database schema (tables, relationships) in Directus and immediately gets an API and user interface for editors to manage this data. On the website or application side, a custom front-end needs to be developed (with React, Vue, Svelte... of choice) that will pull content via the Directus API. For whom? For a technical team that wishes for total control over the user experience and architecture, while avoiding “repurposing” a traditional CMS from its primary use. For example, if you are building an interactive web application, a business intranet, or a dashboard-type tool, a headless CMS like Directus may be more suitable than a plugin-heavy WordPress. Moreover, many developers are moving away from traditional monolithic CMS (WP, Joomla, Drupal) in favor of these headless solutions that bring the flexibility of APIs and avoid the “pipeline” of plugins. Of course, this is aimed at a technical audience – Directus is not intended to be used by a beginner creating their blog, but it excels whenever a “custom-backend CMS” is needed to feed multiple front-ends (website, mobile app, connected objects...).
Who should use what? Tips based on your project
Every web project is unique, but we can outline some general recommendations to guide you :
Personal blog or small content site: WordPress remains a safe and easy choice for launching a blog or editorial site. It was initially designed for this purpose and offers a pleasant publishing experience (rich text editor, article scheduling, comments, etc.). Moreover, its wealth of plugins (SEO, social sharing, forms…) makes it a turnkey solution for a blogger or solo content creator. If you prefer a more modern and streamlined approach focused solely on blogging, you could also consider platforms like Ghost, but WordPress retains the advantage of versatility.
Showcase site for freelancers or SMEs: For a showcase site (service presentation, portfolio, marketing landing page), the key is often to achieve a professional and optimized design without spending months on it. Next-generation CMSs like Webflow or Framer shine in this scenario. With Webflow, for example, a designer can build a custom corporate site that perfectly reflects your brand, then grant you the ability to edit texts and images through a simple interface. These solutions eliminate worries about hosting, updates, or technical issues – a true advantage for an entrepreneur who lacks either the time or technical skills to manage a server. In summary: if you want an elegant, modern showcase site and are not a developer, Webflow or Framer will save you precious time (whereas WordPress would require assembling themes + plugins and ensuring maintenance).
Corporate site, portal, or online community: For an institutional site with many pages, multilingual content, or even a community section (forums, user accounts), open-source solutions like WordPress or Joomla are often considered. WordPress, with the right plugins, can do almost anything – but Joomla natively offers some useful functions (multi-language out-of-the-box, advanced user rights management) and recognized security, which can prevent you from adding too many extensions. Drupal, on the other hand, is relevant if your site truly falls into a “heavy” category: for example, the website of a large company with internal directory integration, or a collaborative portal rich in content and interactions. Drupal excels in managing complex structured content and can support multisite, e-commerce, advanced editorial workflows, etc. However, ensure you have the necessary technical resources (internal or outsourced) to implement and maintain it. In summary, for a large-scale professional site: WordPress if you need flexibility and a rich ecosystem (and can manage updates), Joomla if you're looking for a balance of power/simplicity with a bit more native functionality for businesses, Drupal if you have an ambitious project in technical and content terms.
Dynamic web application or specific business needs: If your project resembles more of an application than a classic website (for example, a SaaS tool, client extranet, a platform with real-time changing data, etc.), a traditional CMS may not be the right choice. This is where a headless CMS like Directus makes complete sense, potentially coupled with a custom front-end framework. The idea is to benefit from a flexible content/data management foundation while coding your user interface exactly as you wish. You can thus build a modern application (React, Vue…) powered by a flexible content backend. Similarly, Drupal can be used in “decoupled” (headless) mode thanks to its native REST API, combining the robustness of its content management with the freedom of a custom front end. However, these approaches almost always require a development team. In summary: if no ready-made solution matches your specific use case, tools designed for developers (Directus, Strapi, Drupal in headless mode, etc.) or even a complete custom development may be considered.
E-commerce: Creating an e-commerce site could warrant a comparison of its own. Let's just say that for a small to medium-sized online store, WordPress has WooCommerce, a very popular e-commerce plugin. Joomla offers VirtueMart, and Drupal has its Commerce module – there are options. However, beyond a certain point, specialized solutions like Shopify (SaaS) or Magento (open-source) often take over to effectively manage a product catalog, payments, and logistics. Again, it all depends on the size of your project and your skills: a freelancer without a developer will lean towards Shopify (turnkey), while a company with a technical team might integrate WooCommerce into its WordPress or opt for Magento/Prestashop for advanced control.
And when nothing fits… the 100% custom site
Despite the richness of the CMS offerings in 2025, there are cases where no existing solution perfectly meets your business needs. Perhaps your project requires very specific features, exceptional performance, or a completely original software architecture. In such situations, developing your own web application without going through a CMS might be the best option. Indeed, if your needs surpass the constraints of a predefined CMS, a fully customized backend solution may prove ideal. This custom approach gives you absolute control over every aspect of the site, at the cost of a more significant development effort (and potentially higher cost). It’s a common choice for innovative startups or companies with very specific regulatory/technical requirements – for example, an online service leveraging real-time AI or a platform that needs to finely interact with numerous internal systems.
Choosing a from scratch site requires mobilizing a team of experienced developers, but sometimes it’s worth the effort: you thus avoid working around the limitations of a CMS and build exactly what you need. Of course, this decision should be thoroughly considered. In most classic cases (showcase site, blog, corporate site…), a mature CMS will do the job perfectly in a time and budget that are much lower than a custom development. Absolute custom is somewhat of a last resort when no existing platform checks all the boxes. The important thing is to evaluate the cost/benefit ratio: don’t reinvent the wheel if a CMS can already meet 90% of your needs, but know that in case of extreme necessity, the freedom to code everything remains on the table.
Conclusion
In 2025, the CMS landscape offers a range of solutions for nearly all profiles and projects. There is no absolute “best CMS” – the right choice depends on your goals, your content, your technical skills, and your constraints. An entrepreneur without technical knowledge will prefer an all-in-one platform that is easy to handle (even if it sacrifices a bit of flexibility), whereas a team of developers will prefer a tool that it can fully customize or extend. The key is to choose what works for you, rather than following the current trend.
In summary: use the CMS as a catalyst for website creation, not as an end in itself. WordPress and its counterparts provide a proven and versatile base, while Webflow and newcomers refresh the user experience and design. And if your project ventures off the beaten path, don’t hesitate to explore headless solutions or custom development. The important thing is to find the tool that will allow you to realize your vision online, in a manner that is effective, sustainable, and suited to your resources. Whatever CMS you choose, it is the attention given to your content, UX, and user needs that will determine the success of your website. Happy site creation, and long live creative web !
Sources: WordPress, Joomla, and Drupal – comparisons and market shares; Modern platforms Webflow and Framer – user feedback and analyses in 2025; Directus and the headless approach vs traditional CMSs; Choice of a CMS vs custom solution; Usage tips based on use cases.
