A content management system is not just an editor for web pages. It determines how content is structured, approved, translated, delivered and maintained over the long term. The selection should therefore start with the editorial and technical requirements.
Describe editorial processes
Roles, approvals, versioning, multilingual content, media management and scheduled publishing need to be clarified. A small editorial team has different requirements than an organisation with many departments and separate responsibilities.
Content such as events, products, locations or downloads should also be treated as structured records. This improves findability and reuse across multiple output channels.
Position the systems sensibly
WordPress is often strong in editorial flexibility, but its plugins bring risks for security, updates and compatibility. TYPO3 is particularly widespread in German-speaking countries and offers long-term supported LTS versions; Drupal suits complex, structured and highly integrated platforms.
Joomla can be a good fit for medium-sized, multilingual websites with differentiated editorial rights, provided extensions and maintenance are chosen carefully. Drupal 7 and Joomla 3 are no longer supported and should not be planned as current target platforms.
Evaluate integrations and extensions
Existing CRM, newsletter, search, shop or DAM systems must be connectable via documented interfaces. Extensions should be assessed by maintenance status, data model, permission behaviour and compatibility.
A seemingly quick plugin solution can later make updates harder or lower the security level. Fewer, well-understood components are often more stable than many overlapping extensions.
Secure operation and further development
Updates, backups, role reviews, logging and restoration must be part of the CMS concept. Add to that a clear separation of content, design and custom logic. For multiple channels, a headless or API-first approach can make sense.
A small prototype with real page types and typical approvals shows early on whether the system fits the way you work. For outdated PHP versions, the notes in our PHP security article also apply.
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