Websites. Reviewed October 29, 2026
CMS
Also called: Content management system, WordPress
A CMS, content management system, is the software that lets someone edit pages and publish posts without touching code, and WordPress is the best known.
In practice
A CMS is worth having when the business publishes often. It is not worth the plugins, updates and security patches when the site changes twice a year, and a growing number of sites skip it and keep content in files the agency edits.
If a CMS is the right call, the question is who maintains it and what that costs each month.
Related terms
- Custom websiteA custom website is built from code for one business, with its own design, pages and tools, rather than assembled from a theme or page builder shared with thousands of other sites.
- Website ownershipWebsite ownership means the business holds the domain, the code and the content and can take all three to any host or agency; a rented site lives on a provider's platform and goes dark when the subscription stops.
- Server-side renderingServer-side rendering means the server sends a finished HTML page instead of a blank shell that JavaScript fills in later, so search engines and AI crawlers see the content on the first request.
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