How Much Does a CMS Cost? 2025 Pricing Data
Invest wisely in web mastery. Delve into the financial aspects of CMS platforms and considerations that guide your purchase to a value-driven decision.

A content management system (CMS) makes it easy to add and edit the content on a website without writing any code. It's helpful to have a CMS when you would like to update your website without the help of a developer. A CMS becomes essential when your website has a high volume of content, like a blog or resource library. If you’re new to running a website, you may be wondering which system is the best—and hey, how much does a CMS cost, anyway?
The total cost of using a CMS is dependent on the number of features it includes, like hosting and payment processing. As the number of CMS features increases, so does the price. A small business may only pay $10 per month for a CMS, while an international corporation may pay thousands. Several popular content management systems are actually free.
This guide will help you avoid overpaying for a content management system. It covers all the key things you need to know about how much a CMS costs, including:
- 10 common content management systems and their prices
- What factors play a role in the cost of a CMS and website
- What should you consider when you are selecting a CMS?
10 common content management systems and their prices
Some content management systems make it easy for beginners to build and maintain a website. Others may require the help of a developer to help get the CMS set up. Once your CMS is in place, you can add and edit the content on your own.
The most common content management systems in use today are:
- WordPress: Used by nearly 40% of all websites, this free and open-source CMS has over 58,000 available plugins to enhance your website. Because it doesn’t come with a domain name or hosting, many people hire a WordPress developer to set this CMS up.
- Wix: It costs less than $50 per month to run a small-to-medium size business or e-commerce website on Wix. Every site includes hosting, a domain name, security features, and attractive theme templates with drag-and-drop editing. Wix walks all users through the setup process.
- Squarespace: This content management system's plans include hosting and a free domain name for less than $55 per month. Its block-based theme templates are easy to set up and edit without any prior design experience. Over three million subscribers use this CMS.
- Drupal: Many large organizations and governments use Drupal. Over 150 countries use this CMS for their official websites. Drupal is also used to make progressive web apps.
- Joomla: This free CMS lets users create a website on a Joomla subdomain. You can install it on your own web host, with the help of a Joomla developer, to use a custom domain. It is excellent for complex websites with a mix of original content and ads.
- Shopify: This CMS powers over one million e-commerce websites. Standard plans start at $29 per month and include an online storefront plus retail point-of-sale integrations. You do not need web development experience to begin using Shopify.
- GoDaddy: The popular domain name registrar offers users a website CMS, themes, and e-commerce features. Plans start at $9.99 per month, and you do not need development experience to get started.
- Weebly: Owned by Square, Weebly lets its users sell products on a free site that uses a branded subdomain. You can connect a personal domain for as little as $6 per month and create a site with the drag-and-drop interface.
- Blogger: This blog platform is over 20 years old and is completely free to use. You will need to pay for a custom domain (also available from Google) or use a free Blogger subdomain.
- Adobe Experience Manager: This enterprise content management system is a smart choice for companies that use Adobe's Magento e-commerce software. It also functions as a digital asset manager (DAM).
These content management systems all use a "what you see is what you get" (WYSIWYG) style text editor. Adding content to your website will feel like typing in a word document, with buttons to control text formatting. You won't need to write any HTML.
Make sure you try out a new CMS before fully committing to it. With the exception of Adobe Experience Manager, most content management systems offer a free download, free trial, or reasonably priced one-month subscription so you can test out the features and decide which CMS is right for your business.
What factors play a role in the cost of a CMS and website
It's important to note that free content management systems still come with some costs. For example, when using WordPress or Drupal, you are responsible for locating a hosting provider and domain name. Premium plugins may also increase the cost of building a website.
Paid content management systems include hosting and other capabilities. The CMS cost for e-commerce sites may be higher than the CMS cost for bloggers due to additional features.
Regardless of your industry, the CMS cost for personal websites, blogs, and e-commerce sites varies due to:
Number of sites
As you add websites to your CMS, the cost will increase. This is true for content management systems like Squarespace, where you pay per site, as well as a WordPress or Joomla setup where you must pay for hosting multiple sites.
Amount of users
Paid content management systems offer a number of user licenses with every plan. Once you go beyond this number, you will need to pay a fee for every team member that should have admin access to your website. A free CMS will not have a user limit. If you set up user accounts using email addresses on your company domain, though, you may need to pay your email service provider an additional fee.
Bandwidth
Bandwidth is often expressed as megabits per second (Mbps). One thousand megabits per second is a gigabit (Gbps). Megabits and gigabits indicate how fast data can flow from a site host to its visitors and back again. The higher this number, the better your site's uptime and speed will be.
A website with many data-heavy features, such as embedded videos, will need more bandwidth. If you don't have enough bandwidth to support this data, your website performance may suffer.
Monthly traffic
Every visitor to your website contributes to the bandwidth load. As a result, some web hosts limit the number of page views or unique visitors that your site can have in a given month.
Storage
All-in-one website platforms like Weebly and Shopify include storage space for your website on their servers.
When you use a free, open-source option such as WordPress, you'll need to pay for server space with a hosting company like Bluehost. A hosting server is a big computer: it has a solid-state drive, a processor, and RAM like your laptop, but on a much larger scale. Depending on the host, you can opt to pay for space on a:
- Shared server: As the name suggests, many websites share the same server storage. Sharing is the most affordable hosting option but isn't great for big sites with a lot of traffic.
- Virtual private server (VPS): Many websites exist on the same physical server when using a VPS, but each has its own defined space. VPS hosting can be suitable for more complex, customized sites that still don't have a massive volume of monthly visitors.
- Dedicated server: A dedicated server hosts only one website. It's the best choice when you have a high number of visitors or particular security needs, but it is expensive.
When you buy a shared or VPS hosting plan, the host will let you know how much server space you have. This storage gets expressed as gigabytes, like your computer or smartphone's storage.
Custom domain names
When you first use a new CMS, your content often exists on a subdomain of the provider's website. For example, on Squarespace, your site may have a default URL that looks like yoursitename.squarespace.com. While this makes it easy to get started, it's terrible for search engine optimization (SEO). When your blog or business website goes live, it should have a custom domain. Having your own domain also gives you a more professional web presence.
Many paid content management systems include a custom domain in the plan cost. The CMS provider will help you locate and attach a domain in a few clicks. You can purchase an affordable domain name for less than $20 per year when using a free CMS.
Security
Take a look at the address bar on your browser. See the little padlock icon and the URL that begins with HTTPS? If you click on the padlock, you will see information about our Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificate.
These indicators let you know that when you're browsing Upwork, you're doing so over a secured connection. For example, when you log into the site, that experience gets encrypted and remains private between you and Upwork.
All websites, whether they involve user logins or not, should have an SSL certificate. Most major web browsers will display a warning message before you can access a site that does not have this in place. It's an essential part of keeping your website and your visitors safe from hackers. SSL certificates may be part of your CMS or domain name purchase price.
Analytics
Many content management systems provide analytics data, including your total site size and visitor count. These numbers help you keep an eye on storage and bandwidth.
CMS analytics also often extend to information about your visitors. This data can include:
- How many web pages they visited
- Where they clicked
- Their path around the site
- What actions they took
These analytics may vary depending on the type of site you have. Shopify's analytics, for instance, include e-commerce-related data that wouldn't be as useful to a blogger without an online store.
You always have the option of collecting more content marketing metrics with free and paid third-party tools.
Customer Support
When you first start using a new CMS platform, you might have some questions. If you're setting up a CMS by yourself, without the help of a developer, the CMS company's support team can be an invaluable resource.
Here’s how the 10 common content management systems discussed in this article offer customer support:
Additional business help
Services that pair a website builder with a CMS offer a more comprehensive service experience than a content management system alone. When you use a standalone CMS like WordPress or Drupal, you host the site on a server of your choice. The teams that make these content management systems cannot access your site to help you troubleshoot.
When using an all-in-one product like Squarespace, your site gets hosted by the same company that provides the CMS. When you contact the company for help, they can access more details about your site and CMS.
Furthermore, these combined CMS and website platforms usually offer assistance with:
- Setting up domain names
- Processing credit card payments
- Communicating with website visitors
With access to all these features in one dashboard, you can ensure everything will work as intended.
Email functionality
Email marketing has a high ROI—as much as $42 for every $1 you invest. It's one of the most effective ways you can turn website visitors into clients and customers. Here's how it works:
- Capture visitors' contact information through landing page forms or online orders.
- Break them into different groups based on how they found your site or what they bought.
- Prepare a series of emails that contains information relevant to each group.
- Schedule the emails to send, and use a workflow for easy follow-up.
Content management systems with email functionality allow you to send a specified number of campaigns or messages every month. There may also be a limit to how many people you have in your contact lists. When choosing a CMS with email capability, look for these features:
- Marketing automation
- Segmentation
- Email marketing analytics
Advanced CMS functionality
While a business website, personal website, portfolio, and blog may use the same CMS features, e-commerce sites need advanced functionality. When selecting a paid content management system, look for the following:
- Point-of-Sale (POS): If you plan to sell products online and at a physical store, market, or craft fair, you need a point of sale system. By using an e-commerce CMS system that includes a POS, you can manage your inventory and orders all in one place. Square, which owns Weebly, is an excellent example of how to blend e-commerce and retail sales. The company offers various POS tools, including tablet-based registers and card readers that plug into an iPhone.
- Abandoned cart recovery: This feature goes hand-in-hand with email marketing. When a shopper puts a product in their cart and then leaves your site, your system can send them a reminder message. This email may be a simple nudge or include a discount that encourages them to make the purchase.
- Discount and promotion engines: A promotion engine leverages artificial intelligence and workflows to offer customers a well-timed series of discounts and special offers. The engine will target customers who meet specific criteria and profiles.
- Shipping assistants: e-commerce shipping tools like Shippo can expedite the process of calculating and collecting shipping fees, generating labels, and issuing return authorizations.
If your e-commerce site uses a free, open-source CMS like WordPress or Drupal, you can achieve these features through plugins.
What should you consider when you are selecting a CMS?
With so many options available to you, it can be hard to decide if you want to use a self-hosted option like WordPress or go with an all-in-one solution. As you evaluate your options, consider the following factors:
Ease of use
If you're intimidated or confused by using your CMS, you will be less likely to publish new web content. It doesn't matter that many websites use WordPress or that your professional connections may swear by Wix. Look for a CMS that offers:
- Integration with your most essential business tools, like a CRM or payment processor
- Customer service and support options that you're comfortable with
- The core features you need to conduct business, such as email marketing tools or an e-commerce store
Pricing
Sure, it's often tempting to go with the cheapest option to maximize profits, but if your CMS doesn't offer all the features you need, your website won't be able to keep up with competitors. Sometimes, investing in your business is the way to make more money. Choose a CMS with the right feature set to help you serve your customers now and have room to grow. You can always add on more features in the future if you decide you need them.
Community and updates
An active community of CMS users is great when you want some advice or would like to see how other people use the software. Plus, a user community indicates that its creators maintain the CMS. The last thing you want is for your CMS, and in turn, your website, to become unsupported.
Get help for any CMS
Whether you're debating Wix vs. Squarespace or need help setting up WordPress hosting, there are web designers and developers ready to help. Connect with independent professionals experienced in your CMS of choice by browsing Project Catalog™ or post a job on Upwork today.
Upwork is not affiliated with and does not sponsor or endorse any of the tools or services discussed in this section. These tools and services are provided only as potential options, and each reader and company should take the time needed to adequately analyze and determine the tools or services that would best fit their specific needs and situation.