Most CMS decisions get over-thought. Comparison spreadsheets, demo cycles, internal politics. The truth is the right CMS for most projects is decidable in about 30 minutes if you’re honest about four things. Here’s the framework.
Question 1 (10 min): Who maintains the site after launch?
This single question eliminates 80% of platforms.
- The founder, weekly: Webflow, Shopify, Squarespace, Wix.
- A marketing team, daily: WordPress, Webflow, Contentful + Next, Shopify Plus.
- A dev team: headless anything, Drupal, custom CMS.
- Nobody — it’s a brochure: Squarespace, Framer, Webflow Lite.
Question 2 (5 min): What does the site do besides render content?
- Just content: any of the above.
- eCommerce: Shopify (default), Woo (B2B/heavy customisation), Squarespace (small + simple).
- Membership / paywall: WordPress + Memberpress, BuddyBoss.
- Booking / scheduling: WordPress + Amelia, or Squarespace + Acuity.
- Custom backend / app-like: headless + custom backend.
Question 3 (5 min): How content-heavy?
Count the post types you’ll need (posts, projects, events, team, locations, products…). 1–3 = anything. 4–8 = WordPress / headless. 8+ = WordPress / Drupal / headless.
Question 4 (10 min): Budget & timeline
- Under $5k, < 4 weeks: Squarespace, Webflow Lite, or a Wix Studio template.
- $5k–25k, 4–8 weeks: custom Webflow, Shopify, WordPress block theme.
- $25k–100k, 8–16 weeks: custom WordPress, custom Shopify, headless rebuild.
- $100k+: enterprise WordPress, headless WP/Contentful, Drupal, custom.
The cross-check
If your four answers point at the same 1–2 platforms, you’re done. If they point at three or more, you’re either over-scoping (cut the requirements) or under-budgeting (raise it). Both are common; neither means the platform choice is hard.
The trap
Don’t pick the platform your last developer was comfortable with. Pick the one that fits the four answers above. The marginal cost of the wrong CMS choice is borne for years; the cost of asking these four questions properly is 30 minutes.