There’s no shortage of content management systems (CMSes), and many offer templates and tools that have simplified getting started.
But how do you choose the best fit for your business?
For B2B companies, the right CMS can help attract and nurture leads online. Your choice should reflect your team’s sales strategy, company size, and budget, along with how easy the platform is to learn and the customer support available. We’ve compiled a list of the six most popular CMS options and broken down their advantages and disadvantages.
6 Best CMS Options for B2B Website Platforms
While some platforms are clearly better than others, there’s no one-size-fits-all B2B CMS. The best choice depends on your company’s needs, with each platform offering different strengths. Choosing the right one can help your business’s website:
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Reduce time spent making & managing pages
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Build alignment and transparency between sales & marketing teams
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Tailor features to B2B buyer behavior and needs
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Enhance the business's online credibility
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Improve customer engagement
These six CMS options are particularly popular with B2Bs attempting to maximize their marketing productivity, including:
- WordPress
- HubSpot
- Squarespace
- Wix
- Joomla
- Drupal
WordPress
WordPress is the world’s most notorious CMS option, powering over 43% of all websites on the internet. These range from simple blogs to massive online stores. Users are able to create a variety of website designs with a multitude of templates to choose from without extensive technical knowledge.
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Advantages |
Disadvantages |
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Highly customizable: WordPress offers thousands of plugins and themes, so you can build almost any type of website (including e-commerce) by simply dragging and dropping features. |
Not business-specific: The platform is designed for all types of websites and is not always focused on marketing and sales tools. |
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Cost-effective: The no-code, beginner-friendly options give businesses with even a small budget some options. |
Advanced features may require outside help and additional costs: Adding custom features or meeting specific website requirements may require support from a developer and added fees. |
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Large community of users: Troubleshooting occurs quickly due to the large number of users and developers. |
Troubleshooting is often cited and can be time-consuming: Resolving technical issues in WordPress can be frustrating, especially for users without technical experience. |
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Beginner-friendly: No experience with coding or web development is required. |
Ongoing updates: WordPress and its plugins need regular updates. If automatic updates aren’t enabled, you’ll need to manage them manually. |
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Responsive sites: Websites automatically adjust to fit different screen sizes, including mobile and desktop computers. |
Plug-in overload: Adding too many may hurt your site’s speed and performance. |
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SEO-friendly: Supports SEO tools that help search engines understand your content, making it easier for users to find your site. |
The options can be overwhelming: It’s nice to have choices, but too many can make it difficult to narrow down the best choice, especially for beginners who don’t know what to look for. |
HubSpot
HubSpot CMS, part of HubSpot Content Hub, lets users build and manage websites, landing pages, and blogs with hosting included and no plugins required to get started. It’s a particularly popular CMS for B2B companies. Its free tools include basic page-building features, custom domain connections, and drag-and-drop editing. Paid plans unlock additional features as your business grows.
HubSpot CMS tools are available through four options, including three paid tiers:
- Free: This option allows up to 25 website pages that include a floating “Built on HubSpot” badge. Core features include managed cloud hosting, security monitoring, custom domains, and basic SEO recommendations.
- Starter: Begins at $20 a month per seat and removes the floating HubSpot badge from your website pages. This tier adds expanded page limits (up to 50 pages), email marketing support, and some customer support via chat and email.
- Professional: Starts at $500 a month with 3 core seats included, with additional seats costing $50 per month per seat. This tier includes SEO tools, personalized page content, A/B testing, and custom reporting so teams can track their website’s performance.
- Enterprise: Starts at $1,500 a month with 5 core seats; adding additional seats costs $75 per month per seat. This level allows for management of multiple websites, additional reporting capabilities, and more advanced tools (i.e. content repurposing).
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Advantages |
Disadvantages |
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All-in-one marketing, sales, and service platform: HubSpot integrates the tools and resources you need to track leads, analyze data, and manage campaigns and content in one platform. |
Requires more up-front investment: HubSpot’s highest-paid tiers can make the initial investment a bit scary. However, that initial investment may be equal to or less than what you will ultimately pay for a platform like WordPress and its necessary plug-ins. |
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Extensive features and tools: HubSpot simplifies and optimizes B2B efforts to reach and nurture leads. All of the tools are integrated, and no additional plug-ins are required to improve efficiency. |
Learning curve: Getting familiar with HubSpot’s tools and layout can take time, and its never-ending stream of updates may require your team to adjust how they complete tasks. |
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Powerful lead management and analytics: HubSpot offers efficient data collection and reporting to help you better manage your lead database. The platform also offers automation and forms to keep the pipeline flowing. |
Templates offer limited flexibility: Major changes to HubSpot templates or highly customized features may need support from a web developer. |
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SEO capabilities: HubSpot offers integration with Google Search Console and SEO (search engine optimization) tools on the platform itself to make your content and infrastructure more attractive to search ranking algorithms. |
Limited fit for high-volume e-commerce: HubSpot can support smaller online stores but may not meet the needs of large, high-volume e-commerce websites. |
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Marketer-friendly editor: The drag-and-drop page builder, responsive templates, and content capabilities allow teams to make edits as needed without a web developer. |
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Native CRM Integration: Your website lives within the same platform as your CRM. Integration is simple, such as adding a form, and tracking leads is seamless. |
COMBINING HUBSPOT and WordPress
While some people are evaluating the benefits of HubSpot vs. WordPress, others are looking at the potential benefits of an integration. For those individuals, there is a HubSpot plugin for WordPress.
If your website runs on WordPress, HubSpot’s free plugin connects it to tools such as CRM, forms, live chat, and email marketing. Some advanced features require a paid HubSpot subscription. While this combination offers flexibility, you’ll still need to account for WordPress hosting costs and the time needed to set up and learn both platforms.
Squarespace 
If you’re looking for an integrated option, Squarespace is an all-in-one website builder, domain registration, and e-commerce platform. It also offers visually appealing templates and an easy-to-use interface – no coding required.
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Advantages |
Disadvantages |
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Ease of use: User-friendly interface makes it relatively simple for users to build and manage a professional-looking website without extensive coding knowledge. |
Limited customization: While Squarespace offers a range of templates and customization options, it doesn’t offer the same level of flexibility compared to HubSpot. |
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Attractive templates: Offers a wide range of modern and visually appealing templates specifically designed for B2B companies that create a polished and engaging online presence. |
Potential cost: Operates on a subscription-based model with reasonable pricing plans. However, there is no free plan available, and the costs can add up over time. This can be especially noteworthy for larger B2B companies with more extensive website needs, advanced feature requirements, or third-party integrations. |
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Built-in marketing tools: Provides email marketing, blogging, and analytics, which can help B2Bs engage with their target audience and track their website's performance. |
Fewer add-on options: Offers around 50 add-on tools for your website – far fewer compared to other platforms. |
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All-in-one platform: Manage hosting, security, domains, and software updates in the same place, with tools for selling online and scheduling appointments. |
Platform lock-in: There’s no option to export your website design if you choose another platform down the road. |
Wix 
Wix is a website builder that combines drag-and-drop tools and AI-powered content generation. After answering a few questions about your business or vision, AI on Wix creates a layout, text, and images in just a few minutes.
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Advantages |
Disadvantages |
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User-friendly editor: The drag-and-drop modules give nontechnical users more control over the website creation |
Limited flexibility and customization: Templates and modules are limited to a small group, but can be moved around to your liking. However, customization — particularly for businesses — is very restrictive, especially compared to HubSpot. |
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Wide range of templates: Wix offers a vast collection of templates designed for various industries and business types, including B2B. This variety can help create a visually appealing and professional website tailored to the company's target audience. |
Slow load times: Websites on Wix are easily influenced by media file size, leading to slower load times and a bad user experience. |
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Extensive app market: Over 300 third-party add-ons are available, such as live chat and email marketing. |
Data tracking issues: The lack of analytics tools (at the free level) makes it challenging to identify areas where your site needs improvements. |
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Built-in business tools: Wix provides online bookings, customer management, and e-commerce functionality. |
Migration difficulty: If you ever choose to go to another platform, exporting content is next to impossible. |
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Wix Studio: Gives developers and agencies more control over website design, tools to adjust layouts for different screen sizes, and features that help teams collaborate. |
Mobile responsiveness: Many templates require separate layout adjustments to be compatible with mobile views. |
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Limited e-commerce: The online store presence is only suitable for small or simple stores. Lacks the ability to do multi-currency checkout or high-volume purchases. |
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Unpredictable costs: Paid plans start at $17 and go all the way up to $159 per month. Costs can add up quickly if your website needs several paid third-party apps. |
Joomla
Joomla offers plenty of features and customization options, but a drag-and-drop page builder isn’t included. You can add one through a third-party extension.
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Advantages |
Disadvantages |
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Flexible structure: Gives detailed control over how the website’s content is grouped, displayed, and accessed through menus. |
Complex to learn: Compared to more user-friendly website builders, Joomla is an ordeal for non-technical users. B2B companies without dedicated web development resources may find it challenging to set up and manage a Joomla website effectively. |
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Scalability: Suitable for B2B companies with growing website needs. It can handle large amounts of content, traffic, and user interaction, ensuring a smooth experience as the business expands. |
Security and maintenance overhead: Requires regular updates and security patches to mitigate potential vulnerabilities. B2B companies may need to allocate resources for ongoing maintenance and security monitoring to ensure their website remains functional and safe. |
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Strong community support: Has a large and active community of developers and users, providing access to extensive documentation, tutorials, and support resources. This can be beneficial for B2B companies whose back-end users aren’t quite experts yet. |
Compatibility issues: Installing too many plugins can sometimes lead to software conflicts that require a developer’s assistance to fix. |
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Built-in features: Comes with plenty of capabilities, including multilingual support, granular user access controls, and metadata/SEO options without needing extra plugins. |
Drupal 
Drupal may be a better fit for larger B2B companies with in-house developers or the budget for outside support. Smaller businesses with limited technical resources may struggle with the time and cost needed to learn, build, and maintain a Drupal website.
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Advantages |
Disadvantages |
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Scalability and flexibility: Offers an extensive module ecosystem that allows users to build and customize their website to meet their specific needs. Users can create a website using a visual page builder, built-in core tools, or third-party drag-and-drop modules. |
Challenging to set up and maintain: B2B companies without dedicated web development resources or technical expertise may find it challenging to set up, configure, and maintain a Drupal website effectively. |
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Security and access control: Known for its strong security features and reliable access control system, which is beneficial for B2B companies handling sensitive data or requiring granular control over user permissions and content access. |
Potentially higher costs: While it’s free to use, building and maintaining a complex B2B website may require experienced developers or an agency. Paid tools and services can also add to the overall cost. |
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Content management: A highly organized platform that prioritizes efficient categorization and content structuring, which can be advantageous for B2B companies with large amounts of information to manage and present logically. |
The Best B2B CMS is the One that Fits Your Team
The best B2B CMS balances ease of use, flexibility, and tools that support your business goals. It should also match your team’s technical skills and the bandwidth it has to manage your website.
Keep in mind that your choice of industrial CMS goes a long way in determining scalability as your business grows. Your CMS should support your business as it grows, so choose a platform that meets your future needs, even if it costs more up-front.
Ready to figure out which CMS platform is best for your business? Download our Website Update Checklist to plan your website redesign or migration.
