CMS (Content Management System).

Classic (monolithic) CMS: content management, database and presentation run in one system on the server. Examples are WordPress, TYPO3, Joomla and Drupal. Advantage: everything is in one place, there are many ready-made themes and extensions, and editors find their way around quickly. Disadvantage: every extension brings code and updates, the system has to be maintained and secured continuously, and the design is tied to the system's template logic.

Headless CMS: the system only manages content and delivers it via an API; the website itself is built separately, for example with Next.js. Examples are Sanity, Strapi, Contentful, Storyblok and Payload. Advantage: free design, lean delivery, and the same content can appear on a website, an app or a newsletter. Disadvantage: more effort to set up, and previews have to be configured separately. Details under Headless CMS.

Git-based CMS: content lives as text or data files (for example Markdown or JSON) directly in the code repository, versioned with Git. An editing interface such as Decap CMS, TinaCMS or Keystatic writes changes there, after which the website is republished. Advantage: no database, every change is traceable and reversible, very fast pages. Disadvantage: changes only go live after publishing, and for many editors with a lot of content a headless CMS is usually more convenient.

In addition, there are website builders such as Wix, Squarespace or Jimdo, which bundle CMS, hosting and templates as a rental product, and shop systems such as Shopify, which come with their own CMS for products and pages.

A painting company with eight employees wants a new website with service pages, references and a contact form. Perhaps ten things change per year: a new reference project, the holiday closure, a new team member. Nobody in the company has time to learn a system. Here, a full CMS with logins, updates and training is more effort than benefit. It makes more sense to have a fast website whose content is stored as structured data in the code, plus a simple way to request changes.

It is different for a training provider that publishes new course dates, events and articles every week and has three people in marketing. There, an editing system in which this content is maintained in-house pays off — as a headless or Git-based CMS behind a fast website. The decision follows from the question: who changes what, and how often?

A CMS pays off when content is changed regularly and by several people: news and blog, course or event dates, job openings, menus, property or product listings. Then self-service saves time and coordination. It pays off less when a website barely changes for months. A CMS is then mainly one more system that has to be kept up to date, secured and explained.

Three questions help with the decision. First: how often does content change, and which content? Second: who changes it, and how much time does that person have? Third: what happens when that person leaves the company? If you cannot answer the third question, a service provider who reliably implements changes is often the better choice than a login nobody uses any more.

DLM Digital builds new websites to the DLM Digital standard with Next.js: pre-rendered HTML, short loading times and a structure that search engines and AI systems can read well. We no longer build or maintain WordPress websites. How content is maintained is decided per project. On many SME websites the content is stored as structured data in the code; pages, sitemap and structured data are generated from it automatically. This is the case, for example, with the mandate list of CJ Consulting, which is deliberately maintained without a login.

Clients report changes in our client portal: they mark the spot on their website, describe the change they want and approve the result afterwards. Implementation runs through website maintenance (CHF 100–300 per month, depending on scope) or individually by effort. Anyone who wants to change content often themselves gets an editing system for exactly that content, for example a headless CMS; we clarify this before the quote.