“Which CMS should we use?” is one of the first questions on almost every website project, and one of the most emotional. People have favourites. Developers have strong opinions. Vendors have sales teams.
We build on all three of these platforms, so we can be blunt: there is no best CMS. There is a best fit for your team, your data and how you work. Here is the framework we use.
Start with three questions
- Who will edit the site day to day? Marketers, developers or both?
- What must it connect to? CRM, marketing automation, product data, analytics?
- Who will maintain it? Updates, security, performance and backups do not look after themselves.
The answers usually point clearly in one direction.
HubSpot CMS
Best for: teams already using HubSpot for marketing automation and CRM.
Strengths
- Forms, contacts, lists and analytics live in the same system as the website.
- Smart content lets you personalise sections based on CRM data such as lifecycle stage or list membership.
- Hosting, security and a CDN are managed for you.
- Marketers can build pages from approved modules without developer help.
Trade-offs
- You are tied to HubSpot’s ecosystem and pricing tiers.
- Highly custom functionality can be harder than on an open platform.
WordPress
Best for: teams that need flexibility, custom functionality or a very content-heavy site.
Strengths
- Open source, with an enormous ecosystem of themes, plugins and developers.
- Nearly anything can be built, from simple sites to complex content platforms.
- You control hosting, data and code.
- Integrates with most CRMs and marketing tools.
Trade-offs
- Maintenance matters. Core, theme and plugin updates, backups and security need an owner.
- Too many plugins create performance and security risk. Quality depends heavily on who builds it.
Webflow
Best for: design-led teams who want visual control and a managed platform.
Strengths
- Visual development that maps closely to real HTML and CSS, with clean output.
- Hosting and security are included.
- Strong for rich interactions and polished marketing sites.
- A structured CMS for blogs, resources and case studies.
Trade-offs
- A smaller extension ecosystem than WordPress.
- Complex logic or deep integrations may need custom code or third-party services.
- Editors need some guidance to avoid breaking layouts.
Performance is about the build, not the logo
People often assume one platform is simply faster. In reality, performance depends mostly on how the site is built: image handling, scripts, fonts and third-party tags. The 2025 Web Almanac found only 48% of mobile sites pass all three Core Web Vitals across the web (HTTP Archive). Sites on every platform land on both sides of that line.
Think about the buyer, too
Your website does more selling than it used to. Gartner’s 2025 research found 61% of B2B buyers prefer a rep-free buying experience, and 69% reported inconsistencies between a supplier’s website and what sellers told them (Gartner). Whichever platform you choose, your team must be able to keep content accurate and current without waiting weeks for a developer.
A quick decision guide
| If this sounds like you | Consider |
|---|---|
| Marketing and sales run on HubSpot; you want personalisation from CRM data | HubSpot CMS |
| You need custom features, many integrations or a large content library | WordPress |
| Design quality and interactions are the priority; you want managed hosting | Webflow |
| You need campaign landing pages fast, separate from the main site | A landing page platform, see Instapage vs Unbounce |
The takeaway
Pick the platform your team will actually use well. The best CMS is the one that makes it easy to keep your site accurate, fast and on brand, and that fits the systems you already rely on.
Not sure which fits? It is one of the first conversations in any website design and development project we take on.
