CMS Critic

CMS or WCM – Which is Which?

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One of the more common errors made when evaluating products designed to enable an online presence is the misunderstanding of the difference between a WCM and a CMS.

In order to help alleviate this confusion, I thought I’d offer up how I view the two, so you can get a better understanding when trying to decide which solutions to explore as part of your short listing process.

WCM

A WCM is a Web Content Management system. These systems are designed to provide your organization with a means of putting your business online with relative ease. A WCM, on a basic level, will offer such features as: easy content editing, versioning (revisions of your content), media management, workflow management for content approvals and publishing, template modification and an easy to use dashboard of sorts to provide you with an overview of your site(s). Most CMS vendors offer WCM within their enterprise suites but they can also be offered as standalone packages for smaller organizations.

Examples of web content management systems include (but are not limited to):

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  • Percussion CM1 (http://www.percussion.com)
  • Endplay (http://www.endplay.com)
  • DotNetNuke (http://www.dotnetnuke.com)

CMS

A CMS, on the other hand, is a system that provides a way for multiple users to collaborate, interact with and control access to data through a common interface. While some CMS vendors may bundle their content management systems with WCM components, this is not always the case, nor is it mandatory.

Examples of content management systems include (but are not limited to):

  • Autonomy (http://www.autonomy.com)
  • Alfresco (http://www.alfresco.com)

The biggest issue nowadays is the misuse of the terms and this can often lead to a great deal of confusion as some WCM vendors may call their systems CMS, when in fact, they are not.

For those interested in learning about what a Portal is (so may terms, so little time!) you can read this excellent write up by Paul of Liferay: http://www.liferay.com/products/what-is-a-portal/web-platform which gives a great overview and explanation – Thanks Paul!

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Mike Johnston

Mike is a CMS Analyst & Consultant who founded CMS Critic in 2008. He regularly consults with companies to assist them with the CMS selection process and is available for speaking engagements. You can contact him here or follow him on Google Plus.

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  • Jeff

    One correction – DotNetNuke is actually a full featured CMS that supports all the functionality of WCM.

  • http://www.contegro.com Rebecca Caroe

    Another possible point of confusion are document management systems. Of course, they are integrated into some enterprise CMS but I expect that’ll be yet another “venn” diagram for you to draw, Mike!

  • Bryan C

    Would you consider Adobe Day CQ to be a WCM or a CMS? I would consider it a CMS.

    • http://www.cmscritic.com Mike Johnston

      I would agree. WCM is, to some, a component of a CMS but it can also be a stand alone product. Day CQ would fall under CMS on the basis that it’s not just a system for establishing a website, it also contains a rather in depth content repository and additional functionality.

      Keep in mind, however, that everyone has differing opinions as to where certain systems fit. I’m just trying to provide one. :)

  • http://www.liferay.com Paul Hinz

    Good concise description. Liferay and Alfresco have been good partners for a while and many enterprises leverage both together . Liferay Portal often fills the WCM role while Alfresco assumes the broader CMS role. You could add portal to your article and create a three oval venn diagram with all three overlapping as all three have common features plus other exclusive features.

    Interestingly you list Sharepoint in the CMS category, and while they’d like to have companies believe they can be an Enterprise CMS, they have no where near the capabilities of Alfresco and honestly, Liferay has been competing with them for WCM, doc sharing, team collaboration, etc. for quite a while. Sharepoint is more of a Microsoft docs collaboration repository for workgroups. The Liferay + Alfresco combination has been a welcome relief to those struggling with the tentacled growth of Sharepoint.

    Oh, and by the way, all three are leveraged together too.

    • http://www.cmscritic.com Mike Johnston

      Hi Paul.

      Thanks for the feedback. I agree with your assessment of Sharepoint and have pulled it out, replacing it with Autonomy. From a portal perspective, I’ll likely do another article describing them as well.