CMS is short for Content Management System, and it is a system of procedures that organizes, presents, and manages workflow. CMSs are extremely useful as they can be used narrowly or broadly and include many or few people.

While there are many types of content management systems, they all provide similar features. They allow for the management of content, which can be in the form of documents, data, images, and other media. CMSs allow a large number of people to manage, develop, and share data, but the number of users can be limited as managers see fit. Moreover, different users can have different levels or access to contribute and manage content. Because of their collaborative nature, CMSs are frequently used for controlling, storing, modifying, and publishing information.

While there are many different types of CMSs (document management systems, enterprise management systems, digital records management, etc.) Web content management systems (Web CMSs) are especially prominent as businesses use them for ecommerce, advertising and publication purposes. Media and ordinary people, meanwhile, also use them to get their ideas out on the Internet to a potentially worldwide audience.

A Web CMS allows Internet users of almost all abilities to manage Web content. CMSs usually feature presentation templates that users can control for the overall design of their Web site. Web CMSs are generally administered through browser-based interface, meaning that many users across the world can contribute to the content of a site, provided they have an Internet connection and are allowed access.

A Web CMS allows users to publish their content on a standard template, edit their own – as well as other users’ – content, and supervise the work of others as they progress on projects, with preview options that allow work to be shown internally before being presented for viewing to others outside the CMS. Easy to add Plugins make updating and protecting a CMS easy, while options like RSS feeds help followers keep track of published content.

Many CMSs are free and open-source (meaning that the public can add to the code, allowing it to shape the development of the CMS), while others are privately-owned and only administered for profit. Popular open source Web CMSs like Joomla!, Drupal, and WordPress, and companies like Microsoft and IBM that offer private Web CMSs, have allowed millions of people and organizations worldwide the ability to publish and manage their own ideas, documents, and media.