The CMS market map: a tool every agency should be using

Choosing the right CMS has become one of the most important and most complex decisions agencies face today.

With hundreds of platforms on the market, from traditional systems to headless and composable stacks, digital agencies are often left navigating chaos instead of clarity.

Every client expects a tailored solution. Every project has its own technical, operational, and strategic demands. And your team needs tools that support efficient delivery.

Yet the CMS market doesn’t make it easy to choose the right tool.

There’s no shortage of options, but there is a real shortage of guidance.

To help agencies face this challenge, we created the CMS market map to offer that missing guidance: a simple, strategic framework built specifically for digital agencies to make faster, smarter CMS decisions based on real project needs.

In this article, we’ll show you how it works and why it should be part of every agency’s toolkit.

For many agencies, choosing a CMS starts with familiar territory: feature comparisons, product demos, case studies, or maybe a recommendation from a developer or a client’s IT team.

But that approach skips the foundational question:

“What kind of project are we building — and what kind of CMS architecture best supports that?”

Without that context, agencies risk making decisions based on assumptions, vendor hype, or client preference. And that’s where the problems begin.

The truth is, CMS decisions aren’t purely technical. They’re shaped by project goals, team workflows, launch timelines, and integration needs. But too often, teams focus on the platform itself, not the project it needs to support.

Agencies need a way to evaluate CMS platforms that reflects how projects actually get scoped, resourced, and delivered. One that’s adaptable to different clients and timelines, but structured enough to drive confident, well-informed decisions. That’s exactly what the CMS Market Map is designed to do.

The CMS Market Map is a simple but strategic tool designed to help agencies match the right content management system to the right kind of project, quickly and confidently.

At its core, it’s a 3x4 grid that maps the CMS market across two dimensions:

1. Type of website — from basic marketing sites to complex, content-rich platforms.
2. Project complexity — Is it small and simple, or large and multi-layered?

Based on where a project lands, the map points you toward one of five distinct CMS categories, each designed for a different kind of work.

Let’s quickly run through those categories.

Before you can choose the right CMS for a project, it helps to understand the broader landscape. The CMS market has evolved far beyond traditional platforms, and today, agencies are navigating a mix of legacy systems, modern stacks, and emerging tools built for very different use cases.

Understanding these five categories helps you quickly identify which tools are worth considering and which ones aren’t a fit for your project.

1. Traditional CMS They manage both content and presentation in one system. Great for simple, marketer-led websites with basic content needs, but limited in flexibility and scale.
2. Headless CMS Content is separated from the front end. Ideal for developers building custom experiences, especially when content is used across multiple channels or apps.
3. Entry-level commerce platforms Simple solutions for small online stores. Great for getting started and perfect for quick launches or internal use-cases with minimal development overhead, but often restrictive when content or customization needs grow.
4. Headless commerce platforms A flexible option for larger e-commerce builds, decoupling the storefront from the backend for greater control, customization, and scalability.
5. Data-driven headless CMS (a newer category) These platforms combine structured content with built-in personalization, testing, and optimization. Designed for fast-moving teams who want flexibility and performance without stitching together multiple tools.

We’ve detailed the five CMS categories and how they align with different types of client projects in a separate deep-dive article.

Once you understand where your project fits, the rest of the CMS selection process gets a lot easier. Here’s how to use the map to guide your next CMS decision.

1. Map your project’s position

Start with two simple questions:

• What kind of website are we building? (e.g. brochure site, lead-gen platform, content hub, product experience)
• How complex is this project? (e.g. small team, one market — or multiple regions, complex data, lots of integrations?)

Use these to place the project on the grid. That will point you to one of the five CMS categories. This step alone can eliminate half the market from consideration.

2. Filter based on specific project needs

Once you have identified the right CMS category, start layering in the project’s real-world requirements:

• Team workflows: developer-led or marketer-driven?
• What integrations are non-negotiable — CRM, CDP, analytics?
• How important is speed to market?
• Will the project need personalization or A/B testing later?

This helps you move from 10 possible tools to 2 or 3 strong candidates.

3. Test your shortlist with a quick proof of concept (PoC)

Don’t make your final decision based on marketing material or assumptions.

Instead, spin up a lightweight PoC with your top contenders. Build a simple content model. Try a critical integration. Simulate a typical workflow.

This step reveals what really matters: how the CMS performs in your hands, with your team, under your conditions.

Agencies live in a world of variety. One week you’re building a brand site for a startup. The next, it’s a multi-language platform with personalization for a global enterprise.

The CMS Market Map gives your team a repeatable way to:

• Start each project with strategic clarity
• Align internally before diving into solutions
• Recommend tools based on real fit, not preference
• Deliver faster and reduce implementation risk

It also helps your clients feel confident. When you can explain why a certain CMS fits their business and show that your recommendation is rooted in strategy, you build trust and credibility.

The CMS market map is a tool for strategy, not just selection.

This framework helps shift the conversation from features to outcomes. It gives your team a smarter, more structured way to evaluate options, reduce risk, and recommend platforms with confidence. Whether you're in a discovery session, building a proposal, or guiding a complex project, it brings clarity to every stage of the decision.

Download and use the CMS Market Map to bring consistency to your pitch process, focus your internal discussions, and support recommendations that are built to last. Your team will move faster. Your clients will get better results. And your agency will stand out, not just for what you build, but for how strategically you deliver it.