When it comes to building a website, you want to work with a content management system (CMS) that meets this criteria:

  • Content can be easily edited.
  • Website is SEO-friendly.
  • Design looks good.

So, what’s the best CMS? There are four I really like and I’ll tell you their pros and cons so you can decide which one is right for you.
Thesis Theme

  • Price: $87 (one-time).
  • Pros: Because it’s WordPress-based, it’s extremely customizable and SEO-friendly.
  • Cons: It doesn’t come with good-looking templates. You need to be a good designer to make it look nice.


StudioPress

  • Price: $99.95 (one-time).
  • Pros: Because it’s WordPress-based, it’s extremely customizable and SEO-friendly.
  • Cons: Although it comes with some very nice design templates, customizing them isn’t very easy if you’re not a technical person or a designer.


SquareSpace

  • Price: $14/month.
  • Pros: It’s very easy to use even if you’re not a techie. It’s easier to make your website look good with SquareSpace than it is with the two alternatives I mentioned above.
  • Cons: Not very flexible and not very SEO-friendly.


Flavors.me

  • Price: $20/month.
  • Pros: It’s very easy to build beautiful websites (even if you don’t know anything about design).
  • Cons: It isn’t very flexible. You’ll have a lot of limitations to what you can do with it.


So, Which One Should You Choose?

  • If you want a very simple website to show some basic information (such as some pages and links to your social media profiles), go with Flavors.me
  • If you want more flexibility as far as what you can do but aren’t a technical person, go with SquareSpace.
  • If you like some of the StudioPress themes, go with it.
  • If you want full control of your website and aren’t afraid of working with some code, use the Thesis WordPress theme.

If you can afford to have professional web designers build you site, ask them for a WordPress site that you can later edit yourself. It’s vital that you have control over your own site so you can make all the changes you want fast and without having to depend on your designer’s schedule.