Looking for a content management system (CMS) for your company's global website? If so, you're probably wondering which is the best platform for localization and multilingual content.
There is a vast array of options on the market. Often, it's not immediately obvious whether a CMS is suitable for localization.
What you need is a shortlist of good CMS platforms you can use to start your search.
We have extensive experience working with various CMS platforms with our clients. We know what signs to look for that indicate if a CMS will "work nicely" with translated content or not.
Here is a list of 10 good CMSs for localization and multilingual websites. It's not exhaustive, but it's a helpful place to start…
Why there is no overall "best" CMS for localization
You might imagine that there's some "ideal" CMS for your multilingual website. And that may be true for your specific situation. Maybe you will end up finding the perfect CMS for your unique needs.
The difficulty that companies often find when shopping for a CMS is that there are so many options out there. Some will be suitable for a company of your size and complexity. Others will be completely unsuitable.
One big difference between CMS is whether they fit the needs of enterprise-level multilingual websites. An enterprise CMS has a specific range of features that are vital for handling multilingual content on the scale you are operating.
For this reason, it's not helpful to look at general lists of "good CMS platforms." You need a list like this one, that only contains CMSs that are suitable for global companies.
CMS guidelines for translation services and global companies
What features should you be looking for when you are assessing a CMS for your company?
There are 5 core requirements for any localization-friendly CMS. These are:
- Ongoing multilingual support.
- An intuitive content authoring format.
- Handling of your locale conventions.
- Customization for your audience preferences.
- Support for your markets' ecommerce needs.
You can find out more about these in our dedicated guide to CMS localization.. You should also make sure that your chosen CMS matches the requirements of an enterprise CMS.
The 10 best CMSs for localization and multilingual websites
There are many great CMS platforms out there. But only some are suitable for multilingual websites and make for a smooth localization process.
Here are 10 of the best CMSs we've found for localization:
1. Adobe Experience Manager Cloud
Adobe has a long history of good localization support and Adobe Experience Manager (AEM) Cloud is no exception. Some consider it to be the dominant enterprise CMS on the market.
There is a lot of flexibility within the software for setting up and customizing localization workflows.
2. Optimizely
Another popular enterprise CMS, Optimizely (previously Episerver) has a lot of built-in features for localization.
Many of these features are geared towards translation teams logging into the platform directly and authoring their translations within it. This makes the platform suitable if you want to store all your content in one CMS.
3. Acquia
Acquia is also a popular enterprise CMS. It is a cloud-based version of the popular open-source CMS Drupal.
It contains support for plugging into other localization platforms and has an API for custom localization workflows.
4. Contentful
Contentful is possibly the world's leading enterprise headless CMS. It's easy to add new locales and the CMS has a powerful API.
We have written before about how headless CMSs are inherently better for localization. They ensure the content is structured consistently, making it easier to implement robust localization workflows.
5. Contentstack
Another headless enterprise CMS, Contentstack is not as well known as Contentful. However, it has excellent localization support.
The Contentstack API makes it easy to extract and load multilingual content. It is also very easy to set up custom workflows to suit your authoring, translation, and review process.
6. DatoCMS
DatoCMS is a relatively new headless CMS. Like other headless CMSs, support for localization is very good.
It is easy to add and change your company's target locales in DatoCMS as you grow and scale your content for new markets.
7. WordPress
The world's most popular open source CMS, Wordpress powers the majority of the world's websites. However, it is not usually the best option for enterprise content, as it is not easily scalable or secure.
There is no native support for localization in Wordpress, but there are some good plugins. One that we have used very successfully is the WPML plugin.
8. Drupal
Drupal is a more robust and scalable CMS than Wordpress. It has never achieved the level of popularity that Wordpress has, but it is popular among developers.
Support for localization in Drupal comes from add-on modules. There are various different localization modules so you need to know what you're doing.
9. Hubspot CMS
A popular choice of CMS for many businesses, Hubspot has a suite of tools for online businesses. It has some support for localization and there are APIs for adding and extracting content.
Probably the best way to integrate Hubspot CMS is with a connector through the API.
10. Salesforce Experience Cloud
Salesforce Experience Cloud is a competitor to Adobe Experience Manager. It has some support for localization and it also has an API.
Which is the best multilingual CMS for your company?
A list like the one above is certainly useful. But you and your team will need to do a little more work to ensure that you find the CMS that really works for your company.
To help you find a CMS that suits your company's needs, we suggest you follow these steps:
- Get your stakeholders involved early. Identify your needs from a CMS together as a team.
- Look at your entire process of content creation and localization. It's much more effective when you look at this as a whole. Don't just view translation as an add-on step after content creation.
- Talk with your translation provider. Or with an experienced provider, if you haven't enlisted a provider yet.
- Establish localization guidelines along with your team and translation provider.
If you would like any help to identify the best CMS for your company's localization, get in touch with our team.
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