A content management system, often called a CMS, is web based software that enables anyone to build a site easily without a lot of training or specific knowledge.

Mostly they are used by large or medium sized sites that are updated regularly. Content management systems usually offer a wide range of features including time based publishing, polls and data gathering software, galleries, community tools, administration and editing features and much more. Almost all have a wide range of plug-ins to enhance the basic feature set. The really good thing about many of the CMS on offer is they are open source software which means they are free!

Anyone can have one although they are usually best suited to people or organisations requiring a frequently updated reasonably large website. A reasonable degree of IT knowledge is required as setting them up and maintaining them can require a degree of knowledge, although an increasingly large number of auto-installers are available. Use of these often requires minimum knowledge.