The Complete Guide to Choosing a Higher Education CMS

Your university website isn't just a digital brochure, it's a critical tool for recruitment, student services, research visibility, and alumni engagement. The CMS you choose determines how effectively you can manage hundreds of department sites, meet accessibility requirements, and deliver the seamless experience today's students expect.

This guide covers everything you need to select the right higher education CMS: platform types, must-have features, head-to-head comparisons, and recommendations based on your institution's size and goals.

What is a CMS

A content management system (CMS) lets your team create, edit, and publish web content without coding expertise. For universities, a CMS does much more it manages multiple department sites, enforces brand consistency, handles accessibility compliance, and integrates with student information systems.

Let's look at the two main types of CMS platforms.

Proprietary CMS vs. Open Source CMS

It is vital to choose the right CMS but for this, you need to consider what each system delivers, what its benefits are, and what features of the CMS suit your organization the best. 

Here is a detailed comparison between the two types of content management systems:

Proprietary CMS

You can figure by the name that proprietary CMS software is an organization, individual’s, or group’s legal property. Those who create it hold the sole rights to the CMS and do not make the source code accessible to the public. The only way some entities can use this software is if they obtain a special license key that gives them access to it. 

Some examples of proprietary CMS include:

• Sitecore
• Kentico
• Adobe Experience Manager

In this software, you earn complete control of the source code if you have created it. This is the better option if you don’t want to tamper with your software. 

However, by using this software you must note that as a customer you remain locked in. You can view demos or trials from developers but a proprietary CMS does not allow general development while relying solely on legal owners and platform creators. 

Open Source CMS

The open-source CMS means the public can access it freely and use it as their license type allows. The most common examples here are Drupal and WordPress. Developers creating the code give use and modification access to others. 

With this software type, you can enjoy the continual development and testing of your product. This means you will suffer no standstill CMS and improvement will be an ongoing process. With extensive transparency, customers and users can enjoy more safety and predictability. 

So now you’re thinking, which one should you go with?

The advantages of an open-source CMS include continual testing and development of the product by engaged programmers. This way the CMS will unlikely stay at a standstill because it will always be improved. So, if you are looking for flexibility, constant updates, and ease of use while keeping high functionality, you should consider going with an open-source CMS.

Features to Look for While Choosing Your Higher Education CMS

When you’re selecting a higher ed CMS for your organization, here are the key features you must look for:

1. Built-in SEO tools
2. Competent publishing tools
3. Easy administration
4.  Detailed analytics
5. Social media integration
6. Security
7. Publishing controls and simple workflow
8. Exemplary support
9. Capable of multi-platform performance
10. Robust content templates
11. Tiered permissions 
12. Comprehensive search
13. Voice Search with Microdata support
14. Business alignment
15. Quick rollback versioning 

Most used Content Management Systems by Universities

Drupal and WordPress are the most dominant systems, with TerminalFour, Cascade CMS, OU Campus, and AEM also ranking as the most popular CMS for universities. This report comes from a survey of a total of 2,039 educational institutions, you can find the full report here.

Comparing the Top 6 Higher Education CMSs

1- Drupal

This open-source CMS is the best choice for websites that have high traffic, heavier content, and are generally more complex website functionalities. Organizations with larger databases and resource libraries will also find Drupal extremely flexible, secure, powerful, and functional. 

2- WordPress

It is open-source, which helps expand your educational organization significantly. It has built-in blog support. WordPress is an entirely secure option and will help you create content easily, engage with visitors continuously and make updates on time. 

3- OU Campus

OU Campus CMS is ideal for larger organizations with lesser resources and staff. It enables you to create and maintain your site with multiple levels of users spread across your campus. With one team this CMS helps you handle marketing, manage your pages, and perform multiple tasks, saving tremendous time and effort. 

4- Cascade CMS 

This CMS tool helps you to publish content on the web without needing any technical expertise. Cascade works ideally for colleges and universities, offering a built-in site preview so that you can see it before you go ahead with publishing. 

5- TerminalFour

This CMS helps universities and colleges manage their current status and promote further admissions for their organization. You will find this tool an effective planner, helping you devise strong strategies and empowering your institution with the best policies. 

Final Thoughts

Selecting a higher education CMS is a long-term investment in your institution's digital future. The platform you choose today will shape how you recruit students, engage alumni, and showcase research for years to come.

Whether you need multisite management for dozens of departments or a streamlined solution for a growing college, the key is matching platform capabilities to your institution's goals. Drupal continues to lead in higher education for good reason and Varbase makes it even more powerful with built-in accessibility, multilingual support, and enterprise-grade security.

Ready to explore your Drupal and Varbase options? Let’s get you started.

If you found this article helpful for your college/university, here are some useful resources:

• Launching The New Georgetown University in Qatar Website