CMS Made Simple vs WordPress
A side-by-side comparison of CMS Made Simple and WordPress — pricing, license, deployment, and where each tool wins.
CMS Made Simple
cmsmadesimple.org
Faster and easier management of website contents, scalable for small businesses to large corporations.
WordPress
wordpress.org
World's most-used blogging and CMS engine.
| Feature | CMS Made Simple | WordPress |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free | Free |
| Model | Open-source | Open-source |
| License | CC-BY-SA-3.0 | CC-BY-SA-3.0 |
| Deployment | Self-hosted | Self-hosted |
| Category | Content Management Systems (CMS) | Content Management Systems (CMS) |
| Self-hosted | ✓Yes | ✓Yes |
| Free tier | ✓Yes | ✓Yes |
Pick CMS Made Simple if…
- ✓You prefer CMS Made Simple's feature set or ecosystem fit.
Pick WordPress if…
- ✓You prefer WordPress's feature set or ecosystem fit.
Switch from CMS Made Simple → WordPress
16–80hhigh risk
Treat as a project — 16-80 engineering hours plus user training and parallel-run period.
Export from CMS Made Simple: XML, JSON, Database dump
3 things to watch
- ⚠URL preservation = SEO survival
- ⚠Re-render templates
- ⚠Media file paths
Switch from WordPress → CMS Made Simple
16–80hhigh risk
Treat as a project — 16-80 engineering hours plus user training and parallel-run period.
Export from WordPress: XML, JSON, Database dump
3 things to watch
- ⚠URL preservation = SEO survival
- ⚠Re-render templates
- ⚠Media file paths