The era of the open source content management system has arrived. Proprietary CMS technology that once ruled the industry is no longer able to keep up with the incredible speed with which digital technologies are evolving. Where early content management systems served content for an enterprise website, today’s CMS solutions are expected to deliver content to everything from IoT apps, native mobile apps and digital signage to conversational UI platforms, virtual reality platforms, fitness trackers and a myriad of other devices.

Proprietary CMS technology simply can’t provide brands with the flexibility to adapt to the new channels that emerge every year. That’s why savvy marketing teams seek a cloud-based, open source content management system that provides the agility needed to deliver better customer experiences in the digital era.

Acquia provides an open source content management system built on Drupal that combines cloud solutions for building, managing and optimizing Drupal-based experiences with marketing solutions to personalize and automate marketing communication across all channels.

What makes an open source content management system better?

An open source content management system enables brands to create better digital experiences and manage marketing campaigns more easily. With an open source CMS, organizations can:

• Serve content to more channels and devices: An open source content management system can be easily adapted to deliver content for emerging devices and platforms, enabling brands to engage customers on their preferred channels.
• Integrate with the martech stack: While proprietary systems often lack the APIs and integrations to connect with automation platforms and CRM systems, an open source CMS can be easily integrated with other technology throughout the enterprise.
• Innovate rapidly with help from a supportive community: Open source technology is supported by a large community of developers and users who are continually enhancing and extending the platform to adapt to new digital realities.
• Reduce the cost of CMS systems: With an open source content management system, brands can save money by jettisoning proprietary systems that may cost hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing fees.
• Go mobile-first: An open source system enables enterprises to more easily adopt new mobile-first standards for digital experiences.

Acquia: the world’s leading open source CMS for Drupal

Acquia is the open digital experience company that enables the world’s most ambitious brands to build, manage and optimize more powerful digital experiences. As an open source content management system based on Drupal, Acquia provides the tools to deliver best in class websites, mobile apps and other digital experiences while simplifying automation, personalization and orchestration for marketing campaigns.

Acquia’s open source cloud management system includes a suite of solutions to manage marketing campaigns. 

• Acquia Cloud Platform, a solution for web hosting for Drupal that makes it easier to build and manage Drupal-based digital experiences.
• Acquia Cloud Site Factory, a platform for building, updating and centralizing hundreds of Drupal websites with a simple, central dashboard.
• Acquia Lightning, a Drupal 8 distribution that helps developers build better sites faster. 
• Acquia Site Studio, a low-code solution with more agile, collaborative and inclusive tools for accelerating build times by as much as 4x.
• Acquia Digital Asset Management, a cloud-based DAM with a central library for achieving brand consistency across all sites.
• Acquia Commerce, for delivering integrated content and commerce experiences to build customer loyalty.
• Acquia Personalization, the only personalization tool optimized for Drupal, allowing marketers and developers to point, click and personalize content.
• Acquia CDP, a tool that helps marketers listen to and learn from customers, to better determine what content users need based on a sequence of personalized touchpoints.
• Acquia Campaign Studio, a full-featured marketing automation platform for personalizing multi-channel communications at scale. 
• Acquia Campaign Factory, a solution for managing multiple Campaign Studio marketing automation accounts from a single location.

Benefits of Acquia’s open source content management system

With Acquia’s open source content management system, brands and marketing teams can:

• Build exceptional user experiences: Acquia supports decoupled architecture, enabling developers to use Acquia as a powerful CMS while rendering front-end content with the tools best suited to the experiences they want to build.
• Personalize content easily: Acquia’s point-and-click tools for personalization enable marketers to personalize everything from banners on the homepage to specific text boxes on individual pages based on the interests and preferences of each user.
• Deliver content to a wider array of digital channels: Acquia’s open source content management system can be easily integrated with new and existing platforms and channels, enabling brands to remain at the forefront of the quickly evolving digital landscape.
• Execute with greater speed and agility: With Acquia, marketing teams, developers and non-developers have all the tools they need to create, manage and optimize a growing collection of Drupal-based digital experiences.
• Collaborate with teams around the world: Acquia’s open source content management system offers customizable workflows that provide a common set of tools for digital teams to collaborate on building, managing and optimizing content.

Why choose Acquia for a Drupal-based CMS?

When you’re looking for a solution for an open source Drupal CMS, Acquia is the obvious choice. Drupal and Acquia were both started by the same open source pioneer and Acquia remains the leading contributor to the Drupal platform. When it comes to an open source content management system, Acquia can deliver solutions that integrate with and leverage Drupal in ways that no other provider can. With Acquia, you get a CMS based on Drupal with best-in-class tools for building and managing the best digital experiences in the world.

FAQs: what is an open source content management system?

What is an open source content management system?

An open source content management system is an application or platform that makes it easier for organizations to create and manage digital content. A content management system, or CMS, enables technical and non-technical users to create, modify, schedule, approve and collaborate on content for websites, applications and other digital experiences. An open source CMS is one that’s built on an open source platform rather than proprietary software.

What is the benefit of an open source content management system?

An open source content management system lets brands and marketers customize their CMS to their needs, quickly adapting their technology to accommodate new channels and devices as well as changing business requirements and opportunities that arise as the digital landscape continues to evolve. An open source CMS is easier to integrate with other marketing technology and enterprise systems, enabling marketers to leverage data from many other systems and to orchestrate a multichannel customer journey more easily. Open source technology also has the benefit of being free of licensing fees, helping to reduce costs.