Report:
The Forrester Wave™: Content Management Systems, Q1 2025
How does Forrester define the Content Management Systems market in 2025?
A third generation of CMSes is delivering new business value through AI-powered and natural language interfaces for content generation, editing, complex data queries, and personalization. The market includes pure headless (API delivery only) and hybrid (API and template delivery) CMSes focused on reducing time to market, driving better customer experiences, and smoothing out content operations. The evaluation highlights Leaders, Strong Performers, and Contenders among 13 providers.
Key Facts for The Forrester Wave™: Content Management Systems, Q1 2025 in 2025
- Publication Date: 24-Mar-2025
- Document ID: 0011400001eYqWxAAK | 62ccc9c4
- Summary: In our evaluation of content management system (CMS) providers, we identified the most significant ones and researched, analyzed, and scored them. This report shows how each provider measures up and helps you select the right one for your needs.
- Authors: Chuck Gahun
How did the Content Management Systems market evolve in 2025?
- Third-generation CMSes are delivering new business value through AI-powered and natural language interfaces
- Only two types of CMSes exist in market today: pure headless (API delivery only) and hybrid (API and template delivery)
- 36 vendors currently operate in the CMS landscape
- Brand loyalty is predicted to decline in 2025, making personalization strategies key to success
- AI interfaces are beginning to expedite content authoring and redeploy team bandwidth for value
- Distributed channels and dynamic interactions are driving growth, with adaptivity as a key requirement
- The market is transitioning from SaaS to AI-centric solutions, focusing on AI governance
- CMSes are converting into API-powered modular services that AI interfaces and application generation platforms will invoke
- GenAI is removing friction between humans, content, and data in the knowledge economy
- The enterprise business applications market is evolving from composability to AI-centric solutions
What product features are required to be included in this year's evaluation?
- Experience with enterprise clients as the primary CMS - Each vendor has experience as the primary CMS solution in large enterprises (Forbes Global 1000 list), and its product goes to market as a content management system
- Substantial CMS revenue - The vendor has at least $30 million in annual revenue from the CMS product
- Forrester client mindshare or significant CMS innovations and momentum - Forrester clients repeatedly express interest in learning more about the vendor's product within the context of inquiry, shortlist reviews, or guidance sessions, or the vendor has released significant CMS innovations to gain market momentum
What are the common features of top products in the Content Management Systems space?
No common features specified.
Scope Exclusions
- Digital Asset Management (DAM) only solutions
- Customer Data Platforms (CDP) as primary offering
- Marketing automation platforms without core CMS capabilities
- E-commerce platforms without standalone CMS offering
- Vendors with less than $30 million in annual CMS revenue
- Solutions not serving Forbes Global 1000 enterprises as primary CMS
- Products not marketed as content management systems
Inclusion Criteria
Vendors must, among other requirements:
- Experience with enterprise clients as the primary CMS solution in large enterprises (Forbes Global 1000 list)
- Product goes to market as a content management system
- At least $30 million in annual revenue from the CMS product
- Forrester client mindshare through repeated inquiry interest, shortlist reviews, or guidance sessions
- Significant CMS innovations and market momentum
Offering Strengths — Relative Weighting
- Content generation and editing — 10%
- Content model, taxonomy, and search — 10%
- Content lifecycle management and compliance — 5%
- Content operations planning and release scheduling — 5%
- Digital experience aggregation and preview — 15%
- Digital workflows, versioning, and collaboration — 5%
- Content analytics — 5%
- Audience analytics — 5%
- Experience experimentation and personalization — 10%
- Content localization and translation — 5%
- Component libraries and front-end frameworks — 5%
- Backend extensibility — APIs and connectors — 10%
- Scale and performance — 10%
Strategy Strength — Relative Weighting
- Vision — 20%
- Innovation — 20%
- Roadmap — 20%
- Partner ecosystem — 20%
- Pricing flexibility and transparency — 10%
- Community — 10%
FAQs
Q: What does this research cover?
A: This research evaluates 13 leading content management system providers across current offering capabilities and strategic positioning. The evaluation focuses on how third-generation CMSes are leveraging AI-powered interfaces, natural language processing, and headless/hybrid architectures to deliver business value. It examines vendors' capabilities in content generation, modeling, workflow management, analytics, personalization, and backend extensibility, as well as their strategic vision, innovation roadmaps, partner ecosystems, and pricing models.
Q: Who should use this research?
A: CMS customers evaluating or selecting content management solutions should use this research to compare vendor capabilities and strategic positioning. Enterprise buyers looking to balance marketing and technology team needs, organizations seeking to implement headless or hybrid CMS architectures, companies prioritizing AI-powered content operations, and businesses requiring scale and performance for distributed content delivery will find this evaluation particularly valuable. The research helps buyers match their specific requirements—whether commerce-focused, media-oriented, government compliance-driven, or enterprise platform-based—with the vendors best suited to meet those needs.
Q: What are the mandatory features of vendors included in this market?
A: Vendors must have: 1) Experience serving large enterprises (Forbes Global 1000) as their primary CMS solution, 2) At least $30 million in annual revenue from CMS products, and 3) Either strong Forrester client mindshare through repeated inquiry interest or significant CMS innovations gaining market momentum. The product must go to market as a content management system.
Q: What are some reasons for not being included in this report?
A:
- Annual CMS revenue below $30 million threshold
- No experience as primary CMS for Forbes Global 1000 enterprises
- Product not marketed or positioned as a content management system
- Insufficient Forrester client mindshare or market momentum
- Focus on adjacent markets (DAM, CDP, marketing automation, e-commerce) without core CMS offering
- Declined to participate in evaluation process
- Did not meet vendor inclusion criteria during initial assessment
Q: What should buyers consider when evaluating products in this market?
A:
- Evaluate AI use cases that matter to your organization as they vary by industry
- Compare business adaptivity with market evolution from assistive to agentic experiences
- Review vendor roadmaps as AI-generated content at scale addresses ethical concerns over data quality, model performance, and tech management
- Consider balance between features that matter to marketing and technology teams
- Assess vendor innovation track record and R&D investment in content management
- Evaluate pricing model complexity and transparency
- Consider partner ecosystem strength including global SIs and agencies
- Assess content compliance capabilities including certifications like FedRAMP if needed
Q: How has the Content Management Systems market evolved in 2025?
A:
- AI interfaces expedite content authoring, redeploying team bandwidth for value by managing mundane tasks and generating content variants
- Distributed channels and dynamic interactions drive growth with native visual editors, analytics, personalization, and localization
- SaaS to AI-centric transition ushers in generation at scale with focus on AI governance
- Third-generation CMSes converting into API-powered modular services for AI interfaces and application generation platforms
- GenAI removing friction between humans, content, and data to usher in knowledge economy
- Brand loyalty predicted to decline in 2025, making personalization strategies key to success
- Evolution from composability to AI-centric solutions across enterprise business applications market
Q: What differentiates Strength of Offering vs. Strength of Strategy?
A: Strength of Offering (vertical axis) measures current product capabilities across 13 criteria including content generation, modeling, lifecycle management, digital experience aggregation, workflows, analytics, personalization, and technical extensibility. Strength of Strategy (horizontal axis) evaluates vendor vision, innovation track record, roadmap detail, partner ecosystem strength, pricing models, and community engagement. Offering focuses on what the CMS can do today, while Strategy assesses the vendor's ability to execute and evolve their solution over time.
Reference
- Forrester, The Forrester Wave™: Content Management Systems, Q1 2025, 24-Mar-2025, ID 0011400001eYqWxAAK | 62ccc9c4
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