10 best CMS for eCommerce in 2025 to boost your sales

When you shop nowadays, how often do you buy online versus in person? eCommerce markets are soaring, and about two‑thirds of consumers prefer to shop online, which suggests enormous business opportunities. However, this is also a fiercely competitive market: between 2019 and 2023 the number of eCommerce sites worldwide grew from 9.2 million to an astounding 26.5 million. Around one‑fifth of businesses fail because competitors outperform them. Customers now expect personalised experiences, a broad product selection and rich content, making a strong content and commerce stack essential.

Traditional platforms like Shopify or Magento combine storefront and commerce functionality. Others, like WordPress with WooCommerce, began as blogging engines but have evolved into eCommerce tools. Each approach comes with trade‑offs: templates simplify setup but limit customisation, while bespoke solutions demand more technical skills. Throughout this article, we’ll explore what defines a modern CMS for eCommerce and compare the ten best platforms for 2025, highlighting how Hygraph’s headless architecture can help future‑proof your store.

#Do you need a separate CMS alongside your eCommerce platform?

For many merchants the line between an eCommerce platform and a CMS is blurry. Shopify, Magento, WordPress and Drupal can all manage products and content to some extent. The key difference is whether content and commerce are handled together or separately.

The stand‑alone approach

With a single platform you can spin up a store quickly—no coding required—because the storefront is generated from pre‑built templates. Solutions like Shopify, BigCommerce or Magento include product management, checkout and marketing features in one place. WordPress with WooCommerce or Drupal can also act as a combined platform. This set‑up is ideal for small teams or businesses with limited SKUs who don’t change their site very often.

However, a monolithic platform can restrict your brand. Themes from major providers are instantly recognisable; even with custom colours, your site may look like dozens of competitors. When your business grows or you need to add new channels, the out‑of‑the‑box features may be limiting.

Integrating a CMS with an eCommerce platform

Another option is to pair a CMS with your eCommerce platform. In an “eCommerce‑first” set‑up, your commerce engine handles products, checkout, taxes and shipping, while the CMS manages content and marketing. In a “CMS‑first” approach the CMS acts as the single source of truth for all content and product data, and the commerce engine is used only for inventory and payments.

Integrating two systems can seem daunting, but with APIs and headless architectures it’s easier than you might expect. Modern CMSs enable you to build custom frontends without being tied to templates. If you expect to update content frequently, roll out campaigns across multiple regions or manage complex catalogues, combining a CMS and commerce engine gives you more flexibility.

Small teams with simple product lines can start with one platform, but once you’re growing—or want to differentiate through content—we recommend separating content from commerce.

#Why you need a separate CMS to manage your eCommerce store

1. Manage content independently

Whether you sell bespoke furniture or digital downloads, mixing operational data with marketing content can become messy. Editors don’t want to risk adjusting SKU quantities, and developers shouldn’t rummage through blog posts to tweak tax rules. Keeping content in a dedicated system allows marketers to schedule updates, preview pages and assign permissions without affecting the checkout flow. Platforms like Hygraph provide roles, scheduling and rich‑text editing to streamline workflows and empower content teams.

2. Let your content experience become a distinguisher

If you build your store solely with an out‑of‑the‑box theme, chances are it will look like many others. Research suggests that over half of consumers are more likely to buy from a brand with a unique identity. A headless CMS decouples the backend from the frontend, so you can design bespoke storefronts and still manage content through an intuitive interface. Hygraph, for example, allows you to define flexible content models and assemble pages from modular components, letting you craft an experience that stands out while remaining easy to maintain.

3. Enable omnichannel eCommerce

Modern shoppers interact with brands on multiple touchpoints. Studies show consumers have at least six interactions before buying. Managing each channel separately wastes time and leads to inconsistent messaging. An omnichannel CMS stores content centrally and distributes it to your website, mobile apps, marketplaces and even social platforms. Instead of copying and pasting product descriptions into every platform, you publish once and deliver everywhere.

4. A tech‑agnostic approach offers more potential for improvement

Technology evolves quickly. PHP‑based platforms that were dominant in the 2010s now struggle to keep pace with modern Jamstack architectures. By separating your CMS and eCommerce engine you can adopt new microservices and front‑end frameworks as they emerge. Hygraph’s API‑first design lets you integrate best‑of‑breed services—search, personalisation, analytics—without being locked into a monolithic suite. Embracing composable commerce means you pay for only the features you need and can swap components as your business evolves.

5. Better security

Putting all your data—content, orders, payments—in one system increases risk: a single breach exposes everything. Separating your CMS and commerce platform mitigates the fallout of vulnerabilities. With a headless CMS the backend and frontend are decoupled, offering additional protection and allowing you to harden each layer independently.

#ECommerce CMS features checklist

Selecting the right CMS for eCommerce involves more than comparing feature lists. Here are essential qualities to evaluate:

• Ease of use: Developers need flexible content modelling and seamless integrations. Editors need a user‑friendly interface and centralised product management. The CMS should allow both groups to work efficiently.

• SEO‑friendliness: An SEO‑friendly CMS lets you customise URLs, optimise metadata and generate XML sitemaps. These features help your products get discovered via organic search.

• Omnichannel delivery: Choose a system designed for omnichannel success so you can deliver consistent brand experiences across websites, mobile apps, marketplaces and physical stores. It should synchronise product information and inventory across all channels.

• Integration flexibility: An API‑first CMS should integrate easily with microservices and third‑party tools. This enables you to extend functionality—adding personalisation, search or marketing automation—without replatforming.

• Localization: If you operate in multiple regions, ensure your CMS supports multilingual content, regional pricing and promotions. Hreflang tags and translation workflows are vital for international SEO.

#10 best CMS for eCommerce in 2025

Below we review ten platforms that stand out for eCommerce in 2025. Each section outlines key strengths, weaknesses and ideal use cases. Hygraph appears first because of its headless, composable approach, which aligns closely with modern eCommerce needs.

1. Hygraph

For eCommerce businesses with complex catalogues, Hygraph’s GraphQL‑native CMS offers a flexible way to manage and unify content. Its API‑first design lets you integrate data from diverse sources such as PIM systems and commerce engines into one global content API.

Online home decor brand Lick adopted Hygraph and doubled sales after launch. According to Joel Pierre‑Powell, Lick’s principal engineer, the team achieved a modular site quickly, improving the user experience and increasing “Add to Bag” conversions by 20%. This success story underscores Hygraph’s flexibility.

In addition to intuitive content modelling, Hygraph can serve as a PIM, letting you cross‑link products with content via remote sources. Out‑of‑the‑box integrations and a visual schema builder allow editors to assemble pages using pre‑built components while developers connect microservices through a unified API. While new users may face a learning curve, the long‑term benefits—modularity, scalability and composability—make Hygraph ideal for businesses looking to modernise their stack.

Without Hygraph, we would not have been able to achieve the intuitively modeled content pages in the time frame that we did. After the launch of our new site, our “Add to Bag” conversions increased by 20%. It was easier to build the modular site that we imagined to improve user experience without workarounds.

BigCommerce:

BigCommerce is primarily a SaaS commerce platform, but its open API and marketplace of apps give it some CMS‑like capabilities. It provides a turnkey storefront with product management, marketing and SEO tools, making it attractive for merchants seeking a hosted solution. BigCommerce excels in multi‑currency support and allows selling in multiple languages via third‑party translation apps. However, because it is commerce‑first, you may need additional tools for advanced content management. Pricing is revenue‑based and can become costly as sales grow.

Shopify

Shopify is known for its ease of use and is popular with small to mid‑sized businesses. It offers cloud‑based storefront management, built‑in analytics and integrations with sales channels like Amazon and Instagram. Shopify includes abandoned‑cart recovery and a range of themes, but customising beyond templates is limited. SEO controls are basic—URL structures and image naming are fixed—and transaction fees apply if you use third‑party payment providers. As your business grows, these limitations may prompt a move to a more customisable CMS.

OpenCart

OpenCart is a free, open‑source eCommerce solution with a plugin marketplace. It’s budget‑friendly and offers the flexibility to self‑host or use managed hosting. Its large community provides support and plugins. However, realising OpenCart’s full potential requires technical knowledge, and too many plugins can slow down performance. For small to medium businesses with some technical expertise, OpenCart offers an inexpensive way to control your store.

Joomla

Joomla is another open‑source CMS written in PHP with a wide range of templates and extensions. Its strength lies in customisability, but it has a steep learning curve and requires knowledge of CSS and PHP for advanced customisation. SEO options need improvement. Joomla is best suited for businesses with development resources seeking high flexibility.

Drupal

Drupal functions more like a content management framework than a simple CMS. It excels at managing diverse content types and offers a vast module library. Drupal has no licensing fees, which appeals to budget‑conscious businesses. However, its interface can be challenging for beginners, and it requires powerful infrastructure and technical expertise. Drupal is ideal for medium to large businesses that need deep customisation and can handle the learning curve.

WordPress

WordPress is renowned for its versatility and large community. Combined with WooCommerce, it powers many eCommerce sites. WordPress offers unlimited customisation through themes and plugins and is easy to install. On the downside, you must manage hosting and security yourself, and using too many plugins can slow down pages. It’s a great choice for budget‑conscious businesses needing control over both content and commerce.

Squarespace

Squarespace is a SaaS CMS known for its drag‑and‑drop editor. It allows beginners to create beautiful, mobile‑friendly sites and includes basic analytics. It’s ideal for creative entrepreneurs launching their first store. However, templates offer limited flexibility and scaling for large catalogues is challenging. Squarespace’s simplicity comes at the cost of deep customisation.

PrestaShop

PrestaShop is a lightweight, open‑source CMS launched in 2007. It requires minimal reliance on plugins and can handle large inventories, making it appealing for cost‑conscious businesses. Yet, limited documentation and complex setup can be daunting. Many essential plugins are paid, which increases costs. PrestaShop is best for companies seeking a customisable platform and willing to invest in technical resources.

Adobe Experience Manager

Adobe Experience Manager (AEM) combines web content management and digital asset management in one cloud solution. AEM offers drag‑and‑drop site building, multi‑channel publishing and integrations with Adobe Analytics and Campaigns. It can support high volumes of traffic. However, AEM is expensive, requires significant training and provides limited design flexibility unless you invest in custom development. It’s best suited for large enterprises that can afford the licensing fees.

#Wrapping Up

There is no one‑size‑fits‑all CMS for eCommerce. Your choice depends on your technical skills, budget, scalability requirements and how much control you want over the user experience. For forward‑thinking businesses, a headless CMS like Hygraph offers a compelling alternative: composable architecture, modular content and seamless integration with eCommerce engines.

For example, direct‑to‑consumer furniture brand Burrow adopted Hygraph’s composable architecture and increased content velocity sevenfold while managing tens of thousands of product variations. Co‑founder Kabeer Chopra notes that Hygraph now acts almost as a PIM, delivering shipping estimates, customer notifications and product variations from a single source.

Curious to try Hygraph yourself? You can request a free demo today!