The best content management systems for 2026

Charities understand the importance of an effective website: that we are living in digital times where the internet is many people’s first port of call, whether they’re looking for charitable support or to make an online donation.

 

But as the digital world moves swiftly on, the sector knows that it too must evolve. That’s why, according to the Charity Digital Skills Report 2025, nearly two fifths (39%) of charities are prioritising revamping their website in 2026. Charities highlighted in the research that they aren’t yet making use of their website and analytics data, that they struggle with SEO, and that they’re not fully utilising online fundraising.

 

Using content management systems (CMSs) means that charities can focus on building towards success in the areas that matter the most. CMSs mean that charities don’t have to spend time coding their websites from scratch and updating their systems.

 

CMSs cover all of that complex work, linking the public-facing website to a user-friendly back end where you can pull the strings, adding content to your charity’s website in the ways that meet your greater goals.

 

So, in this article, we explore the CMSs that can help you make the most of your website in 2026.

 

 

Affino

 

With Affino, charities can publish multiple formats of content, from articles to videos – from podcasts to online events. The system allows you to edit your content live, manage multiple sites, and conduct advanced analysis of the website’s engagement. And if that wasn’t enough, the system also serves as an audience customer relationship management (CRM) platform.

 

The joy of Affino is that it allows personalised user journeys. The audience CRM allows you to profile individuals, segments, sponsors, and more to monitor collective and individual experiences, using real-time metrics. Affino makes the hard stuff easy, with metering, identity management, audience profiling, and personalisation all built in.

 

 With this, you can create dynamic content recommendations and targeted article listings. With user profiles, you can segment and personalise content, access, and interactions based on user attributes. All of this means that any visitor to your website can easily find what they need.

 

Search engine optimisation (SEO) and answer engine optimisation (AEO) are other core parts of Affino’s offering. Inside the system, it has what it takes to help you climb to the top of search engines like Google and AI engines like ChatGPT. It takes care of the techy bits, like canonical tags, filtered pages, optimised image handling, enhanced link and broken link tracking, and SEO health checks. 

 

If you simply create content with strong headings, using the right keywords, and follow the broad rules of front-end SEO, the CMS can help you drastically improve your overall website traffic.

 

And – wait, did somebody say AI? When it comes to AI, Affino is ahead of the game. Affino can work with you to prototype and deliver AI services, and the system can integrate with 8000 systems via Zapier. The power of the AI integration in Affino is that it’s seamless. You simply set up the AI, select the content you want to populate each AI with, and then see how the AI behaves. Examples of Affino’s AI services include AI assistants, AI chats, News AI, AI Copilot, and proof-of-concept services.

 

Starting at £430 a month for all the features, Affino offers various pricing models scaling up to millions of users, emails, and page views per month.

 

The CRM is particularly suited to medium to large charities and any charity serious about personalising user journeys, AI implementation, SEO, AEO, and CRM integration.  Affino is a full digital partner and will ensure that your website’s setup and ongoing operations go smoothly.

 

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WordPress

 

WordPress.com enables you to design your own website using its thousands of themes and plugins. With this CMS, you can integrate essential features like donation buttons, event calendars, and success stories, keeping it simple where helpful and adapting as you grow.

 

WordPress’s dashboard helps you manage your content, while the CMS itself is fully managed, meaning that everything is handled from hosting to security. The time-pressed charity professional can upload content while letting WordPress do the rest.  WordPress’s free version, popular with bloggers and tempting for small charities, comes with significant limitations, such as the inclusion of “wordpress” in the web address and an overdependence on plugins, which can be messy and difficult to integrate.

 

 

Squarespace

 

With Squarespace, you can create a custom domain to help you build trust and recognition, accept and keep track of donations, organise email campaigns, and tailor your website to your cause.

 

The CMS includes website performance and ecommerce metrics, social content editing tools, and the ability to offer exclusive access to certain parts of your website for stakeholder groups of your choice. Squarespace is most known for its online sales functionality and has different pricing plans depending on your needs.

 

 

The best content management systems for 2026

 

The best CMS depends on your charity’s goals. An integrated audience CRM can help personalise your website to its users, for example making donation easier for website visitors.

 

Meanwhile SEO and AEO functionality can help achieve greater reach and brand awareness. Starting with your intended impact and requirements, you can select your best CMS for 2026.

 

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