A content management system is a computer software system for organizing and facilitating collaborative creation of documents and other content. The term content management system is usually used in its abbreviated form cms.

The cms is frequently a web application used for managing websites and web content, though in many cases, content management systems require special client software for editing and constructing articles. The content management systems were initially developed internally at content publishing organizations.

CNET spun out its internal development offerings into a separate company called Vignette in 1995. The company started offering the software as a web based content management system, allowing sites to create templates of the presentation of their content on the web.

A consulting company, Pencom Web Works in 1998, introduced the Metaphoria Data Transformation Server, allowing java developers to write applications that would be tied with content and target the content output to different channels. The product failed but the concepts that were introduced by it made their way into most ancient content management systems.

Many companies in the early 2000s began offering weblog software, which brought many of the concepts surrounding content management systems to the masses. Six Apart, with the release of their Movable Type quickly established itself as a leader in this field.

Types of content management systems: