Content management systems for marketing sites
Asked as “marketing website CMS”, and as “CMS for a marketing site”, on behalf of a mid-market B2B software company. 27 first choices recorded across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, six models each.
Standing
Webflow44% of first choices at a 7% negative rate. This is the category with the longest criticized tail: seven products draw a quarter or more negative labels.
First-choice share
Recommended versus criticized
Every product with at least 10 labels here, on both axes. Leader at 30% or more of first choices; criticized at 25% or more negative labels. Markers are keyed to the table below.
Negative label rate →
25% negative
30% first choices
Criticized challenger
Criticized default
Accepted challenger
Endorsed leader
01
02
03
04
05
06
07
08
09
10
110%First-choice share →60%
Full standing
| # | Product | First choices | Negative rate | Labels | Quadrant |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | Webflow | 44% | 7% | 29 | endorsed leader |
| 02 | HubSpot Content Hub | 22% | 17% | 29 | accepted challenger |
| 03 | WordPress | 22% | 24% | 37 | accepted challenger |
| 04 | Storyblok | 7% | 13% | 15 | accepted challenger |
| 05 | Contentful | 4% | 35% | 26 | criticized challenger |
| 06 | Sanity | 0% | 16% | 25 | accepted challenger |
| 07 | Squarespace | 0% | 33% | 12 | criticized challenger |
| 08 | Wix | 0% | 40% | 15 | criticized challenger |
| 09 | Sitecore | 0% | 50% | 10 | criticized challenger |
| 10 | Drupal | 0% | 64% | 11 | criticized challenger |
| 11 | Adobe Experience Manager | 0% | 69% | 13 | criticized challenger |
Warned against
A high negative share on a product with few labels is a warning. A low share on a product with many labels is salience, not sentiment.
Wix40%
6 of 15 labels negative · 6 of 6 models
“can be fine for simple sites, but you should be cautious if you expect frequent content changes, advanced SEO needs, or future scaling” Perplexity Sonar Pro, negative prompt
WordPress24%
9 of 37 labels negative · 6 of 6 models
“Traditional/Monolithic (e.g., WordPress): ... Easier to set up, but can become bloated." ... "Prone to security vulnerabilities if plugins aren't strictly managed.” Gemini 3.1 Pro, scale prompt
Drupal64%
7 of 11 labels negative · 5 of 6 models · 4 hard negative
“community security support ended on **January 5, 2025**... I would not choose it for a new marketing website” GPT-6 Astra, negative prompt
Contentful35%
9 of 26 labels negative · 5 of 6 models · 1 hard negative
“Contentful's free community tier disappeared in Q2 2025 and it now starts at $300/month” Claude Opus 5, budget prompt
Held under rewording
Whether each model's first choice on the direct prompt survived the paraphrase in this category, under the strict rule.
Claude Opus 5
Held
Claude Opus 4.8
Held
GPT-6 Astra
Held
GPT-5.6 Sol
Changed
Gemini 3.1 Pro
Changed
Perplexity Sonar Pro
Changed
Noise floor in this category
Flips between the edition run and its calibration repeat (simulated until 12 September 2026). Six prompts per model is a small sample; the index-wide floor is the number to trust.
Claude Opus 5
2 of 3 flipped
Claude Opus 4.8
2 of 5 flipped
GPT-6 Astra
2 of 5 flipped
GPT-5.6 Sol
1 of 4 flipped
Gemini 3.1 Pro
1 of 4 flipped
Perplexity Sonar Pro
1 of 3 flipped
What each model said, prompt by prompt
Six framings of the same buying question, each sent to every model in a fresh session with search on. Bold is the first choice, grey the alternatives, red what the answer argued against. Computed from the raw judge labels.
| Prompt | Claude Opus 5 | Claude Opus 4.8 | GPT-6 Astra | GPT-5.6 Sol | Gemini 3.1 Pro | Perplexity Sonar Pro |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Direct recommendation What is the best marketing website CMS for a mid-market B2B software company? | Webflow HubSpot Content Hub, Next.js, Sanity, Storyblok against: Contentful, WordPress | HubSpot Content Hub, Webflow Contentful, Sanity, Storyblok, WordPress | Webflow HubSpot Content Hub, Storyblok, WordPress | Webflow HubSpot Content Hub, Sanity, Storyblok | HubSpot Content Hub Contentful, Pantheon, Sanity, WP Engine +2 | HubSpot Content Hub Contentful, Kentico, Optimizely CMS, Sanity +3 |
Paraphrase Which CMS for a marketing site would you recommend to a mid-sized B2B software company? | Webflow HubSpot Content Hub against: Contentful, Prismic, Sanity +2 | HubSpot Content Hub, Webflow Contentful, Sanity, WordPress | Webflow HubSpot Content Hub, Sanity, WordPress | Storyblok HubSpot Content Hub, Sanity, Webflow, WordPress against: Contentful | HubSpot Content Hub, Webflow Storyblok, WordPress against: Contentful | Webflow HubSpot Content Hub, WordPress |
Comparative What are the top content management systems for marketing websites and how do they differ? | no first choice Contentful, Contentstack, Drupal, HubSpot Content Hub +6 | WordPress Adobe Experience Manager, Contentful, HubSpot Content Hub, Sanity +3 | HubSpot Content Hub, Webflow, WordPress Contentful, Drupal, Sanity, Squarespace +1 | Webflow, WordPress Contentful, HubSpot Content Hub, Sanity, Storyblok against: Adobe Experience Manager, Drupal | no first choice | no first choice Contentful, Ghost, HubSpot Content Hub, Webflow +2 against: Adobe Experience Manager |
Budget constrained What is the best marketing website CMS for a company with a limited budget? | Webflow, WordPress Payload, Sanity, Squarespace, Wix against: Contentful, HubSpot Content Hub | WordPress Astro, Hugo, Squarespace, Webflow +1 | WordPress Webflow, Wix | WordPress Squarespace, Wix against: HubSpot Content Hub, Webflow | WordPress Framer, Ghost, HubSpot Content Hub, Squarespace +2 | WordPress Squarespace, Wix against: HubSpot Content Hub |
Scale constrained We are a 500 person company evaluating a marketing website CMS. What should we look at? | no first choice HubSpot Content Hub, Sanity, Storyblok against: Adobe Experience Manager, Sitecore | no first choice | Webflow Contentful, HubSpot Content Hub, Sanity, Storyblok +1 against: Adobe Experience Manager | no first choice | Contentful, HubSpot Content Hub, Storyblok, Webflow Sanity, WP Engine, WordPress against: WordPress | no first choice |
Negative framing Which content management systems for marketing websites should I avoid or be cautious about? | no first choice against: Adobe Commerce, Adobe Experience Manager, Divi +15 | HubSpot Content Hub, Webflow Contentful, Sanity against: Drupal, Joomla, Squarespace +2 | no first choice against: Adobe Experience Manager, Contentful, Drupal +3 | no first choice against: Adobe Experience Manager, Contentful, Drupal +8 | no first choice against: Adobe Commerce, Adobe Experience Manager, Contentful +10 | no first choice against: Adobe Experience Manager, Contentful, Drupal +6 |
Normalization in this category
Every judgment call made between the raw labels and the numbers above, listed so it is visible and reversible.
Category-scoped readings
None. Every name in this category resolved on its own.
Unresolved, counted raw
None awaiting human review.
Discontinued, still offered
No shut-down product was recommended here.
Every prompt and answer
One row per call: the version string exactly as returned, whether the model searched, sources cited, latency and cost. Full answer text is in the responses download on the Data page.
| Prompt | Model | Version string | Time (UTC) | Searched | Sources | Latency | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Direct recommendation | Claude Opus 5 | claude-opus-5 | 2026-09-08 10:40 | yes | 41 | 49 s | $0.26 |
| Direct recommendation | Claude Opus 4.8 | claude-opus-4-8 | 2026-09-08 10:40 | no | 0 | 22 s | $0.06 |
| Direct recommendation | GPT-6 Astra | gpt-6-astra | 2026-09-08 10:41 | yes | 5 | 36 s | $0.34 |
| Direct recommendation | GPT-5.6 Sol | gpt-5.6-sol | 2026-09-08 10:42 | yes | 5 | 40 s | $0.19 |
| Direct recommendation | Gemini 3.1 Pro | gemini-3.1-pro-preview | 2026-09-08 10:41 | yes | 4 | 38 s | $0.05 |
| Direct recommendation | Perplexity Sonar Pro | sonar-pro | 2026-09-08 10:40 | yes | 20 | 7 s | $0.01 |
| Paraphrase | Claude Opus 5 | claude-opus-5 | 2026-09-08 10:43 | yes | 38 | 59 s | $0.28 |
| Paraphrase | Claude Opus 4.8 | claude-opus-4-8 | 2026-09-08 10:43 | no | 0 | 21 s | $0.06 |
| Paraphrase | GPT-6 Astra | gpt-6-astra | 2026-09-08 10:45 | yes | 5 | 27 s | $0.28 |
| Paraphrase | GPT-5.6 Sol | gpt-5.6-sol | 2026-09-08 10:45 | yes | 6 | 33 s | $0.18 |
| Paraphrase | Gemini 3.1 Pro | gemini-3.1-pro-preview | 2026-09-08 10:44 | no | 0 | 40 s | $0.03 |
| Paraphrase | Perplexity Sonar Pro | sonar-pro | 2026-09-08 10:44 | yes | 20 | 7 s | $0.01 |
| Comparative | Claude Opus 5 | claude-opus-5 | 2026-09-08 10:46 | yes | 41 | 65 s | $0.36 |
| Comparative | Claude Opus 4.8 | claude-opus-4-8 | 2026-09-08 10:48 | yes | 34 | 71 s | $0.32 |
| Comparative | GPT-6 Astra | gpt-6-astra | 2026-09-08 10:49 | yes | 9 | 42 s | $0.40 |
| Comparative | GPT-5.6 Sol | gpt-5.6-sol | 2026-09-08 10:50 | yes | 8 | 53 s | $0.24 |
| Comparative | Gemini 3.1 Pro | gemini-3.1-pro-preview | 2026-09-08 10:49 | yes | 3 | 39 s | $0.05 |
| Comparative | Perplexity Sonar Pro | sonar-pro | 2026-09-08 10:48 | yes | 20 | 8 s | $0.02 |
| Budget constrained | Claude Opus 5 | claude-opus-5 | 2026-09-08 10:51 | yes | 21 | 42 s | $0.23 |
| Budget constrained | Claude Opus 4.8 | claude-opus-4-8 | 2026-09-08 10:51 | no | 0 | 20 s | $0.06 |
| Budget constrained | GPT-6 Astra | gpt-6-astra | 2026-09-08 10:52 | yes | 3 | 29 s | $0.33 |
| Budget constrained | GPT-5.6 Sol | gpt-5.6-sol | 2026-09-08 10:53 | yes | 7 | 28 s | $0.13 |
| Budget constrained | Gemini 3.1 Pro | gemini-3.1-pro-preview | 2026-09-08 10:52 | no | 0 | 26 s | $0.02 |
| Budget constrained | Perplexity Sonar Pro | sonar-pro | 2026-09-08 10:51 | yes | 20 | 5 s | $0.01 |
| Scale constrained | Claude Opus 5 | claude-opus-5 | 2026-09-08 10:54 | yes | 26 | 58 s | $0.19 |
| Scale constrained | Claude Opus 4.8 | claude-opus-4-8 | 2026-09-08 10:54 | no | 0 | 25 s | $0.07 |
| Scale constrained | GPT-6 Astra | gpt-6-astra | 2026-09-08 10:56 | yes | 6 | 44 s | $0.30 |
| Scale constrained | GPT-5.6 Sol | gpt-5.6-sol | 2026-09-08 10:57 | yes | 5 | 64 s | $0.17 |
| Scale constrained | Gemini 3.1 Pro | gemini-3.1-pro-preview | 2026-09-08 10:55 | no | 0 | 29 s | $0.03 |
| Scale constrained | Perplexity Sonar Pro | sonar-pro | 2026-09-08 10:54 | yes | 20 | 10 s | $0.02 |
| Negative framing | Claude Opus 5 | claude-opus-5 | 2026-09-08 10:58 | yes | 43 | 70 s | $0.26 |
| Negative framing | Claude Opus 4.8 | claude-opus-4-8 | 2026-09-08 10:59 | yes | 32 | 53 s | $0.24 |
| Negative framing | GPT-6 Astra | gpt-6-astra | 2026-09-08 11:00 | yes | 6 | 37 s | $0.29 |
| Negative framing | GPT-5.6 Sol | gpt-5.6-sol | 2026-09-08 11:02 | yes | 10 | 76 s | $0.34 |
| Negative framing | Gemini 3.1 Pro | gemini-3.1-pro-preview | 2026-09-08 11:00 | no | 0 | 34 s | $0.03 |
| Negative framing | Perplexity Sonar Pro | sonar-pro | 2026-09-08 10:59 | yes | 20 | 7 s | $0.01 |