Best Website Platforms for Higher Education in 2025

Traditional CMS Platforms

Legacy content management systems were designed for content-heavy sites and work well when you need to manage static catalogs, faculty pages, research publications. But in the same vein…they are JUST content management systems. If you need to personalize student experiences, integrate with your wider tech ecosystem, or deliver content across multiple channels and run conversion experiments, you'll quickly hit their limits. Many are also playing catch-up on incorporating AI into their platforms in a seamless way.

Headless CMS

Headless platforms separate the "body" of a content management system (the backend) from the "head" (the frontend). This means you can push the same content to any digital channel, without a built-in frontend. Developers love them for their flexibility. It works well if you have strong specialized development skills to implement, secure and maintain operations. Marketing teams have less control over the front-end designs. They tend to rely on developers for content changes and deployment, which can slow down implementation and increase costs over time due to technical dependency.

Digital Experience Platforms (DXPs)

DXPs evolved out of the need to do more than just manage website content. They're designed to help you personalize student experiences, do testing and conversion experiments, incorporate AI tools, integrate with multiple systems (like your student portal or learning management system), and securely manage everything from one platform.

DXPs are more comprehensive and powerful, allowing you to scale and address more sophisticated use cases. More traditional DXPs are more rigid and promote using everything within their suite. Modern DXPs are composable - meaning you have more flexibility to use what you need from the platform and play well with other third-party tools without heavy code. And some DXPs are much easier to use than others, which impacts adoption. More on that later!

Traditional content management systems have long been the backbone of university web presence, offering proven solutions for institutions seeking established, community-supported platforms.

Typical CMS platforms are known for

• Strong core security and flexibility: Strong core security (though that strength is dependent on vigilant maintenance of modules and integrations). Flexibility - you can build whatever you need with the right tech support and a large dev team behind you, whether that's a course catalog or a complex research portal.
• Community and education-specific features: Huge community of university developers sharing solutions, making it easier to solve higher education-specific challenges. Modules specifically built for education, from student portals to faculty directories.
• User-friendly content management: Being user-friendly for content creators to get up and running with a website – perfect for faculty members who need to manage their own content with minimal changes. Being widely adopted, making it easy to find and recruit people who already know how to use it.
• Cost-effective implementation: Offering tons of plugins to extend functionality, from event calendars to faculty directory listings. Being cost-effective to get started, requiring minimal upfront investment in development or infrastructure.

Challenges

• Technical complexity and learning curve: Get ready for a learning curve - it's not exactly plug-and-play, and your content teams will need significant training before they can use it effectively. You'll need dedicated developers to get the most from it as it requires a lot of custom code - even simple changes often need technical support, and security definitely will.
• Performance and security concerns: Security needs constant attention and expertise, particularly risky when you're handling sensitive student and institutional data. Too many plugins can slow things down and make it difficult to manage and scale your website - a real problem when you're running multiple department sites or need to respond to new innovations or changes.
• Enterprise limitations: It's not built for complex enterprise needs like managing multiple domains or integrating with student information systems. Can get resource-heavy if you add too many modules, which is easy to do when you're managing multiple university departments.
• Cost escalation and governance issues: Implementation and ongoing costs can stack up quickly, from initial development to regular maintenance and updates. It can get messy with multiple departments using it; leading to hidden costs with different site instances, inconsistent branding and scattered content governance.

Optimal match for Large universities who need a highly customizable platform and have the big, dedicated IT teams to support it. Also suitable for smaller institutions that need a quick, cost-effective solution to get started and have a development team for ongoing maintenance. Typically don't have personalization, complex integration requirements, security or scalability needs.

Top Headless CMS Platforms

Headless content management systems (e.g. Contentful or Contentstack) have emerged as a modern approach to content delivery, separating content creation from presentation layers. These API-first platforms promise omnichannel content distribution and developer-friendly architectures.

Typical headless CMS platforms are known for

• Flexible content architecture: Flexible content modeling that lets you structure your university content exactly how you need it. API-first approach lets you deliver content to any platform or application without rebuilding it - from your main website to student portals to digital signage.
• Multi-channel delivery capabilities: Great for multi-channel content delivery, pushing the same content to websites, apps, and digital displays across campus. Clean, modern interface for developers that makes it easier to build custom applications.
• Advanced content management: Flexible content modeling to enable institutions to structure different content types (course catalogs, faculty profiles and publications) as required. Visual editing tools to help non-technical staff view changes before publishing.
• Modern development experience: Real-time collaboration features that let multiple team members work on content simultaneously across departments. Customizable content studio that you can adapt to different university content workflows. Strong API capabilities for delivering content to multiple university platforms and applications.

Challenges

• Developer dependency: You'll need to build your own front end - there's no ready-to-use website templates or themes for universities. Non-technical users might find it tricky, making it harder for faculty and marketing teams to manage content independently.
• Limited higher education focus: Not higher education focused – institutions need developer support as there are no ready-made templates for university websites. Less higher-ed specific features, meaning you'll need to create custom solutions for common university needs.
• Technical complexity: Needs strong technical expertise, requiring a strong development team to build and maintain your digital presence as the learning curve for faculty and marketing teams is high. Unique query language to learn (GROQ) - adding another technical hurdle for your development team.
• Cost and performance issues: Costs can climb as you scale, especially as you add more content types and users across departments. Some users report publishing delays with significant wait times (up to hours) for content go to live. Pricing can get steep for larger projects, especially when scaling across multiple university departments.

Optimal match for Developer-centric university teams that need to push content to multiple platforms and have significant technical resources to support content updates for Marketing teams. Also suitable for forward-thinking institutions with strong technical teams who want a modern, flexible solution, and are prepared to manage complexity.

Top legacy Digital Experience Platforms (DXPs)

Digital Experience Platforms (e.g. Adobe Experience Manager or Sitecore) represent the enterprise-grade evolution of content management, combining content delivery with advanced personalization, analytics, and marketing automation capabilities designed for large institutions requiring sophisticated digital experiences.

Typical DXPs are known for

• Advanced personalization and analytics: Powerful personalization capabilities that can tailor content for every type of university audience. Analytics that tell you everything about your users, from prospective student behavior to alumni engagement. Marketing tools that integrate across your entire digital presence.
• Enterprise-scale capabilities: Handles multi-site management well, ideal for universities with multiple schools and research centers. Strong marketing features that help you manage sophisticated student recruitment campaigns. Built for large-scale operations, supporting complex university digital ecosystems.
• Comprehensive integration: Solid ecosystem integration for universities already invested in related tools and platforms. Built-in marketing tools that help smaller universities manage their digital presence without additional software.
• User-friendly interfaces: Being user-friendly for content creators, with an interface that faculty and staff can quickly learn to use. Working well for smaller teams who need to manage multiple basic pages without technical complexity.

Challenges

• Significant investment requirements: Get ready for a big investment - we're talking serious enterprise-level pricing that can strain university budgets. One of the pricier options out there – expect enterprise-level licensing costs that can strain educational budgets and spring hidden costs for hosting.
• Implementation complexity: Implementation is complex and costly – expect a lengthy setup process involving multiple teams and external partners. Complex architecture needs specialized skills, so you'll need a significant development team or ongoing partner resources for most updates and customization.
• Training and maintenance: Your team will need significant training before they can start using the platform and continue to maximize the features effectively - this can impact ROI over time. Can be too heavy-duty to be sustainable and effective - you might end up with more platform than your university actually requires.
• Limited customization and vendor lock-in: You're somewhat limited in what you can customize – you'll have no advanced personalization, restricted template options, and basic integration capabilities with university systems. Once you're in, you're committed – their proprietary system means switching platforms later is difficult and costly, and you'll need to rebuild rather than migrate your content and templates.

Optimal match for Large universities with significant budgets and ongoing partner resources, who need enterprise-level personalization and are already heavily invested in related ecosystems. Also suitable for smaller university teams who want built-in marketing tools, only basic personalization and no sophisticated customizations.

The digital experience platform for intelligent experiences: Squiz

Squiz is known for:

• Enterprise-grade capabilities with AI integration: Enterprise-grade DXP capabilities with in-built AI features - gen-AI content creation, content management, personalization, optimization, site search, chatbots and agents, integrations, forms, digital asset management and security.
• User-friendly no-code tools: Easy, no-code page building and AI tools - anyone can create content, build pages, personalize and run tests in minutes - no developer reliance or weeks for training.
• AI-powered search and personalization: Powerful AI-driven search and conversational capabilities generate hyper-personalized answers from any content source – delivered as a curated page with an AI answer summary, results links, recommended content and chat interface.
• Composable architecture: Being composable, meaning it plays nicely with your existing systems – from student portals to learning management systems and research repositories
• Transparent pricing model: Predictable pricing based on transparent usage metrics, meaning your budget relates to adoption and results, rather than user seats or maintenance.
• Proven track record: Strong track record in higher education for over 25 years.

The challenges with Squiz:

• Misconceptions about complexity: Misconception that you'll need technical expertise to use it - unlike other DXPs, it's built for marketers to easily adopt and move at speed, while developers/IT still gain advanced customization, integration and security features.
• Integration ecosystem: While Squiz offers plenty of out-of-the-box integrations for common university systems, they don't have as many pre-built connectors as some enterprise competitors (but that's by design - their iPaaS approach means you can connect to any system you need).
• Market presence: It's a newer player in some regions compared to the legacy players, though it serves the top 25% of higher education institutions globally and is Gartner-ranked for 14 years running.

Best fit for: Universities and institutions that need enterprise-grade capabilities with built in governance and security, but demand ease-of-use and integrated AI tools so marketing and content teams can move fast, without developer reliance.

Making the right choice for your higher education institution

So, which platform is right for you? It all depends on where you're starting from and where you need to go.

For large universities and colleges

If you're a large university juggling multiple systems, many departments, with serious integration and security needs, you're probably looking at either:

• Traditional CMS platforms if you have a large development team to manage most of your ongoing needs
• Squiz if you want enterprise-grade IT governance and customization, but need Marketing and Content teams to have ease-of-use, speed and agility to adapt
• DXPs if budget isn't a constraint, you have extensive development resources, and you need the full enterprise stack for very complex use cases

For small institutions

Working with tight resources with more basic needs? Consider:

• Traditional CMS platforms if you need something simple and cost-effective, and have ongoing development resources
• DXPs if you want built-in marketing tools for simple use cases

For the developer-centric teams

Got strong technical capabilities and want more flexibility? Look at:

• Any of the headless options
• Traditional CMS platforms if you prefer a more established approach
• Squiz if you need both technical flexibility and parallel marketing autonomy

For marketing-focused teams

Need to move fast and create great experiences, without heavy IT support or costs?

• Squiz for enterprise capabilities and speed without technical dependency, so experimentation and optimization happens rapidly
• DXPs if you're already using related products, have the budget and highly skilled marketers to maximize ROI