what counts as cms system?

there's also "headless" cms, which comes up in agency pitches. same idea of an editing screen, but it only stores the content and a developer builds the actual site separately. great for big teams, overkill for a five page brochure site - if someone's selling you one for that, ask why.

Content management system - so "CMS system" is saying system twice, though everyone does it. It is whatever lets someone change the words on a page without touching code. WordPress, Shopify, Webflow, same idea.