Sometimes, a niche finds you… Over the years, we’ve worked with various operators in the self-storage industry. From publicly traded entities to small mom-and-pop facilities, we noticed similarities in each project. In particular, when building a self-storage website, selecting the right content management system (CMS) is a critical decision that can shape the organization’s success. For self-storage operators, the website isn’t just a marketing tool—it’s a functional application, managing reservations, payments, and real-time data from Property Management Systems (PMS). Studies suggest upwards of 90% of storage facilities' revenue now originates online. This means there is a hyper-competitive market that depends on fast delivery, up-to-date pricing, and self-service options.
With this complexity, choosing a CMS that fits your specific needs is essential. In this post, we’ll explore three popular options: Headless CMS, WordPress, and Custom Builds. Each has its advantages and challenges, and understanding them can help you make the best choice for your business.
The CMS Challenge for Self-Storage Websites
Self-storage websites are unique because they need to balance traditional content management with complex operational requirements. Multi-facility businesses, in particular, may need different pricing, promotions, and inventory updates for each location. Your website must also integrate smoothly with PMS systems such as Yardi or SiteLink to manage real-time unit availability, customer reservations, and payments. Plus, integration to document management and/or e-commerce payment gateways may also be required.
For marketing teams, having control over content is essential, while the sales process requires a reliable, application-like experience for customers. Whether you need flexibility for future growth, ease of use, or complete customization, the CMS you choose needs to handle these complexities effectively, in a secure fashion and in a scalable way.
That brings us to three key CMS options for self-storage businesses: Headless CMS, WordPress, and a Custom CMS Build.
Headless CMS: Flexibility and Scalability
A Headless CMS is an increasingly popular option for businesses that need flexibility and scalability across multiple platforms. Unlike traditional CMSs, a headless CMS separates the content management back-end from the front-end, delivering content via APIs. This allows your content to be presented across websites, mobile apps, and even IoT devices without being tied to a specific presentation layer. The benefits of this approach include:
- Flexibility Across Devices: The ability to deliver content across any platform makes headless CMS ideal for self-storage businesses looking to provide a seamless experience across web, mobile, and even physical touchpoints, such as kiosks or digital signage.
- Future-Proofing: Headless CMS allows your business to easily adopt new technologies and platforms. For example, as voice search or new mobile interfaces become more popular, your headless CMS can deliver content without a major overhaul.
- Customization and Performance: With a headless CMS, developers have full control over the front-end experience, allowing you to optimize the website for speed and performance. This can be crucial for high-traffic sites where fast load times are essential.
Platforms like Contentful, Strapi, and Storyblok are popular headless CMS choices for self-storage companies that need flexibility and scalability. They are particularly useful for multi-location businesses that require custom solutions and multi-channel content delivery.
There are some negatives to this approach. First, the CMS is closed source. So amending the system to tightly integrate to a PMS could be challenging. Secondly, because of the nature of the engagement – ie – licensing the software – you’ll be somewhat handcuffed in terms of the roadmap for the CMS and in the worst case, making adjustments as the platforms evolve.
WordPress: Proven and User-Friendly
WordPress remains one of the most popular CMS platforms, and it’s widely used in the self-storage industry. Its ease of use, robust plugin ecosystem, and strong SEO capabilities make it a go-to solution for many self-storage operators. Some advantages of this approach include:
- Ease of Use: WordPress is known for its user-friendly interface, allowing non-technical users to easily manage content updates, images, and promotions. This makes it ideal for self-storage operators who need to make frequent updates without involving developers.
- SEO Power: WordPress comes equipped with strong SEO features, and plugins like Yoast SEO make optimizing your website for search engines simple. Local SEO is crucial for self-storage businesses, and WordPress’s SEO capabilities can help your website rank higher in relevant local searches.
- Customizability: With a vast plugin library, WordPress can be easily extended to add booking tools, payment gateways, and other features essential for self-storage businesses.
- Source Code Access: WordPress is an on-premises system, meaning you can access the source code and make amendments deep into the platform. This can be advantageous when integrating to third-party systems where plugins may fall short.
While WordPress is the most common CMS we encounter in the self-storage industry, it’s not the only open-source platform available. Solutions like Joomla and Drupal can also provide robust customization, but WordPress remains the most popular due to its ease of integration and widespread support. The only caveat to this approach is that maintenance of WordPress can be tedious and security is always a concern.
Custom Build: Maximum Control and Tailored Solutions
For businesses with highly specific needs, a Custom Build CMS offers unparalleled flexibility and control. Building a custom CMS from the ground up allows you to design every element of the website and its functionality to fit your business model precisely. Most large-scale operators of self-storage facilities are building their own platforms and amending from there, either with in-house or outsourced technology teams. At NPG, we’ve worked to build these enterprise systems to great success. However, this approach is time-consuming and has the highest budget impact. When done correctly, custom builds can result in the following advantages:
- Tailored to Your Business: A custom-built CMS can be developed to meet every unique requirement of your self-storage operation. Whether you need advanced API integrations, custom workflows, or specialized user interfaces, a custom build allows for complete customization.
- Control Over Every Detail: With a custom CMS, you have full control over both the front-end and back-end, making it possible to optimize the entire platform for speed, scalability, and performance. This level of control is especially valuable for large self-storage businesses with multiple facilities and complex needs.
- Seamless Integration with Internal Systems: A custom-built CMS allows you to integrate your website directly with any internal systems you use, such as CRM, ERP, or custom business tools. This ensures that your website becomes a fully integrated part of your business operations, reducing data silos and improving efficiency across departments.
Custom builds are ideal for large self-storage operations that need a highly specific and scalable solution. However, the added complexity and cost must be weighed against the potential benefits of a fully tailored system. While a custom build offers unmatched flexibility, it also comes with higher development costs and ongoing maintenance. Custom CMSs require dedicated developers to manage updates, fix bugs, and integrate new features, which can be more resource-intensive compared to off-the-shelf solutions like WordPress.
Which CMS is Right for You?
Ultimately, the choice between Headless CMS, WordPress, and Custom Build depends on your business’s specific needs:
- Choose Headless CMS if you need flexibility across multiple platforms and future-proofing for new technologies. It’s ideal for multi-location self-storage businesses that require custom front-end solutions and API-driven content delivery, and especially ideal if you plan to offload the entire reservation system to another platform via linkage or embedding.
- Choose WordPress if ease of use, SEO, and cost-effectiveness are top priorities. WordPress is great for businesses looking to manage content quickly and efficiently, while still allowing some customization through plugins and custom development.
- Choose Custom Build if you need complete control and a highly tailored solution. For large self-storage companies with complex needs, a custom CMS can provide the exact functionality required to optimize operations, though it comes with higher development and maintenance costs.
At NP Group, we’ve helped self-storage businesses implement all three CMS options—whether it’s setting up user-friendly WordPress websites, developing flexible headless CMS platforms, or building fully custom solutions tailored to specific operational needs. Our team has the experience to guide you through the complexities of self-storage website development and ensure that your platform not only meets today’s requirements but is also ready to scale for the future. If you’re looking for expert advice or need help developing your self-storage website, contact us to learn more about how we can support your business.
