Think of a static website a little like an online brochure, a basic reference guide for clients.  However a static website has to be updated by a web designer and can therefore end up costing you more. These days clients want to be empowered to update and maintain their own website, and that where a CMS comes in. A content management system allows the website owner to login into an admin area where they can update the content of their website, allowing one to change up text, swap out images and perform the necessary updates required for a CMS. It is designed to ensure the person updating needs very little experience to do so.