There are three major types of WCMS: offline processing, online processing, and hybrid systems. These terms describe the deployment pattern for the WCMS in language of when presentation templates are applied to render Web pages from structured content.

Offline processing

These systems pre-process all content, applying templates before publication to generate Web pages. Vignette CMS and Bricolage are examples of this type of system. Since pre-processing systems do not require a server to concern the templates at request time, they may also exist purely as design-time tools; Adobe Contribute and CushyCMS are examples of this approach.

Online processing

These systems apply templates on-demand. HTML may be generated when a user visits the page, or pulled from a cache. Hosted CMSs are provided by such SaaS developers as Clickability, Bravenet, Squarespace, UcoZ, Webs and Crownpeak.

Some of the better known open source systems that produce pages on demand include WebGUI, Concrete5, Mambo, Joomla and Drupal.

Most open source WCMs have the capability to support add-ons, which provide extended capabilities including forums, web-stores, photo-galleries, contact-management etc. These are often called modules, nodes, widgets, add-ons or extensions. Add-ons may be based on an open-source or paid licence model.