The good news: there are many ways to build a microsite. The hard part is deciding which one is right for you. Each option has its pros and cons — but let’s assume the shared goal is a site that meets your needs, is easy for editors to manage, and doesn’t cost a lot.
1. Use a SaaS product
One easy option is a software-as-a-service (SaaS) product like Wix or Google Sites. Anyone can create pages and forms and manage content and media without much training, and the ongoing cost is relatively small.
Someone will have to manage it, though, and the cons add up:
- Access lives outside your systems — logins and passwords sit apart from any secure system your organization has set up
- You’ll manage the domain yourself — someone has to buy a unique domain and configure it to the third-party service
- It stays separate — however it grows, it will always live apart from your main site
- Analytics are tracked separately — you won’t see this traffic alongside your main site’s
- Editing works differently — the process won't match your primary CMS
Add a second or third microsite, and it starts to feel burdensome — your team has to remember where each one lives and how to update it.
2. Use your existing CMS
Another option, and one we know well at Electric Citizen, is to build a microsite inside your existing CMS.
With a CMS like Drupal, we can create microsites with their own navigation, logo, styles, and a unique domain — all within the same install used to manage the primary website. We can do this a few ways, from the Domain module to custom code. The benefits are real:
- Only one CMS to manage — a single system to update and keep secure
- Familiar tools and access — the same logins, permissions, and editing tools across all your sites
- Granular roles — site admins who can reach all content, plus roles scoped just to the microsite
The only con is a higher upfront cost than a SaaS product. Over the long run, you tend to recover it. How much that matters depends on your organization.
3. Use a new CMS
Installing and managing a whole new CMS for one microsite isn’t usually the cheapest or easiest path. But there are a couple of ways it can work in your favor.
If you’ve been stuck on a legacy CMS for years, this is a low-stakes way to try something more modern. You might find something you like enough to eventually move your main site too.
A classic option is WordPress.com, where installation and hosting come bundled. I’d also give Drupal CMS a look. If you’re not familiar, it’s a newer alternative to “core” Drupal that works more like a plug-and-play option — preconfigured for quick, easy editing by anyone with a browser, with powerful new tools for managing media, page layout, and AI.
4. Use a URL redirect instead
If the whole point is simply a unique URL — something branded, topical, or just shorter and snappier than a full .gov or .edu domain — you may not need a separate microsite at all.
Just build the content in your existing CMS and use a redirect to send users from “snappy.url” to “www.longcityname.state.us/gov/campaign.” This isn’t done in your CMS but in your domain management. Have a developer or someone in IT with domain access set up the redirect. Easy to do, and no extra lift for you.
