Choosing a Content Management System
What on Earth is a CMS?
CMS or Content Management Systems have been around for quite awhile now, however when I recommend that a client uses a CMS to power their site I am usually rewarded with a blank stare. To break it down, a CMS is a web application that uses a database to store the sites content. This way the site’s content is separate from the design (as it should be) and is easily changed. All CMS have a Graphical User Interface (GUI) that allows the end user to edit, add or delete the content that is stored in the database. Since the content in the database is displayed to the users on the front end, the end user is able to change the site’s content.
Why do I want a CMS?
The obvious answer to this is to manage your site content. There are many forms of site content that you can use the CMS to manage: forms, images, links; they all fall under content. Basically if you see it on a web site it is content and should be editable by the CMS.
How to choose a CMS?
This is where things start to get a little tricky. There are a lot of CMSs out there and most of them are quite good. The big three are Drupal, WordPress and Joomla. Although there are a number of ‘new’ CMS’s that are starting to become quite prominent. There are a few rules that you should keep in mind when choosing a CMS:
- Beware too much technology: this may or may not be a problem, depending on you level of technical know how. If you struggle to open up a Word document then the easier the better.
- Going with an old dog: Even though I encourage you to stay away from the too technical CMS’s, I also recommend that you try to look for one that is updated fairly regularly. An outdated CMS will definitely be more work than what it is worth
- Going with the New Dog: The counterpart to number two, you want to choose an established CMS. They are likely to have an excellent community that you can turn to for help
What to look for?
There are so many things to take into account when looking. Here are a few:
- Easy installation.
- Simple administration panel
- Active community
- Easily extendable..plugins
- Easily created or edited templates
Another simple way to choose is design appeal. If the administration panel makes sense to you and is attractive, you will probably find the interface easy to use.
A few CMS’s to look into
WordPress
Although originally thought of as only a blogging platform WordPress has grown up. It is without a doubt a full fledged Content Management System and used to power some of the most powerful site in the world. Sites such as:
- The New York Times publishes over 50 WordPress powered blogs.
- WordPress powers CNN.com blogs like the CNN Political Ticker.
- Fox News uses WordPress.com to host blogs including GretaWire.
- Rolling Stone Magazine brings you music news and gossip via the Rock and Roll Daily blog.
- Yahoo’s corporate blog is called Yodel Anectodal and is powered by WordPress.
- Flickr keeps in touch with their fans with the Flickr Blog.
Drupal
Drupal is easily the most functional open source CMS available today. It allows for the editing of content directly on the page, and is easily extended through the use of modules. Themes can be developed easily with CSS and though it has a few issues, it is the least frustrating CMS of any available. It also powers some well known sites:
- Mattel, the world’s largest toy company, just relaunched Mattel.com on Drupal.
- Sun Microsystems converted Java.net, the website of the Java community, to Drupal.
- Nokia is using Drupal at http://research.nokia.com
- The Emmys website has just switched to Drupal. http://www.emmys.com/
- The Walt Disney Company is using Drupal for the ABC Family community website http://community.abcfamily.go.com/
Joomla
Joomla has been around for a very long time. Once the darling of the design community it has recently fallen out of favour, mostly due to the complex GUI and the fact that most ways to extend the CMS are now being supported by expensive commercial modules. However, it has a large following and an extensive knowledge base.
Frog
This relative newcomer has some very impressive features. Based off of Radiant CMS, Frog CMS shows the most promise of any CMS that is currently in development. The friendly administrator interface is an absolute gem. The community for Frog remains small, but despite this the project is developing quickly, while plugins are constantly being produced at high standards to fill the gaps.
Concrete5
Like Frog, Concrete is relatively new to the CMS circle. It has an excellent user interface that is absolutely easy to use. It also offers some advanced features such as drag and drop. But the real benefit is that this CMS does something very different from other systems in that it integrates the administration with the frontend seamlessly.
Radiant CMS
As they state on their website, Radiant is a no-fluff, open source content management system designed for small teams. This CMS powered by Ruby on Rails provides a simple design which makes editing content easy. The focus of this CMS is to offer minimum functionality for small development teams, which allows those who know how to write Ruby on Rails to easily customize their own systems.
Magento
I hesitated to include Magento on this list. Not because it is technically an ecommerce solution, but because of its recent choice to commercialize support. The base download now comes without any support and the paid version is extremely expensive. However if you have a strong technical background Magento offers features above and beyond normal e-commerce systems such as virtue-cart.
Silverstrip
Winner of Most promising Open Source CMS in the 2008 PacktPub Open Source CMS Awards and Best Open Source Software Project in the 2008 New Zealand Open Source Awards. This CMS shows amazing potential, although not quite up to the likes of Drupal this is definitely a CMS to keep your eye on.
Summary
In the current internet market, I always recommend that clients choose to build their sites powered by a Content Management System. As you can see though, they come in many shapes and sizes and it is not a one size fits all solution. Being that the CMS is the engine that makes your site tick, investing a little time in researching it is recommended.
I am confident though, once you find a CMS that fits your needs you will never look back!
2 Responses to “Choosing a Content Management System”
Choosing a Content Management System | CMS Den said...
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Neil Lancia said...
As a vendor, I also think its critical to evaluate the model under which a CMS is offered. Established SaaS options, like Eden Platform, satisfy all three of your points below:
1. Beware to much technology: this may or may not be a problem, depending on you level of technical know how. If you struggle to open up a Word document then the easier the better.
2. Going with an old dog: Even though I encourage you to stay away from the too technical CMS’s, I also recommend that you try to look for one that is updated fairly regularly. An outdated CMS will definitely be more work than what it is worth
3. Going with the New Dog: The counter part to number two , you want to choose and established CMS. They are likely to have an excellent community that you can turn to for help
Also, our users get the benefit for an indefinite warranty, software updates, and technical support.