CMS Critic

CMS Critic Recommends… August Edition

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This month’s edition of CMS Critic recommends… brings you our suggestions for most versatile content management systems. This can mean a lot of things so let’s first clarify how we have made our selections.

First, the CMS must be able to be expanded upon, must be flexible and be used for multiple purposes.

Without further adieu, here are our recommendations for most versatile CMS (to date):

  1. Drupal
    It’s not possible to speak about versatility and expandability and not include Drupal. Drupal is perhaps one of the most flexible platforms available, both in the commercial and free marketplaces.

    A large part of this is due to the fact that it really is a content management framework from the get go and can function in a myriad of manners.Some common uses of Drupal include: Intranets, Project Management Platform, Publishing Platform, External facing Website management and Social networking platform to name a few.

    Learn more: Drupal Review, Drupal Founder Interview, Drupal News
    Website: http://www.drupal.org/

  2. MODx
    MODx is incredibly flexible. This is especially so with their latest release, MODx Revolution, which can be used for pretty much anything and has a number of ways with which it can be expanded.

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    MODx is effectively an application framework with a CMS built on top of it. While Drupal is also known as a framework, MODx does not have as steep a learning curve (in our opinion).

    Learn more: MODx Review, MODx News
    Website: http://www.modxcms.com/

  3. Plone
    Plone is based on Python and Zope and is another open source CMS that offers multiple uses. Plone offers exceptional security (and a fair learning curve if you are not familiar with the Zope management interface).

    Learn more: Plone News
    Website: http://www.plone.org

  4. Concrete5
    Concrete5 has been widely adopted by a number of web development firms due to it’s flexibility and ease of use. Amongst the competition, Concrete5 is perhaps the most user friendly with inline editing, plenty of plugins to extend it’s functionality and very good support.

    Learn more: Concrete5 Review, Concrete5 Founder Interview, Concrete5 News
    Website: http://www.concrete5.org/

Obviously, everyone has their own preferences but these are our personal favorites.

Do you have a favorites that you feel we missed? Add your comments below, we’d love to hear them.

Read previous editions of CMS Critic Recommends…

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Author

Mike Johnston

Mike is a CMS Analyst & Consultant who founded CMS Critic in 2008. He regularly consults with companies to assist them with the CMS selection process and is available for speaking engagements. You can contact him here or follow him on Google Plus.

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  • http://www.samylab.com samy

    Hi

    and what about Joomla! ?

  • Ric

    Well, this is an unusual list. I can imagine that we find Drupal on this list, but systems like concrete5 and Modx? I allways think that if some system would be that good, more people would be using it.

    But after checking the showcases on Modx and Concrete5, I see no big names popping up. From experience large organisations (or the big names) need the most flexible systems around. For one they have a lot of backoffice systems they want to connect with, and the often have complicated wishes regarding design and/or functionality.

    So, getting back to that. Open source systems like TYPO3, ezPublish. Plone, Drupal are the ones who have the big names using the product. Those products have real live examples of flexibility, expandibility and yes, they can be used for multiple purposes.

    • http://www.cmscritic.com Mike Johnston

      Ric,

      There’s nothing unusual about the list at all. It’s simply a matter of differing opinion. Not every company wants to announce to the world which system they are using nor does the number of implementations or size of the company using the product have anything to do with whether a system is versatile or not.

      Mike

  • http://www.rvantwisk.nl R. van Twisk

    @Warren, I like TYPO3 for a number of reasons, it's template engine rocks (Templavoila) you can virtually take any template and map it into your website, nothing like I see with any other CMS.

    The downside is it's very steep learning curve if you want to do special things, and it's easy to start off rock

    The good side is that nowdays there are many starter packages with many things pre-configured It has a very active IRS, NEWS and mail community, and in german some good forums. In terms of end user easyness, I like it better then Drupal, specially for large website with many pages, sub-pages, multi domain and what not.

  • http://www.onehippo.com Tjeerd Brenninkmeije

    Did you have a look at a JCR CMS like Magnolia / Hippo CMS?

  • warren

    I have just starting using CMS. And I have started with Joomla. I am now looking at other CMS. I will be looking at these recommended sites. Thanks

    But Typo3 keeps coming up in my searches.

    What are your thoughts on Typo3? Any reviews you can point me to?

  • http://pixelbutchers.com Jeramy Spurgeon

    Having used Drupal, Joomla, Magento, and WordPress to build sites, Concrete5 beats all of them hands down. It is intuitive, smooth and easy from a content editor’s standpoint, but flexible, extensible and robust under the hood (for developers).

    The community there is great as well.

  • lexa

    Hi

    thanks for this article

    concrete5 is a very innovative tool, it is a completely different approach

    and they have also an interesting exchange platform where it is possible to sell and buy components and themes

  • http://www.dotnetnuke.com Jenni Merrifield

    Have you looked at DotNetNuke? It is the leading Web Content Management Platform for Microsoft .NET. The software is used on over 500,000 portals, intranets, extranets, and public web sites. An enthusiastic open source community with more than 750,000 registered members supports the platform.

    From the website:

    An intuitive, menu-driven interface allows non-technical users to easily create new sites or extend the functionality and features of their existing web site when used as a web CMS. An open API and the availability of over 6,000 third-party add-on modules available through Snowcovered.com allow web development professionals to create complex web sites for demanding applications. Installing new modules or skins is quick and easy, allowing users to deploy new functionality on their web sites in just minutes.

    • http://www.cmscritic.com Mike Johnston

      While DotNetNuke is most certainly a great product, I'm not sure that I would consider it as flexible as some of the other one's covered but perhaps my limited experience with .Net has restricted my capabilities to use it in a similar manner. Thank you for bringing it up, however.

  • http://concrete5.org franz@concrete5.org

    nice to see us in good company!

  • http://www.aproweb.eu Mangirdas

    I vote for ImpressPages

    • http://www.cmscritic.com Mike Johnston

      Great system but still too new to be considered flexible. It's lacking in expansion modules by comparison.

      • http://www.aproweb.eu Mangirdas

        I agree. Today ImpressPages is not right tool to build big social or eCommerce site. But it is great tool to make small beautiful websites that need unique and precise design. Your client can't mess up your design. It is the feature I love the most.