CMS Critic

Critic’s Choice CMS Awards

The Critic’s Choice CMS Awards were started in 2012 as a means to help spread the word about all of the amazing systems out there. 2012 was our inaugural year for the CMS awards and we were completely blown away by the amazing response within the community.

We had thousands upon thousands of votes and a huge number of nominations to sort through for these awards and the results are listed below, sorted by year.

The categories for the awards are as follows and are subject to change year by year:

  • Best Open Source CMS
  • Best Free CMS
  • Best Budget CMS
  • Best CMS for Small / Medium Sized Businesses
  • Best Enterprise CMS
  • Best Website Builder
  • Best Social Networking Solution

Timelines

For 2012, our timelines were as follows:

  • September 10, 2012 to October 11, 2012: Nominations taken.
  • October 12, 2012 to November 11, 2012: Voting occurred.
  • December 1st, 2012 – Winners announced.

Winners are announced in two ways. We will have the Critic’s Choice CMS Award which will be chosen by CMS Critic based on the nominees selected and People’s Choice CMS Award which will be based on voting. The reason we’ve split the awards up into two categories is to ensure that all systems have a chance to be recognized. We don’t want this to be just another popularity contest, so be sure to participate!

Do not forget to sign up for our newsletter to be kept in the loop!

The 2012 Polls are closed and the results are below:

People’s Choice Winners (Determined by Vote)

  1. Best Free CMS – Tiki Wiki CMS Groupware (read the announcement)
  2. Best Open Source CMS – Concrete5 (read the announcement)
  3. Best Social Network Solution – Oxwall (read the announcement)
  4. Best CMS for SMB (Small to Midsize Business – DotNetNuke (read the announcement)
  5. Best Enterprise CMS – Liferay (read the announcement)
  6. Best Website Builder – SquareSpace (read the announcement)
  7. Best Budget CMS – Concrete5 (read the announcement)

Critic’s Choice Winners (Chosen by CMS Critic as Best of Breed)

  1. Best Free CMS - ProcessWire (read the announcement)
  2. Best Open Source CMS - MODx (read the ann0uncement)
  3. Best Social Network Solution - phpFox (read the announcement)
  4. Best CMS for SMB (Small to Midsize Business – DotNetNuke (read the announcement)
  5. Best Enterprise CMS - Adobe CQ (read the announcement)
  6. Best Website Builder – Squarespace (read the announcement)
  7. Best Budget CMS – CMS Made Simple (read the announcement)

For all those who are asking: We have two awards, the People’s Choice which will be based on # of votes and Critic’s Choice which will be chosen by our judges. This way, those of you with smaller communities have equal opportunity. Get your votes in and best of luck to everyone of these deserving systems.

Don’t forget to sign up or follow me on Google+ for updates.

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  • http://gravatar.com/davidlwalker David Walker

    I can’t believe that Sitecore wasn’t on the list anywhere. Their product is best of breed and incredibly innovative! Having used many of the other CMS products on the list, I find myself always running back to Sitecore when a an enterprise scale CMS is needed.

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

      They chose not to participate in 2012 by getting involved in the nominations or voting.. perhaps this year they will jump on board..

  • http://www.sageframe.com Bibek Baniya

    Thankx Mike for this wonderful platform! Eagerly waiting for Critic’s Choice Awards.. Hope you would release soon

  • Still an e107 Fan

    I have tried Drupal, Joomla, WordPress, Xoops and others, and still prefer the ease of use and plugin/theme architecture of e107. ( http://e107.org )
    The soon-to-be-released version 2 looks amazing! (check Github)

  • Jeremiah Easter

    This is Bologna. There is no way that WordPress didn’t receive any nominations, they must have been ignored. Even this site is built on WordPress, lol. What is CMS critic not telling us ;)

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

      Perhaps you should read the myriad of other comments which I replied to explaining the reasoning before making comments such as this?

  • MartinPoettgen

    Its a great cms system that we use since 2004. There is always a progress in developing new features. Lots of realy working modules – fast and comitted forum solves most reports within a day…can’t live without it…

  • web2dot1

    WordPress isn’t a CMS, it is a blogging tool. Yes, you can extend it and try to make it act as a CMS :)
    For  best free open source CMS,  I will go with Concrete5, which is a relatively young CMS but it is much easier to use and develop than joomla and drupal. I like the idea behind Concrete5, it just needs time to evolve and become the best CMS out there.

    • Andrea Courtin

      @web2dot1 I couldn’t agree more. That has been my experience as well.

    • Jeremiah Easter

      Uh Oh, someone tell the University of Washington that their entire website is just a blog.

  • porkyster

    Hi, What is the difference between Best Open and Best Free? And Where are Joomla and WP?

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

      @porkyster Open source has nothing to do with cost or a price point, It’s got to do with code being freely available. Please read all of the other comments re: WP, Joomla. Thanks.

  • porkyster

    Hi, What is the difference between Best Open and Best Free? And Where are Joomla and WP?

  • http://www.grafcomm.ca/ Patrick Toulze

    No Drupal, No WordPress, No Joomla?
    All free Open Source, they represent more than 70% of the CMS market. out there.
    I don’t get it?
    An open source CMS poll without them have no real significance.

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

      @Patrick Toulze That’s a rather close minded thing to say. We had a 1 month long nomination stage and they received little to no nominations so what does that tell you? This isn’t about including three CMS that get tons of attention already, it’s about making the playing field even for everyone. If you don’t feel it is significant, that’s your decision but it doesn’t take away from the fact that the response from the community has been huge so far.

      • http://www.grafcomm.ca/ Patrick Toulze

        @cmscritic  It tell me that. in that poll 70% of the most use CMS on the planet are not represented.
        I just find that extremely strange….

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

          @Patrick Toulze They obviously didn’t rally their community for nominations, which is their choice. I was surprised as well but that’s how it goes.

        • http://www.grafcomm.ca/ Patrick Toulze

          @cmscritic I see, really odd. Anyway I cast my vote to Concrete — Fantastic  UI, I drop all testing with Concrete because I have some kind of argument with them about a main functionality —> Multilingual — To have a pro solution for multilingual you need to ditch $1,750 
          or now with the fantastic special of $875
          — Yes almost the going price for the construction of an entire CMS site in any other major platform. This is, to me ridiculous.
           
          See the post at —> 
          http://www.concrete5.org/community/forums/chat/how_to_build_a_multi-lingual_site_/#237284
           
          In comparaison with Joomla 2.5 – 3.0 — I can have a Top Notch easy way for multilingual for peanut with the internal Joomla multilingual system and a third party pro-extension for around $30 US a year, including upgrade and support.
           
          And I will not back down to provide my customers with any half-half free compromise just for a cool UI — This is for the coolness factor of Concrete that I cast my vote.

  • Gp

    My first ever live working experience is on Concrete only. So, I think, I got to work on the best one in my go only. None of the CMS’s matches Concrete’s functionalities when later, i worked on other CMS’s. 
    So, my vote definitely goes for Concrete. Its a ‘Thumbs Up’ for me.

    • Andrea Courtin

      I tested a couple of other CMS options and Concrete5 was by far the easiest to use. I rarely have to go to help. The WYSIWYG is very helpful.

  • RootLeaf

    I went from Drupal to Concrete5 and never looked back =)

  • IdeaSponge

    Not working for me at this time. Won’t let me view More.

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

      @IdeaSponge won’t let you view more what? Can you provide more details so I can understand what the issue is? Thanks.

      • IdeaSponge

        @cmscritic  @IdeaSponge I’m only getting the top 5 in the lists and it won’t let me expand the list. I was also getting a message earlier near the bottom of the list. “Listly error! Listly error!”.  I don’t see it anymore though but same results.

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

          @IdeaSponge you only see 5 because thats all there is. some people tried adding to them but these are short lists so we dont accept submissions. each list is five chosen by us via the nominations.

  • Hayo Roskam

    CMS Made Simple is a winner

  • PrasadMaduranga

    DotNetNuke is the best CMS I’ve used for ever.

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

      @PrasadMaduranga Good to hear!

  • ADAMmmmmmmmm

    SQUARESPACE>>AWWW YEAHHHH

  • LeDaveInBelgium

    @besstiolle a voté :-)

  • milson

    @RLSantuciJr http://t.co/dOpfnsKv how abut @SageFrame :) please Vote

  • xeniar

    Bummer i missed the nominations otherwise I’d submitted Jahia for Enterprise CMS and GENWI for mobile CMS, BTW, there is no category for mobile CMS at all???

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

      @xeniar not this year but perhaps next year we’ll include it. Mobile cms wouldn’t really fit into it’s own category as it’s more of a function of a cms rather than a type of cms specifically.

  • ArminGuttzeit

    Oxwall ® – PHP Social Networking Software | Community Script  got my vote !

  • RiaSlav

    For me its oxwall for the bestsocial network soltion , security is great , options are great and support is great  , all round 5 star…….
    they got my vote

  • JeanGosselin

    With ocPortal I can build almost any kind of website right out of the box and it is free. It got my vote!

  • alguintu

    Spreading some love for processwire!

  • Alok Pandey Nepali

    Just go with “SageFrame”

  • http://www.craigbailey.net/ Craig Bailey

    Interesting to see that WordPress didn’t make it into any lists…

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

      @Craig Bailey I was just as surprised as you were. Almost no nominations for it.

  • Eric Pesser

    No need for voting… CMS Made Simple is the best CMS :-).

  • AustinCramer

    ProcessWire hands down

  • ClintonSkakun

    ProcessWire forever! Got my vote.

  • Private

    To vote I need to sign in.  But then will my name be public, or will it publish to my Facebook/Twitter?  I don’t want that.

  • cmscritic

    @wion #CMS #Awards deserved indeed!

  • cristofano

    @cmscritic It wasn’t a hanging chad, was it? ;-)

  • http://www.pearsontreehouse.co.uk/ John Scotcher

    CMS Made Simple gets mine.  A great system!

  • _AngeloRocha

    XOOPS!

  • bici1

    ExpressionEngine is the go-to cms for developing fast and robust websites

  • bici1

    Textpattern is so cool

    • JimHeil

      @bici1 Textpattern is awesome… not easy, but great for artistic website creations.

  • kunane

    @processwire done :)

  • matengo

    Please remember: TYPO3 is always written in Capitals only – it’s the brands design guideline. Thanks.

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

      @matengo Perhaps but I’m pretty sure that people know who they are with or without capitals. I think they’ll be fine with it for now considering they are nominated. If I get a chance, I’ll change it but I don’t consider that a high priority.

      • jesuspresley

        @cmscritic  @matengo No problem.

  • cmscritic

    @textpattern @txpmag from what I can see, you’ve been represented pretty well so far. You have until 3pm MT today to boost your #’s.

  • cmscritic

    @textpattern indeed it is. More details here: http://t.co/L5jupNFC

  • txpmag

    @textpattern Did you mention that in the Facebook group? LinkedIn’s covered.

  • adam_the_1st

    @processwire did so weeks ago! :)

  • thorstenh

    compositec1 got my vote !

  • Jack Pick

    Composite C1 has the .NET space covered. Open source, easy to use and supports both web forms and MVC. Clear winner for the MS platform.

  • http://www.yikesite.com/ Jeffio

    I humbly suggest YikeSite *ahem* as something to check out :)

  • http://EasyLive.biz/ EasyLive

    “Oxwall”  “Best Social Networking Solution”

  • HenryRuhs

    Concrete 5 is quite good but not the best choice – there few other that a faster or more lightweight….

  • CADrewParfitt

    Concrete5 wins all!!!!!

  • greg_parke

    luv me some Concrete5
     

  • http://yetti.co.uk/ Martin

    Yetti does an amazing job, easy to use, all web based, completely your own templates so no picking from themes and even has APIs to integrate should you need it. Would really recommend at least giving it a go, there’s a free trial on the site yetti.co.uk

  • http://www.aspxcommerce.com/ Milstein

    I <3 SageFrame http://www.sageframe.com #opensource

    • jivanshr

      yea cross the bar of awesomeness……..the CMF that will make you dig to earth”s inner core

  • jasteele12

    @concrete5 Now if I had only typed Critic’s Choice correctly before pressing Enter :) #concrete5

  • http://www.howtobeaweddingofficiant.com/ Avary

    i really dig concrete5!

  • feindura

    @cmscritic #CMS #Award? Oh, i have to hurry to get the 2.0 ready before the nomination ends ;) http://t.co/EG61hOYp

  • NorthantsLife

    @jwebguy Done!

  • http://www.lucasanderson.com/ LucasAnderson

    concrete5

  • cmscritic

    @cmscritic: Nominate a #CMS for our CMS #Awards for a chance to win a #Google #Nexus 7 Tablet – http://t.co/lf5poXyg

  • Eric Pesser

    @olo Sure… Who knows it, adopt it! Just try and enjoy CMSMS!