What are the best CMS for websites? What are the top 10?

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Permalink Reply by Sachin Ghodke on September 29, 2008 at 11:02pm

These links might help too...
http://www.cmswire.com/cms/micro-cms/results-most-popular-cms-in-te...
http://www.devlounge.net/articles/cms-list

Permalink Reply by OlegR on September 30, 2008 at 9:49am

Please sprecify purpose of the CMS systems you are trying to rank.

You listed open-source systems, few of which are applicable in serious enterprise environment.

If you are trying to rank blog CMS systems thats one thing. Small personal website systems thats another ranking.
Mid-level CMS systems for small publishers have another goal.
And so on. None of the systems you listed here can run websites like Time.com or CNN.com (or at least provide the same flexibility as enterprise level systems etc.).

So please clarify your question otherwise it will become a big mess here.

Also there is a great and extremely extensive thread about content management systems in the e-media group so please read it before continuing this thread.

Also I believe that you are a CMS provider (judging by your company side), most likely developing based on open-source systems. Thus if you would like to discuss just open source systems please specify that you would like to rank open-source CMS systems in the headline of this thread.

Thank you,

OlegR

Permalink Reply by Sachin Ghodke on September 30, 2008 at 11:26am

Hi Oleg,
What I m trying to do here is classify the Blog, Enterprise, Publishing CMSs,etc. Also I want to know what CMS should I use to do the following:
(1) Construct a Magazine website
(2) Portfolio website
(3) Community Website and
(4) Genealogy Website (very personal and basic nothing that is very extensive)

What are your suggestions?

Permalink Reply by OlegR on September 30, 2008 at 11:44am

Hi Sachin,

Classification can be divided by industry focus and market size.
Industry classification is the following:

1. General CMS systems that do not focus on specific industries e.g. Interwoven, Vignette, Ektron, etc.

2. Industry focused CMS systems, for example Nstein that is focused solely on publishing sector

3. Open source CMS systems - since they are free and pretty flexible, with a large number of skilled hours spent you can adjust them for many purposes. Among these I'd like to mention Drupal, Joomla, DotNetNuke

Market size classification for CMS systems used in publishing:

Enterprise level CMS systems: the ones used by largest publishers of this world like Time Inc, Bonnier, Hearst, NewsCorp, Turner, Hachette, etc. Among these I'd mention Interwoven, Nstein, Vignette

Mid-size CMS systems: used by mid-size publishers both B2B and B2C. This area is pretty vague since some smaller publishers require enterprise level monetization schemes (e.g. Nstein) or need to have related products (e.g. ECM) from the same vendor (Interwoven in this case), etc.

Smaller CMS systems, used by small to mid-sized publishers: these publishers do not require enterprise level content monetization strategies, and thus there is a huge market out there of smaller, usually open-source based solutions priced 10-150k that will do the job - place your content online and place ads around it.

Open Source CMS systems stand alone here since they have no particular focus. The are used both in large enterprises (for example Penton), as well as smaller ones (you name it). The problem here is that going open source the publisher requires to hire a strong development team and thus become a software company, not a publishing company. It's an ideological choice of the company which way to go open-source or not.

One more classification within publishing sector - which area is the CMS system focusing on - Newspaper, Magazine, Online publishing, etc. - this classification is pretty vague as well.

Newspaper companies prefer using CMS systems developed by their editorial system vendors, for example: Saxotech, DTI, K4, and now Atex. In these cases CMS system is a secondary object to the publishing/editorial system. Thus going this way the company still stays print centric and does not change its business processes. Thus digital does not become a priority and its a very dangerous route today when print revenues are falling so quickly.
Large newspaper families like Hearst, McClatchy, Tribune, Lee, Scripps use enterprise level systems, again like Nstein, Interwoven, as well as editorial-based ones to achieve economies of scale in their digital publishing.

Magazine publishing again depends on the size of the companies. Nevertheless the names most seen in this industry besides open-source drupal are Ektron (not sure about client list but I keep on bumping into them), Nstein (Conde Nast, Time Inc, BBC, FT, BusinessWeek, Bonnier, Reed Business, etc.) and several others. Smaller magazines usually go with a smaller solutions or open source.

Online publishing sector has a lot of proprietary systems in place, or open source since they are by default much more web savvy than print publishers.

Hosted solutions need a separate word.
Hosted solutions like Clickability are great when your business is template driven. What I mean is if your content can be delivered through minimum customization to out-of-the-box templates, widgets, and your business model does not require special channels, microsites, lead generation, etc.
I'm saying this because going with hosted solution you do not have full control over your site and need to work with a 3d party vendor for ANY minor change to your site. That takes time.

Licensed software (or open source) that sits in your office gives you an ability to play with it and adjust it the way you want. With licensed software you have their support professionals available 24/7 ready to help you with any changes you are trying to make. With open source you are on your own, with "support" of the community of other open source CMS users.

I hope this overview gives a better picture. I tried to be as unbiased as possible (even though I work for Nstein). Any comments, corrections and additions would be welcome!

Permalink Reply by Sachin Ghodke on September 30, 2008 at 2:49pm

Oleg, I am humbled by your explanation. I am thankful for your quite distinctive insight regarding CMS.

It does give a better perspective and help me understand where I can map my requirements better.

Permalink Reply by Becky Hennessy on October 9, 2008 at 12:48pm

I've been researching open-source CMS systems for awhile and, as a self-employed writer/editor, have made the tentative decision to go with WordPress for my new domain. I like the open templating system from a design standpoint, as I can build it from the ground up.

That said, again, I'm an editorial professional, not a PHP expert, and I am concerned about the multiple plugins it seems to require to maximize usability.

Oleg referenced !Joomla. I hear it provides ample templates and free or reasonably priced add-ons. Others suggest that Textpattern offers a relatively easy-to-use and flexible CMS.

For me, it seems like a coin toss-up half the time, particularly as I don't have the time to test each one. As such, again, I may stick with what I've started at WordPress (though if I change, I'll come back to this discussion and let you know).

I want to learn, because it's actually fascinating stuff, but only to a certain point.

So, it seems a couple of questions novice users like me must ask are: How much time will I need to dedicate to designing my own template/theme regardless of the CMS system I choose? Do I have the patience and time to learn?

I'm plowing through WordPress For Dummies, which, as often is the case with the Dummies series, is very helpful.

You can find some good discussions on this topic at the Interaction Design Association (IXDA) site.

Oleg, you're clearly an expert on this discussion. Thanks for your pointers on open-source CMS.

Permalink Reply by Keith Gregory on October 25, 2008 at 5:18pm

Drupal kicks butt.

Go google joe bowerbank

no quotes

might be my blog in position 1.

Above Joe's linkedin profile?

try this

rtc bailout

my blog is (right now) in position 4.

I am not being boastful about my blog- a side effort to amuse myself really.

But, the fact is, Google loves Drupal.

Permalink Reply by Peter on October 28, 2008 at 3:48pm

We are currently specifying one with SusQtech/Sharepoint

Permalink Reply by Julie Riley on October 30, 2008 at 3:36pm

http://www.cmsmatrix.org lists many CMS and lets you compare them as well.

Permalink Reply by CMS Critic - Mike Johnston on March 11, 2009 at 11:15am

CMS Critic is also a great resource: http://cmscritic.com/