Content management systems provide your website or blog with user-friendly management tools, and lend a much-needed polished look to your web content. If you are looking for such a software, Techspirited has a few suggestions for the most popular content management systems.
Two Elements of CMS
Content Management Application (CMA) is the front-end user interface where users can partly modify content on a website, while Content Delivery Application (CDA) compiles all such information and keeps the website updated.
Content management systems (CMS) are software programs that allow publishing, editing, and maintenance of data or content on the web. The aim of using CMS is to avoid manual coding, and errors associated with it. All the data files are well-organized and stored in such a manner that they are easily accessible by the software.
Thus, storing, controlling, revising, enriching, and publishing documentation is an easy task. For carrying out all these activities, you need to simply purchase the right software package. We, at Buzzle, have provided a list of popular content management systems, for your reference.
WordPress
The most popular and widely-used platform for content management is WordPress. The software is available free of cost and comes with an easy installation process. Since it is an open source software, numerous volunteers have come together to build this software. Thus, you will find plenty of themes and plugins that can enhance your site. There is also a provision for PHP and CSS editing from within the editing screen, this makes it easy for the administrator to manage website appearance.
Visit website: www.wordpress.com
Drupal
Drupal is an equally popular software, and is widely used by many websites like Sony Music, MIT, Popular Science, etc. Users of this software have created an online community that releases documentation that helps beginners and other users. There are even IRC channels and face-to-face meetings of Drupal users. Like WordPress, Drupal also has numerous add-ons (about 6,000) that enhance the look of the website. The advanced features of this software can be easily incorporated even with minimum technical knowledge.
Visit website: www.drupal.org
Joomla
Apart from content management, Joomla can be used to build applications as well. It is used by Citibank for its back end networks. The software is open source, which means, it is free to use. The one-click installation and extensibility have made the software popular among website owners. A new user will not find it difficult to look for Joomla tutorials or other literature because of their huge developer community (about 200,000 members). In 2011, at the Open Source CMS Awards, Joomla was named best software, while Drupal claimed the second position.
Visit website: www.joomla.org
SilverStripe
SilverStripe is widely used by governments, businesses, and non-profit organizations. This software can be used to build websites, intranets, and other applications. The flexibility of SilverStripe makes it extremely easy to customize. It also provides scope for building security models, caching, workflow, and multiple language features that can be incorporated in the website. Due to the code isolation, developers can use any HTML and CSS that they prefer. It also supports multiple page templates, which is a useful feature for big websites. If there are multiple authors working on one website, SilverStripe allows each author to set dates for published content, setting up different permission levels, and content approval process.
Visit website: www.silverstripe.org
concrete5
This software is considered as one of the best time- and cost-saving solutions to build a website. Apart from websites, concrete5 has provision for building intranet and extra-net applications. It is an open source content management system with a pool of free and commercial add-ons. One can also create personalized themes by using HTML and CSS. One of the biggest advantages of this CMS is its in-context editing that is similar to the Microsoft Word processor. This allows developers to edit content on the website while viewing the page. Online support for concrete5 is strong, and developers can easily find how-to guides on the Internet.
Visit website: www.concrete5.org
Frog CMS
This software is based on the Ruby on Rails application, and is a PHP version of Radiant CMS. Website developers need not have knowledge about any scripting language, as this CMS has templates which directly uses PHP. This software offers flexible templating system, good user interface, user management and permissions, and of course, tools for content management.
Visit website: www.madebyfrog.com
Dotcms
The Dotcms allows designers to easily integrate J2EE development stacks. The usage of these stacks enable the work time to shorten to a few weeks. The point that works in favor of this software is its support for lightweight web scripting, web services, and comprehensive APIs.
Visit website: www.dotcms.com
Contao
Website owners who wish to maintain high security standards and want their websites to be search-engine friendly, are inclined to use Contao CMS. This software is open source and allows ease of managing user rights, CSS framework, live update services, and other easy-to-integrate add-on templates like forms, news, calendars, newsletters, etc. However, there are fewer themes available on this CMS, but developers can create their own themes with CSS.
Visit website: www.contao.org