Best Free CMS

A website CMS (content management system or systems) is a server program that creates a website without any pages pre-existing on the server. It interacts with a database, and builds the pages on-the-fly when requested by a browser, using text and publishing instructions from the database. Images or other content are added into the resulting pages from the usual folders on the server, and the page layout is based on a template. As there are no pages on the server, there is normally a cache (a 'memory pool'), so that if a page has been requested recently it can be delivered directly from memory and does not need to be built again. Pages are normally built in a fraction of a second in any case.

In practice the question of 'best CMS' is impossible to answer, since all of these programs are designed to work in a particular way for a particular purpose. If you look at the wide range of different types of websites, it becomes obvious that no single application could create websites of all those types. Therefore a CMS is simply a tool for a job; it has to be designed for a fairly narrow range of duties or it won't work. Which is the best: a screwdriver, a saw, or a hammer? Obviously, there is no answer to this - it depends on what job you are doing. Content management systems are the same - you have to pick the right one for the job.

CMS can be divided into groups, for different roles, so you first need to define your requirements and choose one from a suitable group. There are around 3,000 - so there's plenty of choice. The standard CMS type is called a 'brochure CMS', and is a full-feature online publishing tool. Virtually every CMS handles basic publishing tasks like creating an ordinary website with pages that have text and image content. The difference between them all, though, is how capable they are, what else they can do, and how they do it.

Here are some of the types or groupings you could start with:

• Free or commercial
• Lightweight / standard / enterprise-class
• Server type: LAMP or IIS (PHP - MySQL, or ASP - .NET - Microsoft SQL Server)
• Database or flat-file type
• Basic text and image publishing, or rich media capability
• Community use, or one-person publisher
• Single ownership structure, or sections owned by different groups
• Remote installation, or on local machine only
• Normal shared hosting, or dedicated server only
• Good ecommerce support / basic / none required
• Pre-defined templates or grow-your-own

And as this isn't even the complete list, there are a lot of questions to be asked.

Because the situation is complex we've taken a few short cuts. We're going to assume that you require a free / open-source program; a normal LAMP server compatible CMS (since this is the vast majority); that you will be using the usual MySQL database (again, the most popular choice); that you will be installing it over the Net, on your shared hosting account, as is normal; and that ecommerce is a subsidiary function that may or may not be required, so we won't prioritise for it.

That cuts the choice down to a sensible number. We can now look at some CMS software that would suit some simple and obvious profiles:

• a new user who needs quick 'n easy publishing
• a user who needs a capable brochure CMS
• a user who needs to have the CMS compartmentalized for different user groups

[a 'brochure CMS' is the standard type that publishes content of various sorts in various ways, a full-feature publishing tool - an ordinary CMS]

This done, we'll pick three to suit those profiles. There is no 'top pick' here because we're looking at some website CMS (aka WCMS) for different uses, so they are each right for their user profile. However, our three chosen CMS applications are my top picks in their class.

CMS security note
All dynamic sites of this type (those that use databases) have many more attack vectors than an HTML website, the older type with web pages. This has two very important consequences:

1. A CMS is NOT a fit-and-forget solution, like a fridge or TV. It's more like a commercial truck, it needs someone to run a maintenance sked. A CMS needs a webmaster to handle upgrades and other security issues.

2. Hosting - ie the quality of it - is a thousand times more important than with an HTML site. You pay the hosts for security above all else. If you cut costs here and end up with a less than competent host, your site can be exploited.

You should be especially careful with a new CMS or a new version of a CMS, since it is inevitable that there will be security issues that will need fast action from the webmaster.

Best Lightweight CMS

Wordpress is the leader in the micro-cms class for good reason: it's easy to install, use, and extend. If you simply need to get your pages online fast, then WP is the one.

Up till recently there were a lot of arguments about whether this blog app was a CMS or not, and in the past the answer had to be no. But it's made huge strides and is now equally useful as a blog tool or a simple publishing tool, ie a micro-cms. With around the same sort of numbers of templates and plugins as Joomla (several thousand of each), it is probably more usable, almost as customisable - and far, far simpler.

The install is dead easy, by FTP as per normal with these webapps, or even by using the Fantastico script installer that many hosts offer in your server control panel. This is the easiest option and should be taken if offered, even for experts. Just remember to choose to install it to the webroot, ie not in a directory, as it's the most efficient way (unless you have other webapps on the server, such as a forum or wiki - then you have to decide on some install options).

WP is a standard PHP-MySQL webapp that runs on a LAMP server - the normal type of server. Any shared hosting will probably suit, and even some free webhosts will work fine with this.

You can run on the default template but most choose a new one, and there are plenty of free choices. Make your choice mainly on the layout (page overall shape), not the colours, as they can be altered. A widgetised template is best, meaning that it will accept the WP modules, which display additional content items as in all CMS.

You'll need the right set-up and plugins but there isn't space to go into that here, but this applies to all CMS in any case - and it means you must do your research and find more info. For a site showcase, with some nifty tempates, see:  http://wordpress.org/showcase/

SEO, ie commercial suuccess prospects, is good with WP. A lot depends on the template though, as some are poor and both wreck the code validation and introduce junk scripting and other sins. There are sufficient plugins for a good SEO solution.

WordPress is so good now that it doesn't have many challengers for the best new user / lightweight CMS slot, but here are a selection:
SkyBlueCanvas CMS (a lightweight flat-file CMS)
CMS-MadeSimple (a lightweight roll-your-own template CMS)
Movable Type (also a blog / cms crossover)

Best Brochure CMS

Joomla is the #1 rich media publishing tool. It will suit most publishing tasks that don't involve much in the way of ACL (different groups who have view or edit rights to different pages). It's so good that there are no commercial challengers that come close - for example, there are about 100 plugins just for streaming media (YouTube vids etc).

It is also the most flexible CMS around, and can be repurposed for a multitude of jobs.

It's a standard PHP-MySQL app for shared hosting - though it is more sensitive to incorrect server settings than most other server software. It's not a certainty that you can run Joomla on just any hosting, because of this.

Everything in Joomla is done with plugins (of which there are around 4,500), so it's crucial to know which does what. The core application is strictly a framework on which to hang the vast range of free and commercial plugins that is unchallenged in capability in web applications. Because of Joomla's flexibility, it can be turned into an almost unrecognisable application: an ecommerce store, a video site, an online magazine, a file repository, a directory, and so on - ad infinitum it almost seems.

There are some plugin issues for several reasons. These include the facts that Joomla has more than any other CMS; you can completely change the function and appearance of the CMS with them; and it is easier than most to extend, so lots and lots of people write plugins - some of whom have never heard of basic developer skills such as validating your pagecode as the first step, or taking care of security issues.

This means there are some bad plugins out there. They are insecure; they wreck the pagecode validation; they interfere with other plugins. So you must choose wisely. Check the security section at Joomla central; install plugins in a logical sequence; validate the pagecode after installing each one; and check compatibility with other plugins each time. If you find you've installed a bad one, uninstall it and try a better one. Some users install a large number of major plugins that alter core functionality, and then find their technical knowledge is insufficient for them to be able to resolve the issues. If you go this route you need to be aware that a highly extended, complex WCMS may not be able to have issues resolved by an ordinary webmaster - but this applies to all capable CMS. It's simply that Joomla makes it all so easy that people can go too far and get caught out. Large numbers of major plugins plus very high traffic are probably not a brilliant idea - this profile requires another approach.

Joomla handles high traffic well - there are numerous sites with 1 million visits plus and two terabytes of data bandwidth per month. However, high page numbers is another question, as the admin structure is not designed for this. At around 10,000 pages, things start to get interesting; the strong area is between around 50 and 1,000 pages.

Templates are another very strong feature. There is an unbeatable choice, running to many thousands. They are very easy to customize and a different one can be used on every page if you wish, though that is not a normal choice. Joomla templating is the best in CMS - very easy to change, to customise, to experiment with.

Documentation is very good, as this is one of the largest webapp projects in existence. There are numerous books, PDFs and web guides. It's said there have been 8 million downloads of this software. The forum on the central website has over 1,300 posts per day.

There are two concurrent version series of Joomla - the ongoing 1.0 series and the new 1.5 series. At early-'09 the newer series does not yet have the support required to make it a practical choice except for basic projects, as the plugins aren't there yet, so the 1.0 series is a better solution. It always takes around two years to fully sort a new webapp, when the plugins and bugs are finally sorted out. Right now, with J1.5, you can only do about a half of the tasks possible with J1.0, so unless your publishing project is fairly simple, the J1.0 series is currently a better choice (at 1.0.15 right now). There may also be some security issues due to the very short history of the new version. Joomla 1.5 is clearly a better CMS for a multitude of reasons, and when sorted will be a great choice.

To state that again in words of one syllable; don't use Joomla 1.5 just now unless your project is very simple and will stay that way for a little while.

SEO is superb. Out of the box of course, it's lousy - but this is Joomla. Everything is done with plugins. Directly after install, you can maybe publish text and images, but not much else. Seeing as this is the most feature-capable and the most flexible CMS on the planet, that should give you a few clues; you need the right plugins. Choose well and you have a CMS that will place at Google #1 globally with no trouble at all, which is why Joomla is so popular for commercial web projects.

Joomla is either a complex CMS that is fairly easy to use; or a basic CMS that can be extended later on if you need it; or perhaps, for newcomers, a very complicated way to run a website. All these are accurate, depending on your viewpoint. If you are new to CMS, I would certainly advise you to get a Joomla-using friend to hold your hand for the first few days, as there is a serious risk of being overwhelmed. Even developers who are new to CMS can't work out how to go about finding templates and hacking them, or using the multi-language capabilities, or SEO fine-tuning - and these are among Joomla's strong points. So, if you are new to CMS, or even just new to Joomla, then your task will be much easier if you have help.

Joomla will handle very high traffic. One instance on one server will handle up to around 30,000 visits per day, depending on the CMS set-up (more plugins, of greater complexity, will of course slow it down, and mean you need to go to multi-server earlier). Over this number, you go to a load-balancing solution, and then of course you can handle any traffic you want. There are plenty of sites with over 1 million visits per month (33,000 a day), and some that burn 2 TeraBytes of bandwidth a month. That's high traffic.

Other contenders in this class are:
Mambo (this CMS was the one Joomla forked from - it's very similar to Joomla 1.0 but less advanced)
Typo3 (a popular alternative)
e107 (another mid-range CMS that functions well as a portal)

None of these are anywhere near as capable as Joomla but may have better functionality in a particular area, such as ACL or high page numbers.

Security
The new series has the security issues expected with a new version (which do not affect the older version) - all new versions from 1.5.0 to 1.5.13 are vulnerable, and should be patched to 1.5.14

Best CMS with ACL

Drupal is my choice for a CMS when you need reasonable ACL (access control levels, ie multiple user groups). It's true that eZpublish and Plone are stronger in this area, but the server restrictions (or cost implications) rule them out for inclusion here. Drupal will supply all normal requirements in the ACL area.

Its strong points are the ACL capability, stability, and solid reputation for trouble-free performance. As a standard PHP CMS, it can be installed remotely on any server. It is highly extensible, and a variety of distros are also available that package sets of modules and install a typical site profile such as an online magazine or a college site.

The negatives aren't really negatives at all - they are simply areas where others perform better. Here, we have the relatively low number of plugins, including templates, that restricts both appearance and functionality to a certain extent. Next comes the very basic backend admin, which contributes to some usability issues in this area. Finally, and probably the biggest negative, the way that ACL capability has made many backend admin functions obtuse.

However, these are simply areas in which others do better - and no other CMS in this class does them all better or we'd be looking at that instead. Drupal is the #1 choice in PHP-normal CMS with ACL.

It handles high page numbers better than Joomla as the structure is better for this. High traffic is handled of course, but this is a hosting issue in reality. Keep in mind that this type of CMS is basically a PHP script, and there's not much stopping one of those from churning out tons of pages a second - if the load-balancing arrangements can support it.

Multimedia capability depends on plugins, and they aren't present in sufficient numbers to allow wide and complete support. But Drupal has enough to do the usual jobs. There is a recurring quality factor in this project that means instead of lots of plugins and some being of low quality, there are less - but the quality is overall of a high standard. For example, three bridges are available for the vBulletin forum.

Content categorisation is stronger in Drupal than for most CMS, due to the useful and interesting taxonomy. Using this function allows the stratification of content according to user-defined terms and classes. If the normal 3-level CMS content structure doesn't suit you (section / category / item), then Drupal will allow other methods. It also has built-in SEF URLs, which is a major strong point, especially as that removes the usual CMS issue of multiple addresses for the same page.

Drupal is a fine business CMS, and a good small-enterprise CMS - but probably not a large enterprise-class CM system. That is because although it has good ACL and versioning, the other components necessary for this appellation are not present or good enough: workflows, audit trails etc. For this profile you would go to Alfresco or an extended eZpublish solution - and unless you are a CMS developer, costs will be appreciable.

Documentation is good, with PDFs and books aplenty. Because of the widespread commercial use of Drupal, things are well organised here.

SEO potential is good (now). In the past, with session IDs and all that palaver, things weren't so good. However, nothing moves faster than CMS projects right now, so what is true one year is completely wrong the next - just check forum posts on these subjects and you'll see that clearly enough; statements people made last year are well outdated now. Drupal is a good choice for an SEO-friendly CMS - not as good as Joomla, for practical reasons mainly, since in theory it's actually better.

Drupal is a strong, straightforward CMS with good ACL. It isn't easy to use, though, since as soon as you add ACL into the mix, admin usability tends to go out of the window. At present its capabilities lie in the provision of a robust CMS with multi-group page and section ownerships; the useful taxonomy capabilities; and the general air of quality surrounding everything in this project. This is not a second-rate product, it is of the first quality.

In the future, the existence of more plugins will allow better functionality. We like Drupal - it's what we run Gizmo's Freeware on. With over 30,000 visitors a day and rising steadily, we need a solid solution.

Other CMS in this class are:
eZpublish
Plone
[both these are more capable as an enterprise-class CMS than Drupal but are more expensive to run, as they won't live happily on a standard shared LAMP server - eZpublish because it doesn't use the normal form of PHP acceleration, and Plone because it uses Zope as middleware, ie as an application server]

You might want to check out these articles / sites too:

www.techsupportalert.com/best-free-enterprise-cms.htm
- our stub article on the Best Enterprise-Class CMS
www.cmsmatrix.org/matrix
- a good comparison matrix site
http://opensourcecms.com
- big site, comprehensive resources
www.a3webtech.com/index.php/how-cms-works.html
- simple explanations thru major, critical reviews - no whitewash
www.cmsreview.com
- a long-established site, good resources, but boilerplate software reviews though

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