Best Free Enterprise CMS (Stub only)

An enterprise-class CMS needs to be very capable, stable, and extendable by ECM (enterprise content management) developers. It will not be a handicap if it uses a less-common codebase or needs specialist hosting, though the closer it keeps to popular code languages and to basic hosting, the more useful it will be to those with smaller budgets.

The CMS may need to handle intranet / extranet tasks as well as web publishing. In terms of functionality it will need comprehensive content handling and publishing, strong ACL, versioning, workflows, audit trails, and document handling. If any kind of web popularity is envisaged, it would be wise to look at those CMS that prioritise for quality in the web standards area, with strong standards-compliance values leading to code that both validates and passes accessibility testing. This helps with search success and legal compliance. Currently, many implementations have problems in these areas.

In addition, legal issues are likely to become more relevant, partly because accessibility issues will become important. In many countries, all sites offering a public service must now pass accessibility testing to level A in order to be legally-compliant. Busy sites are likely to attract inspection by interested parties.

Currently it looks as though 99% of websites in general - and CMS sites are no exception -  would fail an accessibility pass at the second level (level AA) - and certainly the top level, AAA. It is likely that government and local authority sites, and possibly those in the media spotlight, will need to pass at AA in the future - which is beyond many CMS implementations at present. It is worth considering this when specifying a solution, as fixing issues like this further down the line might be expensive. Contrary to some opinions it is possible to build a complex CMS with a wide variety of content to level AAA, and there are examples. Frankly, though, the level of skill needed to do this is quite beyond most implementers.

The applications listed here have a zero license fee since they are open-source. Where a CMS has both GPL (free) and commercial options, we only considered the GPL core application. However, it needs to be remembered that initial software cost may be a minor component in a large implementation - so for corporate users, this factor may not be relevant. However, there are many non-profits and similar organisations who need a large and capable CMS with a cost-conscious attitude.

Also consider these facts:

• The core application might be free, but at this level, extensions usually aren't
• Implementation costs will be the highest component - and might be even when software costs are considerable
• Support is not cheap
• A capable webmaster is needed
• Hosting for these systems costs more than for standard CMS - they have a variety of specialist needs

Some of these systems are available as hosted solutions, which is becoming more popular. With a Hosted CMS, the system is leased on a monthly basis, and the software authors or others host and run it for you.

Lastly, it needs to be clearly stated - as always - that open-source is simply an alternative to commercial. The quality or functionality is no less, and in fact it may seem easier to locate high quality in open-source at the moment. The bills are lower but the web team's workload may be higher, due to the wide range of supply sources instead of a one-stop shop.

Some of the contenders in open-source enterprise-class CMS are:

eZpublish
A candidate for the most capable PHP CMS. However, it uses a different form of PHP acceleration, so although it can live on shared hosting, that isn't the best option. Possibly the simplest route to a high-quality enterprise solution. LAMP stack. Dedibox or all-eZ servers are needed. Like Drupal, it's probably best to use a distro install that packages all the extensions for a given profile. One of the best ecommerce CMS solutions available. Uses WebDAV just like some ASP CMS use .NET for development. Commercial installs are expensive, nothing much happens under $30 or $40k - but this is all down to corporate implementer's overhead. A very competent CMS webmaster could get something reasonable running for very little - hosting will be an issue though. The core is free, some plugins are free, others cost (and cost a goodly amount). Install on XAMP, get webDAV running, and play.

Plone
A high-quality CMS with a long and solid history. Huge progress in the last couple of years, as with many projects. Can't use shared hosting as it needs an application server, Zope. Or more correctly, although Zope acts as middleware, Plone is essentially the skin+ for Zope. Another candidate for an easy to install enterprise solution. As a LAN CMS there's nothing quicker to set up - but getting the best out of this old favorite demands a very capable webmaster. Novices have no chance as this has a very steep learning curve. Python coders at hand might also help, as that is the codebase. Lots of docs for this one due to its solid history, and good docs make all the difference - a choice of several books.

WebGUI
Popular as a hosted solution, this CMS is very capable and has a good history. The authors, Plain Black, run a useful CMS matrix comparison website. WebGUI has a compiled installation routine that once again means shared hosting is not an option. Perl codebase, LAMP server.

Alfresco
A major project that uses the common open-source Java / LAMP stack, or IIS if required. Supports the CMIS spec, and full interoperability includes integration with MS Office, along with thousands of APIs. Developed using Web Studio and Eclipse. Uses any J2EE application server. Costs are elevated as this is a Java CMS, with minimum start-up costs of double-figure thousand $ due to developer costs. There are two versions of this software - the free Alfresco Labs version, and the full commercial version. Commercial installs have ranged from $40k to $250k - for a very basic install to a major corporate full implementation - fairly high, as Java CMS developer costs are currently $1,400  a day in London at 2009-06. However, in theory, a firm with Java and CMS people in-house could implement a decent CMS at low cost.

The 'blank canvas' class of CMS
It is possible for very capable developers to create an enterprise-class CMS with one of the top free / open-source 'blank canvas' CMS - a term that can be applied to those WCMS that install in a blank sheet style - ie not much there to start with. The developer creates everything required. This means that if the devs can hack it, you could have a highly-capable CMS at zero licence fee. But if the developers aren't up to it, there would be problems. Here are two candidates of the highly-capable but blank-install type:

Radiant CMS
Radiant is the CMS product from the Ruby on Rails developer community. It is highly capable and since RoR can handle just about anything web-wise, working examples show a good range of high-quality CMS. Ruby on Rails is supposed to be the ultimate web development and web for database environment - but then again, others have made that claim. Looking at the examples so far, the thing that stands out is the quality of the pagecode produced - light years ahead of some of the low-quality stuff that is far too common in Java CMS. Because of this, and because in theory anything is possible with RoR, Radiant is a candidate here. It just depends on your developers. Radiant needs a compiled install so it's only suitable for a LAN server or a dedibox you can access.

Umbraco CMS
A very interesting ASP CMS that originates from Denmark. Again, this is a 'blank canvas' install that depends entirely on the developer/s for its substance. There are enterprise-level examples and in theory anything is possible with this CMS, which is highly capable. It has some easy-use features for the sysadmin as well, which doesn't hurt of course - such as selecting users and ACL roles with a simple right-click menu procedure. Of course, this CMS runs on Windows Server 2003 or 2008, plus MS SQL Server. Development is carried out using XSLT and/or .NET. XSLT is a language for XML files and uses macros. I'm told that all skilled devs use XSLT in preference to .NET since it is an order of magnitude better; though some tasks such as forms have to be built using .NET usercontrols. The problem with the .NET method is apparently that this results in a hard-coded approach that is hard to modify later, and as change is the nature of the beast in CMS, that's a poor approach. Umbraco will do the job if your devs are XSLT specialists and up to a task of this size. One of the big advantages to Umbraco is that it is an enterprise-capable CMS framework that will install remotely on a shared server. It needs Full-Trust rights though, which is not available on all Windows hosting (and to be honest it's not common). However I have seen it installed on standard shared hosting at $115 per year, on a Plesk-enabled server, with no problems at all. If you prefer the Microsoft route then this could be the way to go, at very low cost compared to the norm.

But as with all blank-canvas CMS, it's all down to the developer quality. And there are some poor examples out there, built by devs who never heard of validating the pagecode, accessibility testing, clean pagecode, or web standards compliance of any kind. If you don't have devs who know how to build a clean, high-quality CMS (and they are a tiny minority), then maybe it's best to buy one in ready-made.

Best Free CMS

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