What CMS do you use?

What is your preferred CMS?

  • WordPress

    Votes: 26 63.4%

  • Joomla

    Votes: 7 17.1%

  • Drupal

    Votes: 3 7.3%

  • MODx

    Votes: 1 2.4%

  • Other

    Votes: 8 19.5%
  • Total voters
    41
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Jolt.co.uk

Jolt.co.uk

Free Member
Mar 1, 2011
506
75
  • #1
    Hello all,

    I thought it would be interesting to discuss popular CMSes and why they are used.

    I'm a personal fan of WordPress and have 25+ WordPress sites doing a variety of things. I've used Joomla too, but for speed of deployment and the sheer number of themes and addons, I find WordPress hard to beat.

    Matt
     
    FreelanceSoftwareDeveloper

    FreelanceSoftwareDeveloper

    Free Member
    Sep 14, 2009
    1,556
    348
    Barrow-in-Furness
  • #3
    I voted for Other as I mainly do bespoke CMS design to fit more complex sites/page layouts.

    There are plenty of great CMS products and credit to those who develop them but as a purist I don't like the idea of using 3000 files to build a 5 page website when the only CMS functionality required is to edit the page content and set the SEO page titles and meta data.

    I will make a suggestion though for people to check out, Concrete5, Front End Administration (a bit like the 1and1 advert on TV, click a paragraph or pic to edit it), very intuitive and smart rather than a hacked up blog :)
     
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    Jolt.co.uk

    Jolt.co.uk

    Free Member
    Mar 1, 2011
    506
    75
  • #4
    FreelanceSoftwareDeveloper said:
    I voted for Other as I mainly do bespoke CMS design to fit more complex sites/page layouts.

    There are plenty of great CMS products and credit to those who develop them but as a purist I don't like the idea of using 3000 files to build a 5 page website when the only CMS functionality required is to edit the page content and set the SEO page titles and meta data.

    I will make a suggestion though for people to check out, Concrete5, Front End Administration (a bit like the 1and1 advert on TV, click a paragraph or pic to edit it), very intuitive and smart rather than a hacked up blog :)
    Click to expand...

    I definitely agree that for simple page content changes, WordPress can be overwhelming to the novice user and Joomla even worse. But the ability to fast-deploy sites and get content up is attractive for the more savvy user.

    If only all our WordPress clients would keep their blogs regularly updated...
     
    Upvote 0
    E

    Esk247

  • #5
    Must say..i'm a Wordpress convert. It's a bit bulky as mentioned but if you have a start up business that you know will expand when funds allow, Wordpress is simple (once setup) and allows you to bolt on ecommerce, SEO and other little bits and pieces either for free or very cheaply. Add to that the ability to build your own wordpress skins (themes) and you have a powerful box of tricks.

    Bit easy to hack though, thats a downside, constantly having to install updates to keep it secure.

    I've used Prestashop and Magento in the past. Magento has always been a bit of a pig for me, hassle to install, very long uploading time (personally). Found Prestashop easier but has little bugs and hasn't got the range of themes that Wordpress has.
     
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    Jolt.co.uk

    Jolt.co.uk

    Free Member
    Mar 1, 2011
    506
    75
  • #6
    Esk247 said:
    Must say..i'm a Wordpress convert. It's a bit bulky as mentioned but if you have a start up business that you know will expand when funds allow, Wordpress is simple (once setup) and allows you to bolt on ecommerce, SEO and other little bits and pieces either for free or very cheaply. Add to that the ability to build your own wordpress skins (themes) and you have a powerful box of tricks.

    Bit easy to hack though, thats a downside, constantly having to install updates to keep it secure.

    I've used Prestashop and Magento in the past. Magento has always been a bit of a pig for me, hassle to install, very long uploading time (personally). Found Prestashop easier but has little bugs and hasn't got the range of themes that Wordpress has.
    Click to expand...

    Favourite WordPress plugin? :)

    Magento is a beast... it has its pros and cons. I prefer Zen / Cube cart from a user (and a web hosts!) perspective, but for pure features, Magento can be hard to beat.
     
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    G

    giraffedog

    Free Member
    Apr 3, 2012
    1
    0
    Kent, UK
  • #11
    Hi

    I'm a massive, massive fan of WordPress! I use it loads to maintain client websites and we're currently in the middle of version 2 of a custom event management theme that we wrote for WordPress.

    We wrote our own CMS about six years ago that was focused on SEO results, but with the new features of WP, it seemed silly re-inventing the wheel when WP is so well supported.

    Can defo recommend it...

    HTH

    GD
     
    Upvote 0
    A

    andyrp

  • #15
    Wordpress is great because it is so easy to use. I am not a web designer and I used it to create my blog.

    However, for larger projects it can run out of steam because it is, at root, a blogging platform. Yes, it has morphed to allow e-commerce systems, etc to be tagged on, but it is not a very flexible framework.

    If you want something more flexible but with the same broad ranging support you can't really beat Drupal. It's not easy for non-developers to use but if you have some decent developers and want to build a scalable flexible platform then it's brilliant.
     
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    Jolt.co.uk

    Jolt.co.uk

    Free Member
    Mar 1, 2011
    506
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  • #23
    Rudi said:
    Yes; Because Wordpress is for blogs, of course it's used for blogs.

    I think he was referring to using it as a CMS, and I would tend to agree with what he meant by that post.
    Click to expand...

    Each to their own. I've built plenty of simple sites in minutes in WordPress which would have taken a lot longer in another platform. I've yet to find anything that can beat WordPress in time-to-deployment that comes with so many readily available themes, plugins and modules.
     
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    ecenica

    ecenica

    Free Member
    May 26, 2010
    656
    104
    Leeds, United Kingdom
  • #27
    maxh said:
    It was a bit cheeky of me.

    What I really mean is Wordpress sites are pretty small fry.

    Drupal, ASP net and to some extent Joomla are more of the big boy systems.
    Click to expand...

    These guys are pretty big - WordPress VIP Clients. (they're using a 'special' version of the freemium WordPress version hosted at WordPress.com).

    As a WordPress Developer, and WordPress host we're going to be biased :) so to be impartial here's a link to Drupal's showcase

    Know of any other good links?

    Rich
     
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    R

    Rudi

    Free Member
    Feb 14, 2012
    321
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    Manchester
  • #28
    ecenica said:
    Interesting. How come you've come to that conclusion?
    Click to expand...

    Because that's what it is.

    WordPress used to be just a blogging platform which I'm sure you know already, then came Pages back in 2005 (I think? Can someone confirm?), recently they're trying to move it towards a CMS as standard but at it's root it is a modular (and horribly written) blogging platform.

    Don't get me wrong I use Wordpress for blogs when appropriate, but I wouldn't build a whole website around it. I've seen way too many websites with developers that think "Oh yes Wordpress is totally appropriate for everything!", 7 million plugins installed later, site slow as crap and the admin console full of rubbish and yes the site may work, but damn that's not to say it should be done like that.
     
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    ecenica

    ecenica

    Free Member
    May 26, 2010
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    Leeds, United Kingdom
  • #29
    Up until v3 I would have agreed with you about WordPress being a glorified blogging platform. However with custom post types and custom taxonomy support it really is so much more than a simple blog.

    And yeh Rudi. Totally agree about the plugins. They're the achilles heel of WP. Some plugins are so bloated, insecure and/or resource hungry they really should never be made public.

    Then again, we can't really blame the casual WordPress user/developer clicking away and adding loads of plugins can we? We generally find after a splurge of adding plugins, Wp users gradually find a balance between the number of plugins they have installed and site performance.

    Plugin developers adding superfluous menu icons, dashboard widgets and adverts etc is also one of my pet hates. We always avoid adding needless guff to our own WordPress plugins as it goes against the WordPress community rules.

    Choose the right WordPress framework, a few essential plugins, enable caching and choose the right web host and I really think WordPress is hard to beat. And I've not even got on to the multisite network features :)

    Also. For fear of alarming our Drupal and Joomla users we think they're also awesome. WP is just our personal preference :)

    Rich
     
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    Dan_HiHosting

    Dan_HiHosting

    Free Member
    • Mar 7, 2011
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    www.hihosting.co.uk
  • #30
    Why do people even compare Wordpress and Drupal?

    If I want to make a blog, or small brochure site etc. I'll use Wordpress.

    If I want to make a large site that needs to be scalable and has a tonne of content, like www.economist.com then I'll use Drupal, which is why they use it.

    Joomla's probably more "friendly" than Drupal, but also arguably less robust and scalable, so I'd either go with Wordpress or Drupal.

    Saying one system is the best, especially when they're so different and have very different uses doesn't make any sense.

    To blindly recommend Wordpress over Drupal or another CMS in all cases is just ignorant to be honest.

    To select the right CMS for the job you need to consider a number of factors, including what type of site you're building, the size and scale of the site/content/community, your experience/expertise or budget if you're not doing the development yourself, time scales, the list goes on.

    Saying Wordpress is the best option is like saying you should only use marker pens to create an image, without considering pencils, paints, or any other media.

    /rant
     
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    H

    HungryHorse

  • #31
    It really irritates me with the amount of people using WordPress for everything and anything these days. I've seen people using WordPress for a very specific site build which isn't even really based around content. Complete overkill and not the right tool for the job anyway.

    I don't ever find myself using CMS' myself, I'm in the bespoke camp. Most of the sites I'm building are very specific though (browser gaming and other more niche sites, not related to content). Back in the day (talking 8+ years ago) I used to use the "e107" CMS (I think it was called that anyway).

    One CMS which pops to mind is Expression Engine. I don't often use a framework when developing in PHP but if I do, I mostly use CodeIgniter... so based on this alone I'd probably give Expression Engine a go if I was after a CMS.

    I do like the idea of "light CMS'" - where you build the site out and the CMS functionality is hosted elsewhere, updating data files when content is changed. Anyone got experience with these light systems? Talking about the likes of this - http://www.surrealcms.com
     
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    Jolt.co.uk

    Jolt.co.uk

    Free Member
    Mar 1, 2011
    506
    75
  • #32
    HungryHorse said:
    It really irritates me with the amount of people using WordPress for everything and anything these days. I've seen people using WordPress for a very specific site build which isn't even really based around content. Complete overkill and not the right tool for the job anyway.

    I don't ever find myself using CMS' myself, I'm in the bespoke camp. Most of the sites I'm building are very specific though (browser gaming and other more niche sites, not related to content). Back in the day (talking 8+ years ago) I used to use the "e107" CMS (I think it was called that anyway).

    One CMS which pops to mind is Expression Engine. I don't often use a framework when developing in PHP but if I do, I mostly use CodeIgniter... so based on this alone I'd probably give Expression Engine a go if I was after a CMS.

    I do like the idea of "light CMS'" - where you build the site out and the CMS functionality is hosted elsewhere, updating data files when content is changed. Anyone got experience with these light systems? Talking about the likes of this - http://www.surrealcms.com
    Click to expand...

    Everyone is allowed an opinion and a preference. For a quick 'n easy site, nothing beats WordPress for me.
     
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    F

    Faevilangel

  • #33
    I use WP for a lot of my work for the following reasons:

    1) Ease of use - It's so easy to code with, expand and to teach a client how to use it, makes my job easier and clients get a bloody good site.
    2) Updates - Updates are regular, no issues updating to new versions etc
    3) Support - the amount of support you can get with WP is brilliant, plenty of sites around the web with information and thousands of developers releasing new plugins / themes to expand WP.

    I do and will use Joomla, Drupal and Expression engine for other sites, but they are much harder to get your head round from a user perspective and developer perspective.

    I never ever will say WordPress is the best platform as it's great at a lot of things but totally useless at others, including ecommerce. Knowing the limits of WP and knowing what alternative platforms to use are vital.

    Since WP 3.0 WP has gone from a blogging platform which has some CMS functionality to a proper CMS (IMHO). Custom post types totally changed the platform and made it much more flexible when building large content driven sites.

    As I said above, WP does have it's limits, and developers need to be aware of them so they can know when WP is not the right tool, and use an alternative.

    An example, was asked to build an ecommerce site in WP, told the client my reasons for not using it, and now building in opencart...
     
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    B

    Bartko

  • #35
    [FONT='Verdana','sans-serif']I use Joomla for few years now and i am very happy with this CMS, especially now when 2.5 version is launched, its brilliant!![/FONT]
    [FONT='Verdana','sans-serif']I have few blogs on wordpress, but not a real fan of WP :)[/FONT]
     
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    O

    omgimfamous

  • #37
    hm.. all those 3 "CMS" are very different.

    1. Joomla classical CMS for small/medium/ websites
    2. Wordpress blog/news CMS
    3. Drupal it's not CMS, it's CMF and MODx CMF as well.
    ---
    So, everybody can choose what they want to use. But it's very strange, when people want to "build" a huge website using Joomla, or WP.

    For my clients a prefer:
    - joomla and wp (it depends on what they want)
    for clients who would like to build huge portal i use - frameworks (DooPHP or Yii or somehitng like that)
    Why?
    Because :)
     
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