I often wonder what different CMS are good at, it would be good if you could all help me point out what the advantages and disadvantages are of different CMS.

 

My current favorite is Joomla down to its simplicity and how easy it is to modify core files ETC.

 

What CMS is easiest to the end user to maintain?

For ease of use on the client side, I use CushyCMS. It's extremely simple, allowing me to isolate sections of the HTML which they can edit with a simple WYSIWYG editor. This gives them the ability to change body text and images without any hassle, but makes sure they don't have direct access to important parts of the page that could potentially mess up the whole site.

 

I don't have a lot of experience with larger CMS systems, so I can't compare it with anything.

ExpressionEngine all the way for me.

 

Advantages

EE is more of a platform for building a fully custom site, rather than a "plug n play" CMS

 

Total freedom with content and content structure

- content entries stored in "Channels"

- Channels can have whatever custom fields you need to hold content, per Channel (eg Text input, Textarea, Files, WYSIWYG, Relationships, Radio buttons, Checboxes, Select lists etc)

- multiple category groups for classifying Channel entries

- as many entry "Statuses" as you need per channel (eg Open, Closed, Pending, Featured)

- nothing is pre-defined so you're not tied to anything fixed

 

Total freedom with templating

- no restrictions at all, build how you want (you start with a blank slate)

- no PHP knowledge necessary, runs on easy to understand EE "tags"

- embedded templates (you can even embed embeds in embeds)

- "snippets" (small chunks of code, edit once, repeat in as many templates as you want, eg for site header or navigation)

- built in caching

 

Extending EE

- EE can do lots of things out of the box (where most other CMS's need addons, even for simple tasks) but where you do need addons they are excellent quality, developer support is generally top notch, and key addons are regularly updated and enhanced

- runs on Codeigniter PHP framework so you can roll your own addons, no need to modify core files

 

EE also isn't restricted to running public facing web sites, it's often used for things like managing content for things like Mobile apps where data is transmited using XML, JSON etc.

 

Disadvantages (or rather things you need to know)...

 

Learning curve

- you start with a completely blank site so you need to plan how your content and templates are structured

- top tip: use the free "core" version to play with first!

 

Categories manipulation

- limited in some areas, eg listing sub and sub sub categories without the parent category, there are a couple of addons that can help

 

Commercial licences

- if you shirk at paying developers to feed their families then EE isn't for you

- official support is a paid option (you get 3 free months with your first licence), though there are the community forums and a Stackexchange community to help

- there is the free "core" version for non-profit sites

Edited March 22, 201313 yr by BlueDreamer

Short 'n sweet, my top 3 are:

 

WordPress - for: ease of use, support, documentation - against: can't think off the top of my head (that doesn't mean it's perfect, mind)

Concrete5 - for: ease of use for the end user, simple on the outside - against: community quite quiet

Perch - cheep and cheerful (ok, I just wanted to use the cheep pun again - it's actually £15) - lacks plugins, but still very functional.

 

Haven't used Joomla. At some stage I'll read my Drupal too books. Based on BlueDreamer's above post, I'll take a look at ExpressionEngine.

 

Based on BlueDreamer's above post, I'll take a look at ExpressionEngine.

 

You just reminded me - I din't add any "disadvantages", have now though