Commenting on several popular CMS
Editor's Note: There have been moments here at CMS Report when I am amazed with the insightful and in depth comments written by some of our readers. This is one of those moments. Chris Jewitt, left us a comment regarding several popular content management systems (CMS). The CMS mentioned in this brief review are Joomla!, Wordpress, Dotnetnuke, Plone, Drupal, Alfresco, and Sharepoint.
I moved Chris Jewitt's comments have been moved to the "front page" so the story isn't missed by those visiting this site. Any hyperlinks found in this story have been added by the editor.
Below Submitted by Chris Jewitt on December 4, 2008 - 1:42am.
Kudos to Mike Heck for a high level comparison of the top 5 open source content management systems. Personally I find it difficult to scrutinize any community (geeky or not) that has contributed for the # of years and volume these communities have. As Amy so eloquently mentioned, if you don't like something then contribute - make a difference.
I have to also say, I have often found myself left empty when trying to find a good objective, deep-dive opinions and analysis of these web content management systems. I think the only true "content management system" is Alfresco in this comparison. It seems the strength of the others are web content management.
I've spent the last 6 years working in commercial content management and portal systems. Lately I've been investigating open source solutions and started down the Drupal path; however, I still waffle over Plone. For what it's worth, here's my reasoning or two cents:
Joomla - I was turned off by the menu system. Also concerned about the divorce from Mambo. Felt I should stay away while they evolve the system. They have a lot of momentum though.
Wordpress - deserves mention. For low-level, small sites or blog-centric sites WordPress has a huge user base and real simple to use and install. Also great for the non techie user. I didn't have the opinion it has the necessary content or feature granularity that the other CMS's have, but I'm in no way a WP expert.
DotNetNuke - My hosting is not .NET based, so I didn't give this serious consideration.
Plone - This looked very promising. A lot of large companies using this platform.. still a little new, so I wasn't ready to jump on board. Yet!
Drupal - I decided to go with Drupal because of its user base, a lot of buzz from my peers and I like the focus around social sites. There were others, but I'm rambling... I've been disappointed by the documentation, there seems to be a lot but it's not clearly structured. Also, they're working on version 7, but it seems that version 6 still has some key modules still in alpha or beta stage. I don't understand the rationale around 7. Lack of a rich-text editor with core seems silly to me...
Alfresco - Impressed by their executive background, features and functionality. One thing that's important to keep in mind, skill set required to maintain or extend Alfresco. Unless you have a strong java background or staff with java skills, you'll be stuck finding and paying for expensive resources to fill that gap. Not a good fit for me, so move on. At some point I see this going commercial...
If you're still reading... I'm sorry! I got a bit winded
Commercial:
Commercial systems are not without their problems. None of these are cheap by any means. PRICE is a huge driving interest in open source solutions. For example, you could easily pay >$100 per person for these solutions - just for seats. Doesn't include server and database licensing.
SharePoint - Great product but just because Microsoft developed it, doesn't make it easy to use.
Obviously not all inclusive, but...
If you're looking for the buzz around these: Google Insights
Avg. Monthly Search Volume in Google:
- WordPress: 2.24 Million
- Joomla: 1.83 Million
- Drupal: 673 Thousand
- Plone: 60 Thousand
- DotNetNuke: 90 Thousand
- Alfresco: <1000
About this CMS Enthusiast
Bryan Ruby is the owner and editor for CMS Report. He founded CMSReport.com in 2006 on the belief that information technologists, website owners, and web developers desired visiting sites where they could learn about content management systems without the sales pitch. Outside of his late night blogging hours, he is the Information Technology Officer for a field office in the federal government.
Comments
#1 Alfresco Number is Wrong
That Alfresco number is wrong. It should be 60,500. Please correct.
1. Look at https://adwords.google.com/select/Keywor...
2. Paste in:
WordPress
Joomla
Drupal
Plone
DotNetNuke
Alfresco
3. Uncheck box labeled "Use synonyms"
All other numbers besides Alfresco are correct.
#2 Adwords search is not the same as Google Insights
You are comparing different data than the article talks about. What he's interested in is search volume, where Joomla comes out on top, and Alfresco at the bottom.
— Alexander Limi, Plone co-founder
(and I'm not speaking on behalf of Google even though I work there — just for the record :)
#3 That makes sense
Thanks! That makes sense now... I couldn't understand how Alfresco had such low search numbers. Obviously the numbers are subject to a lot of different interpretations.
For example, it's such a hassle for me to find a Drupal module, most of the time I Google it (e.g. drupal panels module) and it gives me the module project within the first few results. I came across one post that said perhaps the reason Plone's search volume was less than Drupal's is because it's easier to find content on their site. Perhaps, either way it's an interesting perspective. Cheers.
#4 I agree, using search volumes
I agree, using search volumes and search trends isn't always a thumbs up for a particular product. For example, almost every search I do these days is related to Microsoft Windows is to help solve an issue I'm having with operating system. Only a small volume of my Windows related search are for new products (Windows 7, IE8, etc).
-Bryan
#5 Plone has been around since 2001
So "still a little new" is a compliment, but we have 8 years of real-world experience with content management.
Thanks for an interesting summary!
— Alexander Limi, Plone co-founder
#6 My Opinions...
Joomla! -Although I like many of its features, I too am not a big fan of its menu system nor its section > category > article constraint. I realize one can get around this through clever use of menus, my opinion is that this introduces complexity and makes sites more difficult to maintain and update...which is somewhat counter to Joomla!s simplicity mantra.
Drupal - I really like Drupal and think it offers much more flexibility than Joomla. But Joomla! wins hands down on the number and diversity of 3rd party extensions. Also, I keep hoping that the Views, CCK and PathAuto modules will one day make it into the core. I do not care that much that it doesn't have an in-built rich text editor. Probably because I'm one of those troglodytes who still does most of his writing locally...I'm a big fan of Windows LiveWriter. Anybody know of a good Linux equivalent?
Plone - I've dabbled with Plone and think it is every bit a good as Joomla! and Drupal. But I think maybe one of the main obstaces to wider acceptance is its dependence on Zope. Lots of shared host providers do not and/or will not support it.
Wordpress - Nothing but good things to say here!
DotNetNuke - I live in a LAMP world, so really can't make any intelligent comments here.
Allfresco - Never tried it...will have to one day.
Commercial - You get what you pay for or not, as the case may be!
#7 Comments on the comments
Chris J. and others, sorry that I haven't commented here earlier. I had a lot of IT fires to put out at work this week. Chris, you wrote something that interested me:
Given your mention of Alresco being the only true CMS, leads me to believe you may have more focus on the enterprise (Intranet) side of the firewall and not solely the Internet. True or not? Increasingly my focus has been using Web technologies on the Intranet server and not the Internet. I find working to please an organizations's own mangement, staff, and partners is a much more difficult task than pleasing Internet users. One would think it would be the other way around, but I'm finding myself very challenged in trying to find the right CMS (commercial or open source) for the enterprise.
Also, with six years of working with commercial CMS and portal systems...what prompted you take a look at open source?