Which CMS is better? Security level of various control systems

In the video we will review the best CMS engines for 2017. These content management systems are in the TOP 5 around the world; they are used to develop a huge number of sites from business cards to huge portals and services.

We will conduct comparative characteristics of their functionality, determine the strengths and weaknesses of each engine and summarize their overall rating.

A CMS review video will help a novice programmer or customer decide which system is ideal for him, and it will also be useful to understand their differences. After all, the success of the future site depends on the right choice of CMS, and the correctly selected engine functionality will ensure convenient and simple development of the resource.

From the contents of the article, you will be able to objectively select a suitable content management system, both for a developer who plans to connect his future career with programming, and for a customer who wants to optimally choose a platform for his business processes. Well, if you already have a website on one of the CMS, then you will find out whether your choice was correct, and so, let’s go...

In order to choose for ourselves the engine that will optimally solve our problems, first of all we will sort by popularity. Let's look at three popular services that provide such statistics and select five top CMS systems for further comparison.

1 - CMS Magazine Service

1 service CMS Magazine resource offers a complete list of popular CMS in Russia. They can be sorted by TCI, total TCI, but we are more interested in the number of works completed on a particular CMS.

So, in the Russian Runet, 1C-Bitrix is ​​leading by quite a large margin. In addition, please note that the figure is quite large.

The service collects statistics based on data from the Web development market of the CMS Magazine service; in principle, there is no point in considering it since this resource was examined in more detail before.

2 service Ruward:Track

Let's move on to the next popular service Ruward:Track, 12 years of experience and more than 600 projects. This major rating of control systems is recognized as reliable by the majority of developers.

It collects analytics not only on CMS systems, but also has a rating of other indicators. The rating results are presented for June 2015, of course they are already a bit old, but I will leave links under the videos of these services, perhaps you will watch and these indicators will be different, but now we are focusing on them.

There are also statistics on popular and free CMS systems, and this is correct, since a large share of popularity is still played by its accessibility to the end consumer.

Of the free CMSs, the leaders are WordPress and Joomla, which have broken away from most engines, while the development trend of WordPress is obvious, but if we take the Russian Runet, Bitrix breaks out into the first positions.

Let's use SEO-AUDITOR - this is the largest data collector using installed counters on sites such as Yandex.Metrica, LiveInternet, [email protected], Hotlog and a number of other services.

We go down to the statistics of CMS systems, here we see a report for January 2016. which is fresher in relation to Track. Let's select five top CMS.

In principle, the statistics are similar, WordPress is the leader almost everywhere, and this is not surprising given its popularity not only in the Russian RuNet, but also abroad. Then comes 1C-Bitrix, Joomla, Drupal and ends the list with MODx of the top five CMS.

In 2015, MODx was still the market leader, but in 2016 Drupal overtook it.

To summarize, we have identified two main leaders - WordPress and 1C-Bitrix, as well as the other three - Joomla, Drupal and MODx, but how easy are these platforms to use, satisfy basic consumer requirements, and most importantly are they safe, read on...

Engine characteristics

MODx Content Management System

This system has two versions, Evolution and Revolution, a more modern one, it serves as a good base for creating different types of store sites, portals, corporate sites, and blogs. This content management system is strongly tied to layout. In the Revolution version, the developer can emphasize the object-oriented approach.

The MODx system is free and quite flexible because you can implement a large number of modules into it.

The CMS itself is developing in a decentralized manner. Of course, there is a command center, kernel programmers and all that, but the main thing in any CMS is extensions, and here they are written by users.

MODx does not sell its addons through the official website or repository. All extensions are free, and on the one hand, this is good, but on the other hand, there is no normal support, documentation, and no one guarantees the quality of the extensions.

As a result, we have a powerful, popular system in which few people write add-ons professionally, do not guarantee their support, and updates are not supported by the developers. In general, if you decide to install solutions, it is at your own peril and risk.

The security of ModX Revolution is much better than compared to the same joomla. When installing it, we can use the Advanced package to change the entire folder structure, even access to the admin panel; as a result, it is much more difficult for a potential hacker to determine what kind of CMS it is. It also has many security settings, which helps protect it from hacking.

And yet it is complex in its administration; placing an image gallery on a page, displaying a menu using Wayfinder, or creating a “category blog” using getResources is not so easy to do. In order to understand how to create templates using chunks, or call snippets, the average user will need a lot of time and effort.

It is not demanding on service resources, unlike Bitrix or Joomla, and this is its absolute advantage.

Content management system Drupal

Drupal- is a powerful open source CMS system. It makes it much easier to develop complex websites than to write them from scratch. The engine is very flexible and scalable.

There are so many settings in the system itself that you can get confused. Developers have a great opportunity to create different types of content and display a variety of fields from numeric parameters to video. Easily move blocks of content and the ability to create page templates, change tabs, and all this with an easy click of the mouse.

Many modules have been written for Drupal; you can create various types of projects from blogs and personal pages to social networks and corporate sites, huge portals.

A well-thought-out and flexible architecture in the engine makes it possible to expand existing functionality and integrate with third-party services.

Drupal is several times more complex than Joomla and MODx; for inexperienced developers it can be a difficult and complex system to understand. The engine is aimed at professional developers, for this reason there are few bugs in it.

Support from developers is carried out, as in MODx, the engine is developed in a decentralized manner. There is also a command center for programmers and all that, but extensions are written separately.

The main advantage of Drupal is that it is free. Therefore, you don’t have to rack your brains over choosing an assembly that suits your financial capabilities. You can always scale your project to suit your business needs.

The CMS itself requires a lot of resources, but what we mean by the word A LOT, if earlier the hardware on which Drupat was installed was considered high and expensive, now it is almost the minimum configuration of a Web service and today is the standard of most hosting services.

Joomla content management system

Platform Joomla is universal. Using it, you can create both a small forum and a huge store. During the installation of the engine, all functionality is installed without any bells and whistles, which is very convenient for creating small websites.

For this content management system, many ready-made extensions have been implemented, most of which are distributed free of charge, but there are also paid extensions. The variety of templates, modules and add-ons is an absolute plus that every novice developer will appreciate.

There is no technical support service for the developers of the platform itself; the CMS is developed by the user community.

Many people claim that joomla has security problems. I won’t deny it, but there is also the fact that users sometimes endanger their projects by installing dubious extensions on the site, which are not clear who wrote them and where they were taken from. This point needs to be taken into account. On the other hand, the engine developers could have envisaged how it was done in 1C-Bitrix. The solution is published on an official source, and it would be checked by the platform developers.

A simple site administration panel and many useful functionality can be implemented with two mouse clicks - this is definitely a plus. With an integrated approach, this engine is easier to master than Drupal and MODx, but still requires preliminary study, like any CMS in principle.

The main PLUS is that it is free, does not contain closed components and is distributed as open source. The only limitation is that you cannot change the joomla copyright and change the distribution license. However, you can simply hide this “Powered by Joomla” inscription.

Well, still, one cannot note a minus in terms of its “gluttony” in relation to northern resources (server load and RAM consumption). But if you approach the settings wisely, you can close this gap.

The popularity of Joomla is due to its many advantages, which in turn are confirmed by thousands of users. The system allows you to implement any projects and does not require highly specialized professional knowledge.

Content management system 1C-Bitrix

1C-Bitrix– suitable for almost any project; it can be used to implement both a one-page website and a large Internet portal.

The product architecture implements the MVC principle, separating logic from presentation. The structure is managed through information blocks, they are comparable to a database, each information block is a kind of box that we can customize exactly for the information we want to store in it. The entire visual part is located separately, which gives flexibility in managing the site design.

There are additional extensions, both free and paid. All extensions are located in the Marketplace store. By purchasing a solution, we receive developer support and feedback.

Bitrix technical support quickly solves problems, there is documentation and training material on managing the engine for both the user and the developer. Bitrix has its own community of developers, forums, blogs, where they will help solve certain problems.

A high degree of protection for the platform itself is ensured by a built-in proactive protection module; it includes two-step authorization, session protection, IP restrictions, and many additional features that will prevent the site from being hacked just like that.

Sections and pages of the site have a clear structure, implemented on the principle of folders and files, just like on a computer. Thanks to Hermitage technology, it is possible to edit pages and change site settings directly through the visual part of the site, without going into the administrative section, which greatly simplifies its administration.

Probably the most important disadvantage of this CMS is its cost, which is quite not a cheap pleasure; each edition has its own price, but the functionality is correspondingly wider. It is advisable to renew the license annually in order to receive current updates and more features.

The engine itself is resource-intensive, requires certain server settings, and it all depends on how large and visited your project will be, since compared to other engines when running similar projects, the server must be order of magnitude more powerful.

WordPress Content Management System

WordPress– this CMS was designed for creating blogs. Later, the content management system became easy to update and maintain. The system is very convenient to use from the point of view of connecting the backend and frontend, however, we do not recommend using WordPress to create online stores, because this is not the intended use of this system.

Modular programming helps to implement different site page designs, both for categories and individual posts. If you compare it with other competitors, Joomla is less flexible, and Drupal requires more in-depth programming knowledge. The flexibility of WordPress is a definite plus.

Due to the popularity of WordPress, it has formed a fairly large community and, as a result, a huge number of free and paid plugins have been developed, and there are many themes to expand the out-of-the-box functionality. Which is an indisputable advantage for a person starting to work with this engine.

In case of any difficulties or gaps in its development, there is a huge amount of materials, blogs, forums on the Internet where they will quickly help you, but the minus is that this CMS does not have a developer support service, and it’s understandable why, because it is free and this is its most important advantage among paid engines.

To introduce its popularity, WordPress is the target of constant attacks, both by hackers and spammers. They can not only clog the comments, but also infect the site with viruses. At the moment, this problem has been significantly solved, but security sometimes still suffers.

A clear and convenient interface, for the end user who is developing a website on this platform it is easier to understand the admin panel than on the same Drupal or Joomla. It is enough to know the main points of system management and there will be no problems with publishing posts, this is an obvious plus. According to analysts, this is the secret to the popularity of this CMS.

WordPress is completely free and open source. We can modify the engine, make our own changes to its structure, and this will not violate its license.

This engine is not demanding on the server and its technical characteristics. For trouble-free, stable operation, any server that has MySQL and support for several PHP modules is suitable, and any modern hosting will handle it without any problems, even free ones. Let's give it a plus, but don't forget that installing a large number of plugins will cause a load on the server, as a result of which the provider can simply turn off hosting for your site.

I would like to add that a competent approach and subject-based training are important in any business. It won’t work just to use this or that engine without mastering the basics. Any project is a kind of huge work, and here I talked about just one of the stages. And it is far from the most important. Much more important is the ability to use this tool correctly.

Let's sum it up

Remember that there are no ideal web development systems; the main thing that needs to be paid attention to is the trend of their development, and from this, therefore, the system will be improved both for developers and strive to make the life of the customer themselves easier.

And we can end here. The remaining engines that are not included in the top 5 are less popular or significantly limited in functionality. I see no point in talking about them. Of course, my opinion may be overly subjective, so you should choose an engine based on your preferences and practical experience. I wish you not to make a mistake in this!

In the comments, write what CMS you have and whether it completely satisfies you. If you liked the video, share it on social networks, give it a thumbs up, Denis was with you, see you soon.

Choosing the right engine for a web resource ensures the success of its operation and the effectiveness of achieving the goals set for the site. Today there are hundreds of different engines: popular and not so popular, commercial and so-called open-source.

Usually, as part of articles about engines, we present an overall ranking of the top 10 website management systems. Here we will expand the information a little; below you will see several ratings of different CMS types.

So, the first top represents commercial systems. They were created specifically for the purpose of making a profit from sales of licenses and add-ons. Nevertheless, such engine options lead in quality and popularity. No wonder they say that you have to pay for everything :)

Open-source are so-called free systems, which manifest themselves in free access to copying a program and distributing it. Attention! They are not necessarily free.

Characteristics

1C-Bitrix

This software is in first place in the ranking of boxed engines and in the overall top. What did she do to deserve such recognition? Many developers choose such an engine if they need to create a large portal, online store, information resource or website of any other type. It is advisable to use this system specifically for large projects, since Bitrix requires the same large investments.

It is often chosen for creating online stores due to its integration with a wide 1C base. The advantage in this case is also that you can set up various promotional programs for buyers, as well as divide them into different rates for several legal entities.

In general, web resources made on this engine are distinguished by the quality of their work, the ability to add many modules, excellent protection against third-party attacks, separation of rights of several administrators, and site integration with Yandex. Market and other services.

Joomla!

• extensive tools that can be expanded even further by installing various extensions (additional modules, plugins);
• high security, including multi-level authorization of administrators, as well as division of rights for moderators;
• the ability to choose from an extensive catalog of templates - you can change the appearance of the site, in addition, there is a special option for creating an individual layout; in general, many people like Joomla precisely because many aspects can be customized;
• Updates are constantly coming out.

Joomla websites have a fairly flexible structure thanks to all the listed advantages. Initially, this engine was created for corporate websites, blogs, business card sites, but in general it works great with e-commerce portals and social platforms.

Drupal

When it comes to the question of which cms is better, you can definitely pay attention to Drupal. This is a powerful engine, aimed primarily at complex web portals and professional administrators. Working with this program requires some training and previous experience.

Let us list the advantages of this system:

• synchronization with partner sites;
• short convenient addresses;
• the ability to change the “themes” of the site, choose from the proposed options;
• translation option into different languages ​​is available;
• the function of creating web portals with similar elements (a single user base, for example);
• mechanical protection of the load on the web portal (for example, when the load is too high).

Drupal is suitable for advanced sites: online stores, large communities. In other cases, it is unlikely that the time, physical and material costs will be justified.

MODX

If you are wondering which cms to choose on a financially affordable basis, we recommend that you pay attention to MODX - professional-grade software that is suitable for providing a variety of sites.

Distributed under license, it belongs to the second group of our open-source rating, but in terms of popularity it occupies an honorable fourth place in the top ten.
It is logical to assume that such demand is associated precisely with the ability of everyone to use this system for e-commerce and other purposes.

A definite plus is that MODX can run on almost all web servers and interacts effectively with different browsers.

UMI.CMS

UMI.CMS is the final position in the top five engines. Almost all developers note the functionality of this content management system:

• ability to work in several languages;
• a large selection of different templates;
• adaptive design;
• for online stores, you can track various statistical data such as information on the amount of the average check.

At the same time, UMI.CMS is also cost-effective.

WordPress

WordPress is the answer to the question of those who are looking for how to choose a cms that is simple, understandable, but at the same time functional. Indeed, technical knowledge in working with this engine is not at all necessary; the developers tried to make the interface as simple as possible. Moreover, such simplicity is an advantage even for professionals.

By creating a web portal based on this engine, the webmaster does not have to worry about how it will be filled without his participation, because the administrator has a large number of instructions and ease of management at his disposal.

Using WordPress, it is easy to create blogs, news resources, and any portals where you need to quickly add content. The best part is that the functionality can be increased by installing various plugins at an affordable price.

NetCat

NetCat is one of the options for those who are looking for which cms is better to use to create a website for electronic media, a store, create a corporate resource and other complex projects.

NetCat allows you to develop portals in a mobile version and also supports adaptive design. For a high-quality management system, it is necessary to have good functionality for search engine promotion, integration with payment programs, the 1C database and other useful services. NetCat meets these requirements.

Many people consider NetCat to be an intuitive engine. It is useful that the interface can be divided into two: for the user and the developer, and for use there is no need to use complex technological solutions.

HostCMS

What can you say about HostCMS? If it is in our top, it definitely deserves attention. And here are the reasons.

• There are no special requirements for hosting and servers.
• Effective SEO optimization of sites based on this engine (you can specify meta tags, create simple page addresses, etc.)
• Works great with high traffic sites.
• Ability to exchange data with the 1C system.
• The cost of the small business version is about 6,000 rubles, but the user receives a fairly functional engine with the ability to expand the toolbar.

CS-Cart

Many people choose CS-Cart to work with online stores, since website developers based on this system are provided with an extensive toolkit:

• convenient organization of Internet marketing;
• good form of working with orders;
• the ability to easily add content;
• good SEO optimization of resources based on this engine;
• creation of adaptive website design;
• integration with various services such as 1C or Yandex. Market.

Amiro.CMS

In total, the set of this content management system consists of about 60 modules, which are enough to launch a high-quality web resource on almost any subject.

So, we’ve finished our review of dozens of leading content management programs; now it’s time to turn to the capabilities of the online generator engine.

System from LPgenerator

Of course, when we talk about how to choose cms for a website, we cannot forget about the advantages and capabilities of online one-page generators. This is an excellent solution for both beginners and professionals.

Based on LPgenerator, you can create landing pages of various types. This could be a business card website, for example.

Or a mini online store.

Or a portal through which a simple presentation of a service/product takes place.

Users have at their disposal a convenient editor, as well as hundreds of templates in , which can be redesigned for a niche business, then easily assign their own domain, synchronize it with the necessary services and optimize it.

Choose what you think is the best option for you, but don't neglect the really good deals.

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Content management system(content management system - CMS) is a special software mechanism, which is also called “Website Builder”.

A website builder usually consists of two parts - an administrative page and a site editor.

On the administrative page of the website builder, the user edits general data - password, domain name binding, sees statistics on the space used and can add files and images to the library of his website.

The site editor directly works with the site's content - adding and changing information on it.

Website engines (CMS) in PHP

• Joomla is one of the most powerful Open Source Content Management Systems. Russian-language support sites: joom.ru, joomlaportal.ru. Requires a MySQL database, takes up 8+MB of disk space.
• WordPress, a Russian-language site, is a powerful system for managing a blog or news site. It is possible to publish using third-party programs and services. High flexibility of the system is ensured by the ability to use plug-ins (plugins). Theme support makes it easy to change both the appearance and the methods of data output. On thematic sites and forums you can find huge libraries of themes and plugins. Requires a MySQL database, takes up 10+MB of disk space.
• Textpattern is a powerful young blog or news site management system. Suitable for both users and experienced web developers. It has the ability to preview a published note, a comment system for articles and anti-spam tools, a built-in statistics system, as well as an integrated image management system and much more. Experienced users will appreciate the extensible architecture, which allows the use of plugins, thus increasing the functionality of the site to suit their needs. Requires a MySQL database, takes up 1+MB of disk space.
• Mambo Mamboserver.ru Ru-Mambo.ru Mamboserver.com - engine - the progenitor of Joomla 1.0
• WebDirector is a commercial system focused on the tasks of creating and search engine promotion of corporate websites.
• Drupal is a powerful system for creating websites of any type.
• hostCMS is a convenient modern website management system. Website content is adjusted using an intuitive interface.
• phpBB, phpbb2.ru - a forum for your website. Powerful, fully scalable and easily customizable conference software.
• Gallery - image gallery. This tool will allow you to upload and manage your images with ease and convenience.
• nano CMS is the simplest CMS. PHP.
• MODx is a professional website development tool that allows you to manage content, and the site itself, absolutely 100%! This system is open source and therefore free. Unlike most free CMS, on MODx you can build a website of any complexity, with almost any set of functions, and the system will not in any way affect your html code. Requires a MySQL database, takes up 6+MB of disk space.
• AmiroCMS - the developers have recently opened the source code of this engine, which allows you to use not only the engine within its extensive functionality, but also create any non-standard solutions. And given the good “tailoring” of the engine for search engine promotion, this is a worthy choice for specialists who are looking to the future.
• osCommerce" - online store.
• Mediawiki is a website engine designed to create resources where everyone can make their own edits and write articles freely. The most popular resource on this technology is Wikipedia.
• RunCMS is a universal engine designed for creating websites of varying degrees of complexity and thematic focus.

Frameworks

• Symfony offers fast development and management of web applications, making it easy to solve routine tasks of a web programmer. During its development, the modern web programming language PHP5 was used. It also supports many popular databases. Does not require a MySQL database, takes up 9+MB of disk space.
• Smarty is a compiling template engine for PHP, one of the tools that allows you to separate application logic and data from presentation in the spirit of the Model-view-controller concept. It supports page caching, which significantly reduces the load on the server. Does not require a MySQL database, takes up 1MB of disk space.
• CodeIgniter is a well-known PHP framework, which is essentially a ready-made framework for developing complex web applications. It enjoys well-deserved popularity among web developers all over the world.
  Its main advantages include:
  • using the MVC (Model-Display-Controller) model, which has proven itself in the development of applications of various types;
  • support for many databases, including MySQL and PostgreSQL;
  • rich documentation;
  • excellent performance.
  Does not require a MySQL database, takes up 2MB of disk space.
• Yii is a highly efficient, component-based PHP framework for developing large-scale web applications. It maximizes the concept of code reuse and can significantly speed up the web development process.
  Russian speaking community Yii

How to choose a CMS

You should focus on using a CMS in the vast majority of cases. Indeed, several years ago, in order to obtain a satisfactory CMS, it was necessary to spend a significant amount of money on purchasing a license and paying for the services of a specialist setting up the system. And not for every site such expenses seem justified. Now the situation has changed dramatically: free CMS have appeared that are easy to configure, while installing modern systems takes little time and does not require special skills.

The only type of sites for which the use of a CMS seems ineffective are static business card sites, consisting of several pages that indicate what the company does, postal address and telephone number. Such a site does not require either operational updates or a developed information structure, so any CMS will simply remain idle.

In all other cases, a CMS will greatly facilitate the life of the site owner. If only you choose the right CMS. To make the right choice, you must first decide on several issues.

Question one: What is the information structure of the site?

This is the most important question. The fact is that even the most powerful and flexible “universal” CMS has its limitations in displaying the hierarchy of materials.

For example, let's assume that you plan to make a catalog of goods, where several hundred items of heterogeneous products will be presented, each type of which will correspond to two to three dozen quality characteristics. Most likely, no “universal” CMS will allow you to implement this. You will either have to pay attention to specialized systems for online catalogs, or consider the option of ordering the development of a CMS “for a specific site.” On the other hand, a CMS focused on online catalogs is hardly suitable for a corporate or thematic website.

So before choosing any of the proposed CMS, it would be good to make an outline of the structural organization of the site’s content and a list of requirements for transforming this content.

Second question: Who will update the information on the site and how often?

The fact is that the CMS should provide convenient work for site administrators. And if it is planned that several authors will work on the site, then the CMS should provide sufficient opportunities for collective work. If there is only one author, then no multi-user functions are required.

How often information is updated affects the choice of functions for adding new data to the site. After all, if you plan to conduct live reports with minute-by-minute “hot news”, then the CMS should provide a convenient “online” interface for instantly adding texts “with one click”, without unnecessary actions - this will greatly save the editor’s time. If you are constructing a thematic website, where new pages appear once a week or less often, then paying attention to how many actions within the CMS must be performed in order for an article to appear on the site is hardly justified.

Read

There are dozens of great CMSs. Regardless of the type of site you're building, there's likely to be one or two that are perfect for your needs.

The problem is that most designers and developers don't want to learn a bunch of dozens of different CMSs. As a rule, everything is limited to one or two, which are used to build all sites. This approach means that the options used must have both flexibility and powerful functionality.

The CMS listed below fully meet the above requirements. The first three, WordPress, Joomla! and Drupal are the best on our list. The remaining seven have a good combination of features, ease of use and support.

Try them, maybe something will be perfect for solving your problems.

Free, uses PHP

A couple of years ago there was a lot of discussion about whether it should be considered a true CMS or just a blogging platform. By now, the controversy has subsided on its own, as WordPress has demonstrated its functionality in a fairly wide range of different websites, ranging from simple multi-page brochures to full-fledged social networks (using plugins like BuddyPress).

There are thousands of themes available for use in WordPress, thousands of plugins and widgets that extend its functionality. WordPress also has an active developer community that generates tutorials and informational materials on all aspects of using the CMS.

With the help of plugins and themes, a WordPress site can be turned into a social network, forum, online store, and much more. It has built-in blog functionality, and it is also possible to build several sites using a single core of the system.

Strengths

• Large developer community with well-developed documentation and training materials.
• Free and commercial plugins and themes that open up the opportunity to implement almost any website idea.
• Convenient control panel for content and appearance.

Flaws

• May be overly complex for simple sites
• Standard installation is vulnerable to attacks
• There is no official support outside of the forums, where you may not get an answer to your question.

Free, uses PHP

Used by several well-known companies as the CMS of their websites, such as MTV, Harvard University, and IHOP. It is also suitable as the basis for an intranet, such as that used by Citibank.

Joomla! has a long history of development and an active developer community (more than 200,000 users and active participants), so it is quite easy to find information and lessons on this system. There are also a huge number of plugins and add-ons for Joomla!, so expanding the functionality is done without coding.

Despite the large number of Joomla! themes, the quality of most of them is inferior to those for WordPress.

Strengths

• User authentication can be done using OpenID, Google, LDAP, and many other methods.
• More than 7000 extensions
• Active community of users and developers, lots of available documentation.

Flaws

• The control panel is not as simple as other CMSs.
• Fewer high-quality themes compared to other CMSs.

Free, uses PHP

Another popular CMS that is used by well-known companies, for example, New York Observer, Popular Science, MIT, Sony Music, Fast Company. It has a large set of functions for building internal and external sites, as well as a huge toolkit for organizing content.

Drupal has a very active community of users and developers, with a large number of IRC channels and forums available. There are even conferences dedicated to Drupal. There is also continually updated and improved documentation generated by the community. In it you can find answers to questions about installation, building sites and modules, developing themes, and so on.

There are over 6,000 add-ons (“modules”) that make it easy to extend Drupal's functionality. This way you can concentrate on creating the design and content rather than coding special features.

Strengths

• Excellent support from the user and developer community, including IRC channels and conferences.
• More than 6,000 modules to make it easy to expand Drupal functionality.
• A large number of companies offering commercial support for Drupal sites.

Weak sides

• May be overly complex for simple sites.
• Lack of high quality free and commercial themes.
• The structure of the topic is quite complex.

From $99.95 to $299.95 depending on license, PHP is used

An interesting hybrid of commercial and free software. The core code for the ExpressionEngine core is built on CodeIgniter, which is a free PHP desktop environment. But the commercial aspect of a CMS means that developers and technical support are focused solely on ExpressionEngine.

ExpressionEngine doesn't have as many add-ons and plugins as other CMSs. There are only 22 modules and just under 100 official plugins. But they cover most commonly used features such as wiki, forum, user management, mailing lists, e-commerce, statistics and others. There are also unofficial plugins that expand the functionality of the CMS. But the range of built-in features in ExpressionEngine is impressive in its own right.

Strengths

• Commercial support
• Focused on security, most problems in this area are absent.

Flaws

• High price, especially for commercial sites.
• May be overly complex for simple sites.
• There is no interactive demo available before purchasing the system.

Free, uses PHP

Probably the most overlooked CMS. TextPattern is a very flexible CMS, although it is very easy to use for both the designer and developer. It uses a tagging system to manage content. TextPattern uses Textile to convert text into correct XHTML code, making it much easier for less-skilled users to work with.

TextPattern does not have such a huge number of themes and templates as WordPress, Drupal, or Joomla!. There are just over 120 themes available. They also offer themes for the admin panel to customize it for use by site content authors.

Has about 700 plugins and 50 modules for TextPattern. Plugin categories include image galleries, navigation, e-commerce, custom fields, archives, and so on. Modules and plugins significantly expand the functionality of TextPattern and can turn it into a more powerful CMS.

Strengths

• Very simple interface
• Great for sites of all sizes.
• Excellent documentation, including online manuals.

Flaws

• Small developer community
• Much fewer plugins compared to popular CMSs.
• A small number of high quality themes.

Contao (formerly TYPOlight)

Free, uses PHP

It has a user interface that uses Ajax features and other Web 2.0 features to improve usability. It has advanced content editing features, including editing multiple posts at once and rolling back to a previous version.

Contao also has several built-in modules. The calendar module supports multiple calendars with different events and integration with RSS or Atom. The built-in mailing module supports HTML and plain text email formats. You can import a list of recipient addresses from a CSV file and personalize your emails. The built-in news/blog module supports categories, archives, highlighted posts, comments and is integrated with RSS or Atom. There are also many additional modules available that significantly expand the functionality of Contao.

There are very few premium and free themes available for Contao. But such a situation will not be a hindrance for a designer planning to create a website from scratch, since Contao has a built-in CSS library.

Strengths

• There are no restrictions on website design.
• Easy to learn for writers and content editors.
• Good built-in modules.

Flaws

• There are very few CMS themes available.
• The configuration tool is quite clumsy and poorly designed.
• Due to the presence of a poor administration tool, it is suitable for small sites and a small number of pages.

Free, uses PHP

An open source CMS that is great for developers and designers with good coding skills. There are recipes and lessons for beginner developers, a large set of modules for various functions (blog, forms, forum, and so on). Designers can use custom HTML and CSS code when creating websites. Multi-page templates are also supported.

SilverStripe is also a powerful tool for managing the editing process of website content. You can set your own approval process, publish and unpublish articles on certain dates, and set different access levels. Such a system can be very useful if the site has many authors for whom access is limited only to certain sections.

SilverStripe has a large community of users and developers. In addition, you can find commercial support from various companies around the world.

Strengths

• An excellent system for restricting access to sections of the site.
• Designers can use HTML and CSS when developing websites.
• The development is based on open source code.

Flaws

• Not everything is intuitive in the settings panel.
• There are only about 150 extensions/modules.
• There are few high quality themes available.

Free, uses .NET

Gives the designer full control over the website creation process. There is a starter set of shells that simplifies the process of mastering the system. It's also easy to integrate Flash Silverlight content into your website. There are many famous sites built on Umbraco, for example, the sites of the Heinz company and the ABBA group.

Umbraco makes content management easy with a tree-based view of your site. Version numbers, publication schedules, and material previews are supported. One of the advantages of Umbraco is that it works well with content created in Microsoft Word, which can be a deciding factor for users who use Microsoft Office for their work.

Umbraco is an open API that allows developers to easily access various system features.

Strengths

• Free and paid lessons for support.
• Powerful system for websites and intranet solutions.
• Open API

Flaws

• Major add-ons are paid.
• There is no demonstration of the system.
• There are no truly complete themes for a website.

Free, uses PHP

It is not only a powerful CMS, but also a working environment for creating web applications. Website development can be done at different levels. you can start with a theme and then change the styles without affecting the code. Or you can create your own theme using HTML and CSS. If there are no problems with editing PHP, then you can create a custom template.

One of the advantages of concrete5 is the context editor. The developers tried to reproduce the functionality of a word processor, which makes it easier to edit pages while viewing. The result is a very easy-to-use tool that allows people who are far from programming to manage the content of the site.

The concrete5 developer community is growing faster than others. There are many themes and add-ons with support.

Strengths

• Easy conversion of HTML website to concrete5.
• Active and growing community of users and developers.
• There is business-level hosting that offers website maintenance.

Flaws

• Many interesting plugins are expensive.
• Almost all the best themes are paid.
• Paid support is expensive unless you use their hosting (from $125).