Nani zaidi kati ya Wordpress vs Drupal ?

[Michael Amon]

Hivi mtu kama wewe unaelewa maana ya algorithim kwenye programming language kweli?

Am not a programmer, I never was a programmer and I will never be a programmer.

 

[zech]

Well, rather than concluding, let's me open the discussion. Inategemea unataka kutengeneza site ya aina gani, features gani unataka ziwepo kwenye hiyo site, n.k. Both wordpress and Drupal may serve for different purposes. Hapa ninachoona ni watu kusifia kuwa CMS fulani ni zaidi ya nyingine. Lakini kama developer unayetengeneza sites kwa wateja wako ni muhimu kukumbuka kuwa siyo kila mtu ni tech savvy kama wewe. Hata kama developer umekuta CMS fulani unayoipenda and work well for you, it doesn't matter at all unless kama unajitengenezea site yako mwenyewe. Jambo la muhimu hapa ni kuangalia kama mteja wako ataweza kuitumia hiyo CMS kwenye site yake kama anavyotaka yeye ifanye kazi.Kwa hiyo, itakuwa bora kwa afya yako kama utachagua CMS ambayo ina, kwa mfano, simple admin interface, hata kama ni kui-customise ili ikidhi mahitaji ya mteja wako.Kwa mteja yoyote, usimruhusu an IT guy kukuchagulia CMS. Ni breed wachache wanaolewa coding na interface ambayo ni user friendly au itakayokidhi matakwa yako.Aidha uwe ni kampuni kubwa au kikundi cha freelancers, it is imperative that whoever the Mac guy is among you, sign off on anything that the IT guy presents. Itakuumiza kichwa, lakini hakikisha kuwa CMS unayotaka kuitumia ina good user interface na inakidhi mahitaji yako.This will save you a lot of pain in the ass, time and money in the long run. The aim should be to contact your tech savvy once in while na siyo kila wakati. They will be making money, you will be losing even more money.Kama umejikuta katika hali ambayo utahitaji coder to build the functionality of your site for you, then kwanza kabisa mpatie your tech savvy orodha ya mahitaji yako ili yeye akupatie options za CMS zinazoweza kukudhi mahitaji yako. Tech savvy wako akupe faida na hasara za kila CMS objectively na siyo kupendelea CMS anayoipenda yeye.Mteja kumbuka ushabiki wa kwenye CMS hauna tofauti na ule wa kwenye soka. Rather than being objective, ushabiki huu uko too personal. Mtu atakuambia kuwa Arsenal inacheza vizuri kuliko Manchester Utd, lakini ukweli utabakia kuwa Arsenal haijawahi kushinda ligi karibu miaka 10 sasa.

I agree with you but lets not forget the fact that wordpress was/is a blogging app, while drupal is a pure cms, if you want to make wordpress a cms, you need to hack its core functionality(ie, you need to write your own code ingawa recently wame add custom post types, still ni lazima uandike code ili uweze ku implement) drupal on the other hand comes with content construction kit(cck) which allows u to create any kind of content. In terms of the back end UI, wordpress wins because they have a nice interface and its easy to use while drupal is not as straightforward. So it boils down to what is needed, for example when my client needs something that wordpress doesn't provide natively, or if drupal is not going to be easy for my client i have two options, either i use expressionengine (which allows u to create any kind of content and display it without a single php code and the back-end UI is very clean and easy to use) or i just hand-code it myself and the advantage of coding it yourself is that everything that's not needed is abstracted and your client doesn't have to go to a separate page to get admin functionality, you can do this with expressionengine as well through safecraker that's why unless my client asks for wordpress or drupal, i never even consider them as options

 

[zech]

Am not a programmer, I never was a programmer and I will never be a programmer.

Then why the hell do you think that programming is cramming if you have no idea how its done? au ndio monkey see monkey do?

 

[Fadhili Paulo]

How to Use WordPress for Business


If you're looking to expand your brand online with a blog, a website, or both, here's what you need to know about WordPress.


WordPress certainly has its fans. Take Dre Armeda, for example. He describes himself as a "passionate WordPress developer" who has been "addicted to WordPress for over six years." In 2009 he co-founded WordPress Vibe, a site dedicated to bringing together both experts and newbies of WordPress. "There isn't a better blogging platform for business or personal blog sites alike," Armeda says. He is a creative and technical consultant whose firm CubicTwo LLC has "created WordPress-driven sites for small businesses, theatre studios, and large vendors."


Your company might already have a website, but perhaps it's not as easy to update as you'd like. Or maybe you are interested in creating a dynamic new company blog. Whatever phase you're in of creating or cultivating a web presence for your business, WordPress is an option worth exploring. Just ask Armeda, who says for small businesses it is "cost effective, [with] easy to manage updates and the SEO features will help you gain a digital footprint quickly."

How to Use WordPress for Business: A Look at the Competition
Blogger, TypePad, Posterous, Tumblr, Movable Type, and WordPress are some of the better-known blogging software options. "While Expression Engine, Drupal, Movable Type and Blogger all have their uses, as do Posterous, Tumblr and even Facebook as a potential blogging platform; WordPress is the standard for very good reasons," said Jonathan Firestone, an independent consultant on digital strategy and user experience.


Blogger is exclusively for blogging and cannot be hosted on another hosting service – though it is possible to point it to another domain. Unless you're looking for something basic – and a site with a standard blog aesthetic – it might not be a good choice for creating a company website.


TypePad costs $14.95 per month for the "pro" level, which is needed in order to be able to customize the site, and make sure it doesn't look like a standard blog template. If you need to do a high-level of customization you will have to learn a specific TypePad programming language to alter the template coding.


Tumblr was founded in 2007 as a way to blog from phone, email, or desktop. It falls in the middle of the pack for blogging platform options. The disadvantage of using Tumblr for many is that is does not have built in commenting. You would have to embed Disqus to allow for commenting. Disqus is a global comment system. So if you want to use your website or blog as a way to communicate with your customers and clients, Tumblr is not the best option.


Posterous, which launched in July 2008, is one of the newest free blogging platforms. It is an email-to-blog platform that allows users to post anytime - and everywhere. Blog posts are primarily submitted by emailing content to be posted, so it's easy, but it offers zero customization, which is a deal-breaker for most businesses.


Movable Type is another option for developing a website or blog. "WordPress.org and Movable Type are very robust systems that can be used not only for blogging but also as complete content management systems," said Heidi Cool, owner of the web design and strategy company HeidiCool.com. When Cool was a webmaster at Case Western Reserve University she primarily used Moveable Type, but decided to make the switch to WordPress in 2007 "primarily because it was a major player."


Using Movable Type for business requires a license, the cost of which ranges from $50 to $1,000, depending on how many people at your company will require access to make updates.

WordPress was started in 2003 and is the successor of b2/cafelog, a small blogging software company founded in 2001 by Michel Valdrighi. When development was stopped on b2/cafelog some of the developers, including Matt Mullenweg and Mike Little, got together to create WordPress. "It has matured well beyond just a blogging solution," Armeda says. It has become one of the preferred options for blogging and website development because of the quick installation, ease of use, affordability (it is free), and accessibility. According to the company's current usage statistics, WordPress is used by nearly 2.5 percent of the 10,000 biggest websites, making it the most popular blogging software in use.

While WordPress makes it easier than ever to build a blog or website, there is no wholly simple solution for website development. Remember that the process can still be time-consuming.


"Overall WordPress is my No. 1 pick, but every situation is unique," Cool says. Armeda agrees: "I'm a champion for WordPress but ultimately it's about choosing the right tool for the right job."


Dig Deeper: More About Blogs and Blogging

How to Use WordPress for Business: Why Some Companies Love WordPress
WordPress was designed primarily to be used as a blogging platform, but it is also a powerful website content-management system. Here are 10 reasons it works for business.

1. Wordpress software is free.
While "free" is not always the best business solution, WordPress is well established. "WordPress.org can serve users at all price points from those who want to start with a free theme that they install themselves, to those with more specific needs who can hire a web designer to create a custom theme that integrates with their site and supports their branding," Cool says. From the start, the only cost will be the price of hosting your site.


2. WordPress is open source.

Why should that matter for your business? Open source means that the technology that powers WordPress is transparent for easier development. As a result there are people all over the world developing new themes and plug-ins to share with other WordPress users. With other blogging programs such as TypePad, users have to learn a specific programming language to use it. Movable Type can be cumbersome for non-techie users.

3. WordPress can be used for simple blogging or full website content.
"It is more appropriate to consider it as a platform for full website content creation and management," Armeda says. Perhaps you already use WordPress for a personal – or company – blog. With a few adjustments, WordPress can also be used to run a full-service website. This makes it a one-stop solution that can eliminate the need to use two different programs for your company website and blog. "In most cases we create full web properties with WordPress, blogs are a component of these solutions, not the main focus," Armeda says.


4. WordPress is optimized for SEO.
"I use WordPress for the majority of my websites due to its ease of use and SEO capabilities," said Katie Wilber, owner of The Marketing Momma. When building any website or blog that's aimed at a wide audience, search engine optimization (SEO) is important. WordPress has SEO benefits built-in. "WordPress sites tend to do much better in the search engines and rank well quickly," said Wilber. "I have had several sites that within days of setting the site up with keyword friendly domain names that are ranking on the first page for that keyword."


5. WordPress is easy to update.
One of the major complaints of business owners is that they can't update their website themselves, and that having someone else update it costs them money. "Not only is WordPress free it is simple to install," said Armeda. "It takes no more than five minutes to set up the software." Once WordPress is set up you can easily update content or create new pages without knowing HTML.


6. WordPress has thousands of extensions.
There is a large community of WordPress developers who create free themes, widgets and plug-ins. There are extensions for polling, contact forms, backing up your site, blocking spam, making your pages load faster and thousands more that can be found on the WordPress Plug-In Directory. "Any enhancement you can think of, type it in to Google and you will find an answer or search the WordPress Plug-In Directory," said Armeda. From there, you add the new features to your website or blog without having to hire a web developer.


7. WordPress has a supportive community.
WordPress users and developers have online support networks on various forums. And throughout the world, WordCamp conferences are held to talk about everything WordPress. Armeda attended a recent Word Camp held in Orange County, California, and estimates: "70 percent of the attendees were small businesses wanting to advance their online presence and new firms that want to push using WordPress to their clients." Users also post step-by-step video tutorials that can walk new users through the most basic as well as complex concepts. In addition to a host of free online WordPress resources, if you simply can't find what you're looking for or don't have the time to work on something highly customized for your site, it's easy to find WordPress developers for hire.


8. WordPress has one-click installation.
Many hosting providers have quick installations of WordPress. "Wordpress is convenient as more hosting providers offer easy-install processes for it than for Movable Type," Cool says.


9. WordPress allows multiple users.
Multiple people at your company can have access to update your website or blog. "Wordpress has core role base management and you are able to extend it as the need arises for you and your organization," Armeda says. You can set permission levels of each user to maintain the security and integrity of your website or blog.


10. WordPress can be self-hosted.
If you decide to use the self-hosted version of WordPress, there is more flexibility in terms of features and design. "If you want to host it you have the ability, but if your company is not there yet you can manipulate WordPress to fit your brand and your needs," Armeda says.

 

[Fadhili Paulo]

WordPress has become one of the most popular content management systems word wide....and here's the statistics to prove it:

There are 74.2 billion WordPress websites worldwide, about 1/2 of all websites published as of June 2012.
Over 350 million people view more than 2.5 billion pages each month.

500,000 new posts and 400,000 new comments on an average day.

WordPress is used by more than 14% of the one million biggest websites including those of The New York Times.

Here are some benefits you gain from using WordPress...

It meets the needs of start-up businesses and seasoned pros. If you just want a blog, WordPress delivers. If you want an easy-to-use professional website, choose WordPress for its type-and-publish simplicity. And if you want both a business website and a blog, there is simply no better program available today.

WordPress is free. You don't have to purchase the software. The basic themes (and there are plenty to choose from) are free. Most plug-ins (software tools that help the site operate more efficiently) are free. Online resources, including blogs and forums, are also free: This means it costs you nothing to become proficient with WordPress.

WordPress is easy to customize. Begin with a basic theme, and you can change the colors, layout, theme elements, and more. You can also create a completely unique theme, one that is as individual as you are. This part isn't free – but by leveraging an existing theme it is affordable.

WordPress is a global solution. That means it is designed to work on every browser, in almost every country, in almost every language. There's peace of mind in knowing that your business website can do its job – selling you – everyplace it goes.

WordPress works with Social Media, this means Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and the other social media tools, all work seamlessly on your WordPress business website.

WordPress grows with you. As your business evolves, so will your website. WordPress makes it easy to update everything from your theme, logo, color scheme, to page layout. It's a snap to add or delete pages. When you're ready to add a blog, offer a free ebook, or build a mailing list, you don't have to change software programs.

 

[Michael Amon]

Then why the hell do you think that programming is cramming if you have no idea how its done? au ndio monkey see monkey do?

Nadhani kijana umekurupuka kujibu. Soma vizuri comments zangu uzielewe halafu ndio ujibu. Sijasema kuwa sijui programming bali nimesema mimi sio programmer. Nimeisoma programming na ninaifahamu vizuri kuliko unavyodhani but I chose another path. Pili sijasema kuwa programming is cramming bali nimesema kuwa ili uweze kuwa programmer mzuri lazima uielewe na kuikariri.

 

[zech]

Nadhani kijana umekurupuka kujibu. Soma vizuri comments zangu uzielewe halafu ndio ujibu. Sijasema kuwa sijui programming bali nimesema mimi sio programmer. Nimeisoma programming na ninaifahamu vizuri kuliko unavyodhani but a choose another path. Pili sijasema kuwa programming is cramming bali nimesema kuwa ili uweze kuwa programmer mzuri lazima uielewe na kuikariri.

So do u consider yourself "programmer mzuri?" meaning umeilewa na kuikariri?

 

[EMT]

On your experience, kwenye bold, who is who?. Thanks.

Kwanza unaelewa maana ya user interface?

 

[EMT]

...wordpress was/is a blogging app, while drupal is a pure cms, ..

Kwa hiyo mleta mada anataka tutofautishe kati ya mbuzi na kuku? Kwa sababu kama wordpress ni blog app. na drupal ni SMS, then I think the appropriate comparative anaysis should be, for example wordpress and blogger as blog app and drupal and Joomla as CMS.

... So it boils down to what is needed, for example when my client needs something that wordpress doesn't provide natively, or if drupal is not going to be easy for my client i have two options, either i use expressionengine (which allows u to create any kind of content and display it without a single php code and the back-end UI is very clean and easy to use) or i just hand-code it myself and the advantage of coding it yourself is that everything that's not needed is abstracted and your client doesn't have to go to a separate page to get admin functionality, you can do this with expressionengine as well through safecraker that's why unless my client asks for wordpress or drupal, i never even consider them as options

Do you explain to your clients the pros and cons of expressionengine?

The fact that you you never consider wordpress and drupal as options unless your client specifically ask for them, do you think that all your clients would be tech savvy to understand why they are not options?

I thought, depending on what the client want to do, they should be offered as much options as possible so that they can make an information choice themselves?

Lest say, for example, your client want to build a property listing website? Would you remove wordpress and drupal from the client's option and focus only on expressionengine?

Kwa mfano, kama mteja akitaka umtengenezee site ambayo inafanana na BBC Wales (BBC - Homepage - Wales)

Why would you focus on expressionengine wakati BBC Wales is based on drupal?

 

[Kaliro X]

WordPress has become one of the most popular content management systems word wide....and here's the statistics to prove it:

There are 74.2 billion WordPress websites worldwide, about 1/2 of all websites published as of June 2012.
Over 350 million people view more than 2.5 billion pages each month.

500,000 new posts and 400,000 new comments on an average day.

WordPress is used by more than 14% of the one million biggest websites including those of The New York Times.

Here are some benefits you gain from using WordPress...

It meets the needs of start-up businesses and seasoned pros. If you just want a blog, WordPress delivers. If you want an easy-to-use professional website, choose WordPress for its type-and-publish simplicity. And if you want both a business website and a blog, there is simply no better program available today.

WordPress is free. You don¡¯t have to purchase the software. The basic themes (and there are plenty to choose from) are free. Most plug-ins (software tools that help the site operate more efficiently) are free. Online resources, including blogs and forums, are also free: This means it costs you nothing to become proficient with WordPress.

WordPress is easy to customize. Begin with a basic theme, and you can change the colors, layout, theme elements, and more. You can also create a completely unique theme, one that is as individual as you are. This part isn¡¯t free ¨C but by leveraging an existing theme it is affordable.

WordPress is a global solution. That means it is designed to work on every browser, in almost every country, in almost every language. There¡¯s peace of mind in knowing that your business website can do its job ¨C selling you ¨C everyplace it goes.

WordPress works with Social Media, this means Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and the other social media tools, all work seamlessly on your WordPress business website.

WordPress grows with you. As your business evolves, so will your website. WordPress makes it easy to update everything from your theme, logo, color scheme, to page layout. It¡¯s a snap to add or delete pages. When you¡¯re ready to add a blog, offer a free ebook, or build a mailing list, you don¡¯t have to change software programs.

wordpress ya ukweli lakini haiingii kwa cms inaitwa phBB, inasupport hata wordpress_plugins.. Pia uloki modded ina features nyingi kuzidi wordpress..
Tchaoo..

 

[EMT]

wordpress ya ukweli lakini haiingii kwa cms inaitwa phBB, inasupport hata wordpress_plugins.. Pia uloki modded ina features nyingi kuzidi wordpress..
Tchaoo..

phBB ni CMS?

 

[zech]

Kwa hiyo mleta mada anataka tutofautishe kati ya mbuzi na kuku? Kwa sababu kama wordpress ni blog app. na drupal ni SMS, then I think the appropriate comparative anaysis should be, for example wordpress and blogger as blog app and drupal and Joomla as CMS.



Do you explain to your clients the pros and cons of expressionengine?

The fact that you you never consider wordpress and drupal as options unless your client specifically ask for them, do you think that all your clients would be tech savvy to understand why they are not options?

I thought, depending on what the client want to do, they should be offered as much options as possible so that they can make an information choice themselves?

Lest say, for example, your client want to build a property listing website? Would you remove wordpress and drupal from the client's option and focus only on expressionengine?

Kwa mfano, kama mteja akitaka umtengenezee site ambayo inafanana na BBC Wales (BBC - Homepage - Wales)

Why would you focus on expressionengine wakati BBC Wales is based on drupal?

The only thing i explain to my clients about EE, is that its not open source so they got to pay extra amount for the license (which most of my clients understand), secondly, clients need a good product that they can easily use without getting lost somewhere, so "tech savy" or not, a good designer can make a product good enough for his/her client(s) no matter what software they use.

Hapa it all boils down to which tool can help you (designer / developer) complete that particular project with minimum headache while enjoying your work (mfano, if you take the best wordpress designer vs the best expressionengine designer, you give them a site to desgn, they will all come up with the same product but trust me, the guy who used expressionengine will finish the project earlier than the wp guy, and the client will enjoy both designs but one designer will be sweating, this is not an opinion, its a fact)

Property Listing Website - Yes i would remove wp and drupal as options, because its easy to create custom fields in EE than those two, tena i would do it without even thinking twice.

BBC Wales - You fail to understand that "looking like" is more on the design part of the site than it is on the cms that was used, if you want your site to look like the whitehouse website (The White House which is a drupal site) then you need to be a good designer to make it look like so, remember, its not wordpress/drupal/ee that makes your site look a certain way, its the html+css+javasript, so yes if my client needs a site like that i can do it in expressionengine in a shorter time than the guy that uses drupal / wp to do it.

Conclusion : The designer makes a site look a certain way, a cms just adds the functionality therefore, your client being tech savvy on not, if you are good at designing using a certain cms, it won't matter that much unless you (the so called designer) is not really a designer but somebody who uses somebody else's theme and customize it.

 

[Fadhili Paulo]

Mkuu,
Mimi nakuheshimu sana humu jamvini.

Kwanza unaelewa maana ya user interface?

 

[Fadhili Paulo]

Kama hujuwi kinachoongelewa hapa ni bora ukae kimya.

wordpress ya ukweli lakini haiingii kwa cms inaitwa phBB, inasupport hata wordpress_plugins.. Pia uloki modded ina features nyingi kuzidi wordpress..
Tchaoo..

 

[Fadhili Paulo]

Top 10 content management systems


There are dozens of great CMSs out there. Regardless of what type of site you're building, there's probably one perfectly-suited to it.

The problem is that most designers and developers don't want to spend time learning a bunch of different CMSs. They want to learn one, or maybe two, and use those for all of their sites. That means they need something that's both flexible and powerful.


The CMSs below fit that bill pretty well. Some have practically become household names (in designer households, at least), while others are a bit more obscure.


The first three, WordPress, Joomla!, and Drupal, are pretty unarguably the best CMSs out there. The next seven are a bit more subjective, but have a good combination of support, features, and ease-of-use.
Try them out, and decide for yourself which one best fits your needs and the needs of your clients.

WordPress

Free, PHP-based

A couple years ago, it was widely debated whether WordPress should really be considered a CMS considering its roots as a blogging platform. That debate has pretty much fallen by the wayside at this point, as WordPress now powers plenty of non-blog websites, including everything from simple multi-page brochure style sites right up to full-fledged social networks (using plugins like BuddyPress).


There are thousands of themes available for WordPress, as well as thousands of plugins and widgets to extend its functionality. WordPress also has an incredibly active community surrounding it, meaning it's easy to find tutorials or information about nearly every aspect of developing for WP.


Through plugins and custom themes, you can turn WP into a social network, forum, e-commerce site, and much, much more. There's also built-in functionality for creating blog networks or other multi-blog installations from a single core installation. WordPress.com offers a hosted, less-versatile version of WordPress, though the basic functionality is all there.
Strengths

• Huge developer community with plenty of documentation and tutorials available
• Free and paid plugins and specialized themes make it possible to create virtually any kind of site with WordPress
• User-friendly dashboard for managing content

Weaknesses

• Can be overkill for basic sites
• A standard installation can have a lot of security issues, and is very vulnerable to attack without additional security measures
• No official support outside of user forums, where you may or may not get an official response

Joomla!

Free, PHP-based

Joomla! is used by some very prominent companies as the CMS for their websites, including MTV, Harvard University, and IHOP. It's suitable for back-end networks, too, and is used by Citibank for just that purpose. Joomla! has been used for everything from inventory control systems to reservation systems, to complex business directories, in addition to normal websites.

Joomla! has a long development history and a very active developer community (with over 200,000 users and contributors), so finding information and tutorials is easy. There are also tons of plugins and add-ons for Joomla!, so extending Joomla!'s functionality doesn't necessarily require any custom coding.

While there are plenty of themes out there for Joomla!, the quality for many doesn't compare to what's available for WordPress. There are some great themes, available, though, if you're willing to look for them.

Strengths

• User authentication can be done with OpenID, Google, and LDAP, among others
• More than 7000 extensions
• Very active user community and tons of documentation available

Weaknesses

• Back-end isn't as user-friendly as some CMSs, though it's still very usable
• Lack of high-quality themes when compared to some other CMSs
• Can be overkill for simple sites

Drupal

Free, PHP-based

Drupal is another very popular CMS, used by a number of high-profile companies including the New York Observer, Popular Science, MIT, Sony Music, Fast Company, and others. It includes a bunch of features for building internal and external sites, and a ton of tools for organizing your content.

Drupal has a very active community, with a number of IRC channels, forums, and even face-to-face Drupal events. There's also community-generated documentation that is constantly being updated and improved. This documentation includes all you need to know about installation, building sites and modules, designing themes, and more.

There are more than 6,000 add-ons ("modules") available for Drupal, making it easy to extend Drupal's functionality to do just about anything you want. This means you can spend your time focusing on design and content, rather than having to code a bunch of complicated features.

Strengths

• Robust community support, including IRC channels and face-to-face meetups
• More than 6,000 modules, making Drupal highly extensible
• A large number of companies offering commercial support for Drupal

Weaknesses

• Can be overkill for simple sites
• A lack of really high-quality free and commercial themes (there are some, but not nearly as many as there are for some CMSs)
• Theming system is fairly complicated

ExpressionEngine

$99.95 to $299.95 depending on license, PHP-based

ExpressionEngine is an interested hybrid of commercial and open-source software. The base code for the ExpressionEngine core is built on CodeIgniter, which is their own open-source PHP framework. But the commercial aspect of the CMS means that there's committed developers and technical support people focused solely on EE.

There are a ton of great websites built on ExpressionEngine, and they've set up a showcase site, Show-EE, specifically to share them. Some sites built on EE include A|X Life, the Canon Ixus site, and LivingSocial Adventures.


ExpressionEngine doesn't have as many add-ons and plugins as many other CMSs, with only 22 add-on modules and a little over 100 official plugins. But, the plugins and add-ons they have are some of the most likely to be used, and include a wiki, discussion forum, member manager, mailing list, e-commerce, statistics, and more. There are also community plugins, if you can't find what you need in the official plugins. The core feature set of EE is impressive, too.

Strengths

• Commercial support
• Focus on security, with no major security breaches ever
• No restrictions on how a site can be designed

Weaknesses

• Cost is high, especially for commercial sites
• Can be overkill for simple or smaller sites
• No interactive demo to try it out before you purchase

TextPattern

Free, PHP-based

TextPattern is probably one of the more overlooked CMSs out there. TextPattern is a highly flexible CMS, though, that's easy to use out of the box and easy to customize by designers and developers. It uses a tagging system to make content retrieval and display easily controllable. TextPattern uses Textile to quickly convert plain text to valid XHTML in your articles and content, which makes it very user-friendly for less technical users.

TextPattern doesn't have the huge variety of themes or templates available for WordPress, Drupal, or Joomla!, with only a little over 120 front-end themes readily available. They also offer back-end admin themes, for customizing the user experience for content creators.

There are nearly 700 plugins for TextPattern, and another 50+ mods. Plugin categories include image galleries, integrations, e-commerce, custom fields, archives, articles, admin features, navigation, and more. The mods and plugins available greatly increase the functionality of TextPattern and can make it a much more powerful CMS.

Strengths

• Really easy to use interface
• Well suited for sites of all sizes
• Really great documentation, including a full online manual

Weaknesses

• Smaller community
• Fewer plugins than the more popular CMSs
• Relatively few high-quality templates available

Contao (formerly TYPOlight)

Free, PHP-based

Contao has a user interface that incorporate Ajax and other Web 2.0 features to improve usability. It includes advanced editing features for content, including editing multiple records at once or rolling back to prior versions of content.

It also includes a number of common built-in modules. The calendar module supports multiple calendars, all-day and multi-day events, open-ended events, and syndication via RSS or Atom. The built-in newsletter module supports double opt-in emails in either HTML or plain text. You can import recipients from a CSV file, and even personalize newsletters being sent. The build-tin news/blog module includes support for multiple categories, archives, featured posts, comments, and RSS or Atom syndication. Tons of additional modules are also available, to further extend Contao's functionality.

There are a few premium theme marketplace for Contao, though there appear to be even fewer free themes available. This isn't really an issue for designers who plan to create all their sites from scratch (and Contao includes a built-in CSS framework to make this easier).

Strengths

• No restrictions on how you can design a site
• Not much learning curve for content editors and authors
• Good built-in modules

Weaknesses

• Hardly any themes available, high-quality or not
• Back-end is sluggish and not particularly well-thought-out
• Because of back-end setup, it's probably better-suited to smaller sites without dozens or hundreds of pages

SilverStripe

Free, PHP-based

SilverStripe is an open source CMS that is well-suited for developers and designers who are comfortable with code. They have recipes and tutorials for beginning developers, and plenty of modules for things like blogs, forms, and forums. Code is isolated in Sapphire, so designers can use whatever HTML and CSS they want to style their sites. It also supports multiple page templates to support different needs.

SilverStripe also has powerful content authoring tools. You can set up your own content approval process, as well as publish or unpublish content on specific dates, and have differing permissions levels for different parts of the site. That can be very useful if you have multiple editors or authors who only need access to a specific part of the site.

SilverStripe has been downloaded over 350,000 times and there is a robust development community. SilverStripe LTD. manages the development of the code, so there's always someone you can call on if you need help. At the same time, though, they have partners in over 30 countries, meaning you're not locked into a single vendor like you are with many enterprise-level and commercial CMSs.

Strengths

• Basic functions in the back-end are easy to perform
• Designers are free to use HTML and CSS however they want to design their site
• Developed on open standards, so it plays well with others

Weaknesses

• Not everything is intuitive in the back-end, which increases the learning curve
• Only a little over 150 extensions/modules
• Not many high-quality themes available

Umbraco

Free, .NET-based

Umbraco gives designers full control over design aspects, and focuses on web-standards and a completely open template system. There are starter kits and skins available to make it faster to get started. It's also easy to integrate Flash and Silverlight content into your Umbraco-based site. A number of high-profile sites are built on Umbraco, including the Heinz and ABBA sites.

On the content-creation side, Umbraco makes it easy to manage content by using a tree-based view of your site. It allows for user-defined presentation of information about your content, so you only see what you need to. It supports versioning, scheduled publishing, and previews. One advantage Umbraco has over many other CMSs is that it works well with content created in Microsoft Word, which can be a huge advantage to users who are used to dealing with Office products. (How many times have clients sent you documents with detailed Word formatting that they expected you to recreate perfectly?)

Umbraco has support for developers and designers to customize the back end with custom applications. It has an open API so that developers can easily access every aspect of Umbraco that can be accessed via the back-end. This opens up a ton of custom application options for developers.

Strengths

• Free and paid tutorials and support
• Powerful and flexible for both websites and intranets
• An open API

Weaknesses

• Primary add-ons are paid
• No demo available to try before you download
• Not really any prebuilt themes available for the front-end

concrete5

Free, PHP-based

concrete5 is not only a powerful CMS, but can also be used as a framework for developing web apps. Designing sites is easy, and can be done at a variety of levels. You can start with a theme and then override styles without touching the code. Or you can code your own themes with HTML and CSS. If you're comfortable with PHP, you can use custom templates that can override the way any block looks.

One advantage concrete5 has over some other CMSs is the in-context editing. They've attempted to replicate the functionality of a word processor, while also making it simple to edit pages as you view them. It makes it very user-friendly for non-technical users, who may be the ones managing the site's content.

According to the 2010 Open Source CMS Market Share Report, concrete5′s developer community is the fastest growing among any open source CMS. They have a very active community, with how-tos geared toward designers, add-ons and themes with actual support, and even support ticketing if you run into an issue that can't be solved on the forums. The community and support surrounding concrete5 make it a very appealing CMS for users at the beginning and intermediate levels.

Strengths

• Easy to convert a basic HTML site to a concrete5 site in minutes
• Active and growing developer community
• Offer business-class hosting that includes support

Weaknesses

• Many useful and basic plugins are quite costly
• Almost all of the best themes are paid
• Paid support is expensive if you don't host with them ($125 and up)

CushyCMS

Free – $28/month depending on feature set, hosted

CushyCMS is the only hosted CMS on this list. There's a limited-feature free version that includes an unlimited number of sites, pages, and editors, but doesn't let you use your own logo or your own domain name for the admin panel, or customize the admin experience. If you don't care about your own branding in the admin panel, it may work for your business. The paid version, which is $28/month, has many more features, including branding support.

The main thing that sets CushyCMS apart from most others is that it's specifically meant to make it easy for your clients to edit their own content. You design the website however you want, and then add it to the CushyCMS account. From there you can define which parts are editable and give your clients access.

Because of the nature of CushyCMS, there are no plugins or pre-defined themes. But for designers who might not be used to working with a CMS, or who design a lot of basic sites that don't really need a full-featured CMS, but do need to be editable by their clients, CushyCMS is a great option.

Strengths

• Incredibly easy for content managers to edit their content
• Free plan is suitable for many users
• Very easy and quick to get started

Weaknesses

• Paid plan could be pricey if you're not using it for multiple sites
• Email support only available for the paid version
• Too basic for many types of sites or particularly large sites

Which CMS do you use? Since the "best" CMSs are very subjective, is there one you think should have been included instead of one of the above? Let us know in the comments!

 

[EMT]

I agree with you but lets not forget the fact that wordpress was/is a blogging app, while drupal is a pure cms, if you want to make wordpress a cms, you need to hack its core functionality(ie, you need to write your own code ingawa recently wame add custom post types, still ni lazima uandike code ili uweze ku implement) drupal on the other hand comes with content construction kit(cck) which allows u to create any kind of content. In terms of the back end UI, wordpress wins because they have a nice interface and its easy to use while drupal is not as straightforward. So it boils down to what is needed, for example when my client needs something that wordpress doesn't provide natively, or if drupal is not going to be easy for my client i have two options, either i use expressionengine (which allows u to create any kind of content and display it without a single php code and the back-end UI is very clean and easy to use) or i just hand-code it myself and the advantage of coding it yourself is that everything that's not needed is abstracted and your client doesn't have to go to a separate page to get admin functionality, you can do this with expressionengine as well through safecraker that's why unless my client asks for wordpress or drupal, i never even consider them as options

Noted some of the points mentioned in your post. I would say that each CMS has its own pros and cons depending on what you want to do with it. For example, whilst WordPress would let you install themes at your own will, ExpressionEngine won't let you do that. This might be important particularly to a novice experimenting him/herself with CMSs.

On the other hand, whilst one may need to tweak around WordPress to get certain things in the way desired, ExpressionEngine may perform this task in a lesser amount of time. So, each CM has its own pros and cons and the more you use one of them, the more you would fall in love with its both pros and cons.

Then, comes down the cost of ExpressionEngine. Some have argued that there are some developers out there who are in favour of ExpressionEngine simply kwa sababu ni rahisi kutoza watu ambao ni ignorant kwa kutengeneza a "custom" website inayotutuia the same templates that the developer coded over and over again. Kwa hiyo, wanachofanya hawa developers ni kubadilisha tuu skin ya nje au kufanya design kidogo. This makes me wonder, for a one-off site, what is the benefit, as the whole thing requires custom code?

Pia kuna watu wana-argue kuwa like WordPress, ExpressionEngine is not a CMS, rather a framework ambayo unaweza kutengeneza CMS from the scratch using a custom code. Kwa hiyo, at the end of the day unakuta kuwa mmiliki wa site is not actually the true owner as the site is actually owned/developed by someone else who have all the authority even in tweaking the site.

Kuna watu wanasema wazi kabisa kuwa if you want a web designer to lock you into their paid service forever, then allow them to use ExpressionEngine to develop your site. Kila saa utakuwa unamtafuta akufanyie even the small tweaks. Mbaya zaidi kama developer akifilisika and goes out of business, then the site "owner" is hosed. Mwenye site ataanza kutafuta developer mwingine to fix the mess created by the out-of-business developer. Definitely that would be hard kwa huyo developer mpya.

Pia business philosophy ya mmiliki wa ExpressionEngine has been criticised for quite some time now. Kwao, it is the developers, not the site owners, who make ExpressionEngine based sites. I am not saying that WordPress is better than ExpressionEngine, but the site owner not having the power to fix even little things on a ExpressionEngine site makes me wonders whether I will ever use it unless I win a lottery so I can hire a personal webmaster. I think ExpressionEngine hinders the majority to experience with CMS.

Tukirudi kwenye property listing unaweza kunipatia link ya site ambayo imetengenezwa based on ExpressionEngine? Kuna hii hapa imetengezwa na Wordpress: Land for Sale, Farms for Sale, Country Houses for Sale | Just Rural. I just want compare.

 

[EMT]

Mkuu,
Mimi nakuheshimu sana humu jamvini.

Naona umepost post ndeeeeeefu ya best 10 CMS which had led me kijiuliza kama ulikuwa na hiyo list mbona umekuuja kuuliza huku? Is your list not enough?

 

[Fadhili Paulo]

Ni katika kupata mawazo ya wengine pia. Si lazima kile nilichokisoma au kuwa nacho kiwe ndiyo panacea, mawazo yako pia yalikuwa yanahitajika kama masuala ya user interface hayo:wave:

Naona umepost post ndeeeeeefu ya best 10 CMS which had led me kijiuliza kama ulikuwa na hiyo list mbona umekuuja kuuliza huku? Is your list not enough?

 

[zech]

Tukirudi kwenye property listing unaweza kunipatia link ya site ambayo imetengenezwa based on ExpressionEngine? Kuna hii hapa imetengezwa na Wordpress: Land for Sale, Farms for Sale, Country Houses for Sale | Just Rural. I just want compare.

You see kuangalia tu that listing site umeweka hapo, i know its a wordpress theme by templatic, anyways to answer your question, check these two here Heather The Realtor - Orlando Real Estate and http://www.christopheharbour.com/ you can see kwanza hazifanani kabisa and in my opinion, these two are better looking than that wordpress theme by templatic and trust me, it was easy to create those ee sites than that wp by templatic, kucompare wp and expressionengine is like comparing php na ruby on rails.

 

[Fadhili Paulo]

Lugha gongana.