The Best Content Management System

If you need a website that you can update yourself through a website interface, there are literally hundreds of content management systems (CMS) available to choose from. So, which is the best one to use? The answer is: it depends what you are trying to achieve. It's a case of using the right tool for the right job.

The three most popular open source CMS solutions available at present are Wordpress, Joomla! and Drupal. Using open source reduces the cost of a website. The most popular solutions are likely to receive to the best long-term support and development. Besides, there are reasons why these systems are the most popular: people like them.

Here is a brief comparison of Wordpress, Joomla! and Drupal.

Wordpress

For the user, Wordpress is the easiest use. It has a relatively simple, intuitive interface, and is good for running relatively small brochure-style websites. Because Wordpress was originally designed as a blogging engine, it includes an excellent blog facility straight out of the box. Indeed, if all you want is a blog, it is the obvious choice.

One of the criticisms aimed at Wordpress that it is just a blogging tool and not really a true CMS. This is no longer true. It has grown up a lot in the last couple of years and can be used to build very effective websites.

Wordpress, however, lacks flexibility and scalability. Contributed modules (used to extend what it can do) are very specific in what they can achieve. Whilst it can be set up with little modification and configuration, it is not very customisable, and you are stuck largely with the core functionality. It requires a lot of bending to get it to work any differently.

Joomla!

Joomla! is best described as the middle ground option; it has both some of the advantages of Wordpress and Drupal, and some of the disadvantages.

It is clearly much more flexible and extendible than Wordpress, and has a better and more extensive selection contributed themes and designs than Drupal. It is also slightly easier to use than Drupal.

From a user's point of view, it has a moderately intuitive interface, and one which appears to be being replicated by a number of other content management systems, including CMS Made Simple.

I ran into some quality issues when using Joomla! and this made me decide to avoid it in favour of Drupal. However, work is being done all the time to improve it and I reserve my right to change my mind in the future.

Drupal

Drupal is the most flexible and, I'm afraid, the most complex of the three at present.

The user interface is not as straight-forward as the others, although this looks set to change in the next version. It works perfectly well, but has a more difficult learning curve and perhaps requires some familiarity working with CMS systems.

The reason for this, however, is clear. Those who have developed it have concentrated more on what lies beneath the bonnet. The code is small and efficient and the design affords huge adaptability to almost any website.

Many of the main modules use to extend Drupal have somewhat intangible functionality, and may be likened to parts of a Meccano set rather than pre-built toys. This does mean that an expert is required to construct a site. Whereas a Wordpress user can quite easily learn to extend their website by simply plugging in a new module, a Drupal user is likely to be a bit bemused about how to go about this. This is the price you pay for its flexibility and power.

Out of the box themes aren't generally quite as good as Joomla! or Wordpress, but this is not a problem if you are having a custom layout made.

Summary

Drupal and Joomla! have been vying for the top slot for some years now. Wordpress is stepping up to compete by becoming more than just a blogging engine.