CMS means Content Management System and they are software (to be installed in a webserver) designed to create a website in a guided manner, not therefore writing code but taking advantage of the options of a program that makes the pieces created, puts them in order and arranges them depending on your preferences. From this concise definition of CMS that I recommend to deepen on Wikipedia, you can understand how much simpler and affordable for everyone than in the past, to create a website.
Unfortunately it would be wrong to say that CMS are easy to use; as they are very flexible and full of possibilities and customizations, working on a CMS requires patience and study, not so much from the theoretical programming point of view but above all in the practical use of the program.
They are different from the online tools covered in another article, where I explained how to make and create free websites in a few minutes through the so-called assisted CMS, that is, facilitated but certainly less customizable.
CMS are developed to meet specific purposes, there are some generalists that can be customized whatever the website model, others aimed at creating blogs, forums, online sales sites, company sites, online newspapers, web applications, web sites. games, presentations with animations and so on.
The problem therefore is that to find the ideal CMS for your web project, you have to do a strenuous search to understand how advanced a system is, in what language it is available, if there is a support forum and so on.
For those who want to deepen the topic and to facilitate this search, I can list the best and most popular CMS to create websites, so whoever wants can also try them locally, on their computer.
By better, this time, I mean above all the most usable also to make tests, ideal however to create a personal or professional site, even for advanced projects.
1) WordPress is the number one of the CMS with which 40% of professional and non-professional blogs are developed and, randomly, 10% of world websites.
It is a platform to create a blog in PHP ideal also for beginners, thanks to an excellent documentation available on the internet, also in Italian. Wordpress can also be tried on your computer with a super fast and very simple installation and configuration wizard. In 5 minutes, the blog with Wordpress can become operational and can already be put online. It also features an automatic software and plugins update procedure, an intuitive graphic editor that does not require any knowledge of HTML and an integrated support made of images and multimedia features. Wordpress probably has the widest amount of plugins and graphic themes to choose from and, for any type of need, just do a search with Google to find the solution.
2) Joomla is a very advanced CMS in terms of functionality with which you can do almost anything .
As seen also Joomla can be installed and tested on your computer and, starting with Joomla must be said that it is quite easy.
The only problem is that Joomla is a global CMS with which you can do practically everything so I would recommend it in case you intend to design an ambitious and varied website.
If it is about creating a blog or a presentation site, I would avoid banging my head among the thousands of Joomla options.
The administration interface, even if it requires some practice and study, is however intuitive and beautiful to look at, complete with drop-down menus and mouse selections.
The CMS also has support for access control protocols such as LDAP, OpenID and even Gmail.
The plugins for Joomla are over 3000, the support of users who use it and talk about it on the forums is extensive, in Italian and on the internet you can find guides for all needs.
Creating a personalized website with Joomla, however, despite being the free program, requires plugins and graphic themes that it is not convenient to recreate from scratch (it would not be easy) and therefore you have to pay.
The plugins are used to integrate functions on the website and their price is certainly lower than that of a webmaster consultant.
3) Drupal is a very full-bodied CMS with a large community of users who talk about it and discuss it on the forums.
Like Joomla, Drupal is a general CMS that can be used for any type of website .
The basic installation is also simple and comes with a lot of optional modules that can add different features to the website.
The installation of Drupal is easy, even if I don't have a guide, on the internet there are tutorials and step-by-step explanations that should eliminate any difficulty.
4) Fork CMS is an open source program to download to create websites quickly, with a really intuitive editor and full of templates and graphic models already prepared just to be customized.
5) ExpressionEngine is an elegant and flexible CMS solution suitable for any type of online project.
This too is extensible with additional plugins and easy to edit.
EE is not even difficult to learn and in a few minutes I believe that the creation of the website in content can already be started.
With ExpressionEngine you can also create multiple sites with a single software installation.
In the face of such goodness there is the defect that, unlike the previous three CMS, Expression Engine must be paid for by purchasing a personal user license of $ 9.95 or a commercial license of $ 249.99.
Another non-secondary problem is that it is not in Italian and that there are few guides.
6) TextPattern is an ideal CMS for creating static pages and blogs, a little more difficult to use because it does not have a graphic creation editor.
It seems to be a program aimed at the purest designers who want light and fast web pages to load and absolutely optimized from a technical point of view.
Anyone wishing to try it, however, should not suffer much from understanding and intuiting the administration panel and installing it.
Maybe it's a somewhat minimal tool but also for this CMS there are many plugins to add functions and customizations.
7) Radiant CMS : If the content management systems (CMS) listed so far are all programs in PHP, this Radiant is in another language called Ruby.
Radiant CMS is a fast and minimal CMS that could be similar to Textpattern.
8) Cushy CMS is instead very different from the previous ones because it does not have to be installed, and it is closer to the assisted solutions I mentioned above, where you only have to design the site with guided procedures, without writing a single line of programming code.
The good thing is that Cushy CMS is free for anyone, even for professional use, although clearly you can pay for a pro account that has more features.
9) SilverStripe is another CMS in PHP similar to Wordpress, with many more configurable options especially regarding content management and less ideal for blogs.
The specialty of SilverStype is that the administration interface can also be customized as desired.
This means that if you work as a website designer, you could offer a platform that the customer can manage himself, with the options he is able to use.
Unfortunately, there are few resources already made to customize the themes and functions so you have to work on it a bit.
10) Contao is somewhat difficult to use and requires technical programming skills.
They say it is as powerful as Drupal and Expression Engine so the more experienced could take a few minutes to explore its potential.
All free CMS can be tried out in demo and without downloading anything, directly online, on the Opensource cms website that collected them, cataloged them and made them available to all those who are looking for an easy way to make a website of any type.
CMS, free or paid, there are many others eg if you want to report them because they are easy and powerful, I urge you to leave a comment.
