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Is there any CMS better than WordPress or should I roll my own?

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I’m developing a small business website and want to give some control over content to the client but also allow myself control over the outputted code. Indeed allow the user to fill in the content gaps while not creating havoc.

I’m leaning towards WordPress rather than reinventing the wheel in asp.net, which would be my code of choice, or possibly just html.

Any recommendations either way? An alternative CMS maybe or some robust but productive framework? (interested in mention of python frameworks)

NOTE: This question was originally posted at StackOverflow.com by dove

  • Annette
    If you're a natural born programmer at heart, give Django a serious look. It's a nice light python (yeah learning sucks, I know) framework which will do lots of the work for you.

    NOTE: This comment was originally posted at StackOverflow.com by Oli

  • Annette
    ... Especially on the admin side of things. It's entirely possible to build the front-end of the site and not have to change what Django auto-generates for the admin, it's that good.

    NOTE: This comment was originally posted at StackOverflow.com by Oli

  • Arthur
    thanks Oli, i really like the way SO is so self maintaining, and yes i can see how john would react to the title. lesson learned there. but it's great how you picked it up and then healed things. should i edit the title maybe? or just do it better next time?

    NOTE: This comment was originally posted at StackOverflow.com by dove

  • Arthur
    well, you answered that for me swilliams, thanks for title edit. or is that krazy yak? getting more intrigued by these python frameworks.

    NOTE: This comment was originally posted at StackOverflow.com by dove

  • Jimmy
    @dove - It's both :), and I'm starting to get a little weirded out at the people referencing my blog postings online :)

    NOTE: This comment was originally posted at StackOverflow.com by swilliams

Good Answer
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Given that the question is tagged ASP.NET, I’d recommend looking at N2. It’s an open source CMS, and you have complete control over the HTML output. It runs on .NET 3.5, and can be used with MVC too.

NOTE: This answer was originally posted at StackOverflow.com by harriyott

  • Judith
    Having written my own CMS... its... an ordeal. Finding a CMS that fits well into what you already have is tricky, and N2 did that best in that matter.

    NOTE: This comment was originally posted at StackOverflow.com by ccook

  • Vicki
    From all .net cms i tried, N2 is by far the best. It is nicely written (tdd, nhibernate for DAL, separated logic, easily extended with your own classes - content definition, easy to add new view template, etc). But, it's for asp.net devs. Others can find it little difficult to customize.

    NOTE: This comment was originally posted at StackOverflow.com by Hrvoje

  • Patrick
    There is also Wordpress but it is for PHP devs. Others can find it little difficult to customize.

    NOTE: This comment was originally posted at StackOverflow.com by dario-g

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Wordpress is NO CMS.

Wordpress is a very good blog platform, but it’s by no means a CMS – although it can be used as one and the latest versions facilitate that.

Rolling your own is imo a very bad idea. There are plenty of CMS frameworks and tools out there, just try them.

NOTE: This answer was originally posted at StackOverflow.com by Tigraine

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The answer depends on the requirements. WordPress can be an excellent choice if your customer’s budget is very low

If they have some more budget and want something more, the take a look at the CMSes listed above. For ASP.NET I’ve used SiteCore and SiteFinity and have liked both because they allow a lot of flexibility over design and content. Plus, if I need to I can just get into the code and add my own user control to get something hard done.

NOTE: This answer was originally posted at StackOverflow.com by BeaverProj

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I have had a bit of pain using blog engines like expression engine to make more static type sites, you end up working around a whole lot of features that you don’t really need, and hacking things together for the things that you do. If your client is just your average small business type, they don’t always relate to blogging terminology or concepts. They just want to update their interweb thingy, with something that works much like everything else they use on their computer.

Writing your own is certainly a large learning experience, and Hofstadter’s Law will kick in like you wouldn’t believe.

In the realm of asp.net, have heard very good things about graffiti, but not used it, was generally impressed by umbraco, have done a few sites with that, you get total control over the output, the ui is great, and clients understand it very easily.

I tried dotnetnuke a few years ago, but found that I had to work very hard to control the output, which (at the time anyway) was deeply rooted in the webforms paradigm, with all the markup horror that entails, although it does offer a huge number of addin modules, and has a massive user base.

NOTE: This answer was originally posted at StackOverflow.com by seanb

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If you’re looking for a cms in asp.net, you should consider DotNetNuke or if your looking for a blog CMs, you should consider Subtext

NOTE: This answer was originally posted at StackOverflow.com by norbertB

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Although I’ve not used it, I’ve heard that Microsoft Orchard is pretty good.

NOTE: This answer was originally posted at StackOverflow.com by harriyott

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I would avoid Wordpress as a CMS in a professional environment. As stated earlier, it’s a great blogging platform, but doesn’t generally offer the robustness that most professional environments require. I’m a fan of Concrete5 so far as I’ve seen, although you may have to get into a little code to better control some of the formatting errors I’ve seen.

NOTE: This answer was originally posted at StackOverflow.com by lush

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For a True CMS I can recommend you Joomla, Drupal and SimpleCMS.
For Blogging Wordpress is in the best.

NOTE: This answer was originally posted at StackOverflow.com by Urano

  • Vickie
    Joomla is pooooo.

    NOTE: This comment was originally posted at StackOverflow.com by D_N

  • Sheila
    Joomla is seriously one of the worst CMS out there, I would strongly recommend you go another direction.

    NOTE: This comment was originally posted at StackOverflow.com by Joe

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As mentioned Umbraco is a really good and capable open source ASP.NET CMS. v4 (which just hit beta 2) has some really nice features including in-page editing and a neat package repository. The API does leave a bit to be desired if you want to do my code interaction but I’m working on resolving this with a project of my own.

NOTE: This answer was originally posted at StackOverflow.com by Slace

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WordPress fits well for a blogging setting and is relatively easy to adapt. I tried Drupal but I couldn’t get it to play well. I’m still considering what CMS functions best with a workflow of translators in multiple languages.

NOTE: This answer was originally posted at StackOverflow.com by SleekCC

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I thought about using Drupal, then I was frustrated with how difficult it was to “bend” it to everything I needed. Them someone mentioned ExpressionEngine. It was a solid choice.

You can make a simple blog page with EE, or setup a forum, document library, photogallery, setup custom forms for users to enter info to be stored.

The possibilities are endless. I would recommend EE, because I thought about developing my own custom CMS until I stumbled upon this.

Check out some of the tutorials, it will show you how to load content from the database to the template, just by using tags like: {title} and {body}: http://expressionengine.com/tutorials/

It is made in PHP, but with this, it takes the coding out of development.

After the initial learning curve, it’s all down hill. Good luck!

NOTE: This answer was originally posted at StackOverflow.com by Brad

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This post is somewhat old, but I just found it today (12-19-2011).
The first CMS I found was Joomla, which I felt was great for a very short time. Dupral, evern shorter. Joomla is a click this, click that nightmare, and really doesnt offer much more than wordpress. Dupral is a clone, so I really see no point in using it.

Ultimately I used Wordpress for numerous sites, ranging from photo galleries to eCommerce sites. And the sites have performed well, for years.
Most clients are concerned with appearance, and the ones who do make their own changes have no problem using wordpress.

But now I am seeking something “better”? Something that allows more design flexability. Something I can do more with. Plus I have yet to find a Wordpress utility for making custom themes that actually look custom. Artisteer generates themes, but what can I say, they all look alike.

I recently tried Concrete5, and its ok, but still not a developers dream solution.
Next I plan to try several of the other CMSs listed on this page, with hopes to find something that will work for both me, and the end user. So if such a beast exists, I will capture it, and never look back. Then again, Id have to say, Wordpress will be around for a long time.

NOTE: This answer was originally posted at StackOverflow.com by Vee

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If you want to know more CMS, your can visit this website: CMS Matrix. You’ll found a a lot.

Wordpress does fit simple CMS requirement, simple usage, friendly user interface, and easy to extends. Be careful when choosing CMS, some of them may have too many feature and too complex for simple use.

I was once setup a typo3, and failed to teach user how to use it. Then I move to wordpress.

NOTE: This answer was originally posted at StackOverflow.com by Dennis Cheung

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I would advise against wordpress, which is really more of a blogging engine than a CMS. I’ve had good success with Drupal and Joomla which are true CMSs

NOTE: This answer was originally posted at StackOverflow.com by Marcus King

  • Joe
    • Joe
    • 15 years ago
    I think WordPress has evolved into something much more than just a blogging engine.

    NOTE: This comment was originally posted at StackOverflow.com by Ryan Rodemoyer

  • Tim
    • Tim
    • 15 years ago
    whatever happen to "Write programs that do one thing and do it well"?

    NOTE: This comment was originally posted at StackOverflow.com by Christopher Mahan

  • Billy
    @Marcus King, how would you distinguish between a CMS tool and a blogging engine? I mean--version control of postings? Multiple editors? Seriously--what would be the criteria you'd use for classifying an app one way or the other?

    NOTE: This comment was originally posted at StackOverflow.com by Onorio Catenacci

  • Tom
    • Tom
    • 15 years ago
    @Onorio Catenacci: multiple users&permissions, work flow, versioning, i18n&l10n of the content, custom documents (e.g.: forms, locations).

    NOTE: This comment was originally posted at StackOverflow.com by Cristian Ciupitu

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Umbraco was suggested in one of the answers. We’ve had experience with it and many other CMS systems and I can safley recommend you to go that path, it’s both easy to learn and simple to use while remaining a powerful tool to base your sites on.

NOTE: This answer was originally posted at StackOverflow.com by joeysim

  • Tammy
    I have only seen the demos for Umbraco (I couldn't get my host to support it), but it is incredibly_impressive!!

    NOTE: This comment was originally posted at StackOverflow.com by Jens Roland

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Since you tagged ASP use DotNetNuke. There are CMS’ written in every language you can think of. But let me plug the grand-daddy, Zope (python).

Also Wordpress is not a CMS. it’s a blogging framework that has some CMS features. But if your need isn’t enterprise level, then Wordpress might be fine.

NOTE: This answer was originally posted at StackOverflow.com by Stephen Cox

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If you can code and you’re at all open to learning a new language and framework, you should give Django some serious consideration.

Some of the time, you might find yourself reinventing the wheel, and yes, there is some learning overhead, but it’s a really serious contender for “The next big thing”.

It’s major feature (over similar frameworks) is the automatically-generated admin area, which, if your models are logical enough, can be client-ready without any intervention from you. Of course you’re more than able to customise things to help clients.

NOTE: This answer was originally posted at StackOverflow.com by Oli

  • Arthur
    it does sounds very interesting, even though i've a million things to pick up in the world of .net. However they say another language always helps the understanding of your first! do google have their own python framework? know they use a lot of it, don't they?

    NOTE: This comment was originally posted at StackOverflow.com by dove

  • Annette
    Yeah Google has AppEngine which uses some of Django and some other stuff. It's a streamlined version for use on their servers so it doesn't have all the bells and whistles that Django-proper does. In time, I think they plan to implement more of it.

    NOTE: This comment was originally posted at StackOverflow.com by Oli

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Try a real CMS like Textpattern (simple and fast but powerful) or MODx (a nice “CMS platform” build for extensibility).
Wordpress is too limiting, writing your own is too much.

NOTE: This answer was originally posted at StackOverflow.com by Prasinos

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Another option, if you do want to sit back and not waste too much time: Concrete5. It’s PHP based and quite new but it’s quite a nice layout and it’s really natural for new CMS users. You can go from a paper-based sitemap and PSD to a full site structure, ready for data entry, within a day, two at a push.

It’s quite heavy though. Give their demo a look in.

NOTE: This answer was originally posted at StackOverflow.com by Oli

  • Annette
    I checked out your link and like the promise Concrete5 has for simple, quick sites ( of which I have a need)

    NOTE: This comment was originally posted at StackOverflow.com by kevtrout

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If you don’t want a complicated CMS, but rather a blog (which is a simple CMS in a way) you could try the Byteflow blog engine. It’s written in Django – a Python based web framework.

NOTE: This answer was originally posted at StackOverflow.com by Cristian Ciupitu

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