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Compare CMS Technologies
| A comparison of five commonly used free CMS technologies | |||||
| Product | CMS Made Simple 1.2.5 | Drupal 6.10 | Joomla! 1.5.9 | MWPSK - My Web Pages Starter Kit 1.2.2 | WordPress 2.2.1 |
| Last Updated | 5/28/2008 | 2/26/2009 | 1/11/2009 | 2/19/2009 | 7/25/2007 |
| System Requirements | CMS Made Simple | Drupal | Joomla! | MWPSK - My Web Pages Starter Kit | WordPress |
| Application Server
The application server or application environment required to run this CMS.
|
PHP 4.3.5+ | Any that supports PHP (Apache recommended) | .Net 2.0 / IIS | Apache recommended, any server that supports PHP and MySQL | |
| Approximate Cost
The approximate licensing cost of this CMS. Note that there are almost always hard and soft costs beyond licensing costs for any CMS.
|
Free | Free | 0 | Free | |
| Database
The database engine this CMS uses to store content and settings.
|
MySQL, Postgres | MySQL, Postgres | MySQL | XML on filesystem | MySQL version 4.0 or greater |
| License
The type of license this CMS is distributed under.
|
GNU GPL + optional Commercial license | GNU GPL | GNU/GPL v2 | Microsoft Public License (Ms-PL) | GNU GPL |
| Operating System
The operating systems this CMS is compatible with.
|
Any | Any | Any | Windows | OS Independent |
| Programming Language
The programming language that the CMS is written in and/or can be extended using.
|
PHP | PHP | PHP | ASP.NET 2.0, C# | PHP version 4.2 or greater |
| Root Access
Is root (or administrator) access required to install this application?
|
No | No | No | No | No |
| Shell Access
Is shell access required to install this application? In other words, do you need to be able to log in to the machine (other than through FTP) in order to install this application?
|
No | No | No | No | No |
| Web Server
The web servers this CMS is compatible with.
|
Any php enabled server | Apache, IIS | Apache | Apache | Apache, mod_rewrite |
| Security | CMS Made Simple | Drupal | Joomla! | MWPSK - My Web Pages Starter Kit | WordPress |
| Audit Trail
Does the system keep track of who made additions, updates, or deletions?
|
Yes | Yes | No | No | Limited |
| Captcha
A challenge-response system designed to defeat bots from being able to use user-only features of a system. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Captcha for more information.
|
Free Add On | Free Add On | Free Add On | Yes | No |
| Content Approval
Does the system provide for some level of system-wide content approval?
|
No | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
| Email Verification
Does the system send an activation key to users to make sure they've entered a valid email address?
|
No | Yes | Yes | No | Free Add On |
| Granular Privileges
Does the system allow read and write privileges on a per page or per content item basis, as well as separate privileges for other system functions?
|
No | Yes | No | No | Yes |
| Kerberos Authentication
Does the system support authentication via Kerberos?
|
No | No | No | No | No |
| LDAP Authentication
Does the system allow for LDAP-based authentication?
|
No | Free Add On | Yes | No | No |
| Login History
Does the system keep track of who logged in and when? Such systems also usually keep track of things like what browser the user was using and what IP address they came from, as well as unsuccessful attempts.
|
No | Yes | Yes | No | Free Add On |
| NIS Authentication
Does the system support authentication via NIS?
|
No | No | No | No | No |
| NTLM Authentication
Does the system support authentication via NTLM?
|
No | Free Add On | No | No | No |
| Pluggable Authentication
Does the system allow an administrator to plug in additional authentication schemes (from a vendor or homegrown) beyond the default proprietary authentication scheme and an LDAP authentication mechanism?
|
No | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
| Problem Notification
Does the system provide a mechanism for alerting administrators (email, instant messenger, cell phone, etc) when it detects a problem? (Logging does not count.)
|
No | No | No | No | Free Add On |
| Sandbox
Does the system allow for a private area for content managers to try new content ideas without the worry of affecting the rest of the site?
|
Limited | No | No | No | Limited |
| Session Management
Does the system provide some facility for an administrator to see who is logged in, what they are doing, and log them out if necessary?
|
No | Yes | Yes | No | Free Add On |
| SMB Authentication
Does the system support authentication via SMB?
|
No | No | No | No | No |
| SSL Compatible
Can this system be used with an SSL certificate on the web server?
|
Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| SSL Logins
Can this system be configured to switch to SSL mode (HTTPS) for logins, and then back to normal HTTP after the login? This kind of functionality protects user login information from being sniffed.
|
No | No | Yes | No | Free Add On |
| SSL Pages
Can this system be configured to switch to SSL mode for certain pages (or sections), and then back to straight HTTP for other pages (or sections)? You may want this if the system is used partially for regular site content and partially to distribute confidential data such as customer invoices or medical records.
|
No | No | Yes | No | Limited |
| Versioning
Does the system provide for some level of system-wide content versioning?
|
No | Yes | Free Add On | No | Free Add On |
| Support | CMS Made Simple | Drupal | Joomla! | MWPSK - My Web Pages Starter Kit | WordPress |
| Certification Program
Is there a professional certification or degree program for this CMS?
|
No | No | No | No | No |
| Code Skeletons
Does the system provide code skeletons or code templates to make it easy for new developers to write plugins for it?
|
Free Add On | Yes | No | Yes | No |
| Commercial Manuals
Are there books or other commercially available documentation for this CMS?
|
No | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| Commercial Support
Can support be purchased from a commercial organization with trained staff members?
|
No | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| Commercial Training
Can training be purchased from a commercial organization that has dedicated training staff for this CMS?
|
No | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| Developer Community
Is there a free online developer community specifically for this product?
|
Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Online Help
Is there an integrated context-sensitive help system built in to the CMS?
|
Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
| Pluggable API
Can the system be extended through an open and documented application programming interface (API)?
|
Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Professional Hosting
Is there a vendor supplied professionally tuned hosting environment (application service provider) or has a certified hosting partner program.
|
Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
| Professional Services
Are there commercially available professional services organizations to customize or provide administrative services for this CMS?
|
Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| Public Forum
Is there a publicly available forum or message board for the system?
|
Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Public Mailing List
Is there a publicly available mailing list for the system?
|
Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes |
| Test Framework
Does the system have an automated test framework that can be used to test the codebase to ensure that it is functioning properly? This sort of framework is sometimes called Unit Tests or Smoke Tests.
|
No | Free Add On | Yes | No | Yes |
| Third-Party Developers
Are there third-party developers who manufacture plug-ins for this system?
|
Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Users Conference
Is there an annual users conference for this system where it's users can get together, discuss ideas, get training, etc?
|
Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
| Ease of Use | CMS Made Simple | Drupal | Joomla! | MWPSK - My Web Pages Starter Kit | WordPress |
| Drag-N-Drop Content
Does the product allow the user to position content in a drag and drop fashion?
|
No | Free Add On | No | No | Yes |
| Email To Discussion
Can messages be emailed to the system so that they automatically appear in community discussions (forums/message boards)?
|
No | Free Add On | Free Add On | No | Limited |
| Friendly URLs
Does the system have human-readable and search engine friendly URLs? (The alternative is that there are a bunch of symbols and numbers in the URL and the URLs are typically quite long.)
|
Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Image Resizing
Is the system capable of allowing users to resize uploaded images so they need not mess around with an external image editor?
|
Yes | Free Add On | Yes | No | Limited |
| Macro Language
Is there a macro language that allows content managers to place powerful functionality (like auto-generated navigation systems) without any programming knowledge?
|
No | Free Add On | Yes | No | Free Add On |
| Mass Upload
Does the system have a way of uploading/importing many images and other files all at once to save time?
|
Limited | Free Add On | Yes | No | Free Add On |
| Prototyping
Does the system allow the user to create custom default settings for the different kinds of content objects to save them extra clicks when creating those object types. For instance, if there is a particular template they like to use, can they set it as a default?
|
No | Limited | Yes | No | No |
| Server Page Language
Is there a server page language available like PHP, JSP, or ASP for easy one-off functionality?
|
Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Site Setup Wizard
Does the system give the user the option to create default content areas, styles, and other settings during setup of the site or installation?
|
No | Limited | No | Yes | |
| Spell Checker
Does the system have an integrated spell checker?
|
No | Free Add On | No | No | Free Add On |
| Style Wizard
Does the system have a wizard for generating styles/themes/templates or whatever else a look and feel might be called in the system? These wizards would allow the user to step by step choose colors, layouts, logos, etc to create their own look and feel without knowing anything about HTML/CSS.
|
No | Limited | No | No | No |
| Subscriptions
Can the user subscribe to various sections of the site and receive notifications on new/updated content? These types of functions are typically found in the news feeds, forums, and blogs.
|
No | Free Add On | No | Yes | Yes |
| Template Language
Is there a templating language for powerful layout controls? (Note that templating languages are different from server page languages in that they are not capable of full programmatic functions, and are fully HTML compliant.)
|
Yes | Limited | Yes | No | No |
| UI Levels
Is there a means of "dumbing down" the publishing interface for less sophisticated publishers while keeping a more sophisticated interface for power users?
|
Yes | No | Yes | No | Yes |
| Undo
Does the system allow users to "undo" operations if they make a mistake?
|
No | Limited | No | No | Free Add On |
| WYSIWYG Editor
Is there a web-based rich text editor to allow publishers to create formatted content without knowing HTML, CSS, XML, or XSL?
|
Yes | Free Add On | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Zip Archives
Does the system allow a user to upload a zip (or other compressed file) full of static content, which is then published to the site? This sort of feature is used to do web-based mass uploads of static content.
|
No | No | No | No | Free Add On |
| Performance | CMS Made Simple | Drupal | Joomla! | MWPSK - My Web Pages Starter Kit | WordPress |
| Advanced Caching
Does the system have advanced caching mechanisms that go beyond simple page caching? For instance, navigation, template, or content object caching?
|
Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Free Add On |
| Database Replication
Can the system take advantage of database replication for better scalability? The system would need to be able to perform reads from slaves and writes to the database master.
|
No | Limited | No | No | No |
| Load Balancing
Does the system allow you to put a load balancer in front of it to split the load between multiple servers? This would require that user sessions can be passed beween all the nodes transparently.
|
No | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| Page Caching
Does the system have a mechanism for caching the contents of a page so that if it's requested again it can skip most of the work to create the page?
|
Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Free Add On |
| Static Content Export
Does the system have the ability to export it's content as static HTML so it may be served up from regional cache servers, or from static HTML web servers?
|
No | No | No | No | Limited |
| Management | CMS Made Simple | Drupal | Joomla! | MWPSK - My Web Pages Starter Kit | WordPress |
| Advertising Management
Does the CMS have a banner or other management system?
|
Free Add On | Free Add On | Yes | No | No |
| Asset Management
Is there a central repository for uploading images and other files so they can be reused through-out the site?
|
Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Limited |
| Clipboard
Is there a clipboard system that allows publishers to easily cut and paste content from one area of the site to another?
|
No | No | No | No | No |
| Content Scheduling
Does the system allow for content to be automatically added or removed from a site based upon date?
|
No | Free Add On | Yes | No | Free Add On |
| Content Staging
Can content be created on one server and easily "pushed" to another server?
|
Free Add On | Free Add On | No | No | No |
| Inline Administration
Is content edited directly in the page that it will be placed? (The alternative is that there is a wholly separate interface for managing content.)
|
No | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| Online Administration
Can the system be completely managed through a web browser? (The alternative is that there is some sort of offline client software that must be used to manage at least some components.)
|
Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
| Package Deployment
Can content and applications be packaged so that tedious repeditive publishing functions can be easily deployed time and time again without the repetition?
|
No | No | No | No | No |
| Sub-sites / Roots
Does the system allow for sub-sites within a site that are self-contained with their own navigation and content hierarchy?
|
No | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| Themes / Skins
Does the system have a mechanism to transport styles, templates, etc between sites so that you can create a theme on one site and then reuse it on many others?
|
Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Trash
Is there a trash system to allow administrators or publishers to recover content that has been removed from the site? Note that this is not the same as recovering items from a versioning archive.
|
No | No | Yes | No | No |
| Web Statistics
Does the system have built in web site statistics reporting for things such as pages/content items viewed, number of users per time period, etc?
|
Free Add On | Yes | Yes | No | Free Add On |
| Web-based Style/Template Management
Is there a web-based interface for adding styles and templates to the system for design and layout control?
|
Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
| Web-based Translation Management
Can language translations be managed through and easy web-based interface?
|
Yes | Yes | Free Add On | No | Limited |
| Workflow Engine
Is there a full-fledged workflow system integrated into the CMS that can be used for business process management (or other duties beyond just content approval)?
|
Limited | Limited | No | No | No |
| Interoperability | CMS Made Simple | Drupal | Joomla! | MWPSK - My Web Pages Starter Kit | WordPress |
| Content Syndication (RSS)
Can the system export RSS/XML feeds so that the content can be republished on other sites? Note that if it can only syndicate content from one function, such a "news" then it should be labeled as only limited support.
|
Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| FTP Support
Does the system allow users to upload internal content and/or files via FTP?
|
No | Limited | Yes | No | Free Add On |
| iCal
If the system implements calendars, does it allow for the import and export of the iCal standard?
|
No | Free Add On | No | No | |
| UTF-8 Support
Does the system support UTF-8 character encoding to enable multi-lingual sites without the use of seperate code pages for each language?
|
Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
| WAI Compliant
Does the system follow the W3C specification for WAI compliance?
|
No | Limited | No | No | Limited |
| WebDAV Support
Does the system allow users to upload internal content and/or files via WebDAV?
|
No | No | No | No | No |
| XHTML Compliant
Does the system follow the W3C specification for XHTML compliance?
|
Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes |
| Flexibility | CMS Made Simple | Drupal | Joomla! | MWPSK - My Web Pages Starter Kit | WordPress |
| CGI-mode Support
Can the system run in CGI mode for development purposes or on low-end systems?
|
No | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| Content Reuse
Does the system allow content to be mirrored (not copied, but reused) from one location to another on a site?
|
No | Limited | Yes | No | No |
| Extensible User Profiles
Does the system provide a user profiling that can be extended with new profile properties through an administrative interface?
|
No | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| Interface Localization
Is the system localized/internationalized so it can be translated into other languages and take locale preferences like date/time preferences into account?
|
Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Metadata
Does the system support the adding of arbitrary metadata properties to all the content objects? The metadata is typically then used for profiling, indexing, or even auxillary display functions.
|
Limited | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
| Multi-lingual Content
Does the system support the creation of sites with multiple languages?
|
No | Yes | Free Add On | No | Free Add On |
| Multi-lingual Content Integration
Does the system support a multi-lingual version of each content object without republishing the content object. For example, if you create an FAQ in English, then all that needs to be done to display the FAQ in Spanish or another language is to translate the content, not create another page with another FAQ content object. Then depending upon user preferences it either shows one version or the other.
|
Free Add On | Free Add On | Free Add On | No | Free Add On |
| Multi-Site Deployment
Is the system capable of hosting multiple sites from one software deployment? This means you can install the software once and host as many sites as you want. It also means that when it comes time to upgrade you only need to upgrade the software in one place, not for each seperate site.
|
No | Yes | Free Add On | No | No |
| URL Rewriting
Is the system capable of rewriting URL or working with some other URL rewriting mechanism to provide shorter or friendlier URLs?
|
Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
| Built-in Applications | CMS Made Simple | Drupal | Joomla! | MWPSK - My Web Pages Starter Kit | WordPress |
| Blog
Does the systemm have a blog or web log? (See slashdot.org for an example.)
|
Free Add On | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Chat
Does the system have an application for real-time online chat?
|
Free Add On | Free Add On | Free Add On | No | Free Add On |
| Classifieds
Does the system have a classifieds application?
|
No | Free Add On | Free Add On | No | Free Add On |
| Contact Management
Does the system have a contact management or rolodex type of application?
|
No | Free Add On | Yes | No | Free Add On |
| Data Entry
Does the system have an application for creating arbitrary data entry applications?
|
Free Add On | Free Add On | Free Add On | No | No |
| Database Reports
Does the system have an application for creating database reports?
|
No | No | Free Add On | No | No |
| Discussion / Forum
Does the system have a message board?
|
Free Add On | Yes | Free Add On | No | Free Add On |
| Document Management
Does the system have an application for managing offline document storage and versioning?
|
No | Limited | Free Add On | No | No |
| Events Calendar
Does the system have an application for tracking events and displaying events calendars?
|
Free Add On | Free Add On | Free Add On | No | Free Add On |
| Events Management
Does the system have a way to create events and allow users to sign up for those events.
|
No | Free Add On | Free Add On | No | No |
| Expense Reports
Does the system have an application for tracking employee expense reports?
|
No | No | Free Add On | No | No |
| FAQ Management
Does the system have an application to organize frequently asked questions?
|
Free Add On | Yes | Yes | No | Free Add On |
| File Distribution
Does the system have an application for distributing files including privileges for who is allowed to view/download those files?
|
Free Add On | Free Add On | Free Add On | No | Free Add On |
| Graphs and Charts
Does the system have an application that will allow the user to generate graphs and charts based upon some data set (SQL, text file, xml file, etc)?
|
No | No | Free Add On | No | No |
| Groupware
Does the system have email and calendaring (group scheduling) applications?
|
No | Free Add On | Free Add On | No | No |
| Guest Book
Does the system have a guest book or graffiti application?
|
Free Add On | Free Add On | Free Add On | Yes | Free Add On |
| Help Desk / Bug Reporting
Does the system have an application for trouble ticketing or bug reporting?
|
No | Free Add On | Free Add On | No | No |
| HTTP Proxy
Does the system have a mechanism to proxy or mirror HTML and other content and applications from other web servers?
|
No | No | No | No | No |
| In/Out Board
An intranet application that allows staff to post their status. In the building. Out for the day, be back tommorrow. Etc.
|
No | No | No | No | No |
| Job Postings
Does the system have a mechanism for posting job listings?
|
Free Add On | Free Add On | Free Add On | No | Free Add On |
| Link Management
Does the system have an application to manage links?
|
Free Add On | Free Add On | Yes | No | Yes |
| Mail Form
Does the CMS have an application for creating customizable
|
Free Add On | Free Add On | Yes | Yes | Free Add On |
| Matrix
Does the system have a matrix application similar to what you see here on CMS Matrix?
|
No | No | No | No | No |
| My Page / Dashboard
Does the CMS have a dashboard application (sometimes called a portal)? (See my.yahoo.com for an example.)
|
No | Free Add On | No | No | Yes |
| Newsletter
Does the system have the ability to allow users to add/delete themselves to/from a list so that they can be sent email from the system on various topics?
|
Free Add On | Free Add On | Free Add On | No | Free Add On |
| Photo Gallery
Does the system have an application for displaying a thumbnail / image repository?
|
Free Add On | Free Add On | Free Add On | Yes | Free Add On |
| Polls
Does the system have an application for conducting simple single question polls?
|
Free Add On | Yes | Yes | No | Free Add On |
| Product Management
Does the system have an application for displaying organized product information?
|
No | Free Add On | Yes | No | No |
| Project Tracking
Does the system have an application for managing project tasks?
|
No | Free Add On | Free Add On | No | No |
| Search Engine
Does the system have an integrated search engine that can index the managed content and allow the user to search the indexed content?
|
Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
| Site Map
Can the system generate a tree showing all of the pages in the system dynamically so it doesn't have to be maintained seperately by the content managers?
|
Yes | Free Add On | Free Add On | No | Free Add On |
| Stock Quotes
Does the system have an application for displaying stock ticker information?
|
No | Free Add On | No | No | No |
| Surveys
Does the CMS have an application for conducting complex multi-question surveys?
|
No | Free Add On | Free Add On | No | Free Add On |
| Syndicated Content (RSS)
Does the CMS have an application for retrieving and displaying RDF/RSS/XML syndicated content?
|
Free Add On | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Tests / Quizzes
Does the system have an application for administering tests and quizzes?
|
Free Add On | Free Add On | Free Add On | No | Free Add On |
| Time Tracking
Does the system have an application for tracking employee time for payroll or billing purposes?
|
No | Free Add On | No | No | Free Add On |
| User Contributions
Does the CMS have a system for allowing a user community to contribute stories and other content to the site?
|
No | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
| Weather
Does the system have a weather information system?
|
No | Free Add On | Free Add On | No | Free Add On |
| Web Services Front End
Does the system have an application for directly interfacing with arbitrary web services such as the Google API and the various available methods from X-Methods, and then creating a templated user interface without coding?
|
No | Limited | Yes | No | Free Add On |
| Wiki
Does the system support wiki or wiki-like functionality? Wiki provides online collaboration functionality as well as a simple text formatting language.
|
No | Free Add On | Free Add On | No | Free Add On |
| Commerce | CMS Made Simple | Drupal | Joomla! | MWPSK - My Web Pages Starter Kit | WordPress |
| Affiliate Tracking
Does the system have an affiliate tracking or referrals system for tracking partner sites that link in to the site?
|
No | Free Add On | Free Add On | No | No |
| Inventory Management
Does the system provide the site owner a way to manage inventory levels (quantities of product on hand)?
|
No | Free Add On | Free Add On | No | No |
| Pluggable Payments
Does the system allow the site owner to plug in new payment gateways so they may use whatever payment processing mechanism (PayPal, PayFlowPro, 2checkout, iTransact, Authorize.net, etc) they choose?
|
No | Free Add On | Free Add On | No | No |
| Pluggable Shipping
Does the system allow the site owner to plug in their own shipping calculator so that they can charge based upon their needs (weight, price, UPS, USPS, FedEx, etc)?
|
No | Free Add On | Free Add On | No | No |
| Pluggable Tax
Does the system allow the site owner to plug in new tax calculators?
|
No | Free Add On | Free Add On | No | No |
| Point of Sale
Does the system tie into (or have built in) a point of sale system to enable site owners to run a brick and mortar store from the same inventory?
|
No | No | Free Add On | No | No |
| Shopping Cart
Does the system have a mechanism for allowing the user to create a list of adhoc items to purchase, and then purchase all of them at once?
|
No | Free Add On | Free Add On | No | No |
| Subscriptions
Does the system have a way manage timed subscriptions that are tied into the commerce function? This requires recurring billing, billing cancellation, etc.
|
No | Free Add On | Free Add On | No | No |
| Wish Lists
Does the system allow users to create wish lists?
|
No | Free Add On | Free Add On | No | No |
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