Content Management Systems : Beyond WordPress
WP install base hit 40 percent recently. Depending on who you talk to, this number varies between 15-20% % (of all the sites) to 40 % (of all the websites that use a Content Management System).
As an accompaniment to the "All Things WordPress" discussion, I thought of starting this one on Content Management Systems (CMS) other than WordPress. Feel free to add the CMS that you have used/ are using, or have heard good things about.
In particular, it would be great if we could build this discussion into a resource for the community. Why do you like a particular CMS? What are the quirks? Any strong dislikeds?
--> Tools, tutorials, resources are welcome !
--> Forum SW, Wiki,gallery programs, JAMSTACK also welcome
Links and Resources I found Useful:
a. Wikipedia : List of Content Management Systems
In particular I like their listing based on type of language (PHP, Perl, Js...)
b. CMS Critic
c. Tutorials on websiteforstudents Students' Directory
d. Awesome Self Hosted (github) : Blogging Platforms and Content Management Systems
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Comments
Since 2018, I have tried over 50 different CMS (unfortunately we still use WP for our podcasting site and my blog). But I keep experimenting, reading up on new developments, particularly in the node.js space. Some day we might move out of the WP ecosystem.
In the meantime, here is a (short) list of CMS I have tried; in no particular order. Time permitting, I will write a brief overview of a few of them.
For NAT and 'lightweight' shared hosting (@Smallweb with 250 MB Plan??) some of the below work well, particularly the lightweight PHP or flat file ones.
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I would add Publii.
It creates static HTML websites, but enables relatively convenient content management (regarding it's being done for a static website). I've been using it for some "small stuff."
It does a decent job in terms of code optimization: performance, mobile friendliness, and GASP!!! SEO.
"The legend says: if you go to a hosting-related forum with a green top bar, and write the letters:
'wordpress'
...A born-to-be-mild fiend, capable of derailing even the most sensible forum threads with some unrelated trivia."
BikeGremlin I/O
Mostly WordPress ™
What about bolt? I find that quite lightweight
Though I hate markdown, the natural pairing of TinyCP and PicoCMS is super lightweight - minimal bloat.
lowendinfo.com had no interest.
Jamstack like hexo hugo count?
I am fans of hexo.
Action and Reaction in history
How can it possibly be light? Composer & symfony.
lowendinfo.com had no interest.
Gatsby. The static approach will always win in an edge caching world.
...but obvious not suitable for all cases
Does Docuwiki count in this discussion? Ive used it, albeit not extensively, for a quick lightweight cms.
Edit: updated OP
I mentioned in OP precisely for the reason..
Wikis are welcome. Should add image gallery also
@AlwaysSkint Bolt can be installed on Shared hosting using softaculous. But the new version is a bloatwate
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Derp I missed that, sorry!
Okay true - but I've never had a speed issue using it.
In a workshop in my city, an experienced Gatsby developer had a problem while demonstrating live how things are done using Gatsby, with WordPress as a back-end content creation/management tool. On a basic "hello-world-like" example. Figured it out later, but couldn't get it all working properly during the presentation.
It is understandable there was some pressure for making a live public presentation, and probably a different work-flow (in order to make it easier for us gits to understand), but it does seem like a not the most practical setup in the World.
This is my personal point of view (not claiming to be an expert, and even much less to be "right"):
Are those 0.5 s faster page load times, or somewhat lower server load (at least compared to WP with proper caching implemented) worth the extra hassle?
As you said - it depends on the use case.
The point of all this drivel?
Many developers present their tool as a be all, end all. Often not deliberately - but I have noticed many people take it that way, from the way it is explained and presented.
Pros and cons, and the intended use cases, are very important when choosing the tools for the job. I know: it's blatantly obvious, but, at least in my experience, it often gets overlooked.
Mr. Obvious 2: another important factor to consider is developer's knowledge and experience.
To use an analogy: I never use a "third-hand" cable tensioner when setting up brake and shifter cables, because I'm so used to doing it "manually" that the extra tool usually ends up taking more time on aggregate. But the final result, and the total time used are very good even with using the technically inferior methods.
Developers age also plays a part here (in my opinion). 10 years of experience with one tool, unless the tool is completely unsuitable for the use-case, can make the end result be of higher quality (and cheaper to make), compared to 3 months experience with a new hot tool.
BikeGremlin I/O
Mostly WordPress ™
This is something that I think is often overlooked.
An experienced user can use it's expertise to tweak something to perform to it's absolute limits, while a newbie might use the software completely wrong and thus making it perform extremely bad.
Considering this, a highly skilled wordpress developer can make wordpress perform better in areas it is absolutely not optimized for, even compared to purpose written software because the software is badly configured. Of course, this applies to everything, not just wordpress or cms's in general.
I've seen this so many times, companies paying top dollar for a purpose written solution that they can barely get to work, then someone comes in with some general all purpose solution, tweaks it to do just this one single thing, and it beats the crap out of the expensive purpose written but badly configured solution.
No software is better then the person installing/configuring it.
Whenever i get free time, i play with a lot of CMS, static file generators and many latest ones.
publii: i really liked it but i stopped using it because i (or clients) need to download software
vuepress: i use it a lot for documentation sites
gitbook: before vuepress, this is my goto for docs and i still use it
gridsome: because of many features it offers TTFB PRPL etc...i use it for some sites and blogs
netlify CMS: i used it along with gridsome
forestry: good UI and easy to configure
strapi: investing lot of time on it....initially it disappointed me because i have to use sqlite to use it but i use it along with gridsome
directus: excellent alternative to strapi
grav: tried long back but felt complex to setup so left it
contentful: i was like wtf, why would someone pay....but my wife's company uses it and i am sure they pay hell money
out of passion, for the craze of fast loading times and TTFB etc....i have converted some wordpress sites to gridsome (and heck they took almost a week to migrate) but when i show it to wordpress authors....they don't want it....they are so adjusted to wordpress and seo features in all in one seo/yoast which shows post score etc.
then i started using graphql/wpgraphql but i never got them to work but at one point i gave up on them.
Eventhough i am basically laravel dev, for one big site.... i am using strapi and gridsome so that site will be faster for end users (90% of them are on mobile with data plan).
tldr; how good, fast it may be....it is very hard to convince typical wordpress admins to use these CMSes.
ThemeForest Profile
Interesting Typo3 hasn't been mentioned yet. It is also fairly popular, I think. Sticking to WP though
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There's no doubt wordpress is the king amount all CMS. It is easy to use and do not need much skills which means the cost for peoples jump in is cheap. However, their editor change push me leave them.
Words is not enough to tell how I hate the new editor.
I switched to hugo after the editor change, then finally move to hexo because I know nodejs more go. Not gonna change unless i plan to make my own CMS. (Actually i started a project while I start learning nodejs frameworks, but it seems I will never finish it)
Action and Reaction in history
Not in itself no, but the whole approach appeals to me in a minimalist / optimisation type of way.
1) I like that you can back it with markdown & git. For a blog specifically that kind of eternal format safety appeals. Wordpress is into databases and mystery plugins that may not be around in 3 years etc territory.
2) I like the concept of mixing static pages and serverless for dynamic parts.
3) Hate wordpress
So far haven't built anything of consequence with Gatsby though. Keep getting sidetracked. git? Sure lets self-host gitlab. Oh but actually lets put gitlab on top of proxmox. Let's learn ansible & deploy it that way though. Via a jump host. And actually while we're at it let's sync it with google cloud repo. Also gitlab needs CI integration. And a container reg. That needs https though. To do that we need DNS ACME challenge though. To do DNS ACME we need a nameserver with API. etc. And that's why I don't have a gatsby blog...the prelude is taking time.
I'm not a WordPress user, but apparently, one of the main reasons for the existence of ClassicPress is the new editor of WordPress, which the creators of ClassicPress didn't like. Is the new editor of WordPress really so bad?
"A single swap file or partition may be up to 128 MB in size. [...] [I]f you need 256 MB of swap, you can create two 128-MB swap partitions." (M. Welsh & L. Kaufman, Running Linux, 2e, 1996, p. 49)
I agree, the new editor sucks. There is a plugin to get back the old editor though, in case you didn't know
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Back to Non-WP discussions :-)
Some nice discussions overnight.
I am rather impressed by the following three CMS's:
HTMLy - the new admin interface in the beta (left side vertical menu versus Top bar) is quite nifty.
WonderCMS : as lightweight it gets! Also like the new colour themes
Among the Database backed "traditional" CMS- Expression Engine has come a good way since they open sourced it.
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Glad you mentioned it! I had used Pagekit a few years ago, unfortunatley they stopped work on it (GH shows last update > 2 years ago) . Publii is very similar in intent and design, worth a shot for static sites!
Update: Chyrp lite is awesome. As the name suggests: lightweight- does require a database though.
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Ah! pagekit.....spent countless hours years back because i loved it but again at some point dropped because wp provides more.
i have also used many gulp,nunjucks starter kits.
going through this post is like recollecting memory
on these CMSes
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My first info of Gatsby was after a WP developer who's knowledge and experience I value told me to check out the new cool thing. He really got into it - and helped organize a public workshop where an experienced Gatsby developer showed what it's all about. I came there prepared. And got into it some more afterwards.
For me it's still not the optimal option - when I weigh all the pros and cons. But it's far from bad.
When it comes to WP and all the compatibility issues, this is my line of thinking - correct me where you think I'm wrong.
Modern, current trend is "updating/upgrading." Things that are over a year old are often considered "old." One of the local forums I'm following (in my native) is running on PHP 5.6. No one wants to bother fixing the code (we'd have to do it in our own free time) to make it "up-to-date." There still are providers offering PHP 5.6, but many hosting providers are not offering anything older than 7.x. They claim performance, security - but I think no one just wants to bother, really.
With that in mind, WordPress is following a similar route. Cutting the backwards-compatibility, version after version. Themes and plugins that have a huge amount of users are very likely to be developed and supported in the foreseeable future (which is a shorter, and shorter time period when it comes to the "computer related" stuff).
Also, WordPress itself is used very widely.
For those two reasons - if there comes a time when WP is no longer supported, I believe there will be a way to export the contents and move them to whatever CMS becomes the new rage. Or go back to the good old static HTML (unless that too becomes unsupported by browsers, in a very distant future of say "over 3 years"...
joking, exaggerating a bit... but not too much).
The bottom line is: I like being in a position to run my websites from my own computer if needed. As long as that works, I will always have a way of exporting the data to any new tech (with more, or less hassle).
Of all the available options, the thing that takes most time - writing good articles, adding pictures etc, editing categories and structure from time to time etc... all that is very conveniently done using WordPress. Along with many free, open-source plugins & themes for stuff like formatting, SEO, optimizations, security etc.
And I try to keep it plugin/theme neutral. Even though I am using a child theme with some custom code (and Cloudflare for DNS and "CDN/security), my websites are configured so I can relatively easily switch to any other theme, plugin (and stop using Cloudflare if needed).
Gatsby has its complications, including the time needed for learning how to use it properly, and for my intended use-case it's not really convenient.
Static HTML websites? They require paying for Disqus, or similar service if you want the option of having visitor comments - for that to work "natively, on site" you need some sort of database-driven website.
Another thing to consider is the popularity. I believe if/when WP becomes obsolete, I'll be more likely to find an automated migration tool to the new-rage-CMS from WP, than from a static HTML website, or a static-website management tool (like Publii to name one, though Gatsby also does that pretty well).
BikeGremlin I/O
Mostly WordPress ™
Once I leave, it's hard to go back. Another example is Centos. And I prefer JAMStack, M for Markdown.
Action and Reaction in history
He did, indeed. I like it. Seems like well written code.
Is this one cool?
Bloated? I ran out of memory trying to run it.
Laravel based. I did like it, but lots of code/logic/content follows the theme itself, IIRC. (Couldn't easily switch between various themes to check them out.)
Tom. 穆坦然. Not Oles. Happy New York City guy visiting Mexico! How is your 文言文?
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I keep going back to TextPattern though not on any of the primary sites. One day (soon) might just bite the bullet and set up one of my new blogs there.
Chyrp Lite... Chyrp is no longer updated/ maintained.
OctoberCMS is nice. The problem is: changing themes breaks the site. Or adding certain plugins.
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processwire, any one use it?
https://processwire.com/about/
small community but very active.
the admin gui feel different than most other cms, at least for me
@vyas. thanks for starting this thread.
Them and Expression Engine- I believe similar back end structure approach. Always wanted to try Processwire but haven't been able tog et around it. Maybe this week I can.
For those interested: their demo site is here:
https://processwire.com/about/demo/
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Why not Joomla? Lots of extensions available and quite easy to create your own (like with Wordpress).