Choosing the Best Content Management Software for Your Project

Finding the best Content Management software is indeed the biggest and most difficult step. Can you live with your CMS several years from now? How expandable is it? This guide will get you through these tough issues.

About Content Management Systems

A foreward

It has never been a better time to be a webmaster. There are so many great free and commercial CMS's out there, and sometimes, it gets a little unruly when you need to decide on a final one. All of those old feelings come back: fear, anxiety, indecisiveness...this is, after all, the framework of your website(s) and or business - you better be positive that your decision is final, as it will be set in stone once the site goes live!

As you may know, Content Management Systems are unzipped and uploaded to a server. They typically require a new version of PHP, MySQL, and Apache. From there, you'll typically run an online installation process that links the CMS to your newly-created database. Once installation is complete, you can log in to the administrator's control panel, and begin creating and adding pages, or editing the design.

What to Look For In A Content Management System

Important things to note, before making that final decision!

Before your excitement gets the best of you, you'll have to look at your CMS choices under a microscope. This is not an easy decision: as different CMS's offer different bells and whistles, options, and have their own competencies. Some may require a lot of PHP code hacking. Some may have poor support. Some may already be unsupported, altogether. It's up to you to research these things.

How do you research the best CMS for your needs? Take a look at this list of suggestions, which will point you in the right direction:

Deciding on a Content Management System

Important factors in a CMS decision making roadmap

This list of suggestions offers you a comprehensive plan that will allow you to know all you need to know about a CMS.

Define the question "What do I want my website to do?" and "What will I probably want it to do in the long-run?" Do you want to run a news site? A blog? A video sharing site? A MySpace clone? Maybe, a little of each? This is the first thing you have to iron out, it will greatly narrow down your CMS choices.
Paid, or Free? This is another important decision. Some swear that free CMS's rival the most expensive commercial ones, and in some cases - they are right. However, CMS's with more narrow functionality have been tackled by small companies selling them for a couple hundred bucks, that will outperform free CMS's, since their software is more focused on a particular function. Even if you only want a free CMS, consider how much you *would* spend on a CMS, if you absolutely had to.
Choose CMSs that fit the category of your final decision from steps 1 and 2. Find the CMS that pertains to your decision. (this page lists all CMS categories for your review). Browse CMSs within those categories, and make a rough list of choices based on your first impression. A small handful of choices should do it.
Visit those CMS's websites, and try the demos out. See what the CMS actually looks like in action...not only the "live site", but the admin backend as well. All good CMS sites should have a demo for both of these aspects. Play around with the admin panel and get a feel for the CMS software itself. Can you imagine yourself using it on a daily basis? What are the good points? What annoys you? What do you wish were included, but isn't? These are all factors that you should jot down on a piece of paper.
Visit the message boards for those CMS sites. Spend a decent amount of time on a lazy afternoon reading the comments - especially the complaints. What are the complaints about? Usage? Security? Lack of features? Lack of support? These are more things that should be noted, and put into your final decision-making process.
Contact the webmaster/sales dept. with a well-prepared list of questions. This is the best way to know if the CMS is going to be right for you - getting word directly from the source itself. Note the timeliness and professionalism of their answer, as well. Don't forget to ask for a list of websites that are using their software, if you haven't done so already! You'll want to see what people have done with it, and what it's capabilities can be.
Do a Google search for the CMS's you're considering. With a search term like "abcxyz CMS reviews," you will probably get a good set of links that review the CMS you're considering. It's typically hard to find feedback about CMS's on the internet - they usually reside on webmaster and SEO forums.
Make a pros and cons list of your final decisions. By listing pros and cons of each CMS, you'll have a more clear outlook on what your absolute final decision will be. When doing this, remember what your absolute "must haves" are, and note which CMS's on your list do not offer them.
Point of purchase. You've made your decision, and have downloaded or purchased the CMS, and are ready to install and create your site.

What to Avoid in a Content Management System

Red flags that cannot be ignored!

The official CMS's support forums are empty. This lets you know that the admins are probably never there to answer questions. Worse yet, no other customers are there to help you, if the admins won't.
The software is never updated. Investing your valuable time and money in a website that never gets regular updates is a disaster waiting to happen. All CMS sites should list their upgrade/update history and address what was done in each.
Customers are complaining about a lack of support. This is another extremely negative point - if your software isn't being supported, then your site's future looks grim, and you will probably be shopping for another CMS by the end of the year.
Customers are complaining about being hacked. If this is an ongoing problem, or a very common complaint, then it is not worth your while to use that CMS. As a webmaster, more of your time is better spent on creating content - not fending off hackers due to a poorly written CMS, or continually restoring backups of your site after it has been damaged. Before you buy a CMS you've been eyeing - read through it's forums, search for the word "hacked" and see what comes up. You might be glad you did.
The CMS has no built in forum, or forum integration. This is more of a warning than anything else - many CMS's simply do not integrate with popular forums like vBulletin, IPB, phpBB and others. Know this before you make your final decision, especially if you already have a popular message board that is already live. Nothing would be more unprofessional than to tell thousands of visitors that they'll need to create a 2nd user account to access the rest of the website.
Site skinning/templating is extremely difficult to do. Some CMS's are created so that only those with advanced knowledge could ever figure out how to create and apply new templates (such as those using SMARTY code). These are the CMS's you'll probably want to avoid, unless you're fine with hiring a freelance graphic designer to create a new template. Just make sure those templates won't misbehave when the site needs to be upgraded.
The site developer(s) are idiots. If the developers have an attitude problem or avoid your help tickets, then you should take your business elsewhere - no matter how badly you like their CMS. You'll want software with support you can count on - especially the kind of support that can be dished out within the hour, with no attitudes or irregularities.

Content Management Systems by Category

Select the one that's right for your site!

Listed below is a comprehensive list of CMS categories. Know that I have categorized them myself, according to what I know is out there, and what niche websites most people look to create (and find a CMS for). If you need more in-depth decision-making help, check out sites like CMSmatrix to compare CMSs.

Portal CMS's: Your basic run-of-the-mill portal site, that typically lets you create articles, maintain an image gallery, forum, and have a user login.

Blogs: Although not technically a CMS, this is necessary to list. Blogs let you create your own personal news site, with the most optimal SEO capabilities, and precise organization of text and articles. Blogs have gone far beyond "online diaries" to important information sources and SEO tools. Even corporations and organizations have caught on to the trend.

Video CMS's: These sites are basically YouTube clones, social video sharing sites, or anything similar. They are gaining in popularity by leaps and bounds.

Social Community CMS's: These can be best described as MySpace clones - maintain a community of users that have intricate profiles, of whom can create groups, maintain personal blogs, and meet others.

Social Bookmarking CMS's: Much like digg.com and reddit.com, these CMS's allow you to create a site where people can submit articles that can be rated or ranked (or omitted, due to popular dislike).

Web Directory CMS's: Maintain your own link directory with these CMS's. If you don't know what this is, see directory.google.com or dir.yahoo.com for an example. These have exploded in popularity, but have now experienced a great degree of saturation across the internet.

Wikis: Following in the footsteps of the widely known Wikipedia, these CMS's allow you to create a community contributed online encyclopedia, or collection of information.

List of Popular Portal Content Management Systems

Create an extensive, multi-purpose site with multiple modules and many other add-on capabilities.

Choosing the Best Content Management Software for Your Project