Comments on: Building a community: Choosing a CMS

By: Christina

Christina — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 22:03:42 +0000

This has been one of the most helpful articles and subsequent comments that I have read in months. Hearing about the differences in Joomla, Drupal and ExpressionEngine from actual people has been so much more useful than my typical research.

By: SJR

SJR — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 14:07:18 +0000

Joomla is getting better. Most of the bugs I find are when using Virtuemart on it. Wordpress is good too if you want a simple straight forward solution. Really depends what you are looking to do with your CMS.

By: Wilfried

Wilfried — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 23:30:19 +0000

Thanks for this CMS review. I install, I use and teach people to use Joomla. For me, this CMS can be used after 2 to 3 hours of learning. In most cases, it remains compatible with the W3C standards as long as the template used is compatible.
Drupal seems less accessible for most people. And I have not yet tested ExpressionEngine.
There are also SPIP which is very comprehensive.

By: Edward

Edward — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 16:24:40 +0000

@Michelle: Maybe it’s not so scary after all , but I do think there’s a steep learning curve. This probably has a lot to do with how complex it can be if you let it; I’ve seen some amazing things with Drupal, but they were also things I’d be afraid to try on my own (Ajax menus, etc).

Maybe one day I’ll try it all by myself.

By: Michelle

Michelle — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 16:14:28 +0000

@Edward: Why’s that? While I admit Drupal can be intimidating to novice site builders, the code is one of its finer points. I love the way it’s designed so that you never have to change the core, which makes upgrading much easier. Maybe you should dig into the code sometime. You’ll find it’s really not so scary once you understand how it works.

Michelle

By: Edward

Edward — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 16:08:30 +0000

Great review and rundown of the popular CMS options (and, let’s face it, choosing a popular options offers you more support and extensions in the long run). I have heard really good things about Expression Engine. Maybe it’s time to try it?

Re: Drupal, I don’t prefer it but have found myself using it several times (I’m not the decision maker). If you have a talented web developer on-staff, I see no problem with it. However, I’d never want to dig into the code on my own!

By: Martin Reed - Blog Author

Martin Reed - Blog Author — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 18:50:50 +0000

Andy – I agree; rarely will you find a perfect solution ‘out of the box’. Unless you have a completely custom solution (and even when you do), you will likely need to install extensions/new features and continue to customise and tweak the software.

Otilia – It’s great that you have found open source solutions that meet your needs; I am a huge fan of WordPress and phpBB and can heartily recommend them.

Chris – Thanks for your comment; I agree with you – the contributions made by readers have added significant value to my original article and have improved it no end.

By: Chris Hutcherson

Chris Hutcherson — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 02:37:07 +0000

Thanks for the useful CMS review. Plus a ton of feedback in the comments from actual CMS users. Gives me a good starting point..

By: Otilia

Otilia — Thu, 29 May 2008 09:33:49 +0000

I’ve played with various CMS for several years now and found that between Joomla, WordPress and phbBB… there’s really nothing more needed. I have developed my content portal using Joomla and found it to be a breeze to manage it and have it well customized; my personal site is a WP blog (still very new and working on customizing it) and am now preparing to launch a community-based niche site using Joomla + phpBB3.
Sure, documentation is not too good especially for Joomla, but all you need is a decent developer to get you started. A little customization goes a long way, to the point that the site completely loses that ‘Joomla template-ish’ feeling.

By: Andy

Andy — Mon, 12 May 2008 20:32:45 +0000

I see what your saying and agree partially but there is no out of the box solution that will have every feature you could possibly want in a social networking site. How do you add new features to your site if you are not willing to install extensions of any kind? Also most of the major extensions for joomla are written by professional programmers in their spare time so most of it is clean efficient code that has been tested rigorously and debugged before release, There are thousands of small buggy plug ins of course you just have to use your judgment. It does not automatically mean problems as the site grows there are lots of massive joomla sites out their. I think most of the problems that are likely to occur will happen pretty early on apart from server resources as the site grows.

Anyway keep up the good work mate. Your articles are very helpful.