Content Management Systems (CMS) is a software used to simplify the creation and maintenance of websites. They are responsible for managing online content, generating web pages, and allowing users to upload and modify digital content without having a certain technical expertise. In most CMSs, content is stored in an administration area and can be modifies how ever you want. This administration area can be accessed through any web browser. With this content, CMSs allow you to organize the content on web page templates to achieve the style that you desire.

There are many categories that CMSs can fall under. Some of these include a portal site, blogs, e-learning sites, e-commerce, wikis, and social media sites. Each is going to offer a different set of tools and templates to use when personalizing your site. That being said, in some situations a CMS may not be the best option. For organizations, it is important to research how a CMS would implement with your business and find out if it is the right choice. Many CMSs don’t offer flexible workflows. If you force yourself into the wrong workflow, it could be disastrous.

Here are a few advantages and disadvantages of open-source content management systems:

Advantages:

• Most are free to download and install
• Development support communities
• Most licenses allow you to modify source code

Disadvantages:

• Possible hidden implementation costs
• Technical skills required
• Large organizations require experienced staff to manage platforms

 

Currently, there are hundreds of CMS platforms on the market. The three most popular CMSs on the market are Drupal, Joomla, and WordPress.

Drupal is more of a framework rather than a CMS platform. Because it is more of a framework, Drupal is a highly flexible CMS. The only problem with this system is its level of complexity and bad UI.

Joomla is a powerful CMS that is capable of developing highly trafficked sites. Joomla lacks the complexity that Drupal has so it is easier for designers to get a site live quickly. Although Joomla is easier to use, it doesn’t offer very good security and displays an unnecessary amount of code.

WordPress is the most dominant of the three. It was initially only a blogging platform but eventually advanced on to managing websites. WordPress organizes content into categories and tags making it easy to develop relationships a produce descriptive content. Although WordPress is easy to use, it is inflexible.