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+ .Net 2.0 / IIS
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
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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
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
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
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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
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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
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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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
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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
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
Free Add On Free Add On Free Add On No Free Add On
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
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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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