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Choosing a modern CMS
depricated
Member
I'm brand new to web hosting and development, although I have a science/tech background. I'm looking to make a few simple websites: personal profile pages and a basic business info site.
I'm looking for a CMS that is fairly user friendly for development, and especially easy for totally non-technical people to update content. I would have gone with WordPress, but since I'm starting from scratch, I'd like to try a modern solution.
Requirements:
FOSS
Easy for non-techies to maintain content, small modifications
Decent and growing community
Good selection of templates/themes/skeletons
Basically, I'm looking for the Ubuntu of CMS.
Currently, I've shortlisted Bolt, Grav, and October. Which do you recommend and why?
What is the Ubuntu of CMS
- Which CMS do you recommend?16 votes
- Bolt0.00%
- Grav62.50%
- October0.00%
- None of the above37.50%
Comments
If you want Non-Techies, then you still want WordPress. Try Grav and Ghost (if you can stomach Node), and then decide what works for you. If you want a real CMS, though, you'll want something more than a blog-on-acid.
@WSS, the non-techies should be able to update content, or maybe make some new pages, etc. The UI on the ones I mentioned might be ok for that much?
I omitted Ghost due to Node (tricky for shared hosting?) and since it seems really focused on blogs.
Give it a try. See how you feel about it. Personally, I despise Grav.
Why? That's exactly the kind of thing I want to know about.
You can make up your own mind. Go try it.
As mentioned, that's WordPress.
Ghost is nice from a UI perspective. It can do posts and pages. But it is more blog-oriented and probably always will be. Also, very little in the way of user defined rights/permissions. But a simple web site with a few pages would probably be just fine with it. Not very extensible (plugins, or apps in their nomenclature).
Never used Grav.
Ghost has said before that they don't (won't) support shared hosting since 1.0. If you're in a shared environment, I wouldn't consider that. That's the reason I dropped Ghost.
I run a small site with together with some non-techs on Grav on a shared host. They are pretty happy logging in and posting with not much learning curve.. Grav is also reasonably fast and easy backed-up since it's flat file.
That said.. I'd try everything and see what you like :P
Would recommend Grav/Ghost. Now, for a shared environment, just go with WordPress, it's modern enough (don't forget to install wordfence).
Ah, and run away from Joomla.
Yes, it's for shared hosting, and due to the hassle/impossibility of installing Node.js I dismissed Ghost, although it does seem nice for the right use-case.
Grav being flat file is probably the same ease for backups as the others since I intend to use sqlite and not MySQL. Grav seems to have popularity on its side.
And for all the criticism, WordPress is still getting recommended? Even for a new, non-legacy project? Looks like Joomla is the punching bag here!
Ultimately, yes, I'll have to try several for myself, but I'd like to hear the why behind your preferences.
On the off chance that you need Non-Techies, at that point despite everything you need WordPress. Attempt Grav and Ghost (on the off chance that you can stomach Node), and after that choose what works for you. On the off chance that you need a genuine CMS, however, you'll need something more than a blog-on-corrosive.
What is this genuine, non-blog-on-acid/corrosive CMS that keeps getting referenced?
TextPattern.. oh wait, you need to work to make it more than a Blog, too.
TextPattern seems old and more established, but it also doesn't seem as active on github as the others mentioned.
5 bucks I say he ended up using wordpress anyway
Your wager and my stubbornness could end up paying for my hosting
Because it works and does exactly what you're asking for. Just because it has been around for awhile doesn't mean it's not "modern". Version 4.9 just came out and includes some nice features for configuring themes.
The reality is that WordPress is like Windows. It's big and popular so it gets the brunt of hackers attention. Keep on top of updates and review any themes and plugins you install and you should be fine. Keep a set of rolling database backups (off-site) so you can go back a few weeks/months (depending on size) if need be.
I tried Grav and didn't like it at all after I couldn't change the main head image.
I have BOLT.cm on 2 sites and quite like their layout. If you stick to the basics it's easy to use too. For more complicated stuff you can chat with the developers via IRC.
One think that is nice about BOLT, you can place it 'below' you /public_htm/ web directory so it can't be reached by a browser from the outside. Wordpress can! And that makes it less secure.
Wordpress
...and for what you are not asking for there is probably a plugin for that. In terms of ease Wordpress is hard it beat. I use it on 5 or so sites.