What CMS should I implement in a simple website for a friend?

February 15, 2007 9:50 AM

What is the simplest and most accessible free web content management system at this time?

[I know this question has been asked dozens of times, but I think it's still relevant since different packages mature at different rates and new software comes along all the time.]

My friend needs a simple vanity site and I agreed to design it for him. Since I'm turning it over to him at the end, I need a CMS that's intuitive enough for him to use. He won't need to create any new pages, he only needs to edit the content already existing ones.

What's the dead-simplest free CMS out there? What do you recommend?

posted by jmprice to Technology (22 answers total)

Wordpress. (It works fairly well as a CMS.)
posted by SpecialK at 10:06 AM on February 15, 2007

I second Wordpress. It is fantastic, and quite possibly the most likely to be supported for a long time to come (in my experience!).
posted by rc55 at 10:16 AM on February 15, 2007

Thirding Wordpress.
posted by wonderwisdom at 10:22 AM on February 15, 2007

I would like to nominate Drupal.

We have it at work and we manage a LARGE intranet for a equally LARGE Govt. entity.
posted by photodegas at 10:38 AM on February 15, 2007

A lot smaller footprint is a new CMS called doop. It is still in it's infancy but quite stable. An alternate (mirror) link is doopcms. Try the first link because the second seems to be having DNS issues, sometimes.

It has a gallery option, forum option and blog (beta).

Any questions or for help, my email is in my profile.
posted by raildr at 10:46 AM on February 15, 2007

Another vote for Wordpress.
It's idiot proof.
posted by Webbster at 10:52 AM on February 15, 2007

Wordpress is simpler than Blogger?
posted by chunking express at 10:55 AM on February 15, 2007

I use drupal for the big ones, but for little sites, I love the simplicity and usability of textpattern (I've never used wordpress...)
posted by tingting at 11:42 AM on February 15, 2007

Failing WordPress, I use ModX for this purpose with clients.

It's PHP and as easy to install as WordPress. In fact, I tend to think of WordPress as a blog system with added CMS features, whereas ModX is a CMS system with added blog features.
posted by wackybrit at 11:54 AM on February 15, 2007

Textpattern over Drupal for a simple site. Wordpress is great for blogging and can be adapted as a CMS, but Textpattern is much more general-purpose and, in my opinion, elegant.
posted by tmcw at 12:44 PM on February 15, 2007

I use Textpattern and concur its excellent.
posted by chunking express at 1:08 PM on February 15, 2007

I just finished implementing a site for a client in MODx, so second wackybrit. It has a pretty powerful (read: complex) backend, but you could probably tell your friend to ignore the manager and stick to QuickEdit, and all would be well. Be aware that they're more or less completely refactoring the code for 1.0, but 0.9.5 is useful and usable right now.
posted by Alterscape at 1:37 PM on February 15, 2007

WordPress here too. I first used Drupal and found it less intuitive than WordPress. I have since created several different WordPress sites and highly recommend it.
posted by hz37 at 1:47 PM on February 15, 2007

-1 for drupal

i found it overly complicated, and you need to spend hours sifting through modules and installing them to see if they do what you want. And it's complicated to tweak the look since there is HTML code being generated all through the application.

(lots of $output .= "<P>Blah</P>"; ugliness.)

if you like the default look, fine. if you want to control how the site looks and works, you are in for a world of pain.

wordpress is for blogging, but it supports pages (i.e. content which is "static", and not a blog post) and you can actually build a whole site with it. it's a slick package. great themes too.
posted by kamelhoecker at 2:40 PM on February 15, 2007

Wordpress. Do a search on google for wordpress CMS plugins to look at some of the plugins out there that make it an even more powerful CMS then what you get right out of the box
posted by Mick at 3:33 PM on February 15, 2007 [1 favorite]

Id have to say wordpress.. although techinicaly more a blog than a full cms, unless you mod it.. which makes it complicated again.

drupal/mambo/joomla all basicly the same thing.. not all that easy.

cms made simple is a new one, although i had a go with the demo and yes it was easier than joomla.. but still not all that easy.

http://www.cmsmadesimple.org/
posted by complience at 3:55 PM on February 15, 2007

I'd give Joomla a look. I use it personally and I know a number of large to small organizations that use it. Impressive.
posted by gb77 at 4:02 PM on February 15, 2007

i like textpattern the best but i can't say exactly why it is superior to Wordpress. maybe because the admin area is more attractive.
posted by macinchik at 6:07 PM on February 15, 2007

I find Textpattern the most attractive, simple and usable.
posted by Count Ziggurat at 9:04 PM on February 15, 2007

You could ask your friend to look at some of the demos at OpenSourceCMS to decide which system he finds easiest to use.

Given that your friend is only going to need to edit some already existing content and not restructure or add to the site, anything beyond sNews seems completely unnecessary.
posted by quixotic at 2:37 AM on February 16, 2007

N'thing wordpress - for a simple vanity site with a few pages of content, it's really a no-brainer, I've trained dozens of people to edit their own content with it.

I love these questions, without fail someone will recommend something that is vast overkill. It's like all the word processing software threads that always kick off with someone recommending LaTeX.
posted by Happy Dave at 2:47 AM on February 16, 2007

I'm obliged to mention that kamelhoecker has completely misunderstood Drupal's themeing method. Drupal will always override the functions he describes with edited ones you provide in a theme - if you need to do so (which in all likelihood you won't).

FWIW I made the fourth-most-downloaded Drupal theme last year without touching anything but CSS.

All that said.... use Wordpress.
posted by genghis at 5:49 AM on February 19, 2007