WDG’s Favorite Content Management Systems
There are plenty of open-source content management systems to use, but what are most popular ones? Depending on how advanced you need the content management system to be, what language it’s built in, and who is going to be using it, it can be a headache just trying to find the “perfect” CMS for a project. Our top four PHP based favorites for content management systems are WordPress, Drupal, Joomla, and ExpressionEngine (EE).
As a DC-based web development company, WDG sees tremendous traction and need for Drupal and WordPress implementations, which is why we specialize in both.
WordPress – Easy to install, easy to support, maintain and is also easy to find designers and developers for – An overall great platform for beginners and non-technical content managers that can serve as robust blogging site or a website. For developers the theming language is fairly simple and straightforward and has a tremendous development community.
Drupal – Another powerful content management system that rules the Washington dc open source community. Drupal is a pure CMS and framework and not just a blogging platform. An installation comes with a ton of optional modules that can add lots of interesting features like forums, user blogs, OpenID, profiles but most popular item is its Taxonomy module which allows for displaying related articles or content at multiple levels based on categories etc. Great platform for sites with tons of data and high traffic.
Joomla – Joomla 2.5 is very similar to Drupal in that it’s a complete CMS but is best used for simple and smaller sites. Joomla comes with a decent admin dashboard, complete with intuitive drop-down menus and other features. The CMS also has great support for access control protocols like LDAP and opened. We have a good amount of clients that use Joomla such as congressional members, associations and smaller businesses.
ExpressionEngine – ExpressionEngine is packed with helpful features like the ability to have multiple sites with one installation of software but comes with a small yearly license fee. There is a good community for EE but not as large or active as the WordPress or Drupal community. ExpressionEngine runs large and small sites with the most popular being obama.com
Please to contact our Virginia and DC based web development offices to learn more about these platforms and which may be best fit for you.
