Content Management System (CMS) Websites

What is a web content management system?

A web content management system is a website that is built on a platform that allows users to update their website without having to know HTML or other web programming languages. Most CMSs utilize databases to store the website’s content. Also, most CMS websites make it very easy to change the look and feel of the website by editing just a few files instead of every single page on the website.

WSI WebSpecialist has experience with the following content management systems:

• Adobe Business Catalyst (WSI eFusion)
• DotNetNuke
• Drupal
• Wordpress

Adobe Business Catalyst (WSI eFusion)

Business Catalyst is a great CMS for small business websites. Its user interface (UI) is very intuitive and easy to use. It also has many of the modules that one would want in a CMS built-in, such as blogs, announcements, ad rotators, e-commerce, email marketing, and more.

Business Catalyst is a hosted solution, meaning that the website must be hosted on Adobe’s webservers. The benefit of this hosted solution is that Adobe handles all security updates and system upgrades at no additional charge to its website owners. The downside is that server-level access is not available, making customizations to the website's programming difficult or impossible in some cases.

While there are few pre-built templates available for this system, it does allow for complete freedom in creating custom designs.

Drupal

Drupal is a popular CMS, used by a number of high-profile companies including MIT, Sony Music, and the White House, among others. It is open-source, meaning that anyone can edit Drupal’s code to improve it. It can be hosted on any webserver that is running Apache. Drupal is very customizable, either through the installation of custom built modules, or editing the code itself.

There are a number of pre-built themes available for Drupal, but there are not as many as the number of pre-built themes available for Wordpress (see below).

Drupal’s strength is that it is highly customizable and it is a good choice for websites that have specific functional requirements. Drupal can be a little overkill for smaller websites with simpler requirements.

Wordpress

Wordpress is a very popular, if not the most popular content management system. It is also open-source, like Drupal. It can be hosted on any webserver that is running Apache. Wordpress is very customizable, either through the installation of custom built modules, or editing the code itself.

Because Wordpress is so popular, many pre-built templates, or themes, are available for it. Many custom modules are available for it as well. Sometimes it is difficult to sort through all of the custom modules that are available to determine which is best.

Wordpress’s UI is fairly easy to use, although perhaps not as intuitive as Business Catalyst’s.

Interested in a CMS website? Contact us for more information.