Years ago, creating HTML pages seems a lot of fun, ever since that era have been long gone, and our websites have pretty much gotten into dynamic pages which seems too tedious and totally crazy if you code them one by one, that coders don’t have much left with their lives to code another one.
it’s a pain in the neck having to code from scratch when all you needed was a CMS or Content Management System, that does everything for you. So What exactly does a CMS do for you? Simply put it this way, You add, edit and delete content and CMS does the HTML pages for you without the typing a single code, yes not even the <html> tag.
There are also CMS that are unbelievably free, despite the fact that they do so many stuff for you, just like the one that I’m using, Wordpress, and I’m pretty much used to it, except creating a skin for it.
Here are the best of the best open source CMS in no particular order.
Wordpress
WordPress is a state-of-the-art publishing platform with a focus on aesthetics, web standards, and usability. WordPress is both free and priceless at the same time. Most of us folks use this CMS and is commended as one of the most used software for blogging. It’s only 2.2 mb
Features
- WordPress Themes
- Full standards compliance
- Intelligent text formatting
- Cross-blog communication tools
Joomla
Joomla is an award-winning content management system (CMS), which enables you to build Web sites and powerful online applications. Many aspects, including its ease-of-use and extensibility, have made Joomla the most popular Web site software available. Best of all, Joomla is an open source solution that is freely available to everyone. It’s an easy all in one solution that has a comprehensive take on the admin interface, and you can really get a big help from the community, it has loads of 3rd party modules/plug-ins that you may used, simply one of the easiest to install and used.
Features
- Media Manager
- Web Link Management
- Menu Manager
- Template Management
Drupal
Drupal on the other hand is both powerful and flexible – create your own content types with custom fields, use the Views module to display that content in virtually any way you wish; however Drupal isn’t exactly your out-of-the-box solution as it can require a ton of customization on both templates and modules to fit your needs. Someone mentioned a steep learning curve – this is very very true, mainly because the admin interface is not very intuitive.
Features
- Modules
- Threaded comments
- Database independence
- Discussion forums
Expression Engine
ExpressionEngine is a flexible, feature-rich content management system that empowers thousands of individuals, organizations, and companies around the world to easily manage their website.
Features
- Multiple Weblogs/Site Sections
- Simple Commerce
- Moblog Publishing
- Full Page Modeling
OpenCMS
OpenCms is a professional, easy to use website content management system. OpenCms helps content managers worldwide to create and maintain beautiful websites fast and efficiently. OpenCms is based on Java and XML technology. It can be deployed in an open source environment (e.g. Linux, Apache, Tomcat, MySQL) as well as on commercial components (e.g. Windows NT, IIS, BEA Weblogic, Oracle).
Features
- Direct Edit from front end-view
- WYSIWYG Editor
- Offline/Online Workflow
- JSP Integration
Habari
While there are a number of technical reasons that highlight the differences and advantages Habari has over other blogging packages, a major component of what makes Habari different is its community participation model. Users who demonstrate a level of quality contributions to the project are granted more privileges within the project.
Features
- Modular, object-oriented core for easy extensibility
- Supports multiple database backends (MySQL, SQLite, PostgreSQL)
- Uses prepared statements throughout to protect against SQL injection attacks
- Multiple sites on one installation
CMS Made Simple
CMS Made Simple helps experienced web developers and designers to create sites of power and beauty in a fraction of the normal time, avoiding hours of coding and allowing your clients to update their own sites with a minimum of fuss.
From a simple brochure site to a complex portal, CMS Made Simple puts the power of a modular and extendable content management system at your fingertips. And best of all, it’s free!
Features
- SEO Friendly URLs
- Rich module API for unlimited expandability
- Every page can have different theme
- Database abstraction
Umbraco
An open source CMS based on Microsoft’s ASP.NET, supports any modern browser and allows editing with Microsoft word. Designers can create accessible and valid xhtml with their markup left intact and developers can integrate any .net based control right out of the box
Features
- Fully Ajax-compatible
- Use any .NET Language like c# or VB.NET
- Support for editing in Microsoft Word
- Full support for own .NET Controls
Typo3
TYPO3 is a free Open Source content management system for enterprise purposes on the web and in intranets. It offers full flexibility and extendability while featuring an accomplished set of ready-made interfaces, functions and modules.
- TypoScript editor with syntax highlighting, code snippets, and more.
- With a click of a button, you can install a shop, news system, calendar, gallery, document repository, search engine, website statistics package, login box and newsletter.
Refinery CMS
An easy to use Content Management system that you can use with no technical skills required, release under MIT License, watch the video demo.
Features
- 100% free and open source.
- Super simple and easy to use.
- Slick, clean user interface.
- Modular and extendable.
Hippo CMS
Hippo CMS 6 is an open source information centered content management system. It’s targeted at medium to large organisations managing content for multi-channel distribution like web sites and intranets. It facilitates an open and flexible way of using your information by following international accepted open standards.
Features
- contains a graphical form based XML document editor, which is fully customizable
- allows integrators to build front ends (like web sites, intranet sites or any other application) using their preferred technology (Java, .NET, PHP, Ruby on Rails, etc.)
eZ Publish
eZ Publish is an Open Source Content Management System chosen by thousands of enterprises and organizations world wide. It helps you build corporate websites, intranets, webshops and media portals. eZ Publish is 100% Open Source, available either as a free download or as an enterprise solution “eZ Publish Premium” with support, guarantees and maintenance.
Features
- Publish content from word processors
- Allows content translation
- Video Publishing
Ax CMS
The AxCMS.net offers numerous features and tools, which enable editors, who have no technical or HTML knowledge, to create and edit contents of a website effectively and in an uncomplicated way.
Features
- offers the possibility to access central documents decentrally.
- E-Commerce & Product Information Management
- Collaboration Management
- Cross Media Publishing
Text Pattern
is a flexible, elegant and easy-to-use content management system. It is both free and open source.
Features
- Quick conversion of plain text to valid XHTML with Textile
- Browser-based plugin installation and maintenance
- Built-in search engine
Contenido
Contenido, an easy to use, modularly expandable, content management system.
Features
- Backend search through all articles (searches can be defined and saved)
- Capability for multi-tenancy enables you to maintain and manage your different websites independently from each other with one Contenido installation.
Plone
A powerful, flexible Content Management solution that is easy to install, use and extend
Plone lets non-technical people create and maintain information using only a web browser. Perfect for web sites or intranets, Plone offers superior security without sacrificing extensibility or ease of use.
Features
- Full-text indexing of Word and PDF documents
- Support for multiple mark-up formats
- Flexible navigation and always-updated site maps
- WebDAV and FTP support
Liferay
Liferay CMS provides one central place to aggregate and manage all your content. Each community within Liferay Portal gets its own separate Document Library and Image Gallery.
Features
- Multiple File Uploads
- Dynamic Tagging
- Multi-Tier Search
- Asset Publisher
Adva CMS
adva-cms is an open source cms platform based on Ruby on Rails and Rails Engines.
Features
- Multiple File Uploads
- Dynamic Tagging
- Multi-Tier Search
- Asset Publisher
Radiant CMS
Radiant is a no-fluff, open source content management system designed for small teams.
Features:
- An elegant user interface
- Flexible templating with layouts, snippets, page parts, and a custom tagging language
- A first-class extension/plugin system
- Simple user management and permissions
Alfresco
A freely downloadable open source CMS system supported by an active community of open source developers.
Features
- Enables developers to take full advantage of rich browser presentation libraries including Yahoo! UI and Adobe Flex.
- Single repository for code and content
- XML authoring and multi-channel publishing
Symphony CMS
Symphony is an open source content management system designed to let developers program exclusively in the XSLT templating language.
The philosophy behind Symphony is that nothing should be sacrificed for flexibility – developers should have full control over their website’s markup, URLs and data structures. The admin panel of Symphony alone is really fascinating.
Features
- uses XSLT for templating, a highly versatile templating language that promotes an organised coding style and ample reusability of components.
- Includes some good library of extensions from jquery, tiny MCE to database locking
PivotX
Its powerful core and flexible template system make it easy for developers to adjust and extend. No matter if you want an easy-to-use, robust blogging tool or are looking to push things to the max – PivotX offers the best of both worlds.
Features
- No more hassle with rebuilding, and no generated files taking up space on your webserver.
- if your webhost doesn’t support MySQL, you can also use a flat file database.
- Admin Interface is completely powered by Smarty.
DotClear
Dotclear is an open-source web publishing software equaling and even outperforming other similar tools in some aspects.
Features
- Customizable layout
- Built-in anti spam protection
SilverStripe
A CMS for website editors – fast, flexible, and FREE. It’s designed for people who edit website content. This one comes with a lot of ready-made modules that expands from Blog, E-commerce up to setting up your own forums.
Features
- Adding new features to your site is just a download away. From forums to blogs to e-commerce and maps.
- Complete with themes, widgets and modules that’s supported and backed up by designers and developers from the community
Aliro
Aliro is designed to carry forward the state of the art in CMS development. It fully exploits PHP 5 and also requires MySQL 5. It adopts totally object oriented architecture. Efficiency, flexibility, accessibility are key goals
Features
- An integral error recorder traps problems without giving diagnostic information to users (who may be hackers) while retaining extensive diagnostic information
- The Aliro standard folder manager provides an arbitrary depth structure around which a site can be built
- A simplified plugin architecture allows much greater use of plugins for customisation and integration
Frog CMS
Frog CMS simplifies content management by offering an elegant user interface, flexible templating per page, simple user management and permissions, as well as the tools necessary for file management.
Features
- Drag and drop page ordering
- Flexible page content: body, sidebar, extended, summary
- Per page layout customization
Modx
An Open Source PHP application framework, it frees you to build sites exactly how you want and make them 100% yours. Zero restrictions and fast to build. Super-simple templates in regular HTML/CSS/JS (any lib you want). Registered user systems and a killer community.
Features
- Web 2.0 Features (yes, that means Ajax)
- aids your SEO efforts by making it easier to adjust meta-content of your site on a per-page basis.
- You can build XHTML 1.0 Strict sites just as easily as a tag-soup-table layout.
Xoops
XOOPS is a free content management system, written in PHP, for websites. It uses a modular architecture allowing users to customize, update and theme their websites.
Features
- XOOPS uses the Smarty templating engine which allows many benefits such as easier separation between business logic and presentation logic as well as content caching.
- Has a huge community of developers and users which allows development of new features that they want to get included on next releases of the core system
Typolight
TYPOlight is a PHP based program, so your server should be able to parse PHP files.
Features
- Uses Ajax and Web 2.0 technologies
- Multi-language support
- Cross-browser CSS framework generator
- Built-in file manager and search engine
DotCMS
That is why dotCMS is one of the leading Java-based, open source web content management systems in the world today.
Features
- Task based workflow emails on change requests, content edits, approvals and publishing.
- Content versioning and rollback.
- Easily create Rich Web Functionality (calendar, ajax photo gallery, ecommerce, etc.)
Conrete5
A point and click easy to use Content Management system, that can build websites from personal blogs, community-based portals, up to Marketing focused sites for a corporation.
Features
- Automatic navigations – add a page anywhere and it’s updated everywhere
- File manager with bulk upload and image manipulation using Picnik (Picnik integration in v5.3)
- lets you copy content and functionality from one part of your site to another
- Automatic add-on & theme installation
Movable Type
Your All-in-One Social Publishing Platform, Create beautiful blogs and websites, A simple and powerful content management system,Build a vibrant social network.
Features
- Build a Vibrant Community Around Your Existing CMS or Website
- View a summary of blogging activity in one glance.
- Planet-style aggregation or selective aggregation.
- Customizable email notification is built in.
Mambo
Mambo is a full-featured content management system that can be used for everything from simple websites to complex corporate applications. Continue reading for a detailed feature list.
Features
- Advertising management (banners, etc).
- Advanced and separate system administation system.
- Content macro language (aka mambots).
- Events calendar
Now we’ve seen the Best Open Source Content Management Systems, but which one are you going to use? with so many great CMS available, how are you going to choose which one is for you? It really depends on the user, It differs from once preferences to another, from freelancer using it for web development projects, from an enterprise company that needs a fully functional e-commerce site, or from a blogger that wants a personal blog.
What’s ideal depends on who is using it and how is going to be used.
Some Content Management Systems that are worth mentioning:
Chyrp
An upcoming new open source cms, that almost has similar features as Wordpress. Chyrp is a blogging engine designed to be very lightweight while retaining functionality. It is powered by PHP and has very powerful theme and extension engines, so you can personalize it however you want.
Redaxo
To all german folks out there, this one is for you. REDAXO combines flexibility with ease of use, suitable for start up companies as well as large and complex Internet portals. Thanks to the modular design and the many expansion options REDAXO covers all the necessary features a comprehensive editorial system. In addition REDAXO is an open source system and thus free, and freely used commercially.
Cushy CMS
An easy to use Content Management System that even your clients can use, watch the demo on how easy editing with Cushy CMS is. allow clients to safely edit content, and you can define exactly which parts of the page can be changed.
Surreal CMS
Surreal CMS is a remotely hosted content management system (CMS) that was designed with simplicity in mind. Most people who can browse the Web will be able to use Surreal CMS with little to no training.
Popularity: 26% [?]
Cushy isn’t exactly an open source CMS, but it is free (mostly). Since you’re mentioning hosted CMS solutions then you might as well throw Surreal CMS (http://surrealcms.com) into the mix. I prefer them over Cushy any day, even though they’re not as big.
i see, thanks for pointing that one out, sure thing, i’ll include surreal cms to the “worth mentioning list”
Thanks for the post.
It’s very insightful and very helpful.
I have two blogs – one on WordPress and one on Blogger, and I think you’ve placed WordPress on the right spot
Thanks again for sharing!!!
I would also add SocialWebCMS on to the list! it’s what I use at blogengage and I love it. I use wordpress, pligg and SocialWebCMS. It’s all content management systems you speak about here.
Might as well include that on the list as well. thanks brian.
You probably haven’t heard of this yet – Noosfero – http://www.colivre.coop.br/Noosfero/ – currently being developed by the Associação SoftwareLivre.org in brazil
Think nothing of it! SocialWebCMS is by far the stronger project but it originated from pligg. The core developer left the project and started SocialWebCMS
yea, seems like an upcoming CMS, i see thanks for the link, might give it a visit too. thanks ethang. ^_^ keep the comments going!
Thanks for the mention about Refinery! We’ve been open source about a month – glad to see the word’s getting out.
Its companies like you that we need to thanked for, as you’re providing us web masses with some open source stuff, we all are grateful.
CMS is cool.. we don’t need to worry for our tags mistakes in the Html
i guess the best choices would be Joomla or Wordpress
Thanks For The post.. awesome post..
ah ya.. i’ve got similar posts to yours..
please visit my site if you don’t mind
here’s the URL :
http://www.onlinepublishingsecret.com
Great Day
Caren Tanady
Online Publishing Secret
you have Refinery CMS twice
thanks very much for that, that was supposed to be xoops. I’ll update the list again, thanks for the tap. ^_^
I love CMS systems but they do not work well with a huge platform in such a way that virtually thousands can use the same CMS for their small area of one site. Users want the total connectivity to real relationships as seen in the many social networking sites out there, but they also want creative empowerment at the same time. What is the best OS calendaring system out there? I have herd to start with cal dev.
Good in-depth review for the CMS beginners who are confused about what to choose.
I personally like wordpress for its simplicity and SEO capabilities provided a very good theme. For more insight into the CMS world read 9 Promising, free and open source CMS reviews
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Pardon me for mentioning this, but you have a typo. In the third paragraph of the post, you’ve written ‘Worpress’ instead of ‘Wordpress’
Mambo is called Mambo, not Mambo Server. You should also change the screenshot and the link since these are not the Mambo site!
You can find Mambo at http://mambo-foundation.org
hey thanks a bunch for that, I’ll fix it in a jiffy
thanks, this would really help this collection more accurate.
I know it’s relatively young (circa 2008), but glFusion is rated among the top 10 CMSs according to opensourcecms.com.
Feel free to check it out!
i will have a look at it, thanks, I might include it on one of worth mentioning CMS
What about GetSimple CMS?
hmm… I’ve gotta look at this one too, although it seems a young opensource CMS, it really has one of, i might say, best looking admin page, and blogger’s best friend, the ‘undo’ any actions feature.
I;ll include it on the worth mentioning list. 
Did you forget:
- Nanocms and
- Pritlog – http://pritlog.com
thank you for information.
Great post, very useful and saved me a lot of time looking into each one individually. Although not suited to everything, I really rate CushyCMS for client ease of use and time to integrate.
Thanks
Charlotte
This is acceptable in terms of seo. Naught appears to bother on it compared to that.Coincidentally, this is exactly what was worried about ten years prior at the hack con about google in 1995.
webEdition (www.webedition.de) is missing!