If money was not an issue, what CMS would you buy?

[akasixcon]

I'm asking this so I won't have to upgrade in the future once I get more money.

Currently I'm using:

Vivvo for my main website, vBulletin for the forums and Wordpress for the blogs.

Can anyone else disagree that I am not using the best? Money is not an issue here so please suggest better options.

Below are the rivals of what I have (parenthesis statements are the reasons why I use it):

Vivvo (I use it as a news site to update news, articles, videos, tips, tricks stuff like that)

Joomla
Drupal


vBulletin (Basically for people to discuss things. A social zone)

IPB 2.2
Expression Engine Forums


Wordpress (commentary to the other sections of the website, forums, vivvo)

Expression Engine
Blogger
Movable Type


Though if I was a good webdesigner I could probably just stick with Expression Engine since it already has an integration with the forums and blog.
I decided that I should rather use quality as vBulletin has some special features and more customizable than the EE. Same goes for Vivvo for its very simple use. And again for wordpress.

[ArunK]

Drupal for the news/blog site.
vBulletin for the forums.

What kind of website are you working on? The more complex you want the site to be, the more money it will cost you.

[maroon_cool]

Definitely i will go with Joomla.

[Unkn0wnPlayer]

"Vivvo for my main website, vBulletin for the forums and Wordpress for the blogs."

- Sounds damn good to me.

[Clive]

To answer your subject line,

I'd never buy a CMS. An open source one will always gather a bigger community around it, that will make it a better mods resource, and you can save your money for any custom adjustments required for the CMS to better serve your needs.

Paid CMS's are like closed circle communities.

[Xangis]

I agree with Clive. If you feel you absolutely *must* spend some money, pick an open source project and send them a donation.

[Comenius]

My vote is Joomla.

[Clive]

I agree with Clive. If you feel you absolutely *must* spend some money, pick an open source project and send them a donation.

Some may think that free stuff cannot compare to paid one. Well, that is true in many cases. Not when talking about CMS software.
So yes, give Joomla a try.

[dsendecki]

Depends on the nature of the site, but I would be inclined to go with Joomla.

[vlangber]

Some may think that free stuff cannot compare to paid one. Well, that is true in many cases. Not when talking about CMS software.
So yes, give Joomla a try.

You must have extensive experience with commercial content management systems since you're so sure the open source cms' are better.. Correct?

Personally, I think most of the open source stuff is only usable for small and simple sites. The only exceptions I've seen are EZ Publish and Plone.


Vidar

[xtraze]

Jooooooooomla forever.
Its not just a CMS these days.

Joomla has become a multipurpose application building environment.

[Davidj]

1. Wordpress is free :p
2. vBulletin -- eh, punbb or vanilla are just as good
3. Vivvo? Never heard of it. I use e107 and am quite happy with it.

[cmstom]

PHPCow for CMS and enjoy.

[phd]

1. e107
2. vBulletin
3. WordPress

[bgolat]

I like Wordpress for a basic CMS, but if you need something more complex Drupal. I don't really know of any good ones that you have to buy, because I always use free solutions. :)

[jetbrains]

Definitely I will choose Vivvo .

[monkeysurfer]

Joomla here
Good community
Lots of templates/extensions
Perfect SEO (even without SEO plugins)

[pwhite]

For my site I use:

Drupal for the hompage and about sections.
Wordpress for my blog and articles.
PHPBB for the forum.

[kodut]

joomla vb wordpress

[cmstom]

if you have limited html skills and no php skills, you need phpcow. see the templates phpcow.com/?c=146

[dhruv]

i would settle for drupal or joomla any idea.

[akasixcon]

Can anyone verse Drupal and Joomla?

[cicogal]

I would go for drupal + Vb, but get the integration right

[akasixcon]

Where do I download the integration / bridge for them both?

[jimrthy]

It seems interesting to me that the subject says "Price is no object," then pretty much everyone recommends free alternatives.

I don't have any personal experience with any commercial CMS. I do have a few buddies who work for various companies where price really is not an issue. They're all using Site Core.

They also have at least one full-time developer who's dedicated to doing all the customization they want/need.

I'm not saying it's better than Joomla (and definitely not that it's better than plone). I'm just saying that's what the big boys are using.

Then again, the big boys also seem to enjoy throwing away money.

[EJRaven]

Let give some light on commercial vs open source content management systems .

Commercial CMSs

Site Core Small Business $8,910
No comments... this is what a Corporate License ($44,415) for this product looks like https://www.thrifty.com/
No thanks.

First I have used Subdreamer , Vivvo and CMSCow and a couple of other commercial CMSs nobody here will remember, all are somehow well priced for their quality

Vivvo: $195 (without many useful modules see http://www.vivvo.net/pricing.php )
Very well designed CMS, if a CMS is all you need then this is a great choice, expensive compare to the other choices though, I would buy this one only if I had the extra cash and I was not going to expand my site to a full community website.

Phpcow's $59.95
Only worked on this briefly, I wish I could had spent more time on it, looks very promising and the article system is beautiful, very inexpensive for its quality, but the lack of integration really hurts its credibility as a complete CMS.


SubDreamer $99.95 ($49.95 without forum integration)
SubDreamer integrates so flawlessly with all major forums (vBulletin, IPB among others) which in turn can integrate with so many other systems and functions that the limitations are next to none, integration as you will hear me sing over and over is one of the keys to the success of your site.
It's notable to say that SubDreamer gives 6 months of free hosting with their 99.95 package.


Open Source CMSs

Joomla vs Drupal:
What's better than free? Nothing, enough said so let me discuss the differences and similarities between these two briefly.

Joomla and Drupal are very easy to use, I will quote my programming teacher when he said that if you code software know who you are coding software for, you will notice that a lot of the expensive commercial CMSs are so in-depth that only specialist can use them, this is the opposite with these two and a few other open source CMSs, their structure is so easy to use that anyone can pick them up in a couple of days if not hours.

The main difference is the integration and support on both CMSs, there seems to be a larger following MODDERS on Joomla compared to Drupal, and although Drupal has been around for longer (if you don't count Mambo as Joomla's grandfather) so the growth and community support is a major factor favoring Joomla. What this translates for the normal Joe is that more Plugins and Modifications will most likely be available for Joomla than for Drupal.

Some interesting facts to point out is both systems can integrate with the major forum softwares (for a fee)


--------------------------------

If money is not the problem then I would have to ask you why? The problem with people who say those things "money is not a problem" is that they are somehow wrong on their perception and notion of how much money they really have to spend to start or continue a project.

Why would you spend $8,910 on Site Core CMS when you can 1) use a free or less expensive CMS and 2) Spend the rest of your funds for this project on useful things such as:

1) Content: includes videos, feeds, paid posters, paid reporters etc.
2) Marketing: marketing and word of mouth.
3) Community: community manager, forums, competitions, prizes etc.

Please note: I have no experience with EZ Publish, but by looking at some of the sites created by this CMS and I have very little interest to pick its brain, I think there are better open source projects already.

[akasixcon]

I see. So it all comes down to Drupal and Joomla. Okay I'll narrow it down to there. Which one would you pick in the long run? Which is more flexible and such?

Do you have like a brief overview on the different features each one has?

Thanks alot for the post though!

[jimrthy]

Let give some light on commercial vs open source content management systems .

Commercial CMSs

Site Core Small Business $8,910
No comments... this is what a Corporate License ($44,415) for this product looks like https://www.thrifty.com/
No thanks.

Okay, that's funny. I helped develop (program...not design) that site, ages ago. Still have a buddy who's their "CMS guru." They are not using site core yet. They're using a CMS called Rhythmx.

Dirt Motor Sports (http://www.dirtmotorsports.com/) (and the pages it links to), I believe, is built around Site Core and flash. But I'm not sure about that.

The way the site looks really doesn't depend on your CMS. The CMS determines how hard it is to make the site look the way you want, or to do whatever it is you want to do.


First I have used Subdreamer , Vivvo and CMSCow and a couple of other commercial CMSs nobody here will remember, all are somehow well priced for their quality

Vivvo: $195 (without many useful modules see http://www.vivvo.net/pricing.php )
Very well designed CMS, if a CMS is all you need then this is a great choice, expensive compare to the other choices though, I would buy this one only if I had the extra cash and I was not going to expand my site to a full community website.

Phpcow's $59.95
Only worked on this briefly, I wish I could had spent more time on it, looks very promising and the article system is beautiful, very inexpensive for its quality, but the lack of integration really hurts its credibility as a complete CMS.


SubDreamer $99.95 ($49.95 without forum integration)
SubDreamer integrates so flawlessly with all major forums (vBulletin, IPB among others) which in turn can integrate with so many other systems and functions that the limitations are next to none, integration as you will hear me sing over and over is one of the keys to the success of your site.
It's notable to say that SubDreamer gives 6 months of free hosting with their 99.95 package.


Open Source CMSs

Joomla vs Drupal:
What's better than free? Nothing, enough said so let me discuss the differences and similarities between these two briefly.

Joomla and Drupal are very easy to use, I will quote my programming teacher when he said that if you code software know who you are coding software for, you will notice that a lot of the expensive commercial CMSs are so in-depth that only specialist can use them, this is the opposite with these two and a few other open source CMSs, their structure is so easy to use that anyone can pick them up in a couple of days if not hours.

The main difference is the integration and support on both CMSs, there seems to be a larger following MODDERS on Joomla compared to Drupal, and although Drupal has been around for longer (if you don't count Mambo as Joomla's grandfather) so the growth and community support is a major factor favoring Joomla. What this translates for the normal Joe is that more Plugins and Modifications will most likely be available for Joomla than for Drupal.

Some interesting facts to point out is both systems can integrate with the major forum softwares (for a fee)


Excellent summary/post! Thank you for the info.


If money is not the problem then I would have to ask you why? The problem with people who say those things "money is not a problem" is that they are somehow wrong on their perception and notion of how much money they really have to spend to start or continue a project.

Why would you spend $8,910 on Site Core CMS when you can 1) use a free or less expensive CMS and 2) Spend the rest of your funds for this project on useful things such as:

1) Content: includes videos, feeds, paid posters, paid reporters etc.
2) Marketing: marketing and word of mouth.
3) Community: community manager, forums, competitions, prizes etc.


A: You spend that kind of cash when you're a mammoth company, have a big IT department, and $44K is just a drop in the bucket. Even most small companies are reluctant to rely on open source/free, unless they can buy support.

If you're going to base your business on a particular technology, do you go with an open source project, where everyone involved might just get bored and go play with something else? Or do you go with an established company that has a lot of paying customers and has been around for a while?

Before you answer that, try to think like a 60 year old guy on the board of directors who still isn't so sure this whole computer thing isn't a fad.


Please note: I have no experience with EZ Publish, but by looking at some of the sites created by this CMS and I have very little interest to pick its brain, I think there are better open source projects already.

I have worked with EZ Publish, about 2 years ago (for about a month, so take this with a grain of salt). The pieces it offers out of the box are great. If you want to customize it...spend some time watching #ezpublish (I think that's the channel) on IRC. Maybe it's improved immensely, but that's what convinced me to ditch it.

[Unkn0wnPlayer]

Just a quick note about PHPCow -

Though it has been pretty easy to modify apparently I did so incorrectly. I opened the templates into Dreamweaver instead of using their admin panel system and I now receive no support and the php blocks are no longer working.

My mistake I know but I just cannot use their panel system to modify my code. I will most likely be shelving their product, though promising, for another such as SubDreamer or Vivvo.

[EJRaven]

Okay, that's funny. I helped develop (program...not design) that site, ages ago. Still have a buddy who's their "CMS guru." They are not using site core yet. They're using a CMS called Rhythmx.

Dirt Motor Sports (http://www.dirtmotorsports.com/) (and the pages it links to), I believe, is built around Site Core and flash. But I'm not sure about that.

The way the site looks really doesn't depend on your CMS. The CMS determines how hard it is to make the site look the way you want, or to do whatever it is you want to do.

First, I was hoping people would see the obvious when I wrote that "this is how a site looks running X CMS" everyone knows that the artistic and web design "look and feel" of a site is only part of the CMS's flexibility, what you miss was the fact that I was trying to point out how simple and ordinary a site can look even when using an expensive CMS.
I agree the CMS determines how hard it is to make the site look the way you want, or to do whatever it is you want to do 100%.



A: You spend that kind of cash when you're a mammoth company, have a big IT department, and $44K is just a drop in the bucket. Even most small companies are reluctant to rely on open source/free, unless they can buy support.

If you're going to base your business on a particular technology, do you go with an open source project, where everyone involved might just get bored and go play with something else? Or do you go with an established company that has a lot of paying customers and has been around for a while?

Before you answer that, try to think like a 60 year old guy on the board of directors who still isn't so sure this whole computer thing isn't a fad.


This is why bigger companies waste their funds and small ones run out of them, I also wrote a term paper on this subject and did extensive research, in conclusion business people should not run technology and web based companies because they do not have the experience or know what do to do with technology, if you look at the top 500 companies none of their CEOs is a business major, that tells you a lot about how startup and successfull companies, you don't need a business person running your business... as odd as that sounds.

On the other hand you have business people running these existing companies trying to expand their business on the internet and who end up buying the most expensive and may I say it here crappiest software for their company where now not only they have to hire an IT person to handle the damn complex CMS/other software, they waste a lot more on useless features their business will never use... it's a business world sadly.

Technology is about innovation and ideas, intellectual code and solutions, I don't think a 60 year old guy on the board of directors will ever understand this.

[wpking]

Joomla Vb and wordpress are still no 1 in their own position.

[jimrthy]

I think we're pretty much on the same page here, but I'm trying to be more ironic about it.

Again, excellent, well thought-out points.

[internetmarketingiq]

Of the 3 CMS I believe Vivvo is the most impressive. I wonder how many Joomla users would rather use it given the opportunity (i.e. if it were free).

[akasixcon]

Thanks for all the inputs. I've decided to settle with Drupal since I can't get my hands on the new version of Vivvo with the VB integration. Even if I did I won't be able to bring my content back.

[genx_wan]

Im with Joomla

[deshiboy]

My choice is
Joomla
PhpBB
Wordpress

any kind of combination u can use. the bottom line is that u should have some internal mechanism level knowledge about ur script. eg. U can easily modify wordpress for CMS. with Little modding u can get lot of fun and results.

opensource has most important advantage is that u can get something new or better withing a shorter time.

in my case I always mod though very little. Ofcourse with just with the documentation only. becoz I am not a geek.