Hey guys. Can anyone recommend a simple CMS? I use Wordpress for most projects, but often find designing a custom theme and training the webmaster on the its use is a bit of overkill for small jobs (hotel sites, etc). Preferably it'd be something I can install on my server so that I can be confident it'll always be supported. Preferably free, also, though I would pay for a cheap multi-license on a good product. Look forward to your thoughts.
http://www.cmsmadesimple.org/ http://get-simple.info/ I would stick with wordpress and use this http://themehybrid.com/themes/hybrid but whatever suits ya... hope that helps, Nigel
Thanks, I've thought about those master themes before and might give it a try. Get Simple looks good too, but it's a shame it's only for Linux servers.
I know the wonders of Wordpress, yea, I just find it's a bit too much for clients to use, especially when I have to train them.
Yea i know it easy for us to understand wordpress's inside out, but for clients..Phew!! can't find best alternative for it. Wordpress is just awesome.
Oranges, you obviously use WP a lot - know of any really solid, simple tutorials on using the platform? Also, is there a way to make a simple backend - hide almost everything but Posts / Pages ?
I tried that doing for my clients as well, but never worked it out. I guess creating a video tutorial on creating basic stuff like, pages and posts, categories, Tags etc for your client's reference, should be fine, and they can follow it. At least i do it this way. And i don't think that there is any other CMS or Blogging platform easier than wp at it's backend For simplest Tutorials, Nothing beat their own Documentation.
Check out MODx CMS. It's a designer's dream CMS, you can port any XHTML/CSS template into it in less than an hour, plus it can be easy or as complex as you want it to be. It has front end editing for logged in users, and if you want the client to see a simplified backend you can use the ManagerManager snippet to set things up the way you want them.
Thanks everyone - i've just found this and it looks great - OrbisCMS The others will probably come in handy at some point too, I just really want to have a bare-basics CMS up my sleeve.
Good one, but make sure it is secure for sure, as these days sites are taken for ride...like Hot Cakes, Sold out!! Modx certainly seems like a right option for me. Thanks, einsteinsboi! didn't know about it.
Are you sure Orbis will give you what you need (it looks way simple, but then it was just the demo account I was looking at ... and you did want simple)?
Simple CMS is a good one because it's really easy for clients to use. Like many others, I still prefer Wordpress over everything.