30 April 2010
An introduction to the three leading open-source content management systems and an analysis of their strengths and weaknesses.

Recent years have seen open-source content management systems (CMS) cement their place as leading content management solutions. Viewed with suspicion a decade ago, they are now used widely by large companies, charities and individuals.
But how do you choose which one? Many people have written on this topic and a really thorough review is available here. However, what follows is an a few White Fuse Media pontifications on the subject.

The key players

Wordpress, launched in 2003, originally focussed on blogging. This is still its core strength but people have built all sorts of websites on this platform.

Joomla, launched in 2005 as a fork from Mambo (another open-source CMS), and is the most populat open-source CMS available.

Drupal, launched in 2001, in the longest standing contender and as a result is supported by a huge network of loyal

contributing developers.

Wordpress

For simple blogs and brochure websites, Wordpress is an excellent option. It can be installed very easily and there are lots of themes that can be found online and integrated quickly.
Since Wordpress is really built for blogging, it deals with this intuitively. Blogs are easily synchronised with various social networking channels.

Joomla

Joomla is much more of a comprehensive content management system than Wordpress and many large sites have been built on its framework. Here are a few examples:

IHOP (Restaurant chain) - http://www.ihop.com

Harvard University (Educational) - http://gsas.harvard.edu

The Green Maven (Eco-resources) - http://www.greenmaven.com

Joomla is relatively easy to install and has many modules that can be used to set up e-commerce and social networking functionality.

Drupal

Some people choose to describe Drupal not as a content management system but as a content management framework. This points to Drupal's main advantage: it is very very flexible.
As in many things, greater flexibility brings with it greater complexity, and Drupal has a greater learning curve than either Wordpress or Joomla. However, for those who persevere the rewards are rich.
White Fuse Media has chosen to specialise in Drupal because we believe that websites should be dynamic, shaped around an organisation's goals and scalable. Drupal can do e-commerce and social networking and can handle different types of content in a way Joomla cannot.
Here are some examples of Drupal websites:

British Government - http://www.data.gov.uk

The Grammy Awards - http://www.grammy.com

Food social networking site - http://www.ifood.tv

International Justice Mission UK (a White Fuse Media site) - http://www.ijmuk.org

NHS Choices syndication (a White Fuse Media site) - http://www.nhssyndication.org

Conclusion

These are all great solutions. While we specialise in Drupal, we recognise the specific strengths of Wordpress and Joomla and do not hesitate to recommend them and use them as the basis for our websites where appropriate.