What is CMS?

WordPress, Joomla, Drupal  and Magento are just a few of the ‘Content Management Systems’ that are available.

CMS is a Content Management System which is a piece of software that runs on a server. Typically a database application, a CMS makes it easy to publish and administrate content.

Some basic features:

Separation of content, structure and design

A CMS improves the lifecycle of your website for years to come. The “look and feel” of your site can be changed or relaunched, leaving existing content and page architecture untouched. No need to worry about copying and pasting content into another site, simply publish your new design and the CMS will pull the content into the new look.

Easy content production, no programming skills required

If you can use a computer, you can manage the content for your website. Using a graphical user interface, you can simply create text, insert images and multimedia files, schedule content (and much more) to build and maintain a dynamic website.

Just imagine: You will never need to make another menu button again, or pay a web designer to do it for you. Each time you add or change a page, the menu will automatically update to reflect the change. Having to learn or purchasing photo editing software will not be necessary. You can upload images straight to the web from your digital camera / DV camera or a scanner.

• Decentralized maintenance.
  Typically based on a common web browser. Edit anywhere, anytime.
• Designed with non-technical content editors in mind.
  No HTML skills required.
• Configurable access restrictions.
  Users are assigned roles and permissions that prevent them from touching content in which they are not authorized to change.
• Consistency of design is preserved.
  Because content is stored separate from design, the content from all authors is presented with the same, consistent design.
• Navigation is automatically generated.
  Menus are typically generated automatically based on the database content and links will not point to nonexistent pages.
• Content is stored in a database.
  Central storage means that content can be reused in many places on the website and formatted for multiple devices (web browser, mobile phone/WAP, PDA, printer).
• Dynamic content.
  Extensions like forums, polls, shopping carts, search engines, news management are typically drop-in modules. A good CMS also allows for truly user defined extensions.
• Daily updates.
  You do not need to involve web designers or programmers for every little modification – you are in control of your website.
• Cooperation.
  Encourages faster updates, enforces accountability for content editors via log files and promotes cooperation between authors.
• Content scheduling.
  Content publication can often be time-controlled; hidden for previews; or require a user login with password.

Here are just a few of the not so popular but awesome Content Management Systems:

Symphony: XML/XSL Flexible CMS. Symphony is a web publishing system made for web developers. It gives you all the power and flexibility you’ll need, while keeping out of your way.

BricaBox: The New Publishing Platform. BricaBox lets you make a website about the stuff you know, make, organize, and collaborate on with the people you know.

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.

Gelato is a tumblelog CMS built on AJAX, PHP, and MySQL

Moodle is a course management system (CMS) – a free, Open Source software package designed using sound pedagogical principles, to help educators create effective online learning communities.

Pagety is somewhere between a CMS and a hosting platform.Actually, it’s both a CMS and a hosting platform, because there’s no need to separate the two.

Pligg: Open source CMS. Like Digg.

clickbooq is an easy-to-use website creation, management, and hosting solution developed exclusively for professional photographers.

Ekklesia 360 is the next generation Content Management System. Learn how we can deliver more than a website, we help ministries and churches do ministry online.

Ellington is an online publishing system designed from the ground up for media sites.

GOGOFROG™ TAKES YOU INTO THE ULTIMATE 3D WORLD… NO DOWNLOADS JUST THE INTERNET IN 3D. CREATE YOUR OWN UNLIMITED ONLINE SPACE, IT’S FAST, EASY AND FREE

GoodBarry: Website management and customer database. Email marketing and eCommerce. Web analytics and customer profiling. It’s one, central console with everything you need to run your online business.

Jogango:5 minutes from now your mobile site will be on the air, Jag it now and Go

With Jimdo everyone can show his or her interests and passion on the Internet – on his own website! In fact, it’s for free and no previous knowledge is required!

Leafletter is the “revolutionary” way for anyone to create a portable, interactive “little web site” (“Leaflet”) using nothing but a web browser.

Mephisto is a kick ass web publishing system. It’s a blog engine with some simple CMS-ish concepts (sections, pages), a very flexible templating system, and an aggressive caching scheme that takes advantage of your webserver’s best traits.

ModX: The AJAX CMS for today. And tomorrow. MODx is an open source PHP Application Framework that helps you take control of your online content. It empowers developers and advanced users to give as much control as desired to whomever they desire for day-to-day website content maintenance chores.

PrestShop is professional-grade e-Commerce shopping cart software that you can download, install, and use for free!

Radiant: CMS built on Ruby.

Introducing Reflect — a hosted website solution that allows web designers and their clients to easily create and manage websites. Through a seamless content management system, Reflect bridges the gap between the high costs of a custom solution and the low customization of an off-the-shelf system.

Roxer: Now anyone can create stunning websites online in just minutes.

SchoolRack: Create a free teacher website to keep students and parents informed outside of the classroom.

Shopit: Get your free social commerce storefront

Silverstripe: Content Management the way it was meant to be. Powerful enough for any website or intranet design and simple enough for anyone to use

LightCMS: The friendly CMS for web designers. LightCMS is a content management system for web designers. Design sites, upload them to our content management system, and deploy world-class websites your clients can manage themselves.

TypePad is the premier blogging service, hosting the world’s leading blogs and small business websites.