CMS Tug-of-War

First, the obligatory definition:  A “content management system” is the new paradigm for the way rational business people build out their web presence today. The basics are: a back-end database that stores all your web content, and intelligent controlling software that serves up web content in a highly customized and dynamic way (via PHP, Ruby, Python, .NET, JSP, etc.). It enables business folks to create and manage their web content on their own, without the babysitting expenses of a webmaster. This article will not attempt to rehash the many techno-centric reviews out there comparing the competing platforms. Most of the reviews I have seen are written by, and targeted toward developer types who go deep into the geekly aspects of these platforms.This conversation is specifically for business people who remain focused on building their core business, but who also want to know just enough about these web platforms to control their own destiny in building their web presence. You’ve heard the mantra:  having a dynamic, “web 2.0” presence represents table stakes now for growing your business; just get used to it.Here’s the 50,000 foot view of some of the popular approaches to web content management systems…

CMS Grid

Then in the lower left-hand corner are the REALLY quick and easy services out there that enable startups and very small businesses to get a web site up, while they feel they can still operate with minimal web functionality. I just showed the two that I think are at the top of the food chain in this category, Microsoft’s “Office Live” and Google’s “Sites”.  They have not traditionally been included in the Content Management category, because they lack the customization and feature sets of database-driven CMSs. But they act as minimalist “content management systems” in the sense that site owners can add and edit a limited number of pages without much difficulty.

Also notice that I have a small category next to CMSs called “Other Open-Source Development Platforms” (Ruby on Rails, etc.). This category was all the rage a couple of years ago in the world of web app development, and there are some web development firms that successfully specialize in these platforms. They come with the basic plumbing to build a web content management system (or any other kind of web application), and they’re highly customizable. But they seem to have lost momentum in recent years to the more popular (and more fully-baked) content management systems like WordPress, Drupal, and Joomla. My own sense is that the benefit these platform-oriented tools offer of highly programmable, granular control of the web site, is simply not compelling enough to offset their lack of pre-built functionality. The true CMSs (WordPress, Drupal, Joomla) have attracted huge user bases and developer ecosystems that have dwarfed those of the other platforms. And the level of sophistication, reliability and feature power of these three CMSs have evolved commensurately with this growth in user base.

So now on to the open-source CMS tug-of-war; what we came here for…

My own journey has included some pretty in-depth study over the past two years of all three platforms, and participation in the rather large Atlanta-based user groups in all three. I’ll repeat what everyone else says, because it’s true: “all three are great systems and they each have their strengths and weaknesses”. But if you’re like me, your brain is not quite large enough to develop and maintain any real depth of expertise in all three, so you feel the need to focus on one and run with it. First of all, each of them is evolving at a rapid rate, so forget about being a jack of all three trades, even if your brain is larger than mine.

I started in the world of Joomla a couple of years ago. I was attracted to the argument that it is positioned between Drupal and WordPress on the power/ease-of-use spectrum, so it seemed to be a good compromise. While I still admire many aspects of the Joomla platform, I had a vague sense that its developer community lacked the professional horsepower of Drupal and WordPress. Can’t prove it; I just felt it. It did not feel to me that the add-in ecosystem quite had its act together in terms of programming discipline and compatibility standards. The Joomla developer community also seems to lack some momentum lately in getting its next release (1.6) out the door. Also, I wanted more granular control of user roles & permissions.  And the power of taxonomies, triggers, workflows, and all the other sexy stuff I heard the Drupal folks talking about drew me in.

So on to Drupal. Many more books and sandbox hours later, I came to appreciate and agree with the assessment that Drupal is a much more flexible and extensible platform than Joomla. It also seems to attract a more experienced and technically skilled developer community. No offense to the Joomla people; but that seems to be the consensus. But you get what you pay for in terms of learning investment. It is absolutely true that Drupal has the steepest learning curve among the CMS triumvirate.  But you can build more customized and powerful functionality into a Drupal web application than with the other two (for most of us, anyway). Its community is also notable for aggressively pushing the cutting edge of web technology, with concepts like semantic web markup, geo-mapping, faceted search, scalability, etc. The major tradeoff though is that you’ll probably have to accept a longer development cycle with Drupal than with the other two, and perhaps a bit pricier skill set. To their credit, the Drupal developer team has focused their priorities in the latest release on playing some catch-up in terms of usability (7.0 beta as of this writing). The jury’s still out on it, but stay tuned; it’s got lots of promise.

I still keep Drupal in my hip pocket as a go-to platform if I run into a really demanding web application design, but I have more recently moved on to WordPress. This is bass-ackwards compared to most people’s progression. WordPress is undeniably the easiest to use of the three, and most people start with it for that reason. If they feel the need to spread their developmental wings, they might then move on to Drupal, for example.  But I noticed that a great majority of Drupal-built applications seemed like swatting a fly with a sledge hammer.

I believe that the great majority of company needs for a robust, content management web presence can be more than adequately addressed with WordPress.  In their latest incarnation (3.0), WordPress now rivals the other two as a true content management system, with the addition of customizable menus, customized content types, taxonomies, multi-site capability, etc. WordPress also has a larger user base and developer base, by far, than the other two. Since I have been exploring the world of WordPress addins, themes, and the developer ecosystem, I have also been pleasantly surprised to learn that most of the feature rich aspects of Drupal can for the most part, be duplicated with the right addins. WordPress is WAY more programmable and extensible than I was aware of until I dove into its deep end.

It is worth noting the relative size of the user communities for the three open source CMS players, because development energy and sustainability tends to follow the crowd. So size matters. Take a look at the latest Google Trends chart comparing the level of interest in them…

CMS search trends

 This chart does not necessarily represent the actual user base; it only represents search traffic. But it’s a pretty good proxy for where the market is headed. Notice that Joomla’s buzz level has mirrored that sense of diminishing momentum I mentioned. Drupal has been in a holding pattern while the market waits to see how 7.0 plays out. Meanwhile the juggernaut WordPress marches on, so its prospects look even brighter going forward. Think I’ll keep riding that pony for a while!

One closing thought… Conspicuously missing from this conversation is the field of proprietary (can you say $$$) content management systems. That’s purposeful. Before the rise in open source CMSs in the past few years, the proprietary guys had a firm grip on the corporate web site market. My sense though, is that these three open source solutions have acquired such large developer/user bases that their quality, functionality and sustainability have surpassed that of the proprietary brands. My least ambiguous advice in this article is to save yourself a LOT of money and get a better product by thinking more or less in this order: WordPress, Drupal, Joomla, $$$.