I haven’t done alot with CMS setup for clients so I am pretty much in the dark with that stuff and which ones are easiest for the non-designer/developer to use.

Are there any that people here would recommend?

I guess my requirements would be: easy to use(for clients), produces valid markup and free or cheap is always nice.

I just came across this site, which may help with a decision.

http://www.cmsmatrix.org/

Personally, I started using Expression Engine (http://www.pmachine.com/ee) about 6 or 8 months ago, and haven’t looked back. I run this site and forum with it, along with my business site, my (soon-to-relaunch) blog, and a handful of client sites. It’s easy to use for both developer and client – you’ve got a ton of control over the actual content forms, so you can make it completely idiot proof. It’s also extremely customizable, produces good code, and is relatively cheap… $250 for commercial use

The $250 includes multiple uses or is it a new license purchase for each site you use it on?

I’ve heard a couple people mention it before so I’ll definitely give a try. I’ve also heard Mambo mentioned allot. I’ve never used either one tho.

I’m gonna have to create a couple dummy sites and give this baby a go.

It’s $250 for each license… $250 for commercial use, $100 for non-commercial, and there’s a free Core version you can try out before you buy.

Fair enough.

That cmsmatrix site is good stuff for comparing features, nice find.

Expression Engine—hands down.

Just wanted to follow up and say that Expression Engine was a great call. The EE code has been very easy to pick up and use to customize templates.

Thanks again.

Cool. Be sure to check out the EE Wiki. There are a ton of talented developers out there creating useful plugins, modules and extensions for EE. Pretty much anything you want to do that the system can’t handle on its own, someone has created it.

Some of my favorites:
http://solspace.com/software/
http://docs.markhuot.com/

A few questions for you EE pros --

I’m currently investigation the best CMS solutions for a couple of clients .. I recently hacked WordPress to maintain a hybrid static/blogging site for one client and I was pretty happy with the process—and it is really easy for the client to use.

1. How have your experiences been with client maintenance? From the demo, the EE interface looks a bit overwhelming for a novice user. Is it easy for non-web people to update and maintain their site? Will I need to integrate an editor (such as FCKeditor) into the interface, or is there one provided? 

2. Have you used the e-commerce module? My client would like to provide .pdf documents for sale—with instant download after purchase—is this option available?

3. Most sites I produce are typically static pages - I see that there is a pages module—http://www.jambor-ee.com/features/entry/simplify-ee-sorting-out-static-content/
Is this hard to implement?

4. Does anyone around here provide training to get someone up to speed on EE?

Thanks for any and all advice!

Michelle

Hey Michelle,

My experience has been pretty positive with EE. It does have a learning curve, but keep in mind that you can limit what your content editors see when they log into the system. I usually only grant access to the Publish and Edit tabs. I would have to say that it certainly no more difficult than WordPress which tends to baffle me (mostly because of the terminology they use. Ditto, TextPattern).

I’ve used WYSIWG editors on a handful of sites with EE, but I don’t like them. They tend to produce really ugly code and slow down the system quite a bit. Your mileage may vary. EE lets you create custom code shortcut bottoms for the entry forms, which tends to be my preferred way to provide formatting tricks for users.

The Pages module is pretty nice, but it has a steep learning code (in my experience) for the developer. There’s a great deal of discussion about it on the EE forum and Mark is very responsive about support issues, so it’s worth checking out. Keep in mind that Mark’s module is really just a way to display static pages that makes sense to most end users.—it’s not necessary for creating and maintain static pages in EE.

Are you looking for training for you or your clients?

Thanks for replying so quickly Phil—

I have a few clients interested in a robust CMS package that doesn’t cost an arm and a leg, so the training would be for me to get up to speed as quickly as possible—I would then train my clients on using the system --

Ideally, I’d like the clients to have control over their site, so I’d like to develop them in a manner that makes the most sense for them (that’s why the static pages module appealed to me)-- I know that EE can be manipulate via weblogs, etc. to display data in a certain manner, but for the novice user, clicking on a sitemap with “about” labeled would make more sense for them…

I’m keen on wordpress b/c PHP development was simple (I’m more of a designer than a coder) and the interface is so clean for the end-user—I’ve used costly CMS in the past with other developers and clients got so frustrated they gave up trying to update their own sites…

I think I might test out the demo this weekend and give it a run on my own machine .. do you (or do you know of anyone in the area) that offers training?

Thanks,
Michelle

Well, at risk of helping the competition, I might be willing to offer some training. PM me and we ca talk about it.

BTW: The simple commerce module would do what you’re looking for. Here’s an example that I recently launched (although the product is different). http://www.inkandpaper.com/

Just came across this…

http://www.devlounge.net/articles/cms-list

What about Joomla?

I know EE is great, but it costs $$.

How does Joomla compare to it?

@dmccants

I’ve never installed/run Joomla but in talking with co-workers, their beef with it is that while it’s very easy to set up and run some stock templates, customizing the application can be problematic - particularly for people not comfortable working with plug-ins or delving into code.

Yes, Joomla is “free” but most of the people I spoke to said they ended up paying dearly in terms of their time.

Other things to consider when evaluating a CMS is the upgrade path and the application’s extensibility. Both are well managed in EE and support is top notch should you run into problems, which are rare. I don’t think you can say the same for Joomla (or Drupal or any other OS CMS out there). A quick search through Google should explain the problems people have to deal with on those fronts.

For me, a $250 expense for a commercial version of EE is dirt cheap for peace of mind and rock solid stability.

dmccants - 22 May 2007 02:29 PM

What about Joomla?
I know EE is great, but it costs $$.
How does Joomla compare to it?

I have used Joomla! on a few different sites now, and find that for me, it is one of the best free alternatives to a paid CMS system.
I have also tried Drupal and Xoops, but I found that I was personally more comfortable using the Joomla! setup from the admin panel than the others.

I need to check out EE still, but I have also used VBulletin Forums with the VBadvanced CMS for a couple of forum sites as well. The cost for both of these is around $210 and is a bit complicated to use at first, but in turn offers a very extensive selection of options for customizing your setup.