How to Choose a CMS in 5 easy steps part 2

September 7, 2008 by CMS Critic

(10 votes, average: 3 out of 5)

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Now that you have a basic understanding of some of the key features you should consider prior to making your choice, your next step is to consider what your CMS will be about and then make a selection.

We’ve broken down some typical Open Source CMS’ by typical usage below in order to help make this a little bit easier. Note that even though not every single CMS is listed here (as it would take a lifetime) we’ve listed the most popular ones for the job. Also, just because one is not listed in a specific category, does not mean it can’t be used there.. all CMS systems are customizable, we’re just trying to give you a fast route to the quickest way to get going for the specific role.

Social Networking CMS

Elgg - http://elgg.org

This social networking CMS is designed specifically for social networking (go figure).. Elgg is the natural choice for this type of role.

Features:

Profile
Dashboard
Activity feed
User preferences
Comprehensive administration tools
OpenSocial applications
Blogging
File repository
Forums
Social bookmarking
And more..

Screenshots:

**PHPIzabi - http://www.phpizabi.net (* not open source but free *)**

Designed to be fairly similar to the majority of social networking scripts out there, one of it’s downfalls is that most, but not all, of it’s plugins and themes are pay per use and not free. The bulk of the features that come with it though are pretty amazing and it’s a fine choice for most jobs.

Features:

Blogs
Internal messages system
Forums (inkspot)
Chatrooms
Files sharing
Profile / pictures rating
Profile views
Private photo gallery
Nudges (kisses, slaps, …)
Users comments
Events calendar
Personal events
many more..

Screenshot:

Media Hosting CMS- (ie: youtube, flickr, etc)

Joomla! - http://joomla.org

Joomla! CMS is a great choice for hosting videos and playing them as there are a large number of templates and plugins available to fit this need. Keep in mind, however, that while most plugins are free for Joomla! there are some pay per use ones and most templates for specific sites such as this type are pay per use (usually between the 30-100 dollar range)

Seyret Plugin Screenshot:

Joomla! Video Template:

WordPress CMS- http://wordpress.org

WordPress CMS is another great option for a video site. It’s easy to use and there are plenty of themes and plugins for various methods.

CMS Video Template Example:

News Style Website

eZPublish CMS- http://ez.no

eZPublish CMS is one of the best (in my opinion) news publishing cms software that exists for free for large corporate media outlets.

Screenshots of popular news sites running on eZPublish CMS:

There are just a few examples of the types of sites that you could build and some of the areas we most often get questioned on here. If there is another type of site style you’d like to know about .. let us know and we’ll publish more articles like this as needed.