Articles - Page 104

The Top 10 AI Tools for Small Business: From Automation to a Coordinated Team of AI Agents

matt-garrepy

<a href="https://www.weebly.com/" target="_blank">Weebly</a>, the world-famous website builder, has just made their iPad users' lives a whole lot easier.
Powering millions of websites worldwide, Weebly has built its reputation by enabling users to build good-looking websites via a drag-and-drop system, for free.
Weebly for iPad was the Weebly community's, “second most requested feature”, and it's not difficult to see why. Weebly's interface is ideal for touchscreens. This also means that Weebly is the first website builder to be completely functional on an iPad. Let's look at what it can do.
<h2>Weebly for iPad</h2>
According to the Weebly announcement:
<blockquote>“[We have brought] the drag and drop experience to life in a way you’ve never seen before with the ability to both create and edit a website on the iPad. It’s been a huge technical challenge to make every site ever created with Weebly editable on iPad.”</blockquote>
That's right. If you have a Weebly website, you can now edit it on an iPad, just as you can on a desktop, for free.
Here's a video demonstrating what Weebly for iPad is capable of.
<iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/cAuKRyuHQcc?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>
Below are some of the Weebly for iPad features:
<ul>
<li>New interface and design language built specifically for touchscreen. Site Selector, Element Sidebar and Image Editing flows completely overhauled for tablet experience.</li>
<li>Any website created with Weebly is editable from the iPad (stores and blogs coming soon!)</li>
<li>Element Sidebar naturally collapses and expands while you work or with a swipe, maximizing screen real estate.</li>
<li>Powerful new editing capabilities optimized for the iPad, you can now edit images and customize font color with intuitive touchscreen motions.</li>
<li>Save and sync work across devices so you can pick up where you left off on desktop or mobile.</li>
<li>Offline mode captures updates made without an internet connection. Work anywhere!</li>
<li>Manage your website’s SEO right from your iPad</li>
<li>One of the first apps built uniquely for iOS 8, leverages the new operating system to create an experience unlike anything you’ve seen before on the iPad.</li>
</ul>
On top of these features, Weebly have announced that they will also release these functions, in due time:
<ul>
<li>Create and edit blogs and stores</li>
<li>Analytics and stats</li>
<li>Android tablet app</li>
</ul>
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/8107663_orig700x0.png" />
To download the Weebly for iPad app for free, <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/weebly/id511158309" target="_blank">visit the iTune store</a>. For more information, check out the <a href="http://blog.weebly.com/post/weebly-for-ipad" target="_blank">official blog announcement</a>.
Plus, explore more of <a href="/products/weebly/" target="_blank">Weebly via our CMS Directory</a>.

Weebly for iPad Goes Live

mike-johnston

<a target="_blank" href="https://kinsta.com/?kaid=QQMMZOGRMCQE">Kinsta</a> is a popular hosting provider that provides managed WordPress hosting to the public. Today, I'm going to review their system and hosting setup to see whether it's a good option for those of you looking for a solid, trustworthy provider with a good set of tools for your WordPress website.What makes Kinsta a unique beast is that their entire infrastructure uses <a target="_blank" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Cloud_Platform">Google Cloud Platform</a> which differs from the traditional shared, VPS, or dedicated infrastructures you see with most providers.Kinsta was kind enough to provide me with a test account for the purposes of this review so I'll be using that for the screenshots and to take a look through everything.<h2>The Dashboard</h2>Once you've <a target="_blank" href="https://kinsta.com/?kaid=QQMMZOGRMCQE">signed up for an account with Kinsta</a>, you'll be given access to your Kinsta Dashboard which is where you'll manage your sites, migrations and a whole lot more.Your dashboard, once you get access and sign-up, will look like this:<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/kinsta-wordpress-hosting-review-1_ws7yhd.png" />Kinsta Managed WordPress Hosting DashboardThere are numerous graphs on the Dashboard for you to review such as Resource Usage, Data Transfer and Unique Visits. You can also see a full list of your sites from one location (if you have multiple).<h2>Sites</h2>To add new sites and manage existing ones, you'll use the Sites tab. When you move a site over to Kinsta, you are given the option to choose from one of their <a target="_blank" href="https://kinsta.com/knowledgebase/google-cloud-data-center-locations/?kaid=QQMMZOGRMCQE">18 data centers</a> for your site. Each of your sites can have a different data center as Kinsta uses multi-regional deployments.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/kinsta-wordpress-hosting-review-2_qmmhyx.png" />The Sites TabIn the Info section, you can see everything you need to know about your site from your IP information to your Data Center location, sFTP and SSH details and more.Most of the other sections are pretty self explanatory and I won't go through all of them because that would likely bore you to tears but what I will tell you is that there is plenty of information and functionality here. One of the sections I especially found useful is the Tools section. Here you can clear site cache, restart PHP and do a database Search and Replace quickly and easily.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/kinsta-wordpress-hosting-review-9_v1tcl7.png" />The Tools Section<h2>Migrations</h2>The Migrations tab is where you'll initiate any migrations from your previous hosting provider to Kinsta. As you can see in the screenshot below, I've got 1 free migration that I haven't used yet so to kick off a site move, I'd do so here.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/kinsta-wordpress-hosting-review-4_lspgkw.png" />The Migration Tab<h2>Kinsta DNS</h2>Kinsta also offers a service called Kinsta DNS which allows you to manage your own zone records and use Amazon Route 53 to speed up DNS resolution for faster domain name resolving.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/kinsta-wordpress-hosting-review-5_fz2pm7.png" />Kinsta DNS<h2>Analytics</h2>The  tab is exactly what it claims to be, analytics for your site. While it does offer you a quick peek into how your site is performing, most of you should make sure you also have Google Analytics as that's what everyone uses and it provides far more in-depth detail. Having said that, this doesn't mean this section is useless as it does provide quick insight without having to leave the dashboard so I can appreciate that.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/kinsta-wordpress-hosting-review-6_ecfwrv.png" />Analytics<h2>Activity</h2>Skipping now to the Activity tab now, this is where you'll find a log of all activity that has happened within your Dashboard such as adding new sites, making changes and more.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/kinsta-wordpress-hosting-review-7_vbeols.png" />ActivityThat about does it for the Dashboard tour but does all of this mean Kinsta is the right managed WordPress hosting provider for you?<h2>My Thoughts</h2>Kinsta provides some pretty amazing features / services that go along with each and every plan so they are definitely good bang for your buck. One of the most interesting ones is the Free hack fix meaning that if your website gets hacked (which is always a fear for every website owner) they will fix it with immediate priority.Additional features include:<ul><li>Free CDN, free Letsencrypt SSL, staging environments, automatic daily backups and the option to create manual backup points anytime.</li><li>Full page caching at the server-level to deliver content almost instantaneously to visitors. We also pair that with our Kinsta MU plugin, developed in-house, to provide even more granular control over caching.</li><li>PHP 7, 7.1, 7.2, and 7.3.</li><li>Server-level rules and optimizations for WooCommerce and Easy Digital Download sites to ensure a smoother checkout experience for customers.</li><li>Multi-user access with fine-grained permissions. Add any number of users to your team. Give them access to all your sites, just billing or add them as developers or administrators to a subset of your sites.</li><li>SSH access, Git, and WP-CLI.</li><li>At least one free migration, completed by our expert support team. There are a certain number of migrations included depending on which plan you choose.</li></ul>There's another good reason I'd consider Kinsta that most people aren't aware of. AdThrive, one of the largest ad networks in the world for bloggers, recently recommended Kinsta in an email sent out to their publishers (I know this because my wife's site is with them). This nod from a company that takes things into deep consideration before making recommendations is a good sign for those thinking of choosing Kinsta for their own websites.<a target="_blank" href="https://kinsta.com?kaid=QQMMZOGRMCQE">You can learn more or sign up with Kinsta here.</a>

Kinsta Managed WordPress Hosting Review

SimpleCMS is a product developed by Redmode Ltd that is available for those developers / designers who are looking to add a simple, easy to use and brandable CMS to their existing HTML based websites. It can also be used and easily set up by the average user without the need of a designer/developer. Today, we're going to take you through our SimpleCMS Review.
SimpleCMS is available for free or you can purchase an upgraded edition which provides additional functionality for around $80/year.
Adding a site to the system is very straight forward and is done through the following interface:
<img style="max-width:450px" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2021/07/simplecms-1-450x250_n25kbd.png" alt="SimpleCMS Review" />
Once added, the site is instantly accessible from the CMS and you can begin to define which areas you wish to be editable.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/avatar_yagcxy.jpg" alt="SimpleCMS Review" />
Doing so is painless and requires you simply hovering over the area and clicking to instantly define it as an editable area. Once done, content can be edited, pictures changed, etc.  SimpleCMS makes heavy use of Ajax and load times are quick and the system feels responsive.
Once you've defined each of your areas, you click on the Edit Content tab to move to edit mode.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/simplecms-3-450x308.png" alt="SimpleCMS Review" />
You are now able to simple select one of the icons and instantly edit your content in place.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/simplecms-4-450x308.png" alt="SimpleCMS Review" />
The rich text editor, shown above, works wonderfully and can also be modified to include additional buttons and functionality (we'll show that in a moment).
Adding and modifying users is very simple. There are a few permissions you can modify along with the accessible buttons for the rich text editor.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/gutensite_logo-1_crv13k.png" alt="SimpleCMS Review" />
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/simplecms-7-450x308.png" alt="SimpleCMS Review" />
Last but not least, branding. It's as easy as adding your logo and making a few small changes.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/visagc_ug2ef5.png" alt="SimpleCMS Review" />
Conclusion
I found the system to be, as the name suggests, simple. It has everything the average user needs to maintain their site in an easy and effective manner. Performance wise, there was very little load time involved when moving between functions in the system. I found the editor and the ability to modify it to be refreshing and handy. I enjoyed using the product and the interface is visually appealing.
What would I change? Perhaps toss in some statistics functionality for the upgraded price and you've pretty much got the perfect setup for the average joe. Good job guys!
Interested? Check out <a href="http://simplecms.com">SimpleCMS</a>.

SimpleCMS Review

There are plenty of excellent enterprise-class content management systems on the market but only one can be chosen as Best Enterprise CMS by the people. This year, we had a tough race to the finish with Adobe, Liferay, and Sitecore the top three contenders but who will take home the award?
Enterprise content management is a tough gig. There are a huge number of competitors and standing out from the crowd can be tough. Innovation occurs every day and each new product must be able to adapt to meet the coming demands of the next generation of marketers and business people. This year's nominees reflect systems that our readers believe to be some of the best in the business and we're glad to have them participate in our annual awards.
As a reminder, here are the nominees for this year's Best Enterprise CMS award:
<ol>
<li><a href="http://www.adobe.com/solutions/web-experience-management.html"> Adobe Experience Manager </a></li>
<li>Cascade Server</li>
<li><a href="/products/episerver-optimizely/"> Episerver (Optimizely)</a></li>
<li><a href="/products/liferay/"> Liferay </a></li>
<li><a href="/products/sitecore/"> Sitecore </a></li>
</ol>
This year was a close battle between Adobe (last year's winner), Liferay, and Sitecore but in the end, there can only be one winner and we're pleased to announce that the winner for Best Enterprise CMS for 2013 is…
<h3><img style="max-width:150px" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/best-enterprise-cms150x0.png" /></h3>
<h3>Sitecore!</h3>
Delivering unparalleled ease of use, total flexibility, and enterprise-grade capabilities, Sitecore CMS is the platform of choice for leading companies around the world, powering more than 32,000 websites.
They offer an online marketing suite and a powerful enterprise-class content management system that truly are deserving of this award.
<a href="/products/sitecore/">Learn more about Sitecore</a> or visit them <a href="https://www.sitecore.com/">on the web</a>.
Congratulations to the Sitecore team on their win! Stay tuned to find out who walks away with the Critics Choice Award (selected by our panel of judges) coming soon.

2013 People's Choice Winner for Best Enterprise CMS

The Concrete5 Marketplace consists of a <a href="http://www.concrete5.org/marketplace/themes/" target="_blank">Themes marketplace</a> and an <a href="http://www.concrete5.org/marketplace/addons/" target="_blank">Add-ons Marketplace</a>. Both have now been upgraded to include dedicated Concrete5 5.7 sections.
The open-source content management system has a strong history and a firm community. Recently, <a href="/concrete5-5.7-released-and-updated/" target="_blank">version 5.7 was released, and then swiftly upgraded</a> with a further two minor updates.
From amongst these latest updates to the marketplace though, merchants offering add-ons and themes within the Concrete5 marketplace have enhanced capabilities. For example, developers can sell 30 day support windows and offer upgrades from one add-on/theme to another.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-13700x0.png" />
Here's a video explaining all the new Concrete5 Marketplace upgrades:
<iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/LonNkW_KQ8I?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>
The announcement was made via the <a href="http://www.concrete5.org/about/blog/core-releases/some-updates-to-concrete5-org/" target="_blank">Concrete5 blog</a>.
To learn more, check out <a href="/products/concrete5/" target="_blank">Concrete5 via our CMS Directory</a>.

Concrete5 Introduces Marketplace Improvements

WordPress is the most vulnerable CMS to cyber attacks, according to a report by Imperva, a data security firm. 
The Imperva Web Application Attack Report (WAAR) – an annual report now published for the fifth time – <a href="http://blog.imperva.com/2014/10/imperva-web-application-attack-report-waar-5.html" target="_blank">was recently released via the Imperva blog</a>. Amongst a long list of findings, it turns out that websites running on WordPress are attacked 24% more than those running on all other content management systems combined.
Here's a closer look at the report.
<h2>WordPress In Hacker Crosshairs</h2>
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/wplogoblue-stacked-rgb.png" />
In section 2.2.2 of the Imperva report, WordPress was identified as having suffered 60% more Cross Site Scripting incidents than all other CMS-running websites combined.
Other key findings include an increase of 10% in SQL Injection attacks, while retail websites were targeted by 48.1% of all attack campaigns. 
The most alarming find though, that WordPress is attacked 24% more than all other CMS combined, comes in the form of a graph within the report. The graph pits WordPress against, “the other popular CMS systems”.
Notably however, the other popular CMS were not named. 
Why WordPress in particular though? Imperva weigh in with this insight:
<blockquote>
“When an application or a platform becomes popular, hackers realize that the ROI from hacking into these platforms or applications will be fruitful, so they spend more time researching and exploiting these applications, either to steal data from them, or to use the hacked systems as zombies in a botnet.”
</blockquote>
A question I personally have about the report, is wether the sheer amount of live WordPress websites compared to any other CMS had any impact on the findings. Is WordPress hacked more often simply because it exists more abundantly, or because it is the most vulnerable CMS on the market? 
I'd be inclined to the former conclusion.
To read the blog announcement of this report, <a href="http://blog.imperva.com/2014/10/imperva-web-application-attack-report-waar-5.html" target="_blank">click here</a>. Otherwise, you can <a href="http://www.imperva.com/docs/HII_Web_Application_Attack_Report_Ed5.pdf" target="_blank">download the report for yourself</a>.

Imperva Report: WordPress Is The "Most Attacked" CMS

As you know, this year we are using a panel of judges to help select the winners of the Critics Choice portion of the CMS Awards. We're already announced our first judge, <a href="/introduction-to-the-judges-john-coonen/">John Coonen</a> and now it's time to tell you who the second one is.Our second judge for the Critics Choice CMS Awards is none other than Adriaan Bloem. Adriaan is very active on social media and can be found answering questions on site such as Quora and many others.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/adriaan-bloem-shirt-ed-sm100x0.jpg" alt="Adriaan Bloem" />What specifically made us think of him was his knack for honesty in his answers and we think it ties in well to the way we try to be here at CMS Critic, open, unbiased and honest.For those of you who don't know him, Adriaan is Senior Manager at MBC Group, responsible for online platform and infrastructure coherence, ranging from web content management, mobile, social, forums, to video.Adriaan has 18 years of experience in online, and was previously Analyst at the Real Story Group, and Consultant to large enterprises on their internet, social enterprise, and search endeavours. Adriaan likes penguins.You can find him on Twitter <a target="_blank" href="https://twitter.com/adriaanbloem‎">@adriaanbloem‎</a>For a full schedule of the awards, visit the <a href="/cms-critic-awards">CMS Awards</a> page.

Introduction to the Judges - Adriaan Bloem

Peppermint OS 8 is a lightweight Linux distribution based on Lubuntu and with the latest release, it now includes a host of changes from the previous release. As such, I thought I'd tackle a Peppermint OS 8 Review and see what's new with the distro.
Installation, as with most Ubuntu based distros, is standard fare and works pretty much the same across the board. Unique to Peppermint OS 8 however, is a new OEM Install option, allowing computers to be shipped with Peppermint pre-installed.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/peppermint_os_8_review_-_oem.png" />
This is a very smart inclusion by the developers and means that when computers are shipped out with Peppermint preinstalled, the user will be prompted for their own language, location, keyboard layout, and account details on first boot, allowing the system configuration to be unique to the new owner.
Upon boot-up, you'll be greeted with the standard Peppermint OS 8 desktop.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/peppermint_os_8_review_-_11047x0-is.png" />
Peppermint OS 8 includes the latest improvements including Mesa 17.0.2 for improved gaming and many others which you can read about in their <a href="https://peppermintos.com/2017/05/peppermint-8-released/" target="_blank">release notes</a>.
I've always been impressed with this distribution. It presents a very visually clean and collected installation absent of some of the bloat found in a lot of other similar distributions. The apps that come preinstalled are good choices (VLC, Chromium, Pixlr, Xed and others) and performance has always been impressive. The developers seem to really be focusing on helping users run a well organized and stable system with each release.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/peppermint_os_8_review_-_21047x0-is.png" />
They also want to make sure that you have everything you need to properly customize and manage it as well, as can be seen in the newly updated Peppermint control center, which is chock full of goodies. For those who are fans of Numix, the Customize Numix Folder Icons entry allows you to change the type and colour of the folder icons when using one of the Numix icon themes.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/peppermint_os_8_review_-_31047x0-is.png" />
There's also a handy new addition to the control center in the form of a Tweaks category, with a number of additions you'll find useful for customizing your desktop experience.
Chromium makes a re-appearance in this release and the pepperflash PPAPI flashplayer is included as well allowing users who prefer this browser to display flash content with ease.
A small selection of quality games are included as well including the popular “Entanglement” and the quirky “First Person Tetris” – both of which make quick work of any free time you might find yourself having.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/peppermint_os_8_review_-_51047x0-is.png" />
Lots of theming options are present as well, including quite a few panel and window manager specific themes from which you can choose.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/peppermint_os_8_review_-_41047x0-is.png" />
Performance wise, the system is very snappy, even when running Chromium and a few other apps such as Pixlr (which comes preinstalled).
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/peppermint_os_8_review_-_71256x0-is.png" />
For lightweight purposes, I'd recommend taking a look at Peppermint OS 8. It's loaded with tons of excellent apps, performance is very impressive and they have a great user community which is evidenced in their <a href="https://forum.peppermintos.com/" target="_blank">active forums.</a>
If I was to give them one piece of advice moving forward, it would be to implement a welcome screen for new users that points out some of the excellent functionality and capabilities of the new distro. Without this, users are left exploring on their own. While that might work for those of us who've been using Linux for many years, new users need a bit of hand holding and I think this would be a great way to take Peppermint OS to the next level of user friendliness.
Otherwise, this is a great release. In my time running it, I've not encountered any bugs or lockups and performance has been impressive. Great work devs!
<a href="https://peppermintos.com/" target="_blank">Grab Peppermint OS 8 today</a> and give it a whirl.

Peppermint OS 8 Review

Semrush - Be an SEO hero

Be found everywhere search happens

#ffffff

Squarespace, the popular website builder, has announced the release of Squarespace 7 to the public.
Squarespace 7 features a number of significant changes including a completely redesigned interface, integration with Getty Images making over 40 million images available for just $10 each, an integration with Google Apps allowing for easy email setup under your domain, and more.
<iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/9IDeKXQuiik?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>
<h2>Squarespace 7 – The Interface</h2>
What's new with the interface in Squarespace 7? Quite a bit actually. The team has worked hard to make the interface cleaner and more intuitive.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/squarespace_7_interface_screenshot_11086x0.png" alt="squarespace_7_interface_screenshot_1" />
As you can see, there is a new sidebar to the left that contains quick access to all of your menus. The process of getting around on your site is much easier as a result. The bulk of the editing tools are now more easily accessible, something that makes Squarespace more competitive against other website builders such as <a href="https://www.weebly.com/">Weebly</a> and Wix for instance.
Furthermore, they've added front end editing capabilities. Simply hover over an editable area and the interface reveals itself. A quick click lets you make the necessary changes quickly and easily.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/squarespace_7_interface_screenshot_21086x0.png" alt="squarespace_7_interface_screenshot_2" />
<h2>Squarespace 7 – Getty Images Integration</h2>
For those looking for high quality images to use within your website or blog, Squarespace has also struck a deal with Getty Images giving you the ability to quickly purchase and use an image from their massive repository at a very reasonable $10 per image.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/gettyimages.jpg" alt="getting images" />
This is a great way to get beautiful imagery for your site at a fraction of the cost of typical photography websites. Sure, there are less expensive ones but having the option is always nice.
<h2>Squarespace 7 – Cover Pages</h2>
Bad news for website builders like <a href="http://www.websitebuilderscritic.com/website_builders/reviews/strikingly/" target="_blank">Strikingly</a> (which specializes in single page websites) is the new introduction of Cover Pages. Cover pages let you quickly make single page websites or simply create powerful landing pages to grab a readers attention.
Here's a great example of one:
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/squarespace_7_-_cover_pages1042x0.jpg" alt="squarespace_7_-_cover_pages" />
<h2>Google Apps Integration</h2>
For businesses like ours that integrate with Google Apps for email, documents and more, this is exciting news. Squarespace 7 can link your domain to branded email accounts, office productivity tools, cloud storage, and more via Google Apps.
<h2>Wait, there's more! </h2>
These are only some of the new features that Squarespace 7 brings to the table. To learn more and sign up for a free trial of Squarespace to try them out, <a href="http://www.squarespace.com">visit Squarespace today</a>.

Squarespace releases Squarespace 7

This year, for the Critic's Choice portion of our annual CMS Awards, we've decided to make the selections using a panel of three judges. The judges we've selected are well respected throughout the community and are valued for their opinions.
To start the process of introduction, we'd like to introduce judge number one, John Coonen!
If you don't know who John is, you are either not on Twitter (he's almost impossible to avoid and his tweets are very entertaining) or you've never attended his CMS Expo (which in itself is a total shame).
<img style="max-width:100px" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/john-coonen-gp-bw100x0.jpg" alt="John Coonen" />
John Coonen is the President of the CMS Association. Its mission: “Shine the spotlight on the world's leading CMSs and the people who use them.”  He is the founder and co-host of the <a href="http://www.cmsexpo.net/">CMS Expo Learning &amp; Business Conference</a>, and publisher of The CMS Connection.
John's background is in campaign management and creative direction for major brands, non-profits political campaigns, and causes, where he made extensive use (and custom development of) CMSs since the 1990s. You can find him on <a href="http://www.linkedin.com/in/coonen">Linkedin</a>.
John was quick to accept the judging position for this year's awards and we're very excited to have him on board. Watch for future collaborations between CMS Critic and CMS Expo in 2014 and be sure to check back throughout this month to hear the winners of the Peoples Choice awards. For a full schedule of the awards, visit the <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/cms-critic-awards/">CMS Awards</a> page.

Introduction to the Judges - John Coonen

Over the course of this featured week, I’ve explored <a href="/a-look-at-motocms-as-an-ecommerce-solution/">MotoCMS as an eCommerce solution</a>, had a look at its <a href="/how-web-designers-save-money-with-the-motocms-developer-program/">Developer Program</a>, and grabbed an <a href="/an-interview-with-motocms-ceo-demetrio-fortman/">interview with their CEO, Demetrio Fortman</a>.Now, to wrap it all up, I’m taking another good look at the website builders flexibility.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/untitled-3.jpg" />Although <a href="/products/motocms">MotoCMS</a> enables you to get quite detailed with the customization of pages, the real flexibility of the platform lies within its vast library of templates.<h2>HTML or Moto 3?</h2>One thing you may notice when <a target="_blank" href="http://www.motocms.com/website-templates/">browsing for MotoCMS templates</a>, is that you have a selection of HTML templates, and Moto 3 templates.If you opt for a HTML theme, you’ll be getting a cheaper deal, but without the added features of MotoCMS version 3, like an improved WYSIWYG editor and extra plugin options.Moto3 templates on the other hand, are reserved for those who want those added benefits, albeit at a slightly higher fee..<h2>Any Industry. Seriously.</h2>If the plethora of MotoCMS template categories manage to miss the industry you want to work in, I’ll be amazed.It’s home to a total of 58 industry-specific categories, including:Alternative PowerMilitaryFlowersSecurityReal estateCarsInterior &amp; FurniturePlus, the more generic categories like “Business” and “Personal Pages” help fill any gaps. Suffice it to say, every major industry is covered, and then some.And I must also point out, to MotoCMS’ credit, that those categories are relatively well filled. So, no matter what industry you want to delve into, you’ve got a healthy choice of templates to browse through.<h2>MotoCMS Template Examples</h2>Here are some of my personal favourite MotoCMS templates, picked out from their <a target="_blank" href="http://www.motocms.com/website-templates/">website template library</a>.Industry: Web Design<a target="_blank" href="http://www.motocms.com/website-templates/motocms-3-template/54628.html">A single-page theme</a>, ideal for a web design agency.<a target="_blank" href="http://www.motocms.com/website-templates/motocms-3-template/54628.html"><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/rocket434x0-is.png" /></a>Industry: Fishing<a target="_blank" href="http://www.motocms.com/website-templates/motocms-3-template/58427.html#1">A bold and rather comprehensive template</a>, built ideally for a fishing company.<a target="_blank" href="http://www.motocms.com/website-templates/motocms-3-template/58427.html#1"><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/fishing440x0-is.png" /></a>Industry: Interior Design<a target="_blank" href="http://www.motocms.com/website-templates/motocms-3-template/58609.html">A sleek and simple theme</a>, designed with interior decorators in mind.<a target="_blank" href="http://www.motocms.com/website-templates/motocms-3-template/58609.html"><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/design439x0-is.png" /></a>Each of the above themes come bundled with a MotoCMS backend, are 100% responsive, and boats extra features like; stock photos, Google Maps integration, sliders and grid galleries.Buyers also get free 24/7 support, along with free CMS updates.

MotoCMS: Suited to Every Industry

Bitrix has announced the release of <a href="https://www.bitrixsoft.com/products/cms/what-is-new.php">Bitrix Site Manager Version 11.0</a>. As of this version, Site Manager is no longer only a platform for the creation of sites, but also for development of Cloud-based web services. Among the most notable product enhancements are: Bitrix Cloud Storage with support of Google Storage, Amazon S3, Windows Azure Storage, OpenStack and others; Geo-distributed Web Cluster for smarter and more secure web traffic distribution, and Project Quality Control tools.
<h3>Bitrix Cloud Storage</h3>
The move to Cloud-based services is undoubtedly a major trend in technology, and support of the system mentioned above, as well as CDN (Content Distribution Network), is critical to Bitrix Site Manager . Bitrix Cloud Storage accelerates uploading of files, which is especially important for multimedia and size-hungry content types. Beyond this, the site owner saves significantly, as Cloud storages are cheaper than space provided by standard hosting.
<table>
<tbody>
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<td><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/rules.png" /> 
Managing file distribution rules in Bitrix Cloud Storage</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<blockquote>“The average CMS is not a viable method for working in the Cloud. We made modifications throughout our product to make this version a ‘Cloud platform' for web development which meets the requirements of major Cloud infrastructures. We support the open standard of OpenStack Swift API and encourage hosting companies to develop their own Cloud solutions.” – said Sergey Rizhikov, CEO, Bitrix, Inc.</blockquote>
Project Quality Control
For the majority of developers and clients, a key question in project development is control of the quality of the implementation. Version 11.0 is equipped with a Project Quality Control tool which offers a set of mandatory and supplementary tests that ensure optimal quality of integration of the design, the program's external environment, security, performance, and hosting settings within the system.
<table>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/checklist1.png" /> 
Quality Control test categories</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<h3>Geo-distributed Web Cluster</h3>
The new Geo-distributed Web Cluster module increases project availability and provides independence from a given data center. By enabling installation of the cluster in data centers located in different cities or even countries, the likelihood of a power outage or natural disaster interrupting service approaches zero. If one data center goes down, a replicated server in a different location compensates, with no need to restore a backup. Site performance is also improved by distribution of workload among data centers.
<h3>Other important changes and enhancements</h3>
Among other remarkable changes made in the product the following are worth mentioning:
<ul>
<li>Secure authorization using the RSA algorithm with a 1024-bit key – protection from password theft even in the absence of SSL (for example, free WI-FI hot spots in cafes, airports, etc.);</li>
<li>Social Search using a unique user influence system to weight content and user ratings;</li>
<li>Improved search quality with better accounting for spacing and punctuation;</li>
<li>Automatic Time Zone settings – all dates and times used in news articles, comments, or e-store orders are now shown with respect to the time zone where the user is currently located;</li>
<li>New Admin Dashboard at the backend of the product now has individually configurable desktops with drag-and-drop gadgets and quick search;</li>
<li>Significant improvements in the Photo Gallery including two additional themes (skins), a new thumbnail slider, and comments displayed under the original image and in the Live Feed;</li>
<li>Built-in tool for generating short links right in the front-end;</li>
<li>Support of Schema.org microformats in the e-Store for better search engine indexing;</li>
<li>Auto-saving for forms – if there is an interruption before a web form is submitted, the dialog box, when opened the next time, will offer a restored version;</li>
<li>User interface usability improvements in Forums, Blogs, WYSIWYG Editor, and other features;</li>
<li>Virtual Appliance 3.0 with Web Cluster support;</li>
<li>Over 150 additions, improvements, and changes, affecting 33 modules of the product.</li>
</ul>
<h3>How to upgrade to version 11.0?</h3>
Current Bitrix Site Manager owners with active subscription for technical support can upgrade to Version 11.0 at no charge using the SiteUpdate feature in the product. The new version is available for download as a free 30-day trial version (www.bitrixsoft.com/download/cms.php), or can be tested online using the instant 3-hour demo (https://bitrixsoft.com/products/cms/demo.php).

Bitrix CMS 11.0 is Out

There's nothing quite as sweet as ice cream on a hot summer's day. And speaking of hot, the last month has been a blaze of activity in the CMS and DXP markets. Grab something cold and we'll break it all down for you.
The heatwave started with <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/what-contentfuls-175m-investment-round-means-for-the-future-of-cms/" target="_blank">Contentful's $175 million investment round</a>, making the headless unicorn the latest platform to broadcast a big money moment over the past 18 months. But they weren't alone: <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/umbraco-cms-acquired-by-software-investor-monterro-interview-with-ceo-kim-sneum-madsen/" target="_blank">Umbraco</a> CMS also announced their acquisition by software investment firm Monterro, signaling a bold new chapter for the platform player. 
<a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/wix-launches-new-branded-app-builder-for-creating-code-free-native-mobile-apps/" target="_blank">Wix</a> also made waves with the release of a new code-free app builder, making it easier for users to add a native iOS or Android app to their digital strategy. It's another innovative move for the website builder, and we'll be following up with a closer look in the coming months. 
We also blew out the candles for <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/joomla-cms-turns-16-celebrates-with-long-awaited-release-of-version-4-0/" target="_blank">Joomla!'s 16th birthday</a>. Still want a slice of their open source layer cake? Check out <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/joomla-cms-turns-16-celebrates-with-long-awaited-release-of-version-4-0/" target="_blank">Joomla!'s Version 4.0</a>, which was released just prior to the festivities. Nine years in the making, the new upgrade offers a host of features that are worth sampling. 
Despite the glut of negative news, we also had a chance to hear from <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/solodev-selected-as-cloud-consulting-partner-of-the-2022-special-olympics-usa-games/" target="_blank">Solodev</a> about their partnership with the <a href="https://www.solodev.com/news/solodev-selected-as-cloud-consulting-partner-of-the-2022-special-olympics-usa-games.stml" target="_blank">Special Olympics 2022 USA Games</a>. The CMS-turned-cloud-app-ecosystem has built the first-ever serverless infrastructure for the non-profit, which will power a fan engagement experience for athletes and spectators. It's a feel-good story, and a great one to end your week on.
No plain vanilla in this stack. Keep reading for a few more scoops. 
 
<h2>Zoho launches Canvas, a design studio that rethinks the CRM Experience for enterprises</h2>
<h2><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2021/08/zoho-canvas.png" alt="Zoho Canvas user interface" /></h2>
Zoho recently <a href="https://www.zoho.com/news/zoho-launches-canvas-design-studio-to-re-envision-crm-experience.html" target="_blank">announced</a> Canvas for Zoho CRM, a design studio for CRM personalization. Canvas brings simplicity to the CRM user experience through a no-code design studio that helps customers craft their own personalized experiences. Businesses can now create their own CRM interfaces that are better suited to the role of each employee without IT or developer involvement.
Canvas looks and works just like a CMS but with drag-and-drop functionality. You simply click on an element in a list of fields, i.e., Full Name, email, and drag it onto the canvas. Once you drag the data on the canvas, you can customize the look of it however you prefer. You can adjust the shapes of elements, spacing, colors, and font styles; basically every visual detail you can think of. If creating a style from scratch is overwhelming for you, Canvas also comes with a library of templates crafted by their in-house designers.
"A lot of CRM software already offers an abundance of personalization for customer experiences, but the same is not true for employee experiences. As a result, everyone's using the same system and paying the productivity tax for no reason." said Mani Vembu, COO of Zoho, "Imagine a reality where the system is tailor-made for each employee's role. That is true all-around for personalization, and that's what we're bringing to market with Canvas. We believe it's a more natural solution to the challenge of software adoption. Our ultimate aim is for businesses to create enterprise-wide software experiences with consumer-grade simplicity."
Canvas Capabilities Include:
<ul>
<li>Drag-and-drop editor: facilitate designing without the need to write a single line of code.</li>
<li>Template gallery: customers can pick a preset template that speaks to them and their industry and dive right in.</li>
<li>Industry-relevant views: companies can create views that are relevant to their industry, their work culture, their sales process, and more.</li>
<li>Self-service portals: customers can share Canvas creations over portals to create a better experience for vendors, stakeholders, and more.</li>
<li>Role-based assignment: admins can assign different Canvas views based on roles, responsibilities, and teams in their company.</li>
<li>Extensive formatting: Canvas houses a wide range of formatting options to edit the finer details of a view and loads styles dynamically based on conditions.</li>
</ul>
Canvas will be available across all editions of Zoho CRM at no additional cost.
 You can find more information on Canvas at <a href="https://www.zoho.com/canvas/" target="_blank">https://www.zoho.com/canvas/</a>.
<h2></h2>
<h2>Acquia renews Drupal Steward Program support, brings critical security fixes to enterprises first</h2>
<img style="max-width:640px" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2021/08/drupal-steward-logo-1024x839.png" alt="drupal steward logo" />
Digital experience platform Acquia <a href="https://www.acquia.com/newsroom/press-releases/acquia-renews-drupal-steward-program-support-brings-critical-security-fixes" target="_blank">announced</a> that it is renewing its founding partnership support of the <a href="https://drupalsteward.org/" target="_blank">Drupal Steward Program</a>, a web application firewall introduced by the Drupal Association and operated jointly with the Drupal Security team. Acquia implemented Drupal Steward protection across its entire <a href="https://www.acquia.com/products/drupal-cloud" target="_blank">Drupal Cloud</a> platform, protecting thousands of the world's largest sites with the most up-to-date security and vulnerability fixes.
Acquia's participation in this program affords seamless, immediate protection to customers by routing their website domains to Drupal Steward, which automatically filters requests through the firewall. Malicious requests are blocked, giving IT teams the time they need to test and implement security updates on their own timelines. 
For example, in November 2020, Drupal Steward implemented protection against a critical remote code execution vulnerability, immediately protecting Acquia's customers. 
<h2></h2>
<h2>HubSpot partners with Envato to launch hundreds of high-quality CMS hub templates</h2>
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2021/08/themeforest-hubspot-collection.jpg" alt="ThemeForest HubSpot Collection" />
HubSpot – an integrated CRM, CMS, and digital marketing platform – has partnered with <a href="https://envato.com/" target="_blank">Envato</a>, the world-leading online community for creative assets like website themes and templates. The result is something HubSpot CMS and website users will be thrilled about. 
This month, the companies <a href="https://www.hubspot.com/company-news/hubspot-partners-with-envato" target="_blank">announced</a> the launch of more than 250 diverse, high-quality website themes on the <a href="https://themeforest.net/lp/hubspot-cms-hub-themes" target="_blank">Envato Market</a>, all made specifically for the <a href="https://www.hubspot.com/products/cms?_ga=2.234685790.1384499146.1628085564-1129582407.1628085564" target="_blank">HubSpot CMS Hub</a>. As part of their partnership, Envato has added a specific HubSpot category to their marketplace, allowing developers to sell themes they have created specifically for CMS Hub. These new options will now be featured alongside other popular content management systems, including WordPress, Webflow, and Drupal. 
Built for marketers and developers, CMS Hub is designed to help customers create seamless digital experiences with drag-and-drop page editing, mobile optimization, premium hosting, and more.
"The Envato Market ecosystem and ThemeForest, in particular, is a well-respected website design marketplace, with millions of customers supported by a hugely talented group of largely exclusive theme authors," said Envato's Chief Content Officer, Cameron Gough.
You can check out the HubSpot CMS Hub themes collection on ThemeForest here: <a href="https://themeforest.net/lp/hubspot-cms-hub-themes/" target="_blank">https://themeforest.net/lp/hubspot-cms-hub-themes/</a>
<h2>WordPress releases Gutenberg 11.2</h2>
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2021/08/gutenberg-search-styles.jpeg" alt="gutenberg search styles" />
Let's consult Johannes before we stop the presses, but just two weeks after releasing Gutenberg 11.1, WordPress pushed <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/08/05/whats-new-in-gutenberg-11-2-0-4-august/" target="_blank">Gutenberg 11.2.0</a>. 
As you might expect, this rapid-fire release focuses primarily on bug fixes and tooling rather than major updates. But there are a few new features worth noting:
<ul>
<li>Search block button and border colors: the range of options for customizing blocks continues to improve. The search block now has<a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/32416" target="_blank"> additional options for customizing button and border colors.</a> </li>
<li>Group block flex layout: an <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/33359" target="_blank">experimental flex layout option</a> is being beta tested on the group block. This is an early glimpse at a feature that would give parent blocks the capability of defining the layout of their inner blocks.</li>
<li>New button for creating posts as part of the publishing flow: if you're creating more than one consecutive post, you can now <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/33276" target="_blank">create a new post from the editor</a> as part of the publishing flow.</li>
</ul>

CMS Monthly Recap: Zoho Launches Canvas, HubSpot Partners With Envato, WordPress Releases Gutenberg 11.2, and More

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