Articles - Page 154

<hr /> If there’s a song lyric that captures the ethos of Switzerland, this one comes to mind from <a target="_blank" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ozl3L9fhKtE">Fleetwood Mac</a>: “You can go your own way…”This classic was spinning on turntables and jukeboxes in the mid-1970s, but the Swiss have been rockin’ to the beat of their own drum for over 500 years – back when the country first established its venerated stance on neutrality. With a rich history of non-conformist geopolitical leanings, it’s not surprising that Switzerland is embracing open source software (OSS) with greater purpose and intention, while much of the West remains hesitant – particularly in government circles. Just how serious are the Swiss about OSS? Last year, the country passed what it calls the <a target="_blank" href="https://joinup.ec.europa.eu/collection/open-source-observatory-osor/news/new-open-source-law-switzerland">Federal Law on the Use of Electronic Means for the Fulfillment of Government Tasks</a> (EMBAG for short), a law requiring public sector entities to provide their software as open source. This applies to any code or applications they’ve developed (or had developed by a third party) provided it doesn’t compromise any rights or create security issues. While many of the tenets are still being implemented, the Swiss government and its contractors must release their software code under an OSS license, promising an entirely new level of transparency around government practices. A year after the law’s final adoption, EMBAG continues to challenge existing perceptions of OSS across the EU, and might just be the model for the future. That may sound wildly ambitious to some – foolhardy to others – but it also makes perfect sense. Like the Swiss, OSS is steeped in a deep legacy of democratic and social idealism, embodying the spirit of freedom and community.But in a world where trust can be easily exploited, is it a good idea for government agencies to be so open about their software?I recently caught up with <a target="_blank" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/mathias-bolt-lesniak/">Mathias Bolt Lesniak</a>, an open source evangelist at <a target="_blank" href="https://www.toujou.com/">toujou</a> (a SaaS website building platform based in Norway) and Project Ambassador at the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/typo3-association/">TYPO3 Association</a>. We’ve spoken previously about his involvement with the <a target="_blank" href="https://typo3.org/project/press/press-releases/open-website-alliance/english">Open Web Alliance</a>, a cabal of the world’s leading open source CMSs – <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/drupal">Drupal</a>, <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/joomla">Joomla</a>, <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/TYPO3">TYPO3</a>, and <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/wordpress">WordPress</a> – which assembled in the wake of the <a target="_blank" href="https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/library/cyber-resilience-act">EU’s Cyber Resilience Act</a>. The Alliance perceived this emerging policy as a threat to free and open source software like <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/what-is-a-content-management-system-cms">content management systems</a>, assigning responsibility for safety and security considerations regardless of how their CMS software is being utilized or customized. Their efforts culminated in an open letter to the EU about a myriad of issues – including the financial implications – and reinforced the benefits of open source. As an expert in OSS (or “FOSS” when it's free), Mathias had some thoughts on the evolution of Switzerland’s law and what it signals about the future. While other countries in the EU are also investing in the promise of open source, governments abroad are less bullish about the prospects. WordPress, the open source CMS goliath, continues to <a target="_blank" href="https://wordpress.org/about/features/">power over 43% of all websites</a> on the planet. Despite this staggering reach, there’s much work to be done to advance OSS principles in all corners of the globe, particularly in the public sector. But EMBAG just moved the ball further down the field – and if the Swiss don't miss, it could change the game. <h3 id="the-long-road-to-open-source">The long road to open source</h3>The adoption of EMBAG was certainly a legal milestone, and more than a decade in the making. Over that period, the Swiss government was embroiled in lengthy political and legal battles. There were numerous questions about existing agreements and the weight of international law. But in the end, the Swiss government achieved cooperation, applying radical changes to its e-government practices – specifically as it relates to the free reuse of its open source code.Unlike other legislation efforts, EMBAG also breaks new ground by mandating the release of broader government data. While this precludes personal or highly secure information, its Open Government Data (OGD) model goes beyond transparency – easing the friction around reusing data for other applications and encouraging greater innovation and collaboration between government agencies. <h3 id="an-alignment-of-democratic-ideals">An alignment of democratic ideals</h3>I asked Mathias about the promises and pitfalls of EMBAG, and where the potential of success – or failure – might exist. He had some strong observations on the role of governance in the equation, and how that could influence the overall trajectory. “My primary reaction, of course, is that this is great,” he said “I'm really looking forward to seeing the results of it, because this is a project that can go really well, or it can go not so well. I think it depends on the governance aspect of how it's actually implemented. Switzerland, of course, is one of these places that has a really strong democratic tradition – and democracy is what I usually point to when I talk about the positive things open source can bring into countries. It's a kind of ‘learning ground’ for democratic practices. And Switzerland, of course, has had this amazing, direct democracy for hundreds of years.”As Mathias codified, one might say that the Swiss were “culturally prepared” for a shift towards OSS, making it an ideal stage for employing such a groundbreaking piece of legislation. Other countries like France have professed a predilection towards open source, but none have gone this far with their public sector standards.  <hr /> <h4 style="text-align:center" id="“democracy-is-what-i-usually-point-to-when-i-talk-about-the-positive-things-open-source-can-bring-into-countries.”">“Democracy is what I usually point to when I talk about the positive things open source can bring into countries.”</h4> <hr /> The cards might be stacked against any country willing to dive this deep with open source. According to Mathias, there are several things that might help ensure positive outcomes as Switzerland looks to successfully execute this policy.“One of the things I'm looking forward to hopefully seeing is the Swiss building expertise around open source systems, as well as their small to medium supplier market,” he observed. “Open source has this ability, because it gives people the possibility to learn and use it outside of the originally intended use case.” Mathias also sees a runway for expanding the reuse of government software by other entities within Switzerland as well as outside the country. To his point, the Swiss have long cultivated a reputation for superior products and technologies (watches come to mind). As he sees it, there may be a heightened demand for Swiss OSS that far exceeds its current charter – perhaps even a “Swiss standard” for government software. To that end, Mathias sees the adoption of EMBAG as a clear signal that Switzerland recognizes the true potential of open source, widening the aperture well beyond its peers in the EU and abroad. <h3 id="the-struggle-with-security">The struggle with security</h3>Despite the palpable pros, open source has wrestled with the central challenge of trust. And it makes sense: you open your code to the world, and the question of security naturally follows. Accountability is also a major point of friction, as any issues with code or functionality often belong to a community, which can present barriers to solving critical problems.To be fair, all software is vulnerable – and we’re seeing just how vulnerable on a daily basis. Hacks and threats are becoming commonplace, and large open source systems like WordPress provide a much larger surface area for exploits. That said, proprietary software is target-rich and bountiful for likes of ransomware. Just take a quick peek at <a target="_blank" href="https://msrc.microsoft.com/update-guide/acknowledgement">Microsoft’s security update guide</a> and you’ll get a long and troubling list of vulnerabilities that have cropped up over time.No software should ever be deemed completely secure. But relative to proprietary platforms, open source can hold its own – and in some instances, might even be considered a safer bet. One example: because OSS isn’t controlled by a single vendor, anyone can monitor, locate, and remediate vulnerabilities. This can be a force multiplier for security and governance.At the end of the day, does this build enough trust for public sector agencies to open their code? Do the rewards outweigh the risks?“I think it definitely builds trust,” Mathias said. “Any country that adopts open source so fully is really a sign that its government understands all of the good stuff that you can do with it.”<h3 id="why-is-the-u.s.-less-bullish-on-open-source?">Why is the U.S. less bullish on open source?</h3>The European market teetered on the brink of recession throughout 2023. There were certainly a few bright spots, but by in large, the entire continent struggled as the U.S. boomed, losing pace in the race for AI and suffering setbacks in areas like electric vehicles. According to a <a target="_blank" href="https://www.wsj.com/economy/europe-regulates-its-way-to-last-place-2a03c21d">Wall Street Journal article</a> published in January, there is one field where the EU still leads the world – and that’s regulation. This has been a benefit in areas like controlling carbon emissions and advancing data privacy. But its penchant for draconian rulemaking has also stymied its economic agility when competing with China and the U.S.Of course, it’s not all about competition. There is this thing called humanity, and countries like Switzerland seem interested in policies that protect citizens and serve the public interest while promoting digital sovereignty and stoking innovation. Many would claim that doing good and driving economic growth aren’t mutually exclusive, but some EU companies are proving the opposite. <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/umbraco-publishes-annual-impact-report-reinforcing-commitments-to-sustainability-and-community">A great example in the CMS world is Umbraco</a>, which is investing deeply in sustainability and DEI strategies while activating growth (it also happens to be an open source platform).We’ve already established that open source can overcome questions about its security and stability – and based on <a target="_blank" href="https://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/open-source-software-the-nine-trillion-resource-companies-take-for-granted">research from Frank Nagle</a> at the Harvard Business School, 96% of commercial programs include some form of OSS in their mix – making it absolutely critical to the global economy. Now, the Swiss are advocating open source for government at the highest level.So why has it been slow to catch on in the U.S. public sector?Well, for starters, there’s certainly support for it. Just a few years ago, the <a target="_blank" href="https://thenewstack.io/how-the-u-s-air-force-deployed-kubernetes-and-istio-on-an-f-16-in-45-days">U.S. Air Force began deploying applications</a> on F-16s utilizing a hybrid cloud strategy via Kubernetes – an open source system for pushing, scaling, and managing containerized apps. The U.S. federal government also requires agencies to release a percentage of its custom code as OSS. That said, there are no mandates like the one Switzerland has introduced – and very little incentive for public sector agencies to invest heavily in open source. I asked Mathias about this marked difference between the U.S. and Europe, and what the underlying factors might be.“I think there's a difference in tradition,” he said. “The U.S. and Europe have different ways of funding for open source projects, to be very black and white. Europe has much more of a government-centric funding model, where the public sector supports projects. The <a target="_blank" href="https://www.sovereigntechfund.de/">German Sovereign Tech Fund</a>, for example, is a government construct for capitalizing open source projects. And in the U.S., it seems that it's much more reliant on private capital. I think both of those can work as funding solutions, but governments are going to be motivated by public service to a much larger degree than private funding.”That said, the EU's well might be running dry on public funding for OSS. In July, the European Commission <a target="_blank" href="https://fossforce.com/2024/07/is-the-european-commission-dropping-support-for-important-open-source-funding/">neglected to include</a> any Next Generation Internet (NGI) programs in its budget for 2025. NGI has been fiercely committed to building a trustworthy internet by funding over a thousand open source projects through its NGI Zero Commons Fund. If this disappears, many OSS projects may come to a halt.<h3 id="opening-up-the-open-source-promise-">Opening up the open source promise </h3>While EMBAG is providing a template for other EU nations – and the world – it’s still early days. There are aspects of the policy that still need shaking out. But as Mathias observed, the news is sparking great interest around open source and its potential for continued growth.There are clear benefits for the Swiss as they embark on this journey. Aside from the foundation of greater openness and transparency, OSS eliminates inhibitors like vendor lock-in and other compromises that come with selecting proprietary software. More importantly, it drives efficiency by enabling the reuse of code and improving productivity through collaboration. As Mathias sees it, open source can provide governments with greater choice and control –  the essential ingredients for accelerating time to mission and supporting the needs of citizens and communities. Being able to share and reuse OSS code can help activate the potential. “Selecting open source doesn't have to mean you select a single model or one open source piece of software to rule them all,” he explained. “You can also create and fund a collaboration between different projects so that they can reuse the same kind of code. And I think that's an opportunity that is much more relevant when the government is participating. We share information openly, and that’s something that can benefit existing platforms and the development of new platforms for things like government ID.”Mathias is also predicting unexpected ways that open source might deliver greater impact and value.“Governments have an opportunity to support some of areas that are often forgotten, or that receive little focus from open source developers, and one of those is UX,” he said. “For example, many open source systems have been built by developers who build them in a ‘developer way.’ The first thing they think about is functionality and not UX, and governments have the possibility to fund that missing layer of making open source so usable that everyone will adopt it. If that happens, we might see open source platforms that are being compared beyond their feature sets.”We’ve had numerous discussions in the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.boye-co.com/">Boye &amp; Company CMS Experts Group</a> about Gartner’s persistent “overlooking” of open source platforms on its MQ reports. We know revenue is an obstacle (among other requirements), but there’s also a latent undercurrent of negative perception around OSS when it comes to enterprise software decisions.As the Swiss swing for the fences and once again “go their own way,” perhaps more OSS solutions will attain a new level of respect in the minds of market watchers. Of course, that shift will require a deeper understanding of the true nature of open source:It’s less about code – and more about culture.  <hr /><h3 id="upcoming-conferences">Upcoming conferences</h3> <img style="width:29.67%" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2024/01/cms-connect-2024-logo.png" alt="CMS Connect 24 logo" /><h4 id="cms-connect-24---sold-out"><a target="_blank" href="https://www.boye-co.com/conferences/cmsconnect24">CMS Connect 24</a> - SOLD OUT</h4>August 6-7, 2024 – Montreal, CanadaWe are delighted to present our first annual summer edition of our prestigious international conference dedicated to the global content management community. Join us this August in Montreal, Canada, for a vendor-neutral conference focused on CMS. Tired of impersonal and overwhelming gatherings? Picture this event as a unique blend of masterclasses, insightful talks, interactive discussions, impactful learning sessions, and authentic networking opportunities. <img style="width:29.58%" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2024/01/cms-kickoff-2025-logo.png" /><h4 id="cms-kickoff-25"><a target="_blank" href="https://www.boye-co.com/conferences/cmskickoff25/tickets">CMS Kickoff 25</a></h4>January 14-15, 2025 – Tampa Bay Area, FloridaJoin us next January in the Tampa Bay area of Florida for the third annual CMS Kickoff – the industry's premier global event. Similar to a traditional kickoff, we reflect on recent trends and share stories from the frontlines. Additionally, we will delve into the current happenings and shed light on the future. Prepare for an unparalleled in-person CMS conference experience that will equip you to move things forward. This is an exclusive event – space is limited, so secure your tickets today.

The Swiss Don’t Miss on Open Source: How Switzerland's EMBAG Law is Evolving the OSS Landscape

matt-garrepy

Five months after the initial release of Kajona 4, the first update v4.1 focuses on simplicity.
Besides regular bug fixes and optimizations the new insite editor is the most remarkable feature of the new release. Introduces with version 4.0, the insite editor allows to change and format content directly within the page layout. The new editor in 4.1 extends the functionality, offering not only markup functions such as bold or italic, but even the possibility te edit links and images directly.
Content-editors are now able to work in the page layout exclusively while the switch to the comfortable backend is still possible, but no longer required for most of the editors' tasks.
<h3>Screenshots:</h3>
<img style="max-width:600px" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/image.png" alt="image" />
<img style="max-width:600px" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/image-2.png" alt="image (2)" />
When it comes to developing new modules, a newly introduced module structure reduces the efforts to develop a new module. The new approach is the result of a developer-sprint in early 2013 and is based on annotations rather than complex source code. All relevant methods and elements of a module are generated by analyzing and interpreting the annotations provided by the developer. This ensures the maintainability of a module and reduces the expenditure of time to develop a new module.
Since Kajona 4.1 brings several bug fixes, security updates, and updates for compatibility with current web browsers and web server systems, the upgrade to 4.1 is recommended to all users. The update is available and recommended via integrated package management.
The download of the system is possible on the project's website <a href="http://www.kajona.de">http://www.kajona.de</a>.

Content Management Framework Kajona released in version 4.1

mike-johnston

If you aren't used to using an open source CMS, then you may have fallen victim to several popular myths. Even those who are familiar with the open source environment believe some of these myths. For both avid open source users and proprietary CMS users, we offer fair warning regarding the four worst myths about open source CMSs. 1.  Open source CMS are much easier to use than proprietary systems.This is sheer myth. The person who declares that open source X is easier than proprietary Y in has a lot of explaining to do. We need a more detailed explanation in order to make “easier” or “harder” comparisons. There are tons of open source CMSs, untold numbers of proprietaries, a million or so hybrids, and an infinite number of “easy” or “hard” things that you can do with them. This sweeping “easier” declaration is firmly founded upon the speaker's lack of knowledge regarding his or her subject matter.Perhaps the real downer to a statement like this is its ramifications. Believing that one CMS is “easier” than another may contribute to further mistakes.<ul><li>It may cause a business to choose said open source CMS without being prepared for the learning curve.</li><li>It may lead to a business being shorthanded on developers or IT, once they discover that it takes more than just someone handy with Microsoft Word to run the thing.</li><li>It mistakenly leads some to conclude that “easier” means “cheaper” in terms of talent acquisition and/or training.</li></ul>On the flip side, it's dangerous to think that proprietary systems are easier. Before we talk about easy or hard, let's just make sure we're making it really clear what we're talking about.2.  Open source is free. The fact is, WordPress, Joomla, TYPO3, or Drupal won't ask you to pay for their system. Yes, the system itself is free. But what about everything else? Hosting, design, plugins, themes, extensions, tools, implementation, support, maintenance, adoption costs, programs, designers, developers and whatever else is involved in a CMS are usually not free. The buzzword “free” leads many astray with the assumption that they're getting something for nothing. That's just not how life works, not even in the promised land of open source CMSs. In the end, the total cost of ownership does not necessarily land lower than the TCO of a proprietary system. You're going to pay for something, even if it's not the CMS itself.3.  Open source costs more than proprietary.Some have reversed the above myth (#2) to postulate another myth that is equally untrue. They say, with a glint of disdain in their eye, that open source CMSs actually have more hidden costs than proprietary systems. The furtive word “hidden” likely denotes such things as development, maintenance, etc.Here's the grain of truth in the myth:  Somewhere, in the distant passages of past time, a company did a cost-survey analysis and discovered a proprietary system might actually cost less overall than some open source alternative. Fair enough; end of story.My chief carp against this myth is its lack of legitimate comparison. It is never appropriate to say one type of CMS is superior to/cheaper than/ easier than/ more powerful than another type of CMS. (See myth #1.) There are a bajillion more factors to consider. A better approach is to survey your TCO, and to make no decisions based on that one lonely datapoint — the cost of the CMS itself.4.  There is no training or support if you choose open source. Um, no. Any developer who has spent time honing his open source craft can tell you that this is untrue. Just because some well-funded proprietary CMS hosts an annual conference doesn't mean that the open source users lacks support. Open source users can find online help, forums, paid classes, local meet ups, YouTube how-tos, expensive manuals, more expensive consultants, and whizz-bang contract developers. The support and training are there; they just don't get packaged into some monthly fee along with the CMS itself.A white paper published by a proprietary CMS developer discussed the downside of open source with a teary-eyed tale of someone who had been there, done that with open source:  “As a service provider looking for support for critical applications, I don't want to depend on the equivalent of begging in the street for answers — that is what support is like with open source content management system [CMS]. I want to know that I'll get a real person, whose job is on the line, to help me.”The slant of this statement is evident. We don't know what this gentleman was doing, cryptically referred to as “begging in the street for answers,” but we know that online support manuals, sophisticated training programs, up-to-the-minute forums, and easy Google searches are not begging in the streets. The answers are there; the support for your critical applications is there. You can stay off the streets.Choosing a CMS is an <a href="/contact">important decision</a> — too important to fall prey to these myths. As long as you're doing your homework, comparing CMSs in the right way, and getting a broad survey of CMSs, you'll be fine.

The Four Worst Myths about Open Source CMS

daniel-threlfall

Joomla today announced the immediate availability of Joomla 3.1. The biggest feature of Joomla 3.1 is Tags, a built-in tagging system that allows dynamic tagging across content-types. Tags hasn’t been created for articles only, but rather Joomla integrated tagging into other areas of its core that made sense (e.g. contacts, feeds, etc). For example, Tags allow end-users to create lists, blogs, or other layouts that combine articles with other content types any way they like. These tags can be dynamically created from the content, without having to navigate to the Tags component, thus bringing both power and simplicity.
<blockquote>
“With Joomla 3.1, the most important new feature is definitely the support of tags,” said Paul Orwig, president of Open Source Matters, a non-profit created to provide organization, legal and financial support to the Joomla project. “Tags have previously been available through third party extensions, but for 3.1 we are adding them to the core. This will make it easier for third party extensions to integrate with them. Another underlying benefit is that the way the code has been written to support tags will lay the foundation for future enhancements for how Joomla content can be displayed with much more flexibility”
</blockquote>
Along with the new Tags feature, the Joomla 3.X series offers the following major features:
<ul>
<li>Mobile-ready. Joomla is the first and only major CMS that is fully responsive. It has a responsive site template, responsive admin UI, responsive core output, and it provides developers tools to make their extensions responsive</li>
<li>Customizable access control</li>
<li>User friendly interface</li>
<li>Streamlined 30 second install</li>
<li>One-click upgrades with backward compatibility, so that a site continues working seamlessly</li>
<li>Built-in multilingual capabilities. Again, the first and only major CMS that has such a feature</li>
<li>For developers, the Joomla User Interface (JUI) library gives a standardized backend &amp; frontend interface</li>
</ul>
Joomla 3.1 is truly a collaborative community-driven software project developed with the feedback gathered from more than 2.7 million Joomla forum posts, nearly 605,000 Joomla forum members and data from more than 6,100 Joomla extensions. To download Joomla 3.1, go to <a href="http://www.joomla.org/download.html">http://www.joomla.org/download.html</a>

Joomla! 3.1 Released; New Built-In Tagging System Makes Displaying and Finding Content More Dynamic

Microsoft SharePoint has emerged as the gateway to the mass of stored enterprise information that organizations around the world rely on to conduct business each day, but there are areas in which its capabilities need to be augmented by additional applications – particularly for metadata management and automatic classification – according to new research.
A new <a href="http://www.smartlogic.com/home/knowledge-zone">whitepaper</a> from content intelligence software provider Smartlogic shows that the majority of information professionals in the US and Europe are disillusioned with SharePoint, but the report also explores solutions that could radically improve the performance of the workflow and content management application. The Smartlogic whitepaper, entitled Filling the Gaps, pulls together independent findings from recent studies by MindMetre Research and Gartner.
In the paper, Smartlogic chief executive Jeremy Bentley draws on the results of a survey of more than 500 information professionals by MindMetre, which found that more 53% of the respondents use Microsoft SharePoint to access internal information within their organization. However, the study also reveals that ‘findability’ could be an issue with the platform, as 80% of the SharePoint users surveyed say the application is falling short of their and their colleagues’ expectations when it comes to enterprise search – with 34% saying it is doing so by a considerable margin.
Bentley says in the report: “This, in turn, is leading to dissatisfaction with return on investment in SharePoint, with 62% reporting a degree of disillusionment with the ROI that the platform has delivered, due to the fact that some important content is still difficult to find and search results are not sufficiently relevant.”
MindMetre also found that 76% of SharePoint users surveyed see the elimination of work duplication is the one of the major goals they are trying to achieve with the application, but even more – 78% – are disappointed with the platform’s ability to deliver satisfactory access to internal information.
Discussing the significance of the whitepaper findings, Bentley notes: “At a time when organizations across the globe face continued economic uncertainty, improving returns on investment by better leveraging information assets is essential. The big challenge for the vast majority of enterprises is harnessing the information they have available and making it findable for staff, partners, clients, investors, regulators and other stakeholders.”
The Smartlogic whitepaper also draws on recent research from Gartner that identifies significant functional gaps in SharePoint that can be addressed with the installation of additional tools – particularly those that impact search performance. Specific functions flagged up in the Gartner report as areas in which SharePoint’s performance could be enhanced include the “mass-tagging of content and ingestion of existing content” and the “management of taxonomies and structures”.
“While SharePoint supports many crucial information applications, this report demonstrates that enhancing its functionality in the area of ‘findability’ can be of vital benefit to enterprises,” Bentley says. “Solutions are available that can be implemented alongside SharePoint to infuse it with ‘content intelligence’, enabling more precise and rapid retrieval of information.”
He adds: “By providing accurate and consistent auto-classification and visualization capabilities, as well as enterprise grade taxonomy and ontology management, these applications filter out extraneous documents and ensure that content is placed in context, enabling organizations to access, describe and control unstructured enterprise information.”
You can download this free whitepaper from here: <a href="http://www.smartlogic.com/home/knowledge-zone">Smartlogic whitepaper</a>

Microsoft SharePoint emerging as CMS platform of choice but new research highlights  ‘gaps’ that information professionals seek to fill

It's one thing to feel overwhelmed with the task of finding and selecting a CMS, but what about finding a unique look to build your site off of? This is where themes and templates come in. Today, I'm going to share with you one of the places I recommend checking out in your search for a template or theme to use as a base to start from.
One of the most popular (and largest) marketplaces for CMS themes and CMS templates is the ever popular <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/themeforest">Themeforest</a>. Themeforest has been around for a number of years and has a very impressive selection of themes and templates for all kinds of systems. For example, at Themeforest you can find:
<ul>
<li>WordPress themes</li>
<li>Joomla Templates</li>
<li>Drupal Themes</li>
<li>Concrete5 Themes</li>
<li>ExpressionEngine Themes</li>
<li>Tumblr Themes</li>
<li>Blogger Themes</li>
<li>Magento Themes</li>
<li>Shopify Themes</li>
<li>OpenCart Themes</li>
<li>osCommerce Themes</li>
<li>PrestaShop Themes</li>
<li>Zen Cart Themes</li>
</ul>
That's just SOME of the types you can find there. I personally have Themeforest bookmarked and check it every few days to see what type of themes and templates are being released (I have a bit of an obsession with themes..)
 <img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2021/07/themeforest-620x546_vmyrk3.jpg" alt="themeforest" />
The selection is so large that there are currently over 9,300 different types of themes, templates and even plugins available on their site. There are also a number of Themeforest contributors that have developed their own custom HTML templates and themes, some with their own integrated custom content management systems, complete with administrative interfaces.
It's a great place to start from as well. If you aren't sure what your CMS might be capable of or are curious as to what you could accomplish visually with a specific CMS, you can browse Themeforest's selection to get an idea as to what some people have come up with. Obviously, it's not going to necessarily showcase every possible setup and look but it's a good place to start from for sure.
If you are a theme developer or template developer and want to make some money, you can use Themeforest as well to sell your products to their enormous user-base. I highly recommend taking a look at what they have to offer and seeing if anything fits your needs.
<a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/themeforest">Check out Themeforest</a>.

Where to Find CMS Themes & CMS Templates

Anthony Casalena is the founder and CEO of the extremely popular content management system / website builder, Squarespace (read our <a href="/squarespace-review-the-long-awaited-commerce-solution/">Squarespace Review</a> for more on the system). We recently had an opportunity to interview him and get his insights on how Squarespace got to where it is today and where it's going in the future. Read on for the full scoop! Please tell us a bit about yourself and your background.I grew up in Northern Maryland and learned to program around age 15, initially with a focus on user interfaces. I launched Squarespace from my dorm room at the University of Maryland in 2004, moved to New York, and still live and work here today.Can you tell us a bit about the circumstances that guided you to the creation of Squarespace?I was trying to make my personal website and I wasn’t satisfied with any of the existing services. At the time, you had to seek out and cobble together a mix of blogging software, statistics software, page builder software, and web hosting. Instead of going that route, I decided to create an elegant solution that offered all the necessary elements to build a professional website.Further, none of the hosting or publishing services available really had a focus on design. I wasn't comfortable using them for my online identity.Did you ever suspect it would turn into such a large and successful player in the CMS industry?I've always sought to make Squarespace the best platform possible. I had set out to solve a problem for myself, but quickly realized that others also struggled with a similar predicament. It was exciting to think that Squarespace could be a solution for them as well, and that what made me decide to open up the platform to others.Of the achievements you’ve made as a team at Squarespace, what are you the most proud of and why?The launch of Squarespace 6, which we introduced in July, has been a huge accomplishment for us. We worked on Squarespace 6 for about two years behind the scenes, with the mission of disrupting the publishing platform that got us to where we were since our inception.We wanted to create a platform that truly allowed us to create any kind of website, but also a platform that would allow consumers to manage those sites on their own once developers created them. Squarespace 6 is that platform: developers get full code control and use of their own tools, while consumers get a modern, refined content management system that is a joy to use. The kinds of sites consumers can create on Squarespace 6 are revolutionary. We see our customers winning design awards by simply using our templates. I don't think the judges know about that.The next year will be incredible for us as we continue to build on the powerful base that is Squarepsace 6. We introduced a completely seamless eCommerce component last month, and have an ambitious roadmap ahead that we're uniquely posed to execute on.What do you think has contributed to the huge success of Squarespace?There are so many things — Squarespace is really here because so many things are working out well in one place. Our template and interface design is industry-leading, our engineering to pull that off is phenomenal, and we have a superb support team in place backing it all up.It’s no secret that a large selling point for Squarespace is the excellent user experience, how did that come to be? What led to the choices your team made with the design /structure of the UI?A lot of the initial user interface choices are the result of a very small group of us refining a consistent, simple style over the years. I think a lot of it comes from just using the interface over and over to accomplish things for ourselves, then fixing what doesn't work.Once you have a framework like that, you can reuse those stylistic building blocks over and over with great results.Now with eCommerce in the mix, how has this affected the overall appeal of Squarespace to designers / developers? Are you seeing a boost in signups?We are indeed seeing a big lift from the introduction of eCommerce. Squarespace Commerce was one of the most requested features since the platform's inception. It's awesome to be able to finally offer a commerce solution that's completely integrated with the rest of the CMS. I believe we're really the only product on the market that establishes this level of a fit between commerce and the underlying system.Can you share with us some of your favorite Squarespace implementations? Are there any that really stood out to you as great use of the CMS?Here's just a few.<a target="_blank" href="http://www.destinationkors.com">http://www.destinationkors.com</a> <a target="_blank" href="http://www.destinationkors.com">http://skiesandbeyond.bottegaveneta.com</a> <a target="_blank" href="http://www.aldernyc.com/">http://www.aldernyc.com/</a> <a target="_blank" href="http://www.hodinkee.com/">http://www.hodinkee.com/</a> http://blog.maptia.com/There are actually hundreds of great examples linked to our template pages for inspiration. We love showcasing our customers.What is your team doing to improve the overall experience that customers have when it comes to dealing with Squarespace (support issues, etc)?Customer experience is extremely important to us — that encompasses everything from how you perceive our brand from an ad, to your initial signup experience, to our product, and through to your interactions with customer support.Customer support represents about a third of our company and has always been one of the best parts about using Squarespace. I personally answered tens of thousands of support tickets over the years when we were getting started, so I am intimately familiar with how great support can improve customer experience.With the recent success of Squarespace 6, we are seeing upwards of 15,000 tickets per week. Making sure these are well handled and seeing that everyone receives personal attention is critical to our success.What other features would you like to see come to fruition within the CMS?We've really just begun our expansion across multiple verticals: portfolios, small businesses, blogs, stores, restaurants, etc. Many of the features in our CMS are common to all of these groups, but we're starting to introduce some really amazing features specific to them. From things like the iOS Portfolio app for artists and photographers to menu blocks and OpenTable integration for restaurants – we have a lot of new features on the docket.What is your next goal for Squarespace? What can we expect to see coming down the road in future releases?We choose not to comment on details of our upcoming releases, but if you take a look at our blog, we are on a tear. The last 6 months have brought us some really incredible and long-awaited releases. We are a team of 120 now. That sort of size allows us to accomplish an incredible amount at once.Rest assured, we're working on some huge things that will further cement our position as the absolute best publishing platform on the web.—And there you have it folks. Want to learn more about Squarespace, the winner of our <a href="/critics-choice-for-best-website-builder-goes-to/">Best Website Builder</a> award? Check them out here: <a href="/products/squarespace">Squarespace</a>

Interview with Squarespace CEO and Founder, Anthony Casalena

Hotjar - Spot what confuses

Spot what confuses your users with Hotjar & AI

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<img style="max-width:710px" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/cmsswitch.jpg" alt="switching CMSs" />
Your CMS is not going to last forever. Just face it. At some point, you may need to switch your CMS. Hopefully, you've made the right CMS choice from the start and won't have to go through the dreaded task of a data migration. Nonetheless, you may be experience the vague, stomach-churning misgiving that your CMS is failing you. Here's how to know for sure.

<h2>“It won't let us do that.”</h2>
This is the mother of all CMS complaints:  “It won't let us do that.” There are a couple of reasons why “it won't let us do that,” so be sure to inspect the potential causes:
<ul>
<li>Is the developer not capable? Is it a really a CMS limitation, or is it a skills limitation on the part of the CMS operator? With a bit of coding magic, much that was thought “impossible” suddenly because realistic. When you confront this complaint, try to investigate all the possible causes. There may indeed be a way forward.</li>
<li>Is the CMS incapable? Some CMSs do have legitimate limitations. If your CMS does not allow you to do something, it could be time for an upgrade.</li>
</ul>
Still, it pays to ask a few more questions. Don't get too switcheroo-happy, because changing CMSs is a gargantuan undertaking. Here's what you should find out before deciding to switch.
<ul>
<li>Is there a way around? If you want to complete a certain action with your content or site, first find out if there are fixes. Is there a plugin or extension that will let you do that? Have you searched forums to see if anyone else has encountered (or solved) the problem? What about contacting support and just asking them if they will add this functionality?</li>
<li>Is this action really necessary to your core operation? If all you wanted to do was make a miniscule aesthetic tweak, it's probably not worth switching CMSs over. If, however, you're wanting to, say, accept payments or something — yeah, you probably want to switch to a system that makes it possible.</li>
</ul>
You don't ever want to be held back by your CMS. This is 2013. Defy limitations.
<h2>“That's going to cost us extra.”</h2>
The extra-cost barrier is usually levied by proprietary CMSs. The problem arises when you want to expand operations or capability, but keep bumping into price jumps. To be sure, some price increases are legitimate, but some may actually hold you back.
It's like this. When a restaurant waiter asks you, “Do you want bacon with that?” you automatically answer “Yes.” Of course you want bacon. Bacon goes with anything, even creme brûlée. (Bacon in creme brûlée is legit.) Then you ask, “How much is it going to cost?”
That's the scenario that some businesses experience when they want an extra bell or whistle on their CMS. Of course you want the bigger more powerful widget, but the cost of upgrading comes as a coffee-spurting shock.
Herein is the danger of a proprietary CMS. These people are in the business for the money (duh). The more you want, the more you have to pay. There is nothing wrong with a solid, reputable, and robust proprietary CMS. There's no problem with paying for it. The problem, however, comes when your budget says “can't do it,” while operations say “gotta have it”
If you are getting nickel-and-dimed for every color change, added user, uploads, new page, or whatnot, it's time to start thinking:  Do I really want to keep paying for every minor tweak?
You may need to call an IT meeting this afternoon to talk about switching your CMS. Your tech budget may be draining like a sieve due to a money-grubbing proprietary CMS.
<h2>“It hasn't really had an overhaul in a few years.”</h2>
&lt;Gulp.&gt;
“A few years” in this earthly sojourn is like “a few centuries” in CMS-speak. A CMS is a living, breathing, sweating, working, pulsating living being. (Enough organism gerunds?) A CMS must evolve with the rest of the tech world, keeping pace as new technology rolls out and transforms the entire landscape of content, data, web, search, and design.
A CMS without regular upgrades is doomed to failure. It will drown every one of its users the vortex of its demise.
You cannot survive long on a CMS that fails to adapt. In “a few years,” it's going to die. Start preparing your eulogy now. A CMS that isn't updated in a few years is a CMS that's probably never going to get updated again. You have been warned.
Time for the ol' CMS switcheroo.
<h2>“We can't switch our CMS.”</h2>
If you want to switch your CMS, but “can't,” then do it anyway. If you've read any of my <a href="/" target="_blank">CMS Critic</a> articles, you've probably discovered that I lack fondness for most proprietary CMSs. It's nothing personal. One of my biggest pet peeves about the proprietary CMS industry is the fact that they want to “trap” — yes, I've heard that very term — clients for life.
You don't want to be trapped.
If you suspect or know that your CMS is holding you hostage, get out while you can. The earlier, the better. You're only going to get bigger and more complicated from this point onward. Try to extricate yourself from the clutches when you have an opportunity to do so. It's only going to get harder the longer you wait.
<h2>Conclusion</h2>
The best way to avoid nightmares, migration all-nighters, and nervous tremors not induced by caffeine intake is to get the best CMS as early as possible. The answer to “the best CMS” just depends on who you are, what you need, and how you're going to go about it. It pays to read CMS reviews. It also pays to think long and hard before making a final decision.

Four Signs It's Time to Change Your CMS

Squarespace has been busy ramping up the feature set to keep themselves on top of their game and there have been some exciting new features as well as some new Squarespace themes added to their CMS.
For those who are unfamiliar with Squarespace, they won our <a href="/critics-choice-for-best-website-builder-goes-to/">Best Website Builder</a> award in our 2012 Critic's Choice CMS Awards and we recently shared our <a href="/squarespace-review-the-long-awaited-commerce-solution/">Squarespace review</a> of the newly releases Squarespace 6.
Let's get down to what they've recently added to the system, shall we?
<h2>Squarespace Commerce now supports Canada</h2>
First off, for those of you who are Canadian users and have been pining for a chance to use their sweet new ecommerce integration, you are now in luck. Squarespace recently announced full integration with Stripe Canada and now offers the ability to tie into your Stripe account and sell via your Squarespace page. As part of this integration, you get:
<ul>
<li>Canadian Currency Support – The currency displayed throughout your Squarespace store will reflect the currency set in your Stripe account currency (which you select upon sign-up, and cannot be changed). All prices are quoted in CAD for Canadian stores on Squarespace.</li>
<li>Tax System Improvements – You can now define taxes internationally and locally, down to the zip code level. As before, you can choose to add tax on products as well as shipping. Easily add more fine-grained shipping rules by jurisdiction, and define local rules by a single postal code or a range of postal codes.</li>
<li>Metric System Support – In Store Settings, you may now choose between Imperial and Metric standards to define product weights and weight-based shipping options.</li>
</ul>
<h2>New Theme: Adirondack</h2>
Check out this beautiful new theme available in the Squarespace template design library:
<blockquote>Adirondack is a modern, clean design built with small business owners and savvy entrepreneurs in mind. Minimal navigation and full header images provide a bold framework for your company or brand. The template is characterized by scrolling effects; the header shrinks to become less obtrusive as you scroll, and the banner image fades out and moves up in relation to the distance you’ve scrolled. Navigation links can be hidden to reduce clutter, and become visible when you hover the mouse over the menu icon or the site title.</blockquote>
 
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/squarespace-theme-620x394.png" alt="squarespace theme" />
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/squarespace-theme-2-620x354.png" alt="squarespace theme - 2" /> 
It's always nice to see new themes being added and we have to give kudos to the fact that Squarespace doesn't just release your typical themes, they take the time to do beautiful ones that you WANT to use.
<h2>The Events Collection</h2>
Squarespace has also introduced a new calendar system that they call the Events Collection. Here's how it looks and a bit of a breakdown on what you can expect from it.
<blockquote>The Events Collection comes with two viewing modes: Calendar View and List View. Each mode is responsively designed – like all other elements of a Squarespace website, your Events Collection looks perfect no matter what device you’re using. In List View, you can add thumbnail images to accompany each item, presenting your upcoming events in a compelling, elegant way.</blockquote>
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/squarespace-calendar-1-620x393.jpg" alt="squarespace calendar - 1" />
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/squarespace-calendar-2-620x359.jpg" alt="squarespace calendar - 1" />
<h2>Even More Features</h2>
The changes don't stop there, however. There are a few additional features that have been added as well. They include:
<ul>
<li>Duplicate Pages – Since launch, we’ve gotten numerous requests for the ability to create copies of a page within your Squarespace site. As of today, this is now possible. You can find the Duplicate button at the bottom of the Collection Settings area (near the remove and save buttons).</li>
<li>Restore Deleted Collections  – Never worry about accidentally deleting a collection again. You can recover any deleted collections by clicking on “Restore Deleted Collections” under the Search bar in your Website Manager.</li>
<li>Multiple Backends for Form Builder – Unlimited and Business Account Users can now save form submissions to multiple destinations at once (Mailchimp and Google Docs, for example), instead of selecting just one.</li>
<li>Github Social Icon – We've added the ability to connect your Github profile to Squarespace. Look for the Github icon under ‘Connected Accounts’.</li>
</ul>
 
So what are you waiting for? <a href="https://www.squarespace.com/">Check them out</a> or go <a href="https://www.squarespace.com/templates">sign up for their two-week free trial</a> (you don't need a credit card, which is nice) and see if Squarespace is the right tool for you.

Squarespace Introduces New Features, Themes and a new Calendar!

You're about to witness a showdown between the world's two most popular open-source CMSs — WordPress and Joomla. The WordPress vs. Joomla question is kind of like a high school rivalry. Or maybe, it's like the old Mac vs. PC debate. Thankfully, the discussion below is civil. My perspective claims WordPress as the winner. In my roles as site editor and SEO consultant, I've used both WordPress and Joomla. Working at an agency provided opportunity to collaborate with designers, network admins, developers, and coders on the various advantages and disadvantages of respective CMSs. This article admits that CMS is a context-dependent choice, but advances the merits of WordPress as opposed to Joomla.<h2>Your CMS — Your Choice</h2>I picked WordPress for a variety of reasons outlined below. You may prefer Joomla. That's fine, and we're not going to call you names. Joomla and WordPress are both fine CMSs. Joomla may actually be better for you. Different users have different needs, and different CMSs serve those different needs.Thus, with that disclaimer firmly in place, here are the reasons why I prefer WordPress over Joomla.<h2>Popularity</h2>I'm a believer in the “safety in numbers” of CMSs. If there are millions of people using something, there's probably something good going on. WordPress and Joomla are the world's most-used CMSs. However, WordPress is far more popular than Joomla. WordPress was founded in 2003, and Joomla in 2005. Over that time, WordPress's growth has exponentially exceeded Joomla's, owning a whopping 55.1% of the market share, as opposed to Joomla's 8.8%. Furthermore, when WordPress receives a vote of confidence from some of the most intelligent developers I know, I have a greater appreciation of its capability and longevity. Of course, merely because something is popular doesn't make it the best. Granted. However, we're going to consider another factor below that flows directly from the popularity issue.<h2>Community and Support</h2>If you're doing regular work on a site, you'll probably need some help at some point. Both Joomla and WordPress have loyal tribes offering plenty of support for those who need it. One distinguishing factor of the WordPress tribe, however, is its sheer size. If you have a WordPress question and you can Google, you'll probably find answers to your question on a forum, site, or blog of a WordPress devotee.<h2>User Interface</h2>WordPress has a much cleaner, slicker UI than Joomla. You can't judge a CMS by its looks alone, but there is something to be said for a CMS that is intuitive, flexible, and even beautiful. For website agencies, handing over to the client the reigns of a WordPress site is something that takes an hour or two of coaching. Handing over the reigns of a Joomla site may take a bit more coaching, a few more desperate calls from the client, and a longer learning curve. The difference lies in the user interface. Of course, WordPress doesn't have the same drag-and-drop kind of ease as something like <a target="_blank" href="https://www.weebly.com">Weebly</a>. However, as powerful CMSs go, WordPress is as pretty as they come.<h2>Plugins and Extensions</h2>Plugins, or “extensions” as the Joomla moniker goes, can help to power up a site or to implement bits of complex code without the hard work of complex coding. At present, Joomla has over 6,000 extensions from the <a target="_blank" href="http://extensions.joomla.org/">Joomla Extension Directory</a>. Developers offer many more that are not hosted on the Extension Directory. <a target="_blank" href="http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/">WordPress Plugins</a> number approximately 24,000. Although numbers don't decide the power of plugins, it is evident from our experience that WordPress plugins possess a few advantages over Joomla plugins:<ul><li>Easier to setup and install on the site</li><li>Wider selection and plugin browsing ability</li><li>Greater capability and power of plugins</li></ul><h2>Simplicity</h2>Setup and configuration is simple on a WordPress site. Right out of the box, it delivers a robust CMS experience. Joomla, on the other hand, takes a bit of setup and adjustment. One CMS Critic reader who is the site manager of a large site commented, “Joomla is a hell when it comes to modify and template it.” A significant amount of Joomla configuration is necessary, including a specific server architecture, is necessary to make things shipshape. Starting a WordPress site, particularly if using the free hosted version, takes a couple minutes. Sure, you'll have to make some sweeping changes to the bland 2013 theme, but that's also a relatively easy affair. And, by the way, “simplicity” doesn't denote lack of power. See  the discussion on”power” below for more on this incendiary topic.<h2>SEO</h2>Because my field of expertise is in SEO, I've done significant research and consulting for agencies using both WordPress and Joomla. Onsite optimization of a Joomla site is a headache compared to the ease of a WordPress site. It is an accepted fact that Joomla is not an SEO-friendly CMS. There are, to be fair, Joomla extensions that make it far more successful for search optimization. Suffice it to say that WordPress is the superior CMS for easy and effective SEO. This is a crucial issue, due to the all-important nature of search.<h2>Cost</h2>Due in part, to the lighter developmental workload, WordPress is less expensive than its counterpart. In our recent survey of <a href="/four-features-you-should-know-about-the-top-five-cmss/">notable features of the top five CMSs</a>, I provided estimates of the setup and ongoing monthly costs of popular open-source CMSs. Here is the recap:<ul><li>Joomla:  $2,400 – 20,000 setup; $500 ongoing monthly.</li><li>WordPress: $1,000 – $15,000 setup; $250 ongoing monthly</li></ul>Obviously, there's a difference in those two numbers, even if the numbers are widely rounded out.<h2>Power</h2>I've put this at the bottom of my list, because it needs a bit of a disclaimer. I'm not claiming that WordPress is the most powerful CMS on the market. I merely want to defend against its naysayers. Castigations of WordPress usually begin with an assault on its allegedly diminutive “blogging” platform. Let's get this settled once and for all:WordPress is not just for blogs.I could site examples of really big and powerful WordPress sites (that aren't blogs), but I'll resist. Instead, let's simply accept the fact that WordPress has passed its adolescent period as a blogging platform. It's part of the big leagues now. Sure, you may not be able to build an Amazon.com or an eBay with WordPress, but you can have a thriving e-commerce site with zero problems. And, hey, eBay does use WordPress (even if it is <a target="_blank" href="http://blog.ebay.com/">for its blog</a>).<h2>Conclusion</h2>These topics outlined above aren't the ultimate criterion by which to evaluate a CMS. If you are considering a CMS, a thorough understanding of your own needs is in order before you start asking questions about a particular CMS. We've chosen WordPress, and, understandably, use WordPress as the CMS of choice for CMS Critic. As you make your own decision, please check out our in-depth CMS reviews to see if your choice makes the grade.So that's my perspective. What's yours?

WordPress vs. Joomla — A Perspective

<a href="/hostgator">HostGator</a> is one of the largest web hosting providers in the world and offers some of the lowest monthly fees out there but does the adage “You get what you pay for” apply here? Read on to find out in this HostGator Review.
HostGator has been around for quite some time and is one of the largest shared hosting providers out there. They offer shared hosting, VPS Hosting, Dedicated Hosting and more. Today, we're going to take a look at some of the details behind their shared hosting offerings.
<h2>Pricing Structure</h2>
Shared hosting prices, at the time of this review, range from a meager $3.96 to $10.96 per month. Here is a quick breakdown of the differences between each of their Shared Hosting plans:
Hatchling
<ul>
<li>Single Domain</li>
<li>Unlimited Disk Space</li>
<li>Unlimited Bandwidth</li>
<li>Shared SSL Certificate</li>
<li>NO addon domains</li>
<li>NO anonymous FTP</li>
</ul>
Baby
<ul>
<li>Unlimited Domains</li>
<li>Unlimited Disk Space</li>
<li>Unlimited Bandwidth</li>
<li>Shared SSL Certificate</li>
<li>Unlimited addon domains</li>
</ul>
Business
<ul>
<li>Unlimited Domains</li>
<li>Unlimited Disk Space</li>
<li>Unlimited Bandwidth</li>
<li>Unlimited addon domains</li>
<li>Free Private SSL &amp; IP</li>
<li>Free Toll Free Number</li>
<li>Unlimited addon domains</li>
<li>Anonymous FTP</li>
</ul>
Price wise, HostGator is definitely competitive. For shared hosting, there are thousands of hosts out there that are competing for your business and HostGator definitely has priced their packages well. Most people should have no problem affording any of these, but how do they fare from a usability standpoint?
Let's explore…
<h2>Usability</h2>
When it comes to usability, if you've never had a hosting package before, you're going to be in for an eye opening experience. I will say, however, that if you have someone with even the slightest bit of technical knowledge looking after your hosting (or you are willing to learn) then you'll be happy with the setup that HostGator provides.
There are numerous options for hosting control panels (the place you log into to set up things such as your email accounts, addon domains, statistics, etc) but few are as good as CPanel setups and HostGator uses them for all of it's shared hosting plans.
This is a good thing.
CPanel is easy to use, yet very powerful and once you get used to it, you'll find yourself falling in love with the fact that everything is just there and easily accessible without distracting graphics and colors. Functionality is broken up into logical categories and getting to the task at hand is quick and easy to do.
Curious as to what it looks like? Here's a screenshot:
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/cpanel-620x570.jpg" alt="HostGator Review - CPanel" />
Are you the hands-on type and want to explore it further? Here's a fully functional <a href="http://174.121.236.237:2082/frontend/x3/index.html">CPanel demo</a> that you can mess around with to see how it works.
Installing scripts is quick and easy as well. Should you need to set up a WordPress, Joomla or Drupal Site or even a forum software for your website, HostGator offers QuickInstall and Fantastico Deluxe which are basically interfaces that help you install various things such as calendar software, billing software, CMS software, eCommerce and much more.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/quickinstall-620x605.jpg" alt="HostGator Review - QuickInstall" />
Installation scripts such as QuickInstall are great additions to the service and offer a quick and easy means to get up and running with as little technical knowledge as possible. Within about 10-15 seconds, you can have a fully functional WordPress, Drupal or Joomla install up and running and ready for you to use. Obviously, the system won't teach you how to use it but it definitely helps shield you from (what can be) a complicated installation process.
What else do you get with a HostGator install?
<h2>Bonus Features</h2>
HostGator is out to win you over as a customer and they throw tons of bonus features in with each purchase of a hosting plan. Here's a quick breakdown of what else you receive over and above the hosting package itself:
<ul>
<li>Free BaseKit SiteBuilder and Website Building Tools</li>
<li>4,500 Free Website Templates</li>
<li>Free Website Transfer, Domain Transfer, MySQL Transfer, Script Transfer</li>
<li>$100 Google Adwords Offer</li>
</ul>
Of particular value is the $100 Google Adwords credit which you can use to kick off a campaign through Google and help drive traffic to your newly created site.
<h2>Support</h2>
I've had plenty of experience with HostGator as CMS Critic was, at one time, hosted with their shared hosting service on the Business plan and we were with them for several years. During this time, I've had plenty of times when I've had to reach out to their support for either simple questions or advanced troubleshooting.
They are quick to answer the phone and the bulk of the support technicians are very good at their jobs. I've had very few poor experiences over the years and coming from many years experience dealing with web hosts, HostGator definitely is one of the best I've used.
The only reason we are no longer hosted with them is we needed to graduate to managed hosting and as a result, switched to WP Engine (you can read that review here: <a href="/wp-engine-review/">WP Engine Review</a>).
<h2>Things you need to know</h2>
I'm now going to flag something that I experienced with HostGator that I didn't realize until it was too late.  This was not the fault of HostGator but rather my own for not paying attention and catching it. By filling you in now, it's my hope that you'll be sure to pay attention and won't cause yourself headaches down the road.
If you have a website hosted with them that contains an extremely large number of files (in excess of 100,000 or over 20 GB in size) they will not back your site or any of the files up if you exceed these limits. There is an option to enter an email so that you are notified if a backup fails or whenever one is run but not when you are closing in on these limits. As such, it is very important to pay attention to this box and if you start creeping up on the limits, you'll want to act quickly to ensure your site is backed up. Otherwise, you could be exposing yourself to the risk of no backups. It is YOUR responsibility to pay mind to the backup summary box within the hosting control panel.
Here is how it looks when you've exceeded the limits:
<img style="max-width:226px" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/backupstatus.jpg" alt="HostGator Review - Backups" />
I would suggest that if you choose to use HostGator, you enter your email here first thing when you log into your account. That way, if you don't get a backup email, you'll notice it and hopefully react accordingly. I wouldn't exclusively rely on the emails, however.  I would also suggest you check watch for the red exclamation mark if you want your site backed up. I didn't do this initially and it caused me tons of headaches down the road.
Of course, there are plenty of alternative backup services such as <a href="http://vaultpress.com/" target="_blank">VaultPress</a> and others but if you want to rely on HostGator to do it, be sure to pay attention to this box. That's my only major piece of advice. Otherwise, I think HostGator is a great option. Most people never exceed these levels, it just so happens that I had 6 sites running with thousands of photos on them and didn't notice this until it was too late. The average single site will not exceed these limits for several years and when you do, you should be thinking about upgrading your plan anyway.
<h2>Conclusion</h2>
HostGator offers great value for a great price. If you are in the market for shared hosting, you'll be pleased with the results. They offer excellent support and tons of value for your dollar.
Interested in learning more? Visit their website for more details: <a href="/hostgator">HostGator </a>

Hostgator Review - Shared Hosting on the Cheap

SEO is and always will be important, regardless of how loudly the “SEO is Dead” crowd howls. Because SEO is important, your CMS's ability to do SEO matters. If you haven't thought much about the convergence of SEO and CMS, this article will alert you to this crucial touchpoint, and give you insight into how your CMS may be performing in the area of SEO.<h2>The Importance of SEO</h2>You may not be an SEO professional, and that's fine. But that doesn't mean that SEO is any less a part of your job, regardless of whether you're a designer, a developer, a coder, or a content writer. If you work on, in, or around a CMS, you automatically play a role in SEO.How well you do SEO doesn't merely depend on your knowledge of the SEO field. It also depends on the quality of your content management system. Some CMSs make SEO really difficult, even contributing to damaging SEO practices. Other CMSs, by contrast, were built with SEO in mind, making the process simple and rewarding.You use a content management system, and you want great Google rankings. It should be fairly obvious that you want your CMS to facilitate improved SEO. Does your CMS make it easy, or are you ruining your SEO due to your CMS?<h2>What SEO functions should your CMS be able to do?</h2>Let's assume that your CMS does what every CMS should do — help you create content. Basic onsite SEO best practices include using good keywords and synonyms and maybe sprinkling in a few links and anchor texts. Beyond that, your CMS should allow you to do the following.<ul><li>Create intuitive navigation. Simple site navigation allows you to optimize a user's experience, which improves search engine rankings. Navigation is important because it influences how long visitors stay on the site, whether or not they convert, and how your site gets indexed by the search engines. Make sure your CMS provides an easy way to simplify, restructure, or otherwise organize your site navigation.</li><li>Easily create links. Every page on your site should have a link to some other page on your site. The goal of inbound links is to increase the time spent on your site. Most CMS editors contain quick-and-easy ways to insert links and customize the anchor text. If your CMS requires you to code every link by hand, it creates an unnecessary SEO obstacle.</li><li>Keep your Robot.txt clean. Most content editors stay away from messing with a site's robots text file (<a target="_blank" href="http://www.seomoz.org/learn-seo/robotstxt">Robot.txt</a>). This file, which contains important instructions for the search engines, is crucial. Your CMS should give you access to this file in order to ensure that the site is cleanly indexed, and to remove any disallow or nofollows, which can corrupt a search bot's attempt to index the page.</li><li>Easily edit file and image information. Inserting a file or image into a site is standard practice on most sites. Less common, however, is naming these images with search engine friendly names. Your CMS should enable you to upload custom-named images, and then change the alt text and tags on the image for SEO power.</li><li>Create titles and descriptions. Two of the most important SEO features on a page are title and description. Some proprietary CMSs make it impossible, believe it or not, to change this information. Still others make editing it a chore. Either way it's a major strike against SEO. Make sure that your CMS allows you to add page titles and meta descriptions for every single page.</li><li>Use headline tags. Although WYSIWYG editors are nice, they sometimes create a hurdle for strategic use of header tags. These HTML tags, known by their abbreviations (H1, H2, H3, etc.) are helpful search engine signals, notifying the crawler what's important on your page. The presence of keywords in headline text can improve your SEO. Any CMS should allow easy editing of the header tags.</li><li>Customize URLs. Often, a CMS creates new pages with default URLs that are pure gibberish and absolutely horrific for SEO. If something like www.examplesite.com/12/18/h18r+&amp;83.aspx appears in the search bar when you create a page, a red flag should go up. This is a no-no for SEO. Your CMS should give you control over the URL, to ensure that it contains readable text and relevant keywords.</li></ul>This may seem like a tall order for a CMS, but it's not out of reach. Some CMSs come with built-in power tools for such SEO customizations. Others, however, require labyrinthine paths for editing this information, or involve complicated code editing, which may be out of reach for the average content creator.When you go back to work on your CMS today, find out how easy it is to do some of the functions above. If you're in trouble, you may want to think about installing plugins or extensions on your <a href="/four-features-you-should-know-about-the-top-five-cmss/">open-source CMS</a> to improve your SEO editing. You may even need to consider a new CMS.

Can your CMS do SEO?

If you are, like me, always eager to test the latest and greatest that the CMS world has to offer, you'll be excited to know that there's a new beta available for the upcoming 3.6 release of WordPress. Just released today, this new beta includes a host of new features, outlined below. I'd suggest that if you are a theme or plugin developer, you start testing right away in order to ensure your code is going to function properly with the changes in this release.
Here’s what’s new in 3.6:
<ul>
<li>Post Formats:  Post Formats now have their own UI, and theme authors have access to templating functions to access the structured data.</li>
<li>Twenty Thirteen: We’re shipping this year’s default theme in our first release of the year. Twenty Thirteen is an opinionated, color-rich, blog-centric theme that makes full use of the new Post Formats support.</li>
<li>Audio/Video: You can embed audio and video files into your posts without relying on a plugin or a third party media hosting service.</li>
<li>Autosave:  Posts are now autosaved locally. If your browser crashes, your computer dies, or the server goes offline as you’re saving, you won’t lose the your post.</li>
<li>Post Locking:  See when someone is currently editing a post, and kick them out of it if they fall asleep at the keyboard.</li>
<li>Nav Menus:  Nav menus have been simplified with an accordion-based UI, and a separate tab for bulk-assigning menus to locations.</li>
<li>Revisions: The all-new revisions UI features avatars, a slider that “scrubs” through history, and two-slider range comparisons.</li>
</ul>
Don't have time to download but you're dying to know what the changes look like?
Here's what the new post formats interface looks like in WordPress 3.6:
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/new-post-format-ui-wordpress-36-620x447.jpg" alt="new-post-format-ui-wordpress-36" />
 
Here is the new default theme, entitled “Twenty Thirteen” for those who haven't seen it:
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/twenty-thirteen-wordpress-36-620x448.jpg" alt="twenty-thirteen-wordpress-36" />
Eager to test it out? Here you go: <a href="http://wordpress.org/news/2013/04/wordpress-3-6-beta-1/">http://wordpress.org/news/2013/04/wordpress-3-6-beta-1/</a>

WordPress 3.6 Beta 1 is out! (With Screenshots)

EpiServer 7.1 was released yesterday and with it come some new features for those in the marketing world including new multivariate testing, additional personalization and more. With previous EpiServer releases, you would have to download the latest edition and follow an upgrade process. With this release, however, you can upgrade directly with a few clicks through the Add-on Store (introduced in EpiServer 7). The benefits of this type of upgrade capability are obvious; no more dependency handling requirements and more peace of mind knowing you can quickly and easily get up to date with the latest feature sets.
Also new in this release:
<h2>Multivariate Testing</h2>
The new multivariate test feature is intelligent.  It learns over time what content works best for your visitor segments and displays that more often. This allows marketers to optimize the customer experience with less effort. You will notice that you work with test and optimization following the same pattern as for content – using drag and drop.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/screen-shot-2013-04-04-at-1_33_30-pm-1-620x438.png" alt="Multivariate Testing - EpiServer" />
 
<h2>Personalization of Blocks</h2>
In EPiServer 7.1 CMS personalization goes one step further making it possible to create blocks in one place that later can use information about the visitor and target the message accordingly.  This information, or user context, can for example be the location of the user, what type of content he or she has interacted with on your site earlier or what device that's being used. Since blocks can be re-used across channels this becomes really powerful. Another example is to run a multivariate test only for a specific visitor segment.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/screen-shot-2013-04-04-at-1_09_01-pm-620x637.png" alt="Screen Shot 2013-04-04 at 1.09.01 PM" />
 
<h2>Workflows and languages</h2>
Standard workflows have also made a comeback in this release. You can now use all workflows from within the UI. Active workflows are highlighted making it easy to find what's assigned to you and take action on it. Language handling has also been improved. You can now toggle between different languages using the View Settings button and all content, including blocks, can be in different languages.
Additional improvements include a faster and more responsive UI and a settings header available on all content giving you quick access to the most important properties. Just scroll up when inside edit mode to see it.
<h2>Social Reach</h2>
A new version of EPiServer Social Reach is also available through the add-on store. Social Reach drives traffic from social media to owned media and connects the content creation process with social media communication.  The add-on allows for social messages to be created, delivered and tracked within a single interface. New features include scheduling, the possibility to re-send failed messages, and on page access to social engagement. By removing many small steps such as publishing content in social networks, creating shortened URLs, and adding analytic tracking tags, marketers become more agile in increasing traffic to their sites.
Looking to learn more? Visit EpiServer online at <a href="http://episerver.com/">http://episerver.com</a>

Newly released EpiServer 7.1 CMS brings Intelligent Optimization and Personalization

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