Articles - Page 64

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

matt-garrepy

Kentico 8.1 is due to be released on August 22nd 2014. But as of right now, Kentico users can get their hands on a beta version.
The popular ASP.NET enterprise Web Content Management System and Customer Experience Management solution got a major update when <a href="/kentico-8-introduces-slick-new-interface-and-improved-marketing-suite/" target="_blank">version 8.0 was released</a>. Now, Kentico 8.1 s about to add to what's already quite new and exciting.
When I covered <a href="/kentico-8.1-release-date-revealed/" target="_blank">Kentico's announcement of the release date of version 8.1</a>, I made mention of some of the new planned features. Now though, let's take a closer look at what the Kentico 8.1 is set to bring.
<h2>Dashboard &amp; Marketing Suite Enhancements</h2>
Below is a GIF of Kentico's newly tweaked dashboard, a feature users can make use of with the Kentico 8.1 beta. Simply click on the image below to view.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/dashboardcustomization700x0.gif" alt="Kentico 8.1" />
Here's the list Kentico released, outlining what the Kentico 8.1 beta contains:
<ul>
<li><a href="http://devnet.kentico.com/articles/sell-more-with-new-buy-x,-get-y-discounts" target="_blank"> Buy X, Get Y discounts</a>:  This update allows Kentico store managers to configure their cross-selling promotions in a more sophisticated way, e.g. Buy any 3 clothes, get the cheapest for free</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://devnet.kentico.com/articles/live-tiles-and-dashboard-customization" target="_blank"> Dashboard improvements</a>: This update allows Kentico users to easily personalize the dashboard with frequently used applications. Furthermore, some dashboard tiles display real-time data, e.g. Number of running order discounts.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>LinkedIn integration: This update allows marketers to manage the company profile directly from Kentico including the ability to use automated workflow for content publishing on LinkedIn</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>SharePoint integration improvements: This update brings support for the latest SharePoint versions including SharePoint Online and other improvements. e.g. the ability to set up the multiple SharePoint connections for the same Kentico site</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Online marketing performance improvements: The Kentico team have lowered the performance footprint of Kentico Online marketing modules such as Contact groups and Scoring. This means that your web site will respond more quickly and will be able to handle more traffic during peaks.</li>
</ul>
You can <a href="http://devnet.kentico.com/articles/try-kentico-8-1-beta-!?feed=Kentico" target="_blank">download the Kentico 8.1 beta right here</a>.
Also, be sure to explore more of <a href="/products/kentico/" target="_blank">Kentico via our CMS Directory</a>.

Kentico 8.1 Beta Now Available

mike-johnston

Today, we're pleased to announce the winner of the Best CMS for Publishers category in the 2015 CMS Awards. This new category aims to help give our readers an idea as to what solutions are good ones to consider in specific industries. Publishers are always struggling to find solid solutions and this year, we're happy to be able to provide a suggestion.
According to our readers, the Best CMS for Publishers is..
<a href="http://ez.no" target="_blank">eZ Publish</a>!
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/best-cms-for-publishers.png" />
Congratulations to the team at eZ Systems on their win. eZ Publish is an excellent solution to consider if you want powerful publishing capabilities with insightful analytics. Check them out at <a href="http://ez.no" target="_blank">http://ez.no</a>

Announcing the 2015 Winner of Best CMS for Publishers

<a href="http://www.prestashop.com/" target="_blank">PrestaShop</a> have unveiled a (very) long list of enhancements, released under the name of PrestaShop v1.6.0.9.
The open-source eCommerce platform powers millions of online stores across the globe, boasting a range of useful features out of the box, along with a healthily populated app and theme store. I covered everything you need to know about them in my <a href="/prestashop-review/" target="_blank">PrestaShop Review</a>.
In keeping with PrestaShop's focus on community, they listed to 69 different users to help them compile a list of bugs that needed fixing, and a list of enhancements that needed introducing.
<img style="max-width:548px" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/prestashop.png" alt="PrestaShop" /> 
Together with their community, here's some of what they came up with:
<ul>
<li>Smarty update to 3.1.19</li>
<li>Improvements for the Block Layered Navigation</li>
<li>Optimization of the database loading time for large catalogs and categories</li>
<li>Better implementation of HTML Purifier</li>
<li>Mobile detection has been updated for improved stability</li>
</ul>
The remaining bug fixes and improvements – which are well over a hundred in number – can be seen via the <a href="http://www.prestashop.com/en/developers-versions/changelog/1.6.0.9" target="_blank">changelog</a>. Or, you can simply <a href="http://www.prestashop.com/en/download" target="_blank">download PrestaShop 1.6.0.9</a>.
To find out more about PrestaShop, <a href="http://www.prestashop.com/" target="_blank">check out their website</a>.
Additionally, be sure to explore more of <a href="/products/prestashop/" target="_blank">PrestaShop via our CMS Directory</a>.

PrestaShop 1.6.0.9 Brings About Long List of Tweaks & Enhancements

When it comes to choosing a CMS, developers have to balance the agility and power of the CMS with how easy it will be to create amazing websites. Fortunately, there are some great options out there that fit these requirements. Today, we're going to share the one our readers chose as the Best CMS for Developers.
This year, it was a battle between some great CMS' but there can only be one final winner and this year, the award goes to…
<a href="http://www.craftcms.com" target="_blank">Craft CMS</a>!
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/best-cms-for-developers.png" />
Congratulations to the team at Pixel and Tonic on their win. There's no doubt that Craft CMS is a great solution to consider. I strongly advise you check them out today at <a href="http://www.craftcms.com" target="_blank">http://www.craftcms.com</a>

Announcing the 2015 Winner of Best CMS for Developers

We've decided to expand what we offer on CMS Critic and introduce some new forums that we can all use to better collaborate with one another.
I've added a new section which I think will be a lot of fun called “Ask Mike” where you can ask for help and suggestions as to which CMS (or related technology) to use for your projects.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/forums902x0.jpg" />
I'm hoping that by capturing all of this great content in one place, we'll be able to further help other visitors with similar questions so please, feel free to ask away. I promise to do my best to stay on top of things and answer as quickly as possible.
There's also a Critics Choice CMS Awards forum where we will post news and updates about the awards currently underway. It's also the place to ask questions pertaining to the awards.
We hope you find the forums helpful and we look forward to chatting!
~Mike

We now have forums!

<a href="https://www.socialengine.com/" target="_blank">SocialEngine</a> have released some enhancements and bug fixes in the form of <a href="http://blog.socialengine.com/2014/07/31/socialengine-4-8-6-released/" target="_blank">version 4.8.6</a>.
The popular community-building CMS boasts a range of features, apps and themes. Users can choose between a could-hosted version and a self-hosted version, with prices differing between the two.
With this update, SocialEngine have bolstered their anti-spam defenses and fixed numerous bugs around the software. SocialEngine's last update included the introduction of <a href="/socialengine-php-4.8.3-released-with-html5-video-compatibility/" target="_blank">HTML5 video compatibility</a>.
<a href="/products/social-engine/" target="_blank"><img style="max-width:295px" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/socialengine-hosting.png" alt="SocialEngine" /></a> 
Here's a list of what SocialEngine 4.8.6 brings to the table:
<ul>
<li>Added some reliable anti-spamming techniques; you will be able to enable them from Admin &gt; Settings &gt; Spam &amp; Banning Tools.</li>
<li>Fixed bug with Re-Captcha when SSL is enabled</li>
<li>Corrected order of forum posts added by Ning Importer.</li>
<li>Fixed bug with adding link to a wall post where image selector was not being displayed.</li>
<li>Background Mailer Task will run better now and not hang.</li>
<li>Fixed bug where the respective profile field column in field search table was not getting deleted after the deletion of a profile field.</li>
<li>Fixed social network mapping issue when multiple social networks are chosen during signup.</li>
<li>Fixed bug with menu editor where any custom menu added to  Member Edit Profile Navigation  was redirecting to  Browse Members  page.</li>
<li>Fixed an error showing in the log that would be generated when changing the order of photos in an album</li>
<li>Fixed bug where bullets added via TinyMCE Editor were not being displayed in blogs.</li>
<li>Fixed a bug in discussions under Events and Groups where page UI was getting affected in certain cases because of HTML tags not closing after truncation.</li>
</ul>
Furthermore, the SocialEngine team has updated Photo Albums, Blogs, Events, and Groups plugins to 4.8.6.
To download SocialEngine 4.8.6, visit the client area.
For everybody else, either checkout the <a href="https://www.socialengine.com/" target="_blank">SocialEngine website</a>, or start exploring more of <a href="/products/social-engine/" target="_blank">SocialEngine via our CMS Directory</a>.

SocialEngine 4.8.6 Released

With over 15 million websites built and hosted on its cloud servers, it's safe to say that <a href="https://www.weebly.com/">Weebly</a> has built itself an impressively solid user base since its release in 2007. <a href="https://www.weebly.com/">Weebly</a> is an AJAX-based drag-and-drop web page creator, capable of producing truly beautiful and professional websites with a variety of functionalities. The websites themselves are hosted for free on the Weebly servers, with each user choosing between a Weebly sub-domain, or their own personal domain name.
The simple drag-and-drop system is brilliantly implemented by Weebly, giving its users direct, detailed control over the content of their websites. The process requires no knowledge of coding or web design, as elements can be quickly dragged, dropped, modified and deleted via easy to grasp interfaces.
On May 2 nd 2013, Weebly made a number of changes to its admin panel, calling the updated version the  <a href="https://www.weebly.com/"> All New Weebly </a> . The changes included a revamped user interface, a mobile editor and other useful improvements. Here is our Weebly Review.
<iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Z6iqVxaALas?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>
<h2> The All New Weebly </h2>
The release of the All New Weebly has brought about a host of changes. Most noticeably, the drag-and-drop admin panel was moved from the top of the browser window, to the left-hand side.
Although the new positioning of the admin panel was received with mixed reviews, the improved, sleek new design was certainly welcomed across Weebly's user base. Options concerning design, functionality and widgets are now elegantly laid out using a more modern, tiled display. Despite the beauty of the new interface, it would have been nice to see Weebly offer users the option to move the admin panel back to the top of the browser screen.
The All New Weebly also brings about a new mobile editor, allowing you to preview and modify the mobile version of your website. Changes made to your website in either browser or mobile view will be automatically synced between both, maintaining a steady appearance to all of your visitors.
Additionally, Weebly now has a built-in Site Planner, which takes users through a step-by-step guide of their powerful new admin panel, setting goals, learning new skills and understanding the basic principals of website growth and success along the way.
Setting user interface updates aside, the All New Weebly update also brings a re-worked pricing plan. A totally free Weebly is still available to users, whilst both a Starter and Pro plan are offered at $4 and $8 per month respectively.
<h2> Initial Thoughts </h2>
Upon entering the Weebly website, you get the immediate impression that you're in for a powerfully simple ride.
It's important for any CMS to ensure its main website is professionally presented, and well polished, and Weebly does just that. A selection of themes, features and website examples are on show, accompanied by a simple sign up form, which includes a Facebook sign up option for extra convenience.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/1.jpg" alt="weebly review" />
Equally, it's essential that the sleek nature of the main website is not compromised or lost completely during the sign up process, leaving you with a dire looking control panel. Thankfully, this is certainly not the case with Weebly, as each menu, page and panel looks modern, clean and easy to understand.
<h2> Getting Started </h2>
Whether you decide to use your email address, or your Facebook account, creating your Weebly account is a quick process. As soon as you enter your details, Weebly presents you with an array of over 200 free, pre-designed themes for you to choose from.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/2700x0.jpg" alt="weebly review" />
For me, the option to choose your theme as your very first step is a statement of intent by Weebly. They would prefer their users to take pride in the appearance of their websites, and would surely hope to avoid a user base who are keen on creating websites full of content, but devoid of aesthetically pleasing pages.
Weebly's elegantly designed templates are inspiring to look over, and selecting your favourite one definitely gets the ball rolling in the right direction.
<h3> The Site Planner </h3>
After selecting your websites theme, it's time to take a glance at Weebly's Site Planner. The planner is divided into three main sections, which are Plan, Build and Grow.
Each section includes an informative, instructional video, which walks you through various useful processes. For example, the first step in the Build section contains a video demonstrating the page creation and organization process.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/18700x0.jpg" alt="weebly review" />
As well as teaching you the basic of Weebly, the planner helps you to set personal goals for your website, and enables you to check out completed websites for inspiration.
Following the Site Planer from start to finish will eventually result in a fully functioning website, complete with images, pages and even a domain name to boot.
The Site Planner is an optional extra for first-time website builders, and can be completely disregarded if you so wish. Essentially, it's a great feature for the large group of Weebly users who need a degree of guidance when it comes to web design, content creation and marketing.
<h3> Your Home Page </h3>
Moving away from the Site Planner, Weebly allows you to dive right into the customization process, by offering up your unpopulated homepage for you to fiddle with.
Your website will be displayed in preview mode on the right, whilst the recently revamped admin panel takes up the left-hand side of the screen.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/5700x0.jpg" alt="weebly review" /> 
To begin adding to your website, you can simply start dragging and dropping different elements from your side bar. These include titles, images, videos, buttons, dividers and more.
Areas such as the website logo can be edited by hovering and clicking on the available options. For example, I chose to import an image to act as the logo, whereas other options allowed by to type in standard text, or remove the logo entirely.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/6.jpg" alt="weebly review" />
The same hovering rule applies to all other elements on the website, so long as you are in preview mode. Images, blocks of text and so forth can be hovered over, resulting in some options being displayed. Modifying or deleting the element is then a piece of cake.
Generally, the drag-and-drop system adopted by Weebly works a charm. Anybody can understand the process, and adding your own layout and design touches is incredibly easy.
<h3> Themes &amp; Design 
</h3>
Across the top of the preview page, tabs are displayed. One of which is entitled “Design”. Within this page, you can select a different theme, or modify your existing one.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/11.jpg" alt="weebly review" />
Options such as the base colour of your theme can be changed, along with font styles, social icons and phone number location. Despite a healthy range of options, it would have been nice to see a full colour palette being made available, instead of just the pre-set colours currently on offer.
As well as being able to select a different theme altogether, Weebly also gives you full access to the HTML and CSS coding behind all of its themes, allowing you to tinker with the design and functionality.
<h3> Adding Pages </h3>
A web page doesn't make a website, so it's good news that Weebly allows you to quickly and easily add as many different pages as you want.
Heading over to the “Pages” tab at the top of the preview page, you will be presented with the option to create a new page, and alter the order and settings of your existing pages.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/12700x0.jpg" alt="weebly review" />
Adding a page is simple. You enter the title, followed by the layout you wish to utilise, which largely depends on the theme you are currently using.
Weebly allows you to easily copy and re-order your pages, as well as create sub-pages, which will be displayed as drop down menus.
<h2> Functional Flexibility 
</h2>
One of Weebly's key strengths is its sheer flexibility. It does a superb job with the basics, allowing elements such as maps, contact forms and slide shows to be seamlessly incorporated. But on top of that, Weebly offers a wide range of other functionalities.
Uploading images for example can be done in a variety of ways. They can be uploaded from your computer, via a URL or even via Weebly's built in image search function.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/9700x0.jpg" alt="weebly review" />
However, you can also create a variety of different website types, by simply dragging and dropping elements.  Adding a product to sell or even an entire discussion board is just as easy as inserting an image. What's more is, you can run such elements side by side, on the very same page.
<h3> Ecommerce </h3>
Selling products on Weebly can be done with relative ease. Dragging and dropping the “product” element from the admin panel will allow you to modify your product image, set a price and add a description.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/13.jpg" alt="weebly review" /> 
However, it must be said that Weebly does have some limitations in the ecommerce department. Payments can only be taken via PayPal and Google checkout, and it doesn't offer an integrated order management system.
<h3> Forums </h3>
Weebly also offers a fairly comprehensive discussion forum solution, which can be dragged and dropped on to any page. You may then go ahead and customize your forum, adding log in buttons for Facebook, Twitter, Google and other services.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/15-1700x0.jpg" alt="weebly review" /> 
You can create a total of 5 forums, with a limitation of 200 replies per discussion. Weebly requires you to upgrade your account in order to bypass these limitations.
<h2>Social Features</h2>
Implementing social buttons into your website is absolutely vital for both marketing and engagement purposes. Thankfully, Weebly has yet again made life easy in this regard. Social icons such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn buttons are often built in to certain Weebly themes, with the option to remove them, or add your personal social profile links to them.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/7-1.jpg" alt="weebly review" />
Weebly offers a range of social buttons, including Flickr, Google+, Yahoo and more. Much like other elements, they can be dragged and dropped almost anywhere on your web pages.
<h2>Mobile View</h2>
One of the brand new features that the All New Weebly update introduced, was the ability to view your Weebly website in mobile view, further customizing it to fit the purposes and requirements needed.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/33700x0.jpg" alt="weebly review" /> 
Using the mobile view, you can customize the colour, header images and social icons, and even select a brand new theme specifically for mobiles. Extra elements can be added from the admin panel, which will automatically sync with the desktop version of your website.
Additionally, Weebly allows you to preview your website via an on-screen iOS and Android device, giving you a realistic impression of what your mobile site will really look like.
<h2> Getting Help </h2>
As with any CMS, being able to find useful help pages and contact details is vital, and Weebly helps you do just that. Across the top of the preview page lies a question mark icon, which leads you to the Weebly Support Centre.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/20700x0.jpg" alt="weebly review" /> 
The Support Centre is a comprehensive tool to help you get ove rany issues you may be facing. Help concerning images, text, widgets, forums, ecommerce and so on can all be easily accessed. Additionally, Weebly allow users to submit their own questions using the “Ask Us a Question” button. 
 
 Marketing &amp; Monetizing 
Being able to market and monetize your website is hugely important. Simply publishing content on your homepage willl not help bring in visitors. Instead, Weebly offers a helping hand by being SEO friendly, allowing title, meta and description tags to be customized at page level, along with image ALT tags.
<h3>Blogging</h3>
Maintaining a blog relevant to your website is an extremely efficient way of driving traffic to your website. Good quality blog posts will eventually rank in the search engines, and will also do well on social media networks.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/21700x0.jpg" alt="weebly review" />
Weebly offers a pretty solid blogging solution, allowing you to quick and easily add blog posts. Elements from the admin panel can be dragged and dropped into posts, which means that maps, slide shows, videos and galleries can all be added very quickly, which is something many other blogging applications lack.
<h3> Google Adsense </h3>
Monetizing your website or blog is a great way of earning revenue. Weebly allows you to insert your own Google Adsense codes, and then drag-and-drop the banners anywhere you wish.
However, users who are using the free version of Weebly will be giving up 50% of their Google Adsense revenue until they upgrade their accounts. On top of a handful of other restrictions impose on free Weebly users, some users may find such a large percentage unfair.
<h3> Site Stats </h3>
Along with the traditional option of Google Analytics, Weebly also offers its users a free, in-house Site Stats page, which keeps track of visitors, search terms, referring websites and so forth.
Monitoring your audience is vital when it comes to understanding the strengths and weaknesses of your website, and Weebly's inclusion of a built-in Site Stats page is therefore extremely useful.
<h2>Price Plans</h2>
Along with the release of the All New Weebly, a new price structure was unveiled. Before the update, Weebly offered their Starter plan at $3.29 per month, along with their Pro plan from $6.63 per month. In comparison to their competitors, Wix and Webs, these fees were very reasonable.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/17700x0.jpg" alt="weebly review" />
However, since the update, Weebly have raised their fees slightly, offering the same Starter and Pro plans for $4 and $8 respectively. The price hike is minimal, and can be justifed by the recent classy updates made to the site builder. More importantly, the price rise still keeps Weebly competitive in the face of its rivals.
Webs offer three paid plans, priced from $3.75, to $7.50, up to $16.67 per month. Wix on the other hand, charge $5.73 for their lowest package, climbing up to highs of $19.18 per month for their highest plan.
<h2> Verdict </h2>
Overall, Weebly is a simple, yet powerful site builder which helps you to easily incorporate a wide range of features and widgets. The uncluttered user interface, paired with the extremely easy to use drag-and-drop system, makes Weebly a brilliant choice for a novice web site builders, and for those who know exactly what they're doing.
Weebly's speedy service and cloud-based servers allow you to get your website up and running in minutes, without compromising on the sleek, professional presentation which is manages to capture in all of its themes and widgets.
<h2> Pros </h2>
<ul>
<li>Weebly's drag-and-drop system works wonderfully, enabling almost anybody to try their hand at web design.</li>
<li>The sheer speed and simplicity of Weebly is enough to make you fall in love with the site builder.</li>
<li>Hundreds of free, modifiable themes ensure that your website will be truly unique in terms of design.</li>
<li>The revamped admin panel is a joy to use, and is very easy on the eyes.</li>
<li>The new Site Planner is a welcome addition, which does a great job of walking newcomers through the building and publishing process.</li>
<li>Being able to view and edit your site through Mobile View is an excellent, useful feature.</li>
<li>Ecommerce and Forum options are great examples of the impressive flexibility of Weebly.</li>
<li>Built-in Site Stats and a Blogging feature are a tremendous help in terms of marketing and visitor engagement.</li>
<li>Prices are agreeable in comparison to Weebly's competitors.</li>
</ul>
<h4> Cons </h4>
<ul>
<li>Weebly's ecommerce solution is under-developed, offering just two payment options and no order managing functionality.</li>
<li>Along with a long list of restrictions, including Weebly's logo on their website's footer, users of the free Weebly service are only entitled to half of their Google Adsense earnings, which will understandably disgruntle some users.</li>
</ul>
<h2> Final Remarks </h2>
As mentioned in <a href="/weebly-review/"> our last Weebly review </a> , the quirky web site builder has always been packed full of features, offering an easy, unintimidating solution to those with no coding experience, and perhaps even for those with no web experience at all.
Additionally, to put it simply – which is the Weebly way, the recently introduced updates have injected a new spirit into the service, making it leaner and more flexible than ever before. The core features have remained, but they have now been expertly polished and presented within the elegance of the new admin panel.
Weebly's drag-and-drop site creation system has served it well in the past, and will surely continue to do so, especially now that it works in tandem with a brand new mobile editor, a user-friendly site planner, and a modern user interface. After the All New Weebly release, it would seem that both Wix, Webs and the rest of Weebly's competition have some catching up to do.
<blockquote><a href="https://www.weebly.com/"> Try Weebly  </a></blockquote>

Weebly Review: Hands On With the All New Weebly

<a href="http://www.dudamobile.com/" target="_blank"> Duda</a>, a do-it-yourself website builder for web professionals and small businesses, has launched <a href="http://www.dudaone.com/insite/press" target="_blank"> inSite </a> , an easy to use new tool within its DudaOne platform. 
 Formerly known as DudaMobile, <a href="/duda-website-builder">Duda</a> is quickly taking hold of a slice of the website builder market, having partnered with companies like Google, Yahoo and AT&amp;T. 
 I recently <a href="/interview-with-itai-sadan-co-founder-ceo-of-duda/" target="_blank"> interviewed Itai Sadan, Duda's Co-founder &amp; CEO</a>. We discussed <a href="/duda-website-builder">Duda</a>'s begginings, its offerings and its future as a website builder in a competitive market. Itai Sadan certainly sounded positive about Duda's future in that interview, and now that inSite is launching, I can see why.   
 inSite makes it easy for business owners to create dynamic web content based on customer behavior. It comes out-of-the-box with Duda's <a href="http://www.dudamobile.com/dudaone" target="_blank"> DudaOne</a> website builder. The kicker is that such technology is often reserved for large enterprises with huge IT budgets and dedicated IT departments.   
<h2>Democratizing Personalized User Experiences</h2>
Using inSite, businesses can preset what content different types of customers will see based on variables such as time of day or week, device type, number of visits, location and more; without requiring any development work. 
 A website visitor using a mobile device in the morning hours for example, can be shown content different to that shown to a visitor at night via a desktop. 
 <img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/duda-logo90x190.png" /> Duda have also shared some research undertaken by one of their customers, Raydiance for Women, a custom hair replacement company in West Bloomfield, Michigan. 
 By implementing an inSite campaign on their website, Raydiance for Women recorded a 65 percent increase in conversions from potential customers. In this specific campaign, customers visiting after office hours were presented with a contact form, and first-time visitors during office hours were presented with a video and prominent call-to-action. 
Mike Madigan, Vice President of M-1 Studios, the agency responsible for creating the Raydiance website, made these comments:
<blockquote>
“inSite has been incredible, mind-blowing really. Before inSite, we simply would not have had access to the technology needed to present website visitors with such a personalized experience. The huge increase in engagement we’ve already seen is just astonishing. We can’t wait to offer it to our other customers.”
</blockquote>
Furthermore, Itai Sadan, Duda's Co-founder and CEO, had this to say upon the public launch of inSite:
<blockquote>
“The bigger companies have always had the budgets and resources to create elaborate personalized user experiences, creating an unfair situation for smaller businesses and web professionals. 
Today, with inSite, we’re leveling the playing field by democratizing this technology and making it possible for anyone to easily build enterprise-grade websites without the need for massive budgets or a large development team. 
 Duda is the only DIY website builder to bring DWP features to our customers, and we’ve made it as simple as a few clicks. Based on results from our early inSite users, we know businesses will be more successful by personalizing their websites.”
</blockquote>
inSite comes as part of <a href="http://www.dudamobile.com/dudaone" target="_blank"> DudaOne</a>, Duda's DIY website builder.  
 To get started on your website, <a href="http://www.dudamobile.com/dudaone" target="_blank"> visit Duda</a>.

Duda Launches inSite: a Personalized User Experience Tool

Weglot - The easiest way to translate a website

The easiest way to translate a website

#18164c

<div>
The Plone 4.0 Framework Team and release manager Eric Steele are pleased to announce the first release candidate for Plone 4.0.
Plone 4.0 brings massive performance and scalability improvements, a brand new default theme, and a revamped user interface.
<img title="plone theme" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2021/07/image-300x219_n8maky.png" />
Other new features include:
<ul>
<li>An improved first-run experience, particularly creating a new Plone site</li>
<li>Streamlined user account creation and extensible member profiles</li>
<li>Upgraded infrastructure: Plone now runs on Python 2.6 and Zope 2.12 making for easier deployment and a smaller memory footprint</li>
<li>Built-in file-system storage for Image and File content types makes databases with large binaries easier to manage</li>
<li>Pop-up forms for login and many management functions</li>
<li>TinyMCE visual editor improves formatted text editing</li>
<li>Full-text indexing of East Asian languages</li>
<li>Group dashboards</li>
<li>The new standard theme utilizes a flexible, grid-based layout that provides a better base for clean, modern theming</li>
<li>Hundreds of bug fixes and tweaks</li>
<li>A well-tested upgrader that makes upgrading from Plone 3 fast and easy</li>
<li>Performance increases that nearly double pages per second in typical situations.</li>
</ul>
How you can help
Release candidates serve as proposed final releases for the project.  While Plone 4.0 has been tested by many members of the Plone developer community, and is already running in production on a number of sites, it needs wider testing to flush out any remaining critical bugs before we can stamp it as a “final release.”  And that's where we need you.
Here's what you can do to help:
<ol>
<li>Test our installer packages by downloading and installing Plone 4.0 RC1 from the <a href="http://plone.org/products/plone/releases/4.0">Plone 4.0 downloads page</a>.</li>
<li>Help us test the upgrade scripts by migrating a copy of your site's data.</li>
<li>Report any errors to the Plone bug tracker.</li>
</ol>

</div>

Plone 4 Reaches Release Candidate Status

DesignModo, the company behind <a href="http://designmodo.com/startup/?u=1182" target="_blank">Startup Framework</a>, has released the latest version of <a href="http://designmodo.com/qards/" target="_blank">Qards</a>, their WordPress plugin that provides similar one-page website building.
<a href="http://designmodo.com/qards/" target="_blank"><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/qards.png" /></a> With it, you can mix and match a variety of pre-designed cards (or Qards) in order to form a one-pager style website. All within WordPress, of course.
Let's take a look at what's new.
<h2>Integrated Media Library &amp; A New Button Configurator</h2>
Qards 1.4 brings about integration with WordPress' media library. So, it's more easy to import and work with images and photos.
Buttons are a big part of any website, and now, Qards users can customize them quite extensively. Thanks to the new Button Configurator feature, you can change button shapes, sizes and colors using sliders.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/unnamed619x0-is.png" /> I'm a big fan of Qards, just like I'm a big fan of DesignModo's other product, Startup Framework (which you can read about in my <a href="/startup-framework-review/" target="_blank">Startup Framework Review</a>). It's sleek, simple, able to produce highly professional one-pagers. Plus, it works within WordPress.
It's a tad pricey at $99 per site, although developers might be more tempted by the package that allows for five sites for just $199.
<a href="http://designmodo.com/qards/" target="_blank">Learn more about Qards</a>.

DesignModo Qards 1.4 Released

When it comes to tracking down the best ad network, it can be tough to weed through the garbage. There are quite a few out there that pay very little and aren't worth your time. For that reason, I've put together this guide to the absolute Best Ad Networks for Bloggers.
CPM, for those who are unaware, stands for Cost per mille (latin / italian for thousand). Don't ask me why CPM became the term of choice as opposed to CPT (cost per thousand) but it is what it is. ?
This means that for every thousand visitors you get to your website, you earn a certain dollar amount. A good ad network will pay over $10 CPM. A poor one will pay under $1 CPM. So for instance, if you had 100k visitors to your website and were with a good network that paid $10 CPM, you would earn $1000. $10 multiplied by 100 (because each thousand earns you $10).
Here's a quick video explaining it for those having a hard time:
<iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/V4kMIUuSOqs?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>
Make sense? Cool.
<h2>Why Should You Trust My Opinion on the Best Ad Networks?</h2>
Before I get into who the best ad networks are, let me explain why you should trust my advice on which one to choose.
My wife runs a popular food blog called <a href="https://www.thekitchenmagpie.com" target="_blank">The Kitchen Magpie</a> which receives in excess of 1.5 million monthly visitors. As such, we needed the best ad network to help monetize this quantity of page-views. We had to weed through quite a few in order to find the best of the best. We have tried most of the networks out there before ending up with AdThrive (which we were actually invited to).
Between my wife and I, we've both been blogging since 2009 and do so for a living. That means we're 100% full time employed by our websites, no other jobs. We make all of our revenue from advertising and working with customers on sponsored content, videos, etc. Therefore, we are very much driven to make sure we earn as much as we can from our websites. I hope that helps set the tone for this article a bit and gives you some confidence in my recommendations. Now lets get on with it shall we?
Note: If you are looking for the best ad network that allows you to become part of Google's AdXchange (meaning you earn more as Google advertisers will have an opportunity to bid on your inventory) then check out the first 3 choices in this list. AdThrive is the strongest and largest player on the block here but is solely focused on blogger websites. The same goes for Mediavine. Ezoic, however, has lower entry requirements (10k visitors per month minimum) and also allows you to join Google's network making it the easiest path of entry for most websites (they are also not blogger specific).
<h2>#1 – AdThrive</h2>
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/adthrive.png" alt="Best Ad Networks - Adthrive" />
AdThrive is, without a doubt, the absolute best ad network for CPM based advertising for bloggers. We've been working with them on The Kitchen Magpie for a while now and no network has even come remotely close to earning as much as we do with AdThrive. I know at one point they had a waiting list of bloggers wanting to join their network and I do know they are picky about who they choose, primarily because they want the best of the best in order to keep their advertisers happy. You can sign up on their website if interested and see if you are accepted.
According to Comscore, AdThrive is now ranked #20 out of all internet entities in the world. AdThrive publishers reach upwards of 92.5 million unique viewers monthly, which is more reach than massive companies like Snapchat and Pinterest! In addition, AdThrive publishers rank #1 in Food, #1 in Family and Parenting, #1 in Lifestyle, and #2 in Home. These are some impressive stats! (<a href="https://www.facebook.com/adthrive/photos/a.760734290738765.1073741828.307243179421214/1165759476902909/?type=3" target="_blank">source</a>)
<h3>Benefits:</h3>
<ul>
<li>Hands down, AdThrive has THE best staff. Ever. 
These guys are not only incredibly smart and helpful but they are also the most well versed staff in the advertising arena. I've thrown question after question at them and they don't just answer them, they go above and beyond to help improve your site earnings. I've even had them go so far as to help with site problems that had nothing to do with advertising. They are THAT good. No word of a lie. They offer courses to help boost your RPM and they work night and day to get better and better at what they do.</li>
<li>Huge earnings. 
We've tried all of the other ad networks and nobody has come close to paying as well as AdThrive. Our earnings are far and above what we were making elsewhere so if you are lucky enough to get on board, I wouldn't suggest leaving. Yes, we've tried Mediavine (#2 on our list) as well but they didn't come close to earning as much for us.</li>
<li>Google Certified Ad Partner. 
This one is big. There are only a couple of ad optimization companies in the entire world chosen for Google's prestigious Certified Partner Program. Being certified means that AdThrive's practices, policies and results are Google-approved. This means you won't be running ads that are going to cause you to be penalized or that aren't Google compliant.</li>
<li>Community Engagement. 
AdThrive offers a Facebook group where they offer tips and tricks and their publishers can get together to discuss strategies, troubleshoot problems and more.</li>
</ul>
Website: <a href="http://www.adthrive.com/" target="_blank">AdThrive</a>
<h2>#2 – Ezoic</h2>
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/images_ldzift.png" alt="Best Ad Networks - Ezoic" />
CMS Critic uses Ezoic. Read on to find out why.
We use Ezoic and there's a reason why we use them as opposed to AdThrive. Where AdThrive is strong is within the US market. When it comes to monetizing US traffic, nobody beats them in my opinion but when you run a tech blog like this one with a variety of topics that appeal broadly and not just do a specific demographic, AdThrive isn't the best choice.
Basically, if you have less than around 60% of your traffic coming from the US, you'll want to go with Ezoic. They've got an easy interface, excellent staff and they are also part of the Google Ad Network. Furthermore, they have a lower entry requirement and aren't as picky on geography).
Ezoic is a Google Certified Publishing Partner just like AdThrive, the main difference here is that they accept blogs with traffic that is around 10k visitors per month. As I mentioned, they also don't limit you based on US traffic so if you have a blog like this one, where we have a wide variety of traffic from many geographies and the US only accounts for around 30% or so of the traffic, then Ezoic is the choice for you.  What I like about Ezoic is that they have a solid interface that incorporate Adsense as well as a backup plan for the instances where they can't fill your ads.
They are definitely the best ad network for sites like ours and those of you with slightly less traffic.
Website: <a href="https://www.ezoic.com/" target="_blank">Ezoic</a>
<h2>#3 – Mediavine</h2>
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/mediavine.jpg" alt="Mediavine" />
Mediavine is also one of the best ad networks for bloggers because they offer solid earnings and support. If you aren't able to get on with AdThrive, I recommend checking out Mediavine, especially if you are in the food, travel, fashion, lifestyle or entertainment niches as they tend to do well. From my experience, Mediavine didn't offer as high an earning potential as AdThrive but your experiences may vary. They definitely have a large network of publishers and advertisers so you can't go wrong giving them a try and seeing if they are the right fit for your needs.
<h3>Benefits:</h3>
<ul>
<li>They are publishers too. 
The folks behind Mediavine are also publishers that own The Hollywood Gossip, TV Fanatic and Food Fanatic websites. They test their solutions on their own websites first before offering them to their network of publishers, meaning you get tried and tested solutions.</li>
<li>Solid earning potential &amp; sponsored opportunities. 
Mediavine publishers make good money. I am aware of a large number of big bloggers that are with Mediavine that earn a living from their advertising revenue so they certainly don't pay poorly. They are a great alternative to consider if you are in the market for a CPM ad network. They also offer sponsored opportunities that come their way. They also offer sponsored opportunities for influencers.</li>
<li>Community Engagement. 
Mediavine has an exclusive Facebook group where publishers and Mediavine employees work together to network, troubleshoot, discuss strategies and more.</li>
</ul>
Website: <a href="https://www.mediavine.com/" target="_blank">Mediavine</a>
<h2>#4 – Monumentum / Blogher (Geared towards Women)</h2>
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/momentum-logo.png" alt="Monumentum" /> 
Monumentum, otherwise known as the Blogher publishing network, is another very large and popular advertising network for bloggers. It is, however, primarily geared towards women so if you are a male blogger, you are most likely out of luck. We were with Blogher for a while with The Kitchen Magpie but left to be exclusive with AdThrive. During that time, it was a pretty solid network so definitely worth checking out.
<h3>Benefits:</h3>
<ul>
<li>Advertising and Sponsored Content opportunities 
Momentum by SheKnows Media is a very large network of primarily female bloggers that has been around for many years. Momentum also offers their bloggers sponsored content opportunities, however I'm not sure how often or how many they have.</li>
<li>Great exposure through the Blogher Conference 
They are the force behind the Blogher conference which is one of the largest blogging conferences in North America and a very popular destination for bloggers from around the world. There are some great keynote speakers and tons of opportunities to network with potential clients so it's a great opportunity to connect. If you are with the network of couse, even better.</li>
</ul>
Website: <a href="http://www.blogher.com/momentum" target="_blank">Momentum</a>
<h2>#5 – Adbuff</h2>
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/adbuff_blog_large.png" alt="Adbuff" />
Adbuff is a good option to consider if you are not a blogger or prefer not to go with one of the other networks above. They are slowly gaining momentum and becoming more and more popular (and recommended) due to their claim of high CPM rates and 100% fill rate so it's definitely one to try out and see how it performs.
<h3>Benefits:</h3>
<ul>
<li>Realtime reporting dashboard 
Adbuff has a realtime reporting dashboard with stats that are updated every second, so you can make informed decisions in real time. For those of you that are stuck on numbers, this is a big benefit over some of the other networks that offer next day stats.</li>
<li>100% fill rate (as advertised) 
A few things about fill rate. It's great that networks like Adbuff offer 100% fill rate but I just want to point out that it doesn't mean much if your CPM is super low. You can have 100% fill rate at 0.05 CPM and you are basically making 5 cents for every thousand visitors, which is next to nothing, so keep that in mind. If your CPM is reasonably good, however, then you want the highest fill rate possible. Adbuff offers both 100% fill rate and make the following claim “Our CPM rates for banner ads are among the highest of any CPM ad network today. We pay the highest CPM rates to publishers with traffic from US, Canada, UK and Australia.” – While I can't speak to how accurate this statement is, if they pay as well as they claim, you should be making good money in no time with them.</li>
</ul>
Website: Adbuff
<h2>#6 – Media.net</h2>
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/352a103d80664e0a922fe61c806b47d0600x0-is.png" alt="Media.net" />
Media.net is one of the largest advertising networks in the world but it's not exclusively geared towards bloggers. If you are looking for a solid network with good earnings but are not happy with AdThrive or Mediavine, this one is a good alternative. Media.net was recently purchased by a large conglomerate as well for a whopping $900 million making it the third largest ad tech deal ever. That's a hefty amount! Media.net is part of the Yahoo! Bing network and has a very large pool of advertisers in it's arsenal.
<h3>Benefits:</h3>
<ul>
<li>Huge network of popular publishers. 
Some of the world's largest publishers work with Media.net. Names like Elle, Good Housekeeping, Cosmopolitan, Forbes, Reuters, Better Homes and Gardens, Esquire and a whole lot more. With brands like that using their network, you can bet they are with them for a reason. This also means, however, that you are fighting some tough competition for the top dollar, so be aware of that.</li>
<li>Large array of ad options. 
Media.net offers a huge array of ad placement options including in-content ads, mobile docked ads, contextual ads, desktop interstitial and more. This means you have a large number of possibilities for ad placement when it comes to your website.</li>
<li>Excellent reporting mechanisms. 
Media.net offers a solid reporting dashboard that lets you monitor your ad impressions on a near real-time basis. The reporting interface allows you to view earnings with drill-downs by sites, ad tags, and date range. This means you can monitor the revenue impact of your ad customizations and spot trends quickly.</li>
</ul>
Website:<a href="http://www.media.net/" target="_blank">Media.net</a>
<h2>Conclusion</h2>
There are a ton of “best ad networks for bloggers” articles out there. The sad reality is, most of them are full of it. A large number of these articles are there to drive sponsored content for advertising networks. If you look around, you'll see that next to none of them mention the first three networks above yet the bulk of bloggers who are earning big money use them. Suspicious isn't it? I didn't write this article to make money referring people. I wrote this article to give you actual advice. 
I'm not a huge fan of many other networks. I've tried the ones listed by the other bloggers out there and honestly, most of them are pretty poor and don't offer much at all for bloggers. They are mostly generic ad networks that offer low paying CPM so they aren't ones I'd typically consider. However, that doesn't mean they won't work for you so if you can't find any within my list that will work for you, perhaps give them a try.
If you truly want to start earning top dollar for your blog, take my advice and try to get on with one of these networks. I welcome your comments below; whether you agree or disagree. Also, I'm happy to help answer any questions you have, simply leave me a comment and I'll keep an eye out for them. Best of luck and I hope you find the best ad network for your needs.

Best Ad Networks for Bloggers and Others

<a href="http://www.wix.com/" target="_blank">Wix</a> has announced its very first verticalized solution in the form of WixHotels.
The announcement was made during a conference call set up to discuss the company's Q2 14 earnings.
WixHotels is a complete booking engine that is fully integrated into a Wix website, aimed at hotel and B&amp;B owners specifically. In keeping with Wix's user-friendly ethos, WixHotels is code-free, simple, yet feature-packed.
As Wix's first solution dedicated to a particular industry niche, this announcement of WixHotels is a significant milestone in Wix's history.
<h2>Codeless, Commisionless &amp; Comprehensive</h2>
The WixHotels booking engine allows users to manage room inventories and comes complete with pricing, booking, reservation and payment management capabilities.
WixHotels, a complete booking engine that is fully integrated into a Wix website. Wix’s core products answer the needs of all business verticals, and with its new verticalized solutions, the company is extending its offering to more deeply address the niche needs of specific industries.
While many travelers today research hotel rooms via online booking websites, most of them visit the hotel’s website before actually booking. Furthermore, travelers are booking their reservations directly on hotels’ websites at an increasing rate, making an appealing website with an integrated online booking engine essential for a hotel owner’s business.
<img style="max-width:225px" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/imagescalnqwn3-1.jpg" /> 
Before WixHotels, hotel owners were limited in their options to take and manage reservations to either integrating expensive and complex booking systems or offering rooms via third-party booking websites. Of course, these solutions usually included hefty commision rates.
WixHotels offers a complete booking engine that is fully integrated into a Wix website for hotels, B&amp;Bs and vacation rentals. This code-free product makes it simple to build and maintain the room inventory complete with pricing, booking, reservation and payment management capabilities. Available through the Wix App Market, WixHotels is not limited to reservations made through the website.
Through their Wix dashboards, hotel owners can easily add reservations made elsewhere and manage their entire room inventory – all under the same digital roof. WixHotels is also fully optimized for mobile devices, enabling potential travelers to book a room on the go, from any device.
Upon the announcement of WixHotels, Avishai Abrahami, Wix Co-Founder and CEO, had this to say:
<blockquote>“Wix offers a robust and comprehensive platform for all business owners. Our new verticalized strategy lets us build on this solid foundation by adding more layers and enhancements that cater to the specific needs of each industry.
WixHotels is the first release designed for a specific vertical. It frees hotel owners from relying on third party vendors who charge a commission, turns a hotel website into an engine for driving growth and creates a hub for managing all aspects of a hospitality business.”</blockquote>
WixHotels beta version is free, and like other Wix products, it will become a freemium feature upon its full release.
Sign up to create your <a href="http://www.wix.com/" target="_blank">free Wix website today</a>.
Also, you can explore more of <a href="/products/wix/" target="_blank">Wix via our CMS Directory</a>.

Wix Announces Freemium Booking Engine, WixHotels

<a href="http://www.django-cms.org/en" target="_blank">Django CMS</a> is an enterprise-grade content management system that’s been around since 2007.
The platform was recently voted in as the <a href="/announcing-the-2015-winner-for-best-open-source-cms/" target="_blank">Best Open Source CMS of 2015</a>; which is some achievement considering the sheer quantity of competitors.
<a href="http://www.django-cms.org/en" target="_blank"><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/djangocms_green-1_400x0.png" /></a>Built upon <a href="https://www.djangoproject.com/" target="_blank">Django, a Python web framework</a>, Django CMS is open source and free to download. However, they offer onboarding, setup and custom development services to support larger projects.
In fact, Django CMS and the team behind it is trusted by the likes of NASA, L’Oreal and Cardiff University.
According to the Django CMS website, Django CMS is, “a CMS built for developers and content editors”. The platform <a href="/django-cms-3.2-lands-with-new-interface-enhanced-touch-screen-support/" target="_blank">recently upgraded to version 3.2</a>, gaining an improved UI and better touch screen support.
Enough talk, though. Let’s dive in.
<iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/BhR703Yz6mU?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>
<h2>Initial Thoughts</h2>
First impressions start on the vendor website, and Django CMS’s website is perfectly professional.
The homepage welcomes you with a simple introduction made up of text, images and a video.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-11083x0-is.png" />
There’s also a timeline of Django’s history on the homepage, which I thought was a nice touch.
My only gripe with the actual website is the font used. It’s a little thin and difficult to read. No big deal in the grand scheme of things, but perhaps it’s worth adjusting.
<h2>Getting Started</h2>
To get yourself set up with Django CMS, you can make use of their fifteen minute demo, or head over to <a href="https://www.divio.com/en/products/aldryn-cloud/" target="_blank">Aldryn Cloud by Divio</a>, the company behind Django CMS.
There, you can set up a test instance of Django CMS in the cloud for free, in just a few minutes. Not a bad deal at all.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-2.png" />
And of course, you can also download the entire platform from their homepage before uploading it anywhere you like.
Once your Django CMS instance is ready to go, you’ll be greeted with an example website, populated with everything needed for a site launch.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-31041x0-is.png" /> The default theme and example content show how Django CMS can be used to produce a rather beautiful, yet highly professional website. Which is expected.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-91129x0-is.png" />
There’s a tutorial section on the right-hand side, too, which first of all points out the responsive nature of Django CMS's default theme. It encourages you to adjust the width of your browser to put the theme to the test, and it does indeed respond very well – never losing its aesthetic composure.
My only issue is that the tutorial section seems to be there only for Demo users, and not for users who opt for a free Aldryn cloud hosting account. I found myself having to switch back and forth between the two to make use of the tutorial.
I guess now is a good time to mention that Django CMS doesn't have a “traditional” back end. There is no dedicated dashboard or admin panel.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-111306x0-is.png" /> Everything is controlled via the CMS toolbar across the top of the page, which only logged in admins can access. That toolbar, combined with point-and-click front-end editing, makes up the bulk of Django CMS.
Speaking of editing…
<h2>Editing Content</h2>
Once you get your bearings, you’ll want to start tinkering with the website's content. And I must say, editing content with Django CMS is absolutely brilliant.
Clicking the blue “Edit” button on the CMS toolbar enables inline editing, allowing you to point, click and then edit any section of any page.
As you move your cursor around the page, Django CMS indicates that double clicking at that instant will either allow you to edit; text, images or styles.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-8.png" />
This feature really helped things flow. There are no clunky boxes to highlight which element you’re hovering over, and thus no visible indication that you’re in edit mode other than the toolbar at the top and the cursor message.
It’s all very, very fluid.
Although, I did notice that fluidity fade a little in some parts of the platform.
For example, when I swapped one image for another, I had to double-click on the existing image to open the WYSIWYG editor. But the editor didn't give me a preview of the image like it did for the text.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-5843x0-is.png" /> To replace that image, I had to click on “CMS Plugins” and then “Image”. I guess the tried and tested Image icon wasn't cutting it. <img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-6844x0-is.png" /> And then, I was presented with another window, where I could select my new image from Django CMS' media library (which wasn't much to look at, either). That's three open windows, just to change an image.
It wouldn't be so bad if the image editing window opened in a controlled or aesthetic way. But instead, it was small and cramped with an over-sized header, forcing me to scroll or resize the window manually to figure out my next move. Where did all that fluidity go?
<h2>Editing Structure</h2>
Thankfully, Django CMS' fluidity returns when you play around with the structure of pages.
Django CMS makes it supremely easy to edit page structure by allowing you to click the “Structure” button on the CMS toolbar, which opens up a tree of options.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-12747x0-is.png" />
The home page for example, is made up of the content blocks, as seen above. Each one can be dragged-and-dropped into place, edited, copied, and more. You can even assign a plugin to page blocks in order to add some extra functionality.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-13848x0-is.png" />
It's essentially another way to view your site, in perhaps a more traditional sense. The listed view keeps things simplified, and many users may prefer editing their this way.
<h2>The CMS Toolbar</h2>
The rest of Django CMS' toolbar is made up of a few more buttons, each one capable of unleashing quite a bit of functionality. Aside from a language switcher (which can switch from English to German) and a “Live Reload is On/Off” button (which automatically refreshes the page), there's a few other buttons worth mentioning.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-101333x0-is.png" /> Clicking on the site name, which in my case is, “example.com”, brings about a drop-down menu containing; Pages, Administration, User Settings and a Logout button. You can also disable the toolbar from that same menu, although I'm not sure why anybody would want to.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-14.png" /> On that menu, clicking on “Pages” extends a window from the left which displays another tree, this time of the order of my website's pages.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-17877x0-is.png" /> You can drag-and-drop those pages however you like, and the results will be reflected in the website's navigational menu upon refresh. You can also search for pages, check to see what language they're displaying with, add a child page, duplicate and delete.
Plus, pressing the little cog icon for each page brings up advanced settings, where you can alter page titles, slugs, META descriptions, redirects, and so forth.
These options can also be found more easily on the CMS toolbar, under the “Page” button. Depending on what page I'm viewing at the time, it allows me to delete, copy or create a sub page. You can also unpublish the page, and enter into advanced settings.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-15446x0-is.png" /> As for the “History” button on the CMS toolbar, the good old “Undo” button can be found, along with a “revert to live” option, which will erase all unpublished changes.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-16.png" />
You can also opt to “View History”, which will bring up a list of all the changes made, by whom, and at what time. Quite handy.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-181011x0-is.png" /> It's worth noting that all of these windows and menus popped up and slid into view quite elegantly. Which is totally unlike my previous experience when switching an image around with the WYSIWYG editor.
<h2>The Content Wizard</h2>
Here's where Django CMS really flexes its muscles.
To add new content to your Django CMS website, you'll need to click the “Create” button on the CMS toolbar. This launches the Content Wizard.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-20990x0-is.png" />
Here, you can add to your Django CMS website in a number of ways:
<ul>
<li>New Page</li>
<li>New Sub Page</li>
<li>New News/Blog Article</li>
<li>New Category</li>
<li>New Person</li>
<li>New FAQ Question</li>
<li>New Event</li>
<li>New Job Opening</li>
<li>And more</li>
</ul>
All you have to do is select the page or page element you want, and then click “Next”. You'll then be able to dive right into configuring the details. For an FAQ question, for example, you can set the title, category, short description and answer.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-21983x0-is.png" /> Clicking “Create” then sends your new FAQ question to the FAQ page, under the category you specified. Remember that fluidity? Yeah, it's still here.
<h2>Extras</h2>
Django CMS is multi-lingual by default. It supports English and German out of the box, and also provides internationalization (i18n) support for producing multi-lingual sites.
The platform also has a, “virtually unlimited undo history, allowing editors to revert to a previous version”. Which I think is pretty cool.
<h3>Plugin Marketplace</h3>
Furthermore, <a href="https://marketplace.django-cms.org/en/" target="_blank">Django CMS boasts a plugin marketplace</a> which is well populated with a range of free, functionality boosting addons.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-231197x0-is.png" />
Forms, FAQs, Disqus, Google analytics, Mailchimp, News &amp; Blog, Facebook comments are more, are all there to be downloaded and implemented.
Pleasantly, you can also install those plugins directly onto your Aldryn cloud account if you set one up, so the installation process is taken care of. Developers are also encouraged to code their own plugins, which is something they can find guidelines on via Django CMS' documentation.
<h3>Media Library</h3>
The only way to access the media library, as far as I can see, is by attempting to alter or add an image. Which I thought was weird.
As previously mentioned, this is where multiple windows are opened, some of which are not as pretty as the rest of Django CMS. The media library itself looks okay, comes with a search function, and can be navigated relatively easily.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-24606x0-is.png" />
But I must mention again that it opens in its own separate window, and not in the same way as other Django CMS sections open up, either. Scrolling is needed once again, it's off center. It's all a little bit jarring, and I think it needs some attention.
<h2>Getting Help</h2>
Django CMS' support offering is a bit of a mixed bag.
An official Google+ community is where the core stuff is hosted, including links to the official documentation and the official blog. The documentation is detailed and easy to navigate, but there really isn't much else other than that.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-22897x0-is.png" />
A rather simplifiet tutorial window during the Django CMS demo, there's no help to be found within the platform itself, either. A live chat feature can be found on Django CMS' website, but I'm pretty sure that's more for assisting visitors rather than actual platform support.
There's a strong community around Django CMS, and indeed around Django as a web framework, but still, I feel like there should be more on offer. Perhaps some video tutorials or a searchable database of some kind.
<h2>The Verdict</h2>
I’ve always felt that platforms aiming at the enterprise and developer market have been unnecessarily clunky. Django CMS, though, doesn’t follow suit.
As we move forward, I think we'll continue to see a trend around content management systems moving away from traditional dashboards, opting for more self-explanatory app-like experiences instead.
I suspect that the use of CMS toolbars, like the one Django CMS makes use of, will increase across the board. They'll allow for pages and their content to be edited right there on the page, and bring about more drag-and-drop interfaces to keep things moving quickly. In other words, I think Django CMS is ahead of the curve with their fluid front-end features. Other platforms would do well to try and match them.
With this approach, Django CMS caters to content editors and marketers just as much as it does to developers. Sure, it's open source and totally malleable in the hands of a developer, but it's also approachable for the marketing guy who just wants to tinker with slideshow images. And that's not an easy balance to strike.
As a result of that balance, using Django CMS is a genuine pleasure. Edits are super quick to make, you have increased flexibility when it comes to modifying content and page structure, and yet none of it is overwhelming.
In short, I am truly impressed by the slick user experience.
There is room for improvement, though. As I mentioned earlier in the review, I'm not a fan of the way extra windows are opened up when making more detailed edits. Nor am I a fan of the design of those windows. I also think areas like administration and the media library need some beautifying. Things aren't quite as smooth under the surface, and that needs seeing to.
But overall, I think it's clear to see that Django CMS is a very serious player when it comes to web content management. I'm certainly a fan.
<h3>Pros</h3>
<ul>
<li>Totally free and open source, ready for any Python developer to dive into.</li>
<li>The CMS toolbar is where everything happens, and it all happens very, very well. High levels of user friendliness almost everywhere.</li>
<li>Front-end editing is superbly smooth, and quick too.</li>
<li>Modifying pages, page structure and website structure is incredibly easy.</li>
<li>A healthily populated plugin marketplace</li>
<li>Free cloud hosting provided by Aldryn.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Cons</h3>
<ul>
<li>When editing images, the interface and user friendliness loses its way a little.</li>
<li>The Media library needs to be more easily accessible.</li>
</ul>
<h2>Final Remarks</h2>
There's no doubt about it, <a href="http://www.django-cms.org/en" target="_blank">Django CMS</a> is an excellent platform for projects large and small. It's simple enough for anybody to approach, although its true potential will need to be unlocked by a developer familiar with Python.
Although I've spoken about its high level of approachability, I wouldn't recommend Django CMS to everybody. There isn't a theme library for you to choose from, nor is it designed to compete with website builders, despite its elegant front-end editing features. Make no mistake, Django CMS is a powerful toolbox designed to help developers build highly functional websites. And with clients like L'Oreal and NASA, we already know that it's capable of that.
Why do I feel the need to point that out? Simply because Django CMS' epic use of its CMS toolbar makes it seem like a plug-and-play website builder/CMS built for the masses. For such a powerful platform, that's some achievement.
It does need touching up in some areas in order to round off the overall user experience, but the foundations that exist today make for a genuinely slick ride.
Front end editing becoming the key focal point is something I expect to happen within most major CMS in months and years to come, and they'd all do well to try and mimic Django CMS' excellent approach.

Django CMS Review

Semrush - Be an SEO hero

Be found everywhere search happens

#ffffff

Explore a wide range of informative articles, insights, and industry updates. Stay informed and ahead of the curve with our diverse collection of news and posts covering the latest trends and developments in the industry. Page - 64