Articles - Page 87

Brightspot Illuminates the Future of CMS with Human-Controlled, AI-Powered Storytelling 

matt-garrepy

<a href="http://www.salesforce.com/">Salesforce</a>, the CRM powerhouse, has just acquired <a href="http://www.demandware.com/">Demandware</a>, the ecommerce solution trusted by the likes of Addidas, Converse, Panasonic, and others.
This move puts Salesforce right in the middle of the rapidly growing ecommerce market.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sales-force-acquires-demandware-small.png" alt="Sales force acquires demandware small" />
In fact, Salesforce has made a point of citing a Gartner report to illustrate just how well the ecommerce industry is growing. Gartner forecasts that worldwide spending on digital commerce platforms is expected to grow at over 14% annually, reaching $8.544 billion by 2020 (Gartner, Inc. Forecast: Enterprise Software Markets, Worldwide, 2013-2020, 1Q16 Update, March 17, 2016).
Through this purchase, Salesforce's is hoping to extend the company's CRM leadership and position it to capture this multi-billion dollar ecommerce market with their latest product, “Salesforce Commerce Cloud”.
<h2>“Salesforce Will Be Positioned to Deliver the Future of eCommerce”</h2>
The CEO of Salesforce, Marc Benioff,sees this acquisition as a way forward for Salesforce in the commerce industry:
<blockquote>
“Demandware is an amazing company—the global cloud leader in the multi-billion dollar digital commerce market.
With Demandware, Salesforce will be well positioned to deliver the future of commerce as part of our Customer Success Platform and create yet another billion dollar cloud.”
</blockquote>
Meanwhile, Demandware CEO Tom Ebling, is confident that becoming part of Salesforce will help guide Demandware in the right direction:
<blockquote>
“Demandware and Salesforce share the same passionate focus on customer success.
Becoming part of Salesforce will accelerate our vision to empower the world's leading brands with the most innovative digital commerce solutions that enable them to connect 1:1 with customers across any channel.”
</blockquote>
<h2>Salesforce Commerce Cloud</h2>
By absorbing Demandware, Salesforce has announced Salesforce Commerce Cloud; which we're hoping to see before the end of 2016.
According to Salesforce:
<blockquote>
“The Salesforce Commerce Cloud will be an integral part of Salesforce's Customer Success Platform, creating opportunities for companies to connect with their customers in entirely new ways.
Salesforce customers will have access to the industry's leading enterprise cloud commerce platform, and Demandware's customers will be able to leverage Salesforce's leading sales, service, marketing, communities, analytics, IoT and platform solutions to deliver a more comprehensive, personalized consumer experience.”
</blockquote>
For more information on the technicalities surrounding the sale itself, check out <a href="http://investor.salesforce.com/about-us/investor/investor-news/investor-news-details/2016/Salesforce-Signs-Definitive-Agreement-to-Acquire-Demandware/default.aspx">Salesforce's official announcement</a>.
And as usual, be sure to check out the <a href="/salesforce/">Salesforce hub on our CRM directory</a>.

Salesforce Acquires Demandware for $2.8 Billion, Enters eCommerce Market

mike-johnston

<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/introducing-arastta-1.jpg" alt="introducing-arastta (1)" />
Launched in 2015, Arastta is a free and open source eCommerce solution that traces its roots back to the history-steeped Istanbul. 
But Arastta isn’t just free to download and tinker with, it’s also totally free to host in the cloud.
<a href="https://arastta.com">Arastta Cloud</a> is a feature-packed solution, boasting; total design customization, a drag-and-drop layout manager, advanced statistics, mail and bulletin features, multilingual support and Facebook Store compatibility. It even has a basic and advanced mode to cater for both newbies and eCommerce veterans.
Here’s a video introduction to get us started:
<iframe src="//www.youtube.com/embed/_Px3Gs50LHc" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe> As for the latest version of Arastta, which brings about a range of new features, here’s another video: <iframe src="//www.youtube.com/embed/zTzF545aWuQ" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>
<h2>Arastta Cloud: “It’s Open Source &amp; All Yours”</h2>
One area of Arastta that particularly excites me, is the freedom they afford their cloud customers: 
“[You can] manage your files and database. It's open source and all yours.”
Unlike other free cloud-based solutions, Arastta puts no restrictions on what files you can access and modify. This freedom to customize the already feature-filled platform is complemented further by extensions; all of which can be found on the <a href="https://arastta.pro/">Arastta Marketplace</a>. 
For a product that’s so young, their marketplace is well populated with extensions, themes, and other resources are available for download and purchase. What’s more, the quality of the themes on offer actually look pretty good, while the price isn’t extortionate.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-27.png" alt="sshot-27" />
Arastta has also thought about the user experience here, making it easy for their users to <a href="https://arastta.org/blog/getting-started-app-store">install apps and themes from within their admin panel</a>, removing the need to leave and visit the main Arastta website.
Furthermore, it’s a community driven marketplace, where developers can build and sell their own digital wares to other Arastta users across the globe. I’ll touch more on that Arastta community later. 
<h2>A Slick Interface, A Growing Community</h2>
I signed up and started a store with Arastta in minutes, and I was welcomed by a very pleasant interface.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-22.png" alt="sshot-22" /> The home page of the dashboard is inviting, yet laced with store information, from recent visitor reports to the total amount of sales made. 
I had a peek around, and found it to be a very quick and easy interface to use. I even came across a Customizer feature, that WordPress users will find familiar:
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-23.png" alt="sshot-23" />
I also explored other areas, discovering the function to create affiliate accounts for users who wish to market your products for you, for a percentage of the sale. 
But as well all know, open source projects rely heavily on their communities to survive and thrive – and thankfully for Arastta, <a href="https://arastta.org/community">their community</a> is doing their part.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-24.png" alt="sshot-24" />
The community section is one big discussion, where any registered user can share their issues, create discussions, make friends, build a user profile, join groups, and much more. It’s not just a forum like other open source software vendors tout – it’s a fully fledged online community. 
On the other hand, if it is a forum you’re looking for, <a href="https://arastta.org/forum">Arastta has that, too</a>, with over 1,000 registered members. They also have a dedicated section for the community to <a href="https://arastta.org/ideas">voice their ideas</a>, To check if their ideas were accepted, <a href="https://arastta.org/roadmap">Arastta posts up a guaranteed roadmap</a> which enables users to forecast future updates.
Arsatta gives back to their community through dedicated support. Free members can of course refer to the community, while Premium members get ticket support, while Business members can also reach out via live chat. 
As for the <a href="https://arastta.org/">downloadable version of Arastta</a>, that’s just as compatible with the extension and themes on the marketplace, and can be hosted anywhere that runs PHP 5.3.10 or higher. From what I’ve seen from Arastta, it looks like a relatively new product with lots of potential. There aren’t many free cloud-hosted eCommerce solutions out there, so if you’re looking to open an online store with minimal overheads, it’s worth your time to give Arastta a whirl. 
To start your free Arastta Cloud store today, <a href="https://arastta.com">head over to their website</a>.
<hr />
This post is <a href="/advertising/">sponsored</a> by Arastta. Find out more at <a href="https://arastta.com/">arastta.com</a>.

Arastta: Cloud Hosted, Open Source & Free eCommerce

The Internet demands that you make your website easy to access for people browsing from a toilet seat. And that's the blunt truth that you need to deal with, if you haven't done so already.In fact, Google states that <a target="_blank" href="http://isitvivid.com/blog/google-penalty-non-responsive-websites">nearly 60% of all Google searches start on a mobile device</a>, with many then moving to desktop devices to expand their research. Plus, if your website isn't mobile friendly, Google will penalize you by lowering your SEO ranking.But perhaps even more importantly, without mobile-friendly design, your visitors will begin to leave you – because they absolutely demand content that they can access while using a mobile device. Anything less than that is almost repulsive in the eyes of today's digitally-savvy society.Thus, <a href="/why-responsive-design-is-so-important/">responsive design is vital</a> to the survival and expansion of your brand.<h2>Google's New Responsive Design Checker</h2>To help check how friendly your website is with mobile devices like smartphones and tablets, <a target="_blank" href="https://search.google.com/search-console/mobile-friendly">Google has just launched a new tool</a>.As you can see, CMS Critic is a friend to all screen sizes:<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-28.png" alt="Responsive Design Checker" />Via their new tool, Google analyses any website you ask it to, and then returns a short report.Firstly, and most importantly, it will point out if the website is mobile-friendly or not.It will also alert you to any individual elements of your website which aren't responsive. These may or may not be important, or indeed, you may have deliberately disabled some elements for mobile devices in order to enhance the user experience. But in either case, it's good to know what areas of your website mobile devices are (and aren't) seeing.Most modern content management systems are churning out responsive themes and templates these days, but with the stakes so high, we strongly recommend checking your websites for yourself.For more information, check out <a target="_blank" href="https://webmasters.googleblog.com/2016/05/a-new-mobile-friendly-testing-tool.html">Google's official announcement</a>.

Google Launches New Responsive Design Checker

Consumer shopping can be dated as far back as ancient Greece, with the earliest known shopping list dated between 75-125AD. 
Customers know what they want, when they want it, and where to get it. Or do they?
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/bigstock-graph-growth-success-strategy-118377602-1-e1464866123599.jpg" alt="Data-driven Marketing Strategy" />
Impulse buying has long been a trait of which savvy shop owners have been able to take advantage. But, in this new digital era, can a company influence impulse buying when they never physically meet the customer? Can companies know what a customer wants or needs before the customer does, and put that product in the right place for them to influence their buying habits? The answer is yes! 
By using an actionable, data-driven marketing strategy, companies can influence customers by providing them with what they want, when they want it, and where they want it without ever being given that information by the customer.
As much as it is a new concept, the idea of data for marketers is as important as the air we breathe. In fact, it is hard to think of any B2C or B2B marketing done today that does not revolve around data. So, what is data-driven marketing?
<h2>What is a Data-Driven Marketing Strategy?</h2>
Data-driven marketing refers to the insights gained and the consequential decisions made from the analysis of data about customers. The sources of that data can come from many places and people in all walks of life. It can include tracking online social interactions, online search behavior, web browsing history, geographical location of IP addresses, or even more direct information gained from surveys or contact forms. 
All that gathered data then needs to be sorted, calculated, formatted, and understood to allow marketers to use it in an actionable way, because a mountain of data is no good if it can’t be used for the overall company benefit. 
Additionally, the data shouldn’t be examined just to understand a result or a customer touchpoint, but rather to better understand why such results take place and why a customer appeared at that specific touchpoint in the first place. Armed with this in-depth information, specific to each individual customer, it is then the job of the marketer to put their brand in front of the right people, at the right time, to delight them and engage them with a special “wow factor”.
This sounds straightforward, doesn’t it? Collect data, analyze it, pinpoint the right people, and sell them your product. The question, however, is why, as <a href="http://www.teradata.com/Resources/Teradata-Studies/Data-Driven-Marketing-Survey-2015-Progressing-Toward-True-Individualization/?LangType=1033&amp;LangSelect=true">Teradata’s 2015 Global Data-Driven Marketing Survey</a> found; “only 50% of marketers routinely apply data-driven marketing to individualize marketing messages and offers to enhance the customer experience.” 
The answer; they have not, or have only recently started to, implement data-driven marketing strategies. The Teradata survey found that “today data-driven marketing is either embedded or strategic for 78% of marketers”. That is in contrast to the <a href="http://www.teradata.com/Resources/White-Papers/Teradata-Data-Driven-Marketing-Survey-2013-Global-Full-Results/?LangType=1033&amp;LangSelect=true">2013 version of the same survey</a> which indicated that “only 34% of survey respondents said their data-driven marketing was embedded or strategic.” The process of collecting data, analyzing it, and using it effectively can be quite long. 
It is also a learning process as to whether the correct data was collected, whether the correct analysis had been carried out, and whether or not the resultant sales or advertising campaigns were successful. Therefore, a two year advancement in data-driven marketing strategies may not yet be enough to achieve the results that every marketer desires. It might take several more iterations before their strategy becomes perfected and fully-applicable to individual marketing messages and offers which enhance the customer experience.
However, don’t be deterred by the process. The importance of implementing an actionable strategy can’t be stressed enough. Working with ad hoc analysis and data collection for each campaign can be time consuming and does not give you the opportunity to develop a more refined approach; which can only happen with an underlying strategy.
What are the most important steps of an actionable, data-driven marketing strategy?
<h2>1. Determine What Drives Your Decision Making</h2>
Before any data can be collected, before any analysis can begin, and before any results can be sought you must first decide what the key driving factor is for any decisions you make. 
What are your KPIs? Are you solely looking at revenue or income? Do you want to create an exceptional customer experience for your current customers? Are you only interested in attracting new customers or would you like to re-engage with old ones? Knowing what you really want to achieve sets you on your way to finding out how to achieve it.
<h2>2. Deduce What Data You Need to Collect to Help Your Decision Making Process</h2>
Collecting the right data is what could make or break the entire process. Having the wrong data will send you spinning into markets you just can’t handle or will just leave you scratching your head about where to go next. Divide your search criteria into quantitative (what happened? – number of site visits, number of downloads, etc.) and qualitative (why it happened? – customized landing page, customer specific offers, etc.). There is a myriad of information that can be collected. 
You also need to decide if you want information on a person’s buying habits, what pages they like to visit, what do they interact with most, etc., or their personal info such as email, address, age, etc. Decide on the right info to give you the correct view of the customer to allow your decision making to become simpler.
<h2>3. Collect the Data</h2>
Now you know what data you are looking for; go and collect it. 
Determine how you can get the information in the least intrusive manner possible to avoid annoying your customers. Are you going to use contact information forms on your website? Will you have surveys available at certain touchpoints on the customer journey? Do you require the collection of geographical locations based on IP addresses? Does the number of page visits on the “About Us” page of your site have a bearing on buying habits and if so do you collect that information? As well as all the online information that can be gathered there are also offline situations to consider. Do you have club membership forms? Are you carrying out in-store surveys? There are a whole host of opportunities to collect data, but make sure you are collecting the right data to benefit you. 
This particular step should also be a continuous one even as you move through the entire process. The data will not fade but the opportunities to collect data certainly do. The moments also change. Buying habits differ with the seasons, new trends emerge, technology advances, and people change. Don’t miss the opportunity to learn about your customers.
<h2>4. Analyze the Data and Create Buyer Personas</h2>
Once you have your data collected you must then analyze it from as many angles as possible to develop buyer personas. These are 360 degree views of your customers. Who they are, what they like to search for, what they like to buy, what interests them, what influences them; basically anything you can use to your advantage later on. 
The more accurate and individualized these personas can be the better, as then the more accurate and individualized the content can be that you will present to the customers.
<h2>5. Roll Out Your Customer Focused “WOW” Information</h2>
You now know what you are trying to achieve. You have decided what data you need. You have collected the relevant data from various channels. You have analyzed it, found insights, and built your personas. Now it is time to build your content around your personas and put the right information in front of the right people at the right time. 
You want to “WOW” your customers with how well you know them and delight them with the fantastic “personal” offers you have for them. Show them new items and trends that match their persona that they may never have seen without you. In every channel and through all stages of the buying process, provide an experience akin to a personal shopper in a top boutique and keep your customer coming back for more.
<h2>6. Measure Your Marketing ROI</h2>
This is without a doubt the hardest step in the entire process because you have to be honest in your own evaluation. Has all the work you have done up to this point been successful or a complete failure (don’t worry, it can never be a complete failure as you can always learn from your mistakes)? 
According to the Kentico Marketers’ Survey <a href="http://www.kentico.com/Product/Resources/Surveys/What-to-digital-marketers-really-want-in-2015">“What do digital marketers really want in 2015?”</a> online marketing effectiveness is not being measured enough with “only 17% doing it constantly”. How can you know if you have succeeded in your efforts if you do not measure it? Your job, at this stage, is to highlight the importance of the marketing team in the overall business value. Refer back to all your answers from Step 1 and use data to show the influence the process has had. Do you now have more customers? Are older customers returning? Have page visits or downloads increased on your site? 
All these things can point towards a successful data-driven strategy helping to improve the business value.
<h2>7. Repeat &amp; Improve</h2>
The landscape in which we live is forever changing and what worked today might not work tomorrow. A good, actionable, data-driven strategy must be flexible and move with the times. Embrace the past, but don’t live in it. Move forward, learn, adapt, re-think your position, improve your decision making, collect new data, learn from your mistakes, and always be aiming to deliver that “WOW” factor.
The good news is that you are not alone in implementing the entire process. There are a number of products on the market which can help you from design, through to implementation, and beyond. Integrated Marketing Solutions help with the process by allowing you to collect all the data you require, analyze it to get a 3600 view of your customers, use content personalization and personas to create the right content for the right person, and utilize marketing automation to deliver this content at the most opportune moment
Ultimately, the marketing done by a company can present it as an industry leader or an industry follower. That impression is going to be determined by the customers and the experiences they have with your company. If you can make a customer feel special, provide them with personal treatment, and show them the brighter things in life, then you are on the right track to success. By implementing an actionable, data-driven strategy and combining it with the powerful tools currently available you can impress and delight your customers at every turn and convert a simple customer into a company promoter.
<hr />
This post is <a href="/advertising/">sponsored</a> by Kentico. Find out more at <a href="http://www.kentico.com/">Kentico.com</a>.
Image Credit: <a href="http://www.bigstockphoto.com/image-118377602/stock-photo-graph-growth-success-strategy-marketing-computer-concept">RawPixel</a>

7 Steps to an Actionable Data-Driven Marketing Strategy

In this article, I'm going to get into minute detail with you on all of the major aspects of open source CMS and the things you should consider to make an informed decision. This is my “how to select the best open source CMS” guide.
When it comes to selecting a CMS, there's no doubt that the process of doing so is overwhelming (hey, it's why this site exists!) but it doesn't have to be.
<h2>No uninformed recommendations!</h2>
There are a myriad of great open source solutions on the market today but before you get into the selection process, it's important to make sure you set your expectations correctly and that you don't fall into the trap of accepting advice from people based on very little input. I get into this in more detail in my post “<a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/wordpress-joomla-and-drupal-are-not-the-best-cms/">WordPress, Joomla and Drupal are NOT the best CMS</a>” but essentially what I mean by this is that exchanges like this example below, serve no value:
Q: What's the best CMS to build a corporate website?
A: WordPress!
The trap people get caught in is one of blanket recommendations with no validity. How does the person answering the question truly know that WordPress is the best solution? Perhaps they want to build their corporate website in Java, is WordPress still the best choice? Of course not and the respondent wouldn't know this unless they asked, which leads me to the following statement: Don't take blanket advice from people who a) don't know your business and b) don't know your requirements.
Once you get past this initial hurdle, it's time to set the process in motion. In my <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/cms-consulting/">CMS consulting</a> work, I often explain to my customers that I am first and foremost not helping them select a CMS but rather to find the right solution for their business. Without understanding the needs of the business and those working within it, I cannot accurately make a valid recommendation.
To accomplish this, I personally have a spreadsheet I use that contains a number of detailed questions and tabs covering information such as existing website capabilities, features that are absolutely required, integration points for the website and so on. I use this information that I've gathered to make a proper recommendation.
<h2>Understanding the arguments against open source.</h2>
When it comes to the proprietary vs open source CMS debate, my team and I most often are asked the following questions by those considering the open source route:
<ol>
<li>Stability: Is the CMS stable? Will it last for the long-term?</li>
<li>Support: Can I get the help I need?</li>
<li>Cost: What’s it going to cost me?</li>
<li>Flexibility: Can I move it, change it, or tweak it?</li>
<li>Security: Will my sensitive material be safe?</li>
</ol>
Here are my responses to these questions:
<h2>Stability</h2>
When it comes to the stability of an open source CMS, you must consider the fact that most popular open source solutions have massive communities of developers that work tirelessly at expanding, improving and bettering the systems they work with. Furthermore, because the code is openly available, it's often much easier for a developer outside of the company to find problems and recommend solutions than it would be if the code were proprietary. This is because there is no single owner of the product but rather the community of owners all who can contribute content as they deem necessary. This often leads to quicker innovation as well (although this isn't always the case).
<h3>Support</h3>
Perhaps you feel that a proprietary system is best because most of the time one of their main costs is due to the fact that they offer 24/7 support. This is definitely something to consider but you should also be aware that there are plenty of open source companies that do the same. Take for example some of the large enterprise players like <a href="http://jahia.com">Jahia</a>, <a href="https://www.onehippo.com/en">Hippo</a> and <a href="https://www.magnolia-cms.com/">Magnolia</a>. All of these companies offer open source products with 24/7 support options while still offering up open source versions of their products. There are plenty more of them out there as well. I'll add a list of some recommended solutions at the bottom of this article for those of you who aren't sure where to start.
Perhaps, however, you'd prefer not to pay for support. If you check the forums of the popular open source solutions, you'll see you can easily find thousands (if not millions) of people who are happy to help fix your issues for free. You may wait slightly longer in some cases but you won't be billed for it. Furthermore, you can often find scores of development houses and individual developers / programmers that are happy to help with your issues on an hourly rate. As such, there's really no validity to the lack of support options from open source CMS providers.
<h3>Cost</h3>
This is a big one and I'm going to play both sides in my response. Often times, I get customers who believe that selecting an open source solution means it's going to cost far less than a proprietary model. In short, my response to this, unfortunately, is an unhelpful: it depends.
Why does it depend? There are a host of factors that determine the cost of a new CMS implementation. From development &amp; design costs to deployment costs, it's virtually impossible to accurately quote something from the hip. A reasonably safe assumption, however, is that proprietary solutions are often packaged in “ready to go” bundles. They still require quite a bit of customization but most of the time, they are (in my opinion) more complete offerings from the get go. Open source solutions, on the other hand, tend to be very flexible and unpresumptuous, while not assuming you need everything bundled from the get go.
Most of the costs associated with open source CMS come from hiring developers and / or paying for support as opposed to hefty licensing fees which are most common amongst proprietary models. With proprietary systems you most often have four costs to consider: licensing, development, support and training. With open source solutions you typically pay for development and sometimes support but most training can be learned online and for much less cost.
<h3>Flexibility and Customization</h3>
This is, in my opinion, where most open source CMS tend to win the battle. Proprietary CMS are, as the name implies, proprietary meaning that unless you are a licensed third party developer or an internal developer working for the company itself, expanding the system is often much more difficult due to the lack of freely available code. With open source CMS, however, anyone is free to take their creativity to the next level and development extensions for the system.
Having said that, this can go two ways. I tend to lean towards the open source CMS provider that vetts out the contributed code FIRST before allowing it to be readily available to their customers as opposed to those that allow anyone to submit potentially poorly coded plugins or extensions without any code review process. As such, I recommend this be one of the questions you ask the CMS provider you are considering in your selection process. To help, I'll include a list of questions to ask at the end of this article.
<h3>Security</h3>
I've written about this numerous times but I'll do so again. One of the most common fears of those choosing open source solutions is that they may, potentially, be more prone to security threats. This can, in some instances, be true of any solution that is popular and is, in my opinion, not specific to open source products in any way. The more popular a solution and the more often it is used, the more it attracts the interest of potential hackers or wrongdoers. In the case of open source CMS, I've seen several people argue that because the code is freely available, it's much easier to find exploits. I would argue that this is, in fact, one of the reasons you are less likely to be attacked with an open source solution that properly monitors security issues and patches them accordingly. Why do I think this is the case? It comes down to the community. I've seen many instances where a product is released and a security whole is found within hours by a concerned third party developer who offers a solution leading to a quick release of a patched product.
The speed at which open source CMS providers can turn around patches and fixes is often much quicker due to a lack of firm release dates, red tape and the like. So from my point of view, it's less of an issue. Feel free to dispute this with me, of course, in the comments.
<h3>Quick Summary</h3>
So in summary, are open source solutions good options to consider? Of course. Should you only consider open source solutions? Of course not. It all depends on what you need.
<hr />
<h2>How to select the best open source CMS</h2>
So now that you have a better understanding of some of the main arguments for an against open source CMS, it's time to learn how to select the best one.
As promised, I've included some additional information in the form of two lists. The first is called “Things to consider” and gives you a list of considerations when thinking about which solution you may want to add to your short list (this can also be applied just as easily to proprietary CMS as well).
<h3>Things to investigate before contacting an open source CMS vendor:</h3>
<h4>The size of the community</h4>
The size of the community is a very important consideration when determining which open source CMS you should add to your short list. To determine this, I recommend checking a few things out:
<ol>
<li>How large are their forums (number of posts, replies, etc)? How active are they? (note: not all vendors have forums)</li>
<li>Do they have a wiki or FAQ? Is it current and does it contain good information?</li>
<li>Is their documentation easily accessible and does it appear to be complete?</li>
<li>Are they on Twitter? If so, do they reply to queries and appear to be active or are they ignoring questions?</li>
<li>What support options do they offer?</li>
<li>Do a quick Google search for “&lt;vendor name&gt; developer” and see what kind of results you get (eg: wordpress developer, drupal developer)</li>
</ol>
While this won't give you everything you need to know, it will certainly give you a good idea as to how popular and easy it will be for you to find what you need if you end up selecting them.
<h4>How often do they release updates?</h4>
Check changelogs, blogs for product updates and more to make sure that the system you are considering has been updated recently and continues to be updated on a reasonably regular basis. There are lots of solutions out there that haven't been updated in years and it's very important you check before considering one.
<h4>What options exist for support?</h4>
Do they offer paid support? If so, what are the costs. Do they offer support in your language? How easy is it to find support? Do a few Google searches and see if you can find people who provide support for the product you are considering.
<h3>Questions to ask potential vendors:</h3>
First and foremost, while you have (hopefully) done the research I recommended above, it's always good to confirm your findings with the vendor. Ask them how often they release updates, what support options exist and what they think of their community. This will give you a good idea as to how well they communicate their product. If their responses differ heavily from your own findings, I would steer clear.
<h4>What is your plugin / theme code review process?</h4>
To help you word this question, what you are looking to find out is what happens if an outside developer wants to contribute a plugin. Does it simply get published to the plugin directory and is it then instantly available or is there a code review process in place that makes sure the code doesn't cause issues with the core system itself, meets security requirements, etc. Ideally, if you are looking for a system for a business, you'll want some kind of code review process in place first.
<h4>Do you have a list of recommended development houses?</h4>
This is an important one. Often times, the vendors will have a list of companies they feel do the best work and best represent what they consider to be “fair and honest offerings” of their products. It's good to request their recommendations and then follow up with those development houses with RFP's in order to get a rough idea as to what your end costs might be.
<h4>Do you have samples of implementations that I can see?</h4>
While reading case studies can be somewhat tedious, they are a great way to learn more about how smooth the implementation process went.
<h4>Do you have references?</h4>
Asking for references is important. While this may not seem like a job interview at first. It is! You are choosing someone to spend your hard earned money on and references are critical.
<h4>Get your own references!</h4>
Do some research yourself beforehand. Find forum posts or Tweets from people who are using the system (takes a bit of Google knowledge, but you can do it!) and reach out to them yourself. Ask them how they found the process of working with the vendor, etc.
<hr />
<h2>Enterprise Open Source CMS vendors</h2>
Here is a quick list of enterprise open source CMS vendors for you. Keep in mind that this is not considered a complete list but rather a few options to consider off the top of my head. For a more complete list of vendors, visit our <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/products/">directory</a>.
<ul>
<li><a href="https://www.jahia.com/home.html">Jahia</a></li>
<li><a href="http://onehippo.com">Hippo CMS</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.magnolia-cms.com/">Magnolia CMS</a></li>
<li><a href="https://typo3.org/">Typo3</a></li>
<li><a href="http://dotcms.com/">dotCMS</a></li>
<li><a href="http://ez.no/Products/eZ-Enterprise">eZ Enterprise</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.acquia.com/">Acquia</a></li>
</ul>
That about sums up this article. As more ideas and thoughts come to mind, I'll expand this as needed but for now, I think this should give you a fairly good idea as to what you should be considering when selecting the best open source CMS for your project.
Did I miss anything? Do you have additional tips or questions? Leave a note below and I'll do my best to reply promptly and of course, if all of this seems too overwhelming to you, we also offer <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/cms-consulting/">CMS consulting</a>.

How to Select the Best Open Source CMS

Retiring a content management system and moving to a new platform always requires the (sometimes tricky) process of content migration.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/website_1464700489.jpg" />
Content migration is the process of moving existing web content to a new platform. Every website's content migration is unique depending on how much content you take with you as you jump from one platform to the next, as well as a handful of other factors.
<h2>Content Migration Tools</h2>
Each content migration process will most likely need both automated software/scripts and good old-fashion manpower to get the job done. Common content migration tools are outlined below.
<h3>A Project Manager</h3>
A dedicated project manager makes all the difference in facilitating a smooth transition to a new CMS. A project manager will keep everything on track by breaking the entire content migration process into smaller phases and assigning out roles and responsibilities. They will also promote communication between all team members, including content editors, content managers and IT.
<h3>Project Tracking</h3>
Project tracking is the process of mapping out aspects and phases of content migration. Examples includes listing out an inventory of your content and the all the steps involved in the manual migration workflow (including editing and reviewing web pages). Excel spreadsheets are your best friend when it comes to project tracking.
<h3>Automated Tools</h3>
You can purchase software or create custom scripts that can take existing content from your legacy CMS and shift it over to the new one. These content migration tools are ideal for large databases, document and media libraries, etc.
<h2>Getting Started: Evaluating Your Content</h2>
To make the content migration process an easy one, a solid foundation must be laid. It all starts with an understanding of your content and how it will be handled.
<h3>Take Inventory</h3>
Taking inventory of your content means understanding what and how content is managed through your legacy CMS platform. This includes metadata, webpage hyperlinks, file types, etc. Before any migration can start, it's a best practice to create lists for every type of content on your website. Each list should include where/how it is kept and managed in your current setup, and how it will be handled during the migration to the new platform.
The creation of each list can be done automatically using a software package or by developing a custom script.
<h3>Create a Content Strategy</h3>
This is where the manual work comes in. The next step is taking your content inventory and creating a strategy for moving it to your new platform.
This step includes combing through and assessing content and deciding what to take with you and what to leave behind. If content isn't necessary, it can be deleted and excluded from the migration process.
Another aspect of your content strategy should outline how much cleanup and revision is necessary for migration. If content has any technical requirements, like custom coding, this should be hammered out during this phase.
Additionally, this is where you should decide whether content migration will be carried out in an automated process or manually.
Tip: Moving to a new CMS platform can affect your content and how its handled and presented on your new website. For this step, it's a good idea to familiarize yourself with your new CMS and understand how the platform handles everything, including aspects like page titles, authors, etc.
<h3>Map Out Your Metadata</h3>
Categorizing and tagging content becomes a really important organizational tool during the content migration process. Using a spreadsheet to track how content relates to each other across different sections of the website and other variables using tags and categories.
The overarching goal of mapping out metadata is to make all of your content easy to search, sort and filter within the back-end and front-end.
<h2>The Migration</h2>
After taking inventory of your content, creating a content strategy and mapping out metadata, it's time to migrate. If you've decided to go with the automated route, then it's a matter of developing scripts, migrating content, cleaning it up and then testing everything.
For those that are going with manual migration, a workflow should be set up that breaks down every step required to take an existing piece of content and turning it into a new piece of content on your new platform. The workflow should include steps like entering metadata, page titles, etc.
Finally, we've arrived at the testing/reviewing stage of the content migration process. It's important to make sure that your content looks good and displays correctly in all browsers and on desktop, mobile and tablets.
<hr />
[dropshadowbox align=”none” effect=”lifted-both” width=”auto” height=”” background_color=”#ffffff” border_width=”1″ border_color=”#dddddd” ]The Agility team provides professional services to ensure that our customers are smoothly migrated onto the Agility platform along with offering on-going customer support. <a href="http://agilitycms.com/services/support">Click here</a> to learn more about our support services. [/dropshadowbox]
<hr />
* * *
This post is <a href="/advertising/">sponsored</a> by AgilityCMS and written by Jillean Kearney, Marketing Manager at AgilityCMS. Find out more at <a href="http://www.agilitycms.com/">agilitycms.com</a>.

Best Practices: Migrating Content to a New CMS

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Concrete5, the winner of the CMS Critic Award for Best CMS for Designers of 2015, has approved <a href="https://mithra62.com/projects/view/backup-pro">Backup Pro</a> for inclusion into the <a href="http://www.concrete5.org/marketplace/addons/backup-pro">Concrete5 Marketplace</a>.
This means that developers of Concrete5, version 5.7 and above, can have a solid backup solution built just for them that's been vetted and approved by the Concrete5 community. This marks the 6th version, and 5th CMS, that Backup Pro has released for, previously releasing versions for WordPress, ExpressionEngine 2&amp;3, PrestaShop, and Craft.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/backup_pro_screenshot_0_1455484724.png" alt="Backup Pro - Dashboard" />
If you're not familiar, Backup Pro is a CMS agnostic backup plugin/module/package for various content management systems. Backup Pro has been around for over 5 years and been under development the whole time, constantly adding new features and innovating, and contains everything a solid disaster recovery solution should have.
You can take backups from web requests, REST interaction, and the console or terminal, store backups wherever you need (Amazon S3, Rackspace Cloud Files, Dropbox and 5 other locations), and customize the “what” and “how” to your hearts content.
And now, Concrete5 users can backup their website files and database using Backup Pro, being as granular as they need/want, and then store those backups where ever they need in however many copies they need.
You can purchase Backup Pro for Concrete5 from the <a href="http://www.concrete5.org/marketplace/addons/backup-pro">Concrete5 Marketplace</a> as well as backup-pro.com.

Concrete5 Marketplace Gets Backup Pro

<a href="https://lemonstand.com/">LemonStand</a>, the ecommerce solution that <a href="/lemonstand-1-25m-funding/">recently secured an additional $1.25M worth of funding</a>, has made some significant updates to its admin panel and documentation section.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/lemonstand.png" alt="lemonstand" />
Unlike some of its competitors, LemonStand gears itself towards small, medium and enterprise-grade businesses, rather than to novice online merchants looking to dip their toes into the world of ecommerce.
<h2>“Lookin' Fly”</h2>
First of all, LemonStand are keeping themselves looking fresh:
<blockquote>
“We’ve completely rethought the admin panel based on your feedback. Not to mention, we gave our logo a facelift to keep us lookin’ fly in 2016 and beyond.”
</blockquote>
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/screen-shot-2016-05-18-at-12_09_08-pm.png" alt="Screen-Shot-2016-05-18-at-12.09.08-PM" />
But the updates to the backend are more than just aesthetic. LemonStand has focused on improving the workflow through various ways, such as:
<ul>
<ul>
<li>More efficient use of screen space</li>
<li>A slick new sidebar</li>
<li>Reducing scrolling by having the save button always visible</li>
<li>No hidden fields while adding a product</li>
<li>Rethinking the menu to distinguish Setting up vs. Running your store.</li>
</ul>
</ul>
<h2>Documentation Design Overhaul</h2>
<a href="https://docs.lemonstand.com/">LemonStand's documentation</a>, which is meant to guide users through the basics of running their online stores, has received a pretty big facelift.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/blog4-lemonstand-docs-2016-05-20-13-41-50.png" alt="blog4-LemonStand-Docs-2016-05-20-13-41-50" />
LemonStand themselves admit that, “Our old docs were kind of bunk, and we know it.”
As well as making some design changes, they've filtered out a lot of older and less useful information, and kept all the good stuff.
Documentation plays a big part in the support system of any CMS, so although many will see this as an insignificant change, it's actually a very important one.
To find out more about this update, check out <a href="http://blog.lemonstand.com/doc-revamp-visual-refresh/">LemonStand's blog</a>.
And as always, the <a href="/lemonstand/">LemonStand hub</a> is a good place to start your research on the platform.

LemonStand Revamps Admin Panel & Documentation

Document management behavior is as crucial to ROI as document management software. When working in unison, the right behavior maximizes the software’s utility, and this is where document management software (DMS) is potentiated, advocated, and relied on as a bearing wall to an organization’s profits.
However, most organizations do not behaviorally adapt to new technologies (like DMS) – leaving operations in discord. But this discord isn’t about what organizations are doing, it’s about what they aren’t doing. If you’re a newly-minted DMS user, be sure to keep the following behavioral pointers in mind so your employees can behaviorally leverage the software to maximize its profit potential.
<h2>1. Utilize DMS in New Hire Training Processes</h2>
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/new-hire-e1464263561307.jpg" alt="New Hire" />
A one-time training directly after software implementation won’t suffice in ensuring ROI on any technology, let alone document management software. If your new-hire training process isn’t including at least one tutorial on how DMS can be utilized in relation to new hires’ roles, the training program needs overhauling. In fact, failing to utilize DMS in the new hire process will further decrease profits in industries relying on DMS, yet experiencing high turnover, such as the technology and food and beverage industries.
<h2>2. Dethrone the Shared Drive</h2>
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/shared-drive-e1464263602795.jpg" alt="shared drive" />
Many technologies ebb and flow, roll through troughs of inflated expectations and periods of disillusionment (as Gartner posits in its Hype Cycle), but some enterprise technologies are simply outdated, and the shared drive is one of them, especially if organizations continue to rely on both the shared drive and DMS to manage their information. However, the best DMS vendors will offer a feature that <a href="http://www.efilecabinet.com/efilecabinet-sidekick/">transubstantiates the shared drive</a>, aligning crucial business functions with the DMS itself, making it easier to forego use of the shared drive entirely.
However, employees are human beings, and human beings are creatures of behavioral habit. Since many of us have relied on the shared drive (network-attached storage) and similar outdated enterprise technologies for over two decades, understanding how the shared drive pales in comparison to document management software is difficult for many, and so reliance on the shared drive continues—even post-DMS implementation.
However, shared drives build information silos in organizations, breed unstructured content, have no compliance features, fail to ensure consistent file/folder structure, and make needless duplication of files an easy mistake to make. What’s more, the shared drive neglects organizations’ increasing need for sophisticated collaboration tools, including expedited, metadata-driven document search features. However, using DMS as a central repository in situ of the shared drive transcends the aforementioned issues with the shared drive, so long as employees remember to avoid using it post-DMS implementation. In addition to incentivizing employees from using the shared drive, managers can strengthen their arguments through this DMS-shared drive <a href="http://www.efilecabinet.com/infographic-document-management-software-vs-the-shared-drive/">side-by-side comparison</a>.
<h2>3. Enable Throughput Continuity</h2>
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/throughput-e1464263661211.jpg" alt="Throughput" />
Throughput, as it’s defined by <a href="http://dictionary.com" target="_blank">dictionary.com</a>, is ‘the quantity or amount of raw material processed within a given time, especially the work done by an electronic computer in a given period of time.’ So what does throughput have to do with employee behavior?
Well, there are three document management terms that pertain to this definition of throughput, and they all involve 3 employee behaviors necessary to document management ROI: scanning, uploading, and repeating.
Many DMS users, over the long haul, forget to continue scanning all incoming paper files, uploading them to the DMS, and repeating the process as mail and other paper items arrive at the point of business. This compromises the security, storage, and collaboration features DMS would otherwise offer these documents, resulting in untapped ROI, and at the hands of easily changed behavior. Enabling throughput continuity isn’t complicated. In many cases, it’s as simple as creating a roadmap for each department to follow, and incentivizing each department to follow this roadmap.
Although most organizations using DMS will soar in throughput during the initial post-implementation phase, they usually fail to ensure throughput over longer periods of time. Although this is likely because the greatest number of an organization’s documents are scanned and uploaded immediately after implementing DMS, (in order to go ‘paperless’), this phenomenon also occurs because organizations have not stimulated enduring, interdepartmental buy-in to the document management solution:
<h2>4. Create Organization-Wide Buy-In</h2>
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/buy-in-e1464263756725.jpg" alt="buy-in" />
Truth be told, once you’ve been sold on your document management software of choice, you’ll need to offer a bit of salesmanship to your organization about the product itself, but the rewards are as enormous as they are manifold: streamlined operational processes, reduced project completion times, happier employees, and great bottom-line profit margins are just a few of the proven boons DMS brings to the table.
Technology is useless unless its users set it in motion, and few will find reason to set it in motion if they do not buy-in to the value it brings them. This is why the buy-in conversation begins and ends with explaining how document management software can not only transform, but improve employees’ roles at work.
Simply put, your employees want to know what’s in it for them. No longer needing to shuffle through stacks of paperwork, spending less time searching for (and losing) information, are only a few of the opportunity costs DMS nixes. This frees up crucial time employees need to further their professional growth.
The argument to buy-in to DMS is not a difficult one to make, but it can go unheard and unimplemented if not divulged from the top down with strategy, poise, and conviction. For instance, an executive merely buying and resolving to use DMS is not enough to stimulate organization-wide buy-in: Rather, buy-in and use of the software must be incentivized at the IT, accounting, marketing, and sales departments by explaining what’s in it for each of these departments. For instance, as a selling point, a sales executive may tell his sales team that the new DMS presents a new selling angle to win over potential clients—one which ensures security of client information or a ‘paperless,’ eco-friendly office.
<h2>5. Taking the Time to Learn DMS Integrations and Features</h2>
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/integrations-and-features-e1464263815790.jpg" alt="Integrations and Features" />
There are many DMS features, (workflow and role-based user permissions), that many organizations don’t utilize in their DMS’s entirety. This can make the aforementioned objectives (organizational buy-in to DMS, for instance) difficult to cultivate and obtain. In a worst case scenario, a misunderstanding of features can result in a post installation fallout, where buy-in and throughput continuity tend to quickly decline, and, therefore, render a fully potentiated shot at ROI on DMS improbable. The same goes for DMS integrations, which although increasingly streamlined from a development perspective, are yet to be fully utilized in industry-specific practice.
In conclusion, these 5 behavioral tidbits are not roadblocks that should prevent organizations from buying-in to DMS, but rather behavioral caveats designed to help readers generate the biggest ROI possible on their document management software investment.
* * *
This post is <a href="/advertising/">sponsored</a> by eFileCabinet. Find out more at <a href="http://www.efilecabinet.com/">efilecabinet.com</a>.

5 Behavioral Keys to Document Management Software ROI

Ecwid, the ecommerce platform that makes it a snap for anyone to sell their products anywhere, has launched a fully automated sales tax and VAT solution for online merchants, in partnership with TaxJar. Previously, online sellers had to determine sales tax and VAT rates and complicated rules to configure data tables manually, in order to determine when, and how much sales tax to collect at checkout. Further, online businesses were required to keep up with new laws and regulations in every location where they sold products, just to remain compliant. During the periods nearing monthly or quarterly sales tax deadlines, these merchants were forced to sort through complicated spreadsheets reflecting their sales histories, so they could create and remit sales tax filings across various states.
Effective immediately, all premium Ecwid merchants have built-in access to highly-accurate, automated tax calculations using TaxJar’s SmartCalcs technology in the US, Canada, Australia and the European Union. Additional countries will follow soon. In addition, in late summer, Ecwid merchants also will be able to connect their online store (as well as other channels they may be utilizing like eBay or Square) to TaxJar’s automated reporting and filing technology, in order to fully-automate sales tax management.
“TaxJar is committed to providing full sales tax automation to small and medium sized businesses,” says Mark Faggiano, founder and CEO of TaxJar. “A few years ago, we set out on a mission to bring the most modern technology available to solve the sales tax pains of merchants, in a way that is both affordable and extremely easy to use. Partnering with Ecwid enables us to work with the leader for small business ecommerce in order to reach and alleviate sales tax woes for millions of online sellers globally.”
“Ecwid is committed to providing an e-commerce platform that makes selling online extremely easy and productive for small businesses globally. Yet, ask any online seller about managing sales tax, and they cringe,” says Jim O’Hara, president of Ecwid. “Providing our new automated tax calculation feature powered by TaxJar that essentially eliminates our customers’ concerns when it comes to sales tax helps us deliver on our promise and make our merchants more successful.”
<a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/ecwid">Learn more about Ecwid.</a>

Ecwid is First SMB e-Commerce Platform to Provide Both Fully Automated and Logic Based Sales Tax and VAT Calculation

<a href="https://wpengine.com/">WP Engine</a>, a WordPress hosting company, has announced the introduction of <a href="https://wpengine.com/support/best-practices-using-wp-engine-page-performance/">Page Performance</a>, which will focus on delivering actionable insights for websites across its 47,000 customers and agency partners in 133 countries.
<img style="max-width:432px" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/wp_engine_logo_bb.png" alt="wp_engine_logo_bb" />
Impressively, this product launch makes WP Engine the first managed WordPress platform to offer a web page speed performance tool integrated into the user dashboard through which customers can quickly improve the speed of their websites.
<h2>WP Engine Page Performace</h2>
Here's a breakdown of the benefits brought forth by WP Engine's newest project:
<ul>
<li>Access to Key Metrics on Any Page with Report History to See Improvements Over Time. Report includes such metrics as cacheability, render start, visitor complete, render complete and other data.</li>
<li>Actionable Recommendations with Rich Context including links to a library of support material enable users to make fast, significant, measurable impact to site performance.</li>
<li>Integrated into WP Engine User Portal to support developer workflow.</li>
</ul>
<h2>“Helping Out Customers Win Online”</h2>
Website speed is a major part of Search Engine Optimization, and WP Engine have recognized this with this release, as Heather Brunner, CEO of WP Engine, states:
<blockquote>“WP Engine Performance Intelligence is our ongoing commitment to develop tools and insights to help our customers win online.
A website’s speed affects nearly every metric a brand or agency might care about from page views to conversion rates. Our Page Performance product gives you specific recommendations to do just that.”</blockquote>
According to a recent study published on <a href="https://blog.kissmetrics.com/speed-is-a-killer/">KISSmetrics</a>, a one-second delay in page load time results in 11 percent fewer page views; a 16 percent decrease in customer satisfaction; and a 7 percent drop in conversion. Thus proving that site performance can make or break a brand and a customer’s digital experience.
The aim of WP Engine’s Page Performance feature is to gives site owners a detailed site speed report and actionable recommendations to solve for technical issues impacting digital business.
I think WP Engine has made a strong move with this project. It's well established that site speed plays a big role in SEO and overall user experience, and a WordPress-integrated performance checker will surely play into the hands of SEO specialists who work with WordPress.
To find out more about WP Engine's new Page Performance features, <a href="https://wpengine.com/support/best-practices-using-wp-engine-page-performance/">check out their website</a>.
And as per usual, you can explore and review this product through the <a href="/products/wp-engine/">WP Engine hub</a> on our Hosting Directory.

WP Engine Rolls Out WordPress Integrated Page Performance Tool

In 2016, people who Google a service or a product are expecting to land on something specific. This is why small, beautiful websites are everywhere, with each one dedicated to a service, a product, or an event.The age of the landing page, inbound marketing campaign and SEO is well and truly here, with each of those building blocks making up the basics behind growth hacking.Website builders are arguably the best tools to design such small-to-medium sized sites. But what are these tools exactly?<a target="_blank" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Website_builder">Wikipedia's article about website builders</a> states that:<blockquote>Website builders are tools that typically allow the construction of websites without manual code editing. They fall into two categories:<ul><li>Online proprietary tools provided by web hosting companies</li><li>Offline software which run on a computer, creating pages and which can then publish these pages on any host</li></ul></blockquote>This does not include<a target="_blank" href="https://wordpress.org/"> WordPress</a>,<a target="_blank" href="https://www.joomla.org/"> Joomla</a> and the members of the CMS family, which are usually free software and requires quite a bit of coding in order to change the design. These are great tools to edit lots of content (hence the name, Content Management System).<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/wordpress-ui.jpg" alt="Wordpress User Interface" />Neither does it include the great (but declining) family of installed desktop applications like<a target="_blank" href="http://bluegriffon.org/"> BlueGriffon</a> or <a target="_blank" href="http://www.adobe.com/products/dreamweaver.html">Adobe Dreamweaver</a>.Today, the website builder world is dominated by proprietary web applications like<a target="_blank" href="http://www.wix.com/"> Wix</a>, a <a target="_blank" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freemium">Freemium</a> service, which offers a great way to design websites with little technical knowledge.The price is initially low, and they offer lots of beautiful free and paid templates. But there are drawbacks to choice and freedom to create without coding:<ul><li>They lock users and eventually the user will come to pay for an expensive hosting</li><li>In some cases, the company also monetizes the visitors of the websites created with their tool, either sacrificing their privacy or exposing them to ads</li></ul><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/wix-ui.jpg" alt="Wix User Interface" /> More website builders can be found through our Website Builder Directory.<h2>The “Maker” Movement</h2>You should know that there is a “maker” movement within the website builder industry.This growing community tends to provide free and open source alternatives to these kinds of tools, putting users in a position of power. Here are some examples:<ul><li>Facebook has<a target="_blank" href="https://joindiaspora.com/"> Diaspora</a></li><li>Gmail has<a target="_blank" href="https://roundcube.net/"> Roundcube</a></li><li>Dropbox has <a target="_blank" href="https://owncloud.org/">OwnCloud</a></li><li>And a French non profit organization has all Google products in sights: <a target="_blank" href="https://degooglisons-internet.org/?l=en">meet Framasoft</a></li></ul>Another options would be the<a target="_blank" href="http://www.silexlabs.org"> French non profit organization; Silex Labs</a>. They have developed a tool to teach people web design, and it turns out that it is a very good free (as in freedom) alternative to proprietary website builders.<a target="_blank" href="http://www.silex.me/"> Here is Silex, the first free and open source website builder</a>.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/silex-ui.png" alt="Silex User Interface" /> Silex User InterfaceHowever, at this time, Silex has a limited amount of free and paid templates, and must be self-hosted. To help change that, the non-profit has started a crowd funding campaign to produce more templates, documentation and also to add a “responsive mode” to their editor.Crowd funding and open source work well in tandem, helping to make powerful software which suits the needs of those who contribute.It is also a way to build an ecosystem of third party tools and services. So far, Indie Hosters has started offering free hosting and discounted services for those who contribute to Silex's campaign.* * *This post is sponsored by Silex Labs. Find out more at <a target="_blank" href="https://www.silexlabs.org/">SilexLabs.org</a>.

Website Building in 2016: The Maker Movement

Adobe has announced the arrival of <a href="https://spark.adobe.com" target="_blank">Adobe Spark</a>, a web-integrated mobile solution for creating social graphics, web stories and animated videos.
The web and mobile app hybrid let users whip up images and videos for use on social media, or within their marketing campaigns. As for the web stories, these are essentially one-page-style websites that can be built in a matter of minutes.
Adobe claims that the app is ideal for small businesses, bloggers, marketers, and students.
<h2>Adobe App Unification</h2>
Adobe Spark is basically the end result of a unification process. To make Adobe Spark, Adobe has combined and re-released; Adobe Post, Adobe Slate, and Adobe Voice.
Here's a video put together by Adobe, introducing their latest project:
<iframe src="//www.youtube.com/embed/ZWEVOghjkaw" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>
Here's a further break down of what <a href="https://youtu.be/ZWEVOghjkaw" target="_blank">Adobe Spark</a> consists of:
<ul>
<li><a href="http://spark.adobe.com/">Adobe Spark web app</a>: a browser-based web experience for creating social posts and graphics, web stories and animated videos.</li>
<li><a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/adobe-spark-post-create-stunning/id1051937863?mt=8">Spark Post</a>: an iOS mobile app that enables anyone to create stunning social posts and graphics in seconds. (previously Adobe Post)</li>
<li><a href="https://itunes.apple.com/id/app/adobe-spark-page-create-stunning/id968433730?mt=8&amp;ign-mpt=uo%3D4">Spark Page</a>: an iOS mobile app that helps users create beautiful web stories. (previously Adobe Slate)</li>
<li><a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/adobe-spark-video-easily-create/id852555131?mt=8">Spark Video</a>: an iOS mobile app that enables users to create compelling animated videos in minutes. (previously Adobe Voice)</li>
</ul>
<h2>Hands-on With Adobe Spark</h2>
I took Adobe Spark's web app for a short spin, and I liked what I saw. With the app, users can add captions to images, create videos, and tell a story about their brand's journey.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-4.png" alt="Adobe Spark Dashboard" />
I decided to create a social graphic. Adobe spark prompted me to choose a caption, and then an image size. Image sizes were pre-optimized for Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter, and other social networks.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-2.png" alt="Adobe Spark interface" />
I ended up making a simple yet motivational image that's perfect for Instagram. And it took me a matter of seconds.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-3.png" alt="Adobe Spark interface" />
The user interface was smooth and speedy, while the customization options were vast. Adobe has packed Spark full of pre-designed fonts and themes that your message just slots into. The hard work has already been done.
For now, Adobe is only catering to iOS users – but I'm sure they will expand to Android before long.
My verdict? For a free app that's accessible on iOS and through my browser – it's fantastic.
I have no doubt that Adobe Spark will help boost the creativity of brands that rely heavily on image-based social networks like Instagram and Pinterest.
To find out more about Adobe Spark, <a href="https://spark.adobe.com/" target="_blank">visit the app's dedicated website</a>.
You can also explore more of Adobe's solutions through our directory hubs for; Adobe Business Catalyst, Adobe Analytics, and Adobe Experience Manager.

Hands-on With Adobe Spark: Social Graphics, Web Stories & Animated Videos

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