Sitefinity - The only CMS I've ever loved
Posted on August 11, 2009 | 1 Comment | No TrackBacks
I've blogged a couple of times about why I don't like content management systems and their hidden costs. While I may not like them, every client I've had in the last year or two has asked for one. It appears that the days of websites being maintained by web developers are drawing to a close. So if every project requires a CMS then the only option is to find the best one and after using dozens of others, Sitefinity by Telerik is the hands-down winner for me.
My main gripe with content management systems is that they're not intuitive at all for the end users who actually maintain the site. Drupal, for example, can be a very robust and powerful system... but God help you when Betty from accounting tries to use it. Let's be honest... the people that end up maintaining a site aren't always properly-trained, tech-savvy individuals. Often, it's a person with no web experience and minimal computer skills. When that's the case, as it often is, the CMS should be as user-friendly as possible.
In my opinion, the user interface is where Sitefinity excels. Sure, it's got built-in forums, blogging capabilities, an events calendar, etc., etc., but what really sets it apart from other systems is it's drag-and-drop, click-to-edit, so-easy-a-monkey-could-do-it, interface. Compare the screenshots below of Drupal's basic interface with Sitefinity's and it's easy to see which will be easier to use.
Drupal
Sitefinity
While Sitefinity has a ton of features built in, the other great thing about it is that it's built as a native ASP.NET application so the learning curve is drastically reduced for Microsoft developers like me. The ability to build your own user controls and tap into the robust API also make it easy to extend the CMS functionality to suit any client's needs.
Lastly, Sitefinity CMS also has one of the best support teams I've ever worked with. I've posted various messages in the support forums and the responses are always incredibly helpful and friendly.
Bottom line... Sitefinity has a price tag of $899 and a feature set that rivals systems costing 20-30 times as much making it one of the best values around. If you've looked at other CMS products and been disappointed, I highly recommend you give Sitefinity a try.
When it comes to user friendliness of the admin area I like the TYPO3 solution. The reason being that it can be simplified to your hearts content. So, for example, if Jane from accounting needs only publish a news article one a month in a single category, TYPO3 backend can be configure to have only that one function when she logs in. I find that my clients appreciate this a great deal. Not to mention that TYPO3 supports direct fronted editing as well. Greetings from Croatia!