Which open source CMS is most newbie-friendly?

Hi Everyone.

I have been looking through various websites such as opensourcecms.com but couldn't really find many which doesn't require a lot of programming knowledge.

Is there any open source CMS which would be suitable for those who are at a beginner level at PHP?

Cheers

+ is there a open source CMS which doesn't require mySQL? or is that not possible?

 

You might want to try out CMSMadeSimple. It requires SQL. I think that there may be here and there a CMS designed for flat files, however, it does create a maintenance, performance, and security nightmare, of there are more than just a few files that have to be maintained by the CMS.

Rich

Rich

 

Maybe Joomla?

 

You don't have to code to use Joomla, Drupal, CMS made Easy, Website Baker, ExpressionEngine. Well most of the popular CMS's. It helps to understand code but you can do a lot without any knowledge of coding.

You do have to take the time to learn the documentation and follow instructions.

 

I think you've misunderstood the concept of these CMS. You don't need A LOT of programming knowledge in order to being able to use any of these cms. If you think it's pretty daunting in its installation, you could probably get fantastico to do it from your cpanel. That way you don't need to mess up yourself with the mysql stuff.

As for the rest, like internetmarketingiq said, reading the documentation would do it.

 

Wordpress is really easy for newbies.

 

Wordpress is the best for NewBies.
But all other like Joomla ,Drupal,etc are very very complicated and you will face a lot of problems dealing with it.
I had to do research for an year to become a Joomla Dev.
Now,im a certified Joomla Dev from Google SOC.
Goodluck bro..

 

love wordpress. but it doesn't scale to that extend. so another suggestion is joomla.

 

+ is there a open source CMS which doesn't require mySQL? or is that not possible?


Are you sure you need this? I heard that these require a lot more resources than those using databases.... The only flat file CMS I can think of right now is DokuWiki, but I'm positive there are others as well.

 

Sure, Joomla has a lot of useful features, but it's a pain to actually use if you're new to web development. Even I had trouble...

 

I love Joomla, but it does have a learning curve, that is true. Truth be told, ALL CMS have a learning curve, but the effort is worth it, especially if you intend to grow your site past a few pages. All you need to do is learn to use it for your purposes. Coding, etc., only applies if you want to do some higher level customizations. Otherwise, you don't need to worry about it.

I found one called Website Baker that I used to set up a site for friends who are self-described "techno-pagans." They LOVE WB, and it didn't take them long to get the hang of it. You don't hear much about it, but it's been around quite a while, has a devoted following, active community forum, and is under continual development. It may be worth taking a closer look.

 

+1 vote for joomla

 

I'd say Drupal is the best. There is good documentation on getting it up and running, and you will get a lot of help in the Drupal forums.

 

for small websites wordpress would do the job, anything major then drupal all the way

 

thanks great post

 

My opinion based on using joomla for 6 months - its bloat ware.

If anymore then 15 people got on the site, no more connections were allowed.

Asking for help in the joomla forum is like begging for help. Their support forums looks like a bunch of kids run it. Support issues are repeated over and over again, with one thread pointing to another for help. While looking for support on certain issues I found myself following links that led in a big circle. Its a big freaking mess. I dont guess their support forum has a merge thread option. When you go looking for help on an issue, get ready to wade through dozens of threads on the same topic.

Some of the joomla developers have a problem with their work tying into commercial software. Several months ago, the joomla developers even asked that other developers stop making commercial (paid for) software for joomla. Seems they wanted everything to be free.

Because of what the joomla developers were asking, some forum developers like SMF stopped offering bridges between their forum and joomla.

A lot of the software is connected to joomla by a "Bridge." Sometimes upgrading joomla broke certain bridges. Then parts of the site did not work. Upgrades turned into a 3 phase step for everything. Upgrade joomla, upgrade what ever is bridged, upgrade bridge.

Then, when a new version of joomla was released, it might be a few weeks before an update to X was released to work with the new version. So it might be days / weeks before you could install that patch, or it would break something.

While I had my site, I bought some expensive add-ons. Talk about a waste of money. Even the commercial add-ons for joomla are bad. I have seen free stuff on vbulletin.org that is 10X better then $100 add-ons for joomla.

The admins in the joomla forum can be heavy handed. After posting in one forum for support, and waiting a week or two for a reply - I posted in another forum that was kinda related to my problem. One of the admins sent me a nasty message and deleted my second post. When people can not get the help they need, what are they supposed to do? I kept like I was being beat down for asking for help.

I had the SMF forum bridged with joomla. While trying to get everything to work right I had some problems. When I posted in the SMF forum, the replies were - "That is a joomla problem." When I posted the exact same question in the joomla forum, the reply was - "that is an SMF problem." I even put a link between the two threads.

Anyway, after about 6 months of using joomla, I left the community and bought Vbulletin. Now I just have a forum.

I look back on my joomla experience and wonder how can that software be so popular? I guess misery loves company.

 

I guess wordpress is the best

 

@ ~kev~

Something to be learnt for us all i guess. Thanks for sharing your experience. If i were in your situation, i think i would just link from joomla to the smf forum which is installed externally (w/out direct connection to joomla at all).

But anyway, i feel for you, i've had the same experience with other open source cms (not joomla though). But that is what u got for using free cms. That is why, colossus, if u want 2 choose a free cms, choose the one which is used very commonly. At least that way, probably more people will offer their help. Well, probably.

 

Ill vouch for that . Joomla is quite simply.. "The worlds worst thought out and pointless filing cabinet".. Thats how i see it.. CRAP

Drupal. is no better, you have to be a php expert to get anything worthwhile out of it.. yeah sure you can blog and post articles, but when it comes to forums, social interation - it suddenly turns into a paraplegic fish trying to ride a bicycle .. You have to confiugre everything 15 times, plus they have the worst vocaublary ever.. Taxonomys, nodes - blah blah.

CMSmadeasy falters because it has no real "social interaction".. Its ok for making plain text sites with a gallery maybe.. but forget blogging, forums, User submissions and user interaction.


Wordpess ive never used although am going to look into it


Just looking at a new CMS called www.monkeycms.com and although there arent many people using it.. So far i can see that it is created using a logical mind.. which str8 away makes it leaps and bounds above drupal & joomla..
Templating takes a bit to get your head around and theres only VB support so far but the guy is keen to add stuff. guess only time will tell

- Verdict: Use Wordpress .. Look into monkeycms .. punch anyone who says drupal & joomla is fantastic.. there lying

 

Joomla is a good start and a nice clean layout