Phenquestions
Open source CMS - “Content Management System” is a web or content creation tool for managing information or content on a web page for many audiences around the world. This whole process of content creation, management, and publication of web content can be effortlessly done without any programming language through an intuitive graphical user interface.
There are lots of web content management systems available on the market. These are between 300 to 400 CMS platforms. You will be lost in choices when you go to choose the right one. So the question that comes into focus is which content management system is optimally supported for completing your desired project.
Now come to the question of which type of web content management system do I adopt? There are both open source CMS and proprietary software available in the market. Open source comes with free access into the source code, which ultimately can be modified to change, improve and adapt as per the requirements. A group of community-driven developers is always there to solve the problem or contribute on a large scale to enhance stability and usability. That's why, in this Best Content Management System review, I will focus on only those which come as a free and open source.
Best Open Source CMS Platforms
Open source content management system has come a long way through a wide range of evolution of improvements and achievements. With this array of progress, now you don't need to hire any web developer or designer to create a website. You are alone quite enough to make and publish any news or content website without even any coding skills. Following the above prospects and requirements, here I have brought a generic list of the Best Open Source CMS software for your dream project.
1. WordPress
WordPress is one of the best open source CMS platforms available on the market. You can make any content website with the help of this fantastic content management system like a news publishing site, blog site, e-commerce site, forum site, and whatnot. WordPress holds a firm grip on almost 65% market share among all other open source CMS platforms.
This top content management system is robust, user-friendly, and gets updated regularly. There are thousands of themes and plugins available to increase the functionality of WordPress-hosted sites. In today's online world, most person or business content publications rely on WordPress, and UbuntuPIT.com is no exception here.
Download WordPress
2. Joomla - Open Source CMS
Joomla is another best open source CMS for hosting a blog or any other web publication. Joomla focuses on the security aspect more than that of any fancy decoration. The interface is quite impressive but not easy to use and flexible when compared to WordPress.
Download Joomla
3. Drupal
Though Drupal is not as straightforward as WordPress; still, it's considered one of the best enterprise-level open source CMS. Drupal also offers a wide range of modules like WordPress-like plugins to increase the functionality of your websites.
Drupal modules repository is not as vast as WordPress one, but the choices are not less. To understand the Drupal content management system, you have to go through some documentation. This open source CMS is best suitable for an e-commerce site.
Download Drupal
4. Thunder
If you are a professional content publisher and want a secure, reliable but free and open source, Thunder is the right choice. It helps you to create and manage content quickly and easily. It has a vast community, so if you face any problem regarding this best open source CMS, those people are always ready to rescue and support you.
Download Thunder CMS
5. Ghost - Web Content Management System
Ghost is a powerful modern publishing technology and open source CMS for creating a stunning online blog or publication. It's considered the best open source CMS alternative to WordPress and a robust content management platform designed for the future.
It's secure, simple, and specially tailored for blogs or publications with modern website UI elements. It has some advanced level features like built-in SEO, accelerated mobile page, simple Markdown-based editor, RSS feed management, email subscriptions, etc.
Get Ghost
6. Subrion
Subrion is a free and open source content management system based on PHP/MySQL framework. It's effortless to use and extend, has lots of themes and plugins, and overall suitability for any website from personal blogging to a corporate megaportal.
Download Subrion
7. Textpattern
Though Textpattern is a simple, lean, and clean content management system still it can successfully handle your big project. Its code is based on a solid foundation, and you can increase the functionality with the help of great community-driven plugins. Textpattern offers a tag-based content template that has a simple and elegant user interface.
Download Textpattern
8. Jekyll
Unlike any other open source CMS describe here, Jekyll is not a full-packed content management system; instead, it's a static web content creation tool that comes with prepacked GitHub. That means you can convert the simple plain text information into a static page which ultimately will not charge a penny even.
Get Jekyll
9. Grav
What do we expect from a good content management system? It must be easy to use, have an intuitive user interface, support theme, and plugin for increasing functionality, offer modern responsive design, provide dynamic content and image processing system, etc. To fulfill all those above described needs, I present you “Grav” which is a modern and faster website builder and open source flat-file CMS.
Download Grav
10. TYPO3 - Open Source CMS
TYPO3 CMS platform is one of the top content management systems made for enterprise landing pages. This open source CMS does not offer modern UI elements, but it's an open source, free, fully-featured, and reliable for small sites to multinational corporations. TYPO3 is effortlessly easy to use and best suitable for those business pages that don't require maintenance regularly.
Download TYPO3
11. CMS Made Simple™
CMS Made Simple™ is yet another powerful open source CMS for all types of users, including editors, designers, and developers. It's user-friendly, highly expandable, and provides lots of powerful add-ons for creating compelling websites.
Download CMS Made Simple™
12. Magento
In the arena of CMS platforms, there is not much to make an e-commerce site. Magento is one of the open source CMS for creating an e-commerce site quickly and effectively. Though the community edition comes open source and free, you may need to pay for unlocking all the premium features. But I can assure you that the primary and free features that come with Magento are quite enough to develop a small blog or e-commerce site.
Download Magento
13. dotCMS Hybrid CMS
dotCMS Hybrid CMS is a robust open source content management system for making the website more intuitive and modern sleek design. You can quickly create, manage and control content publishing with the help of dotCMS Hybrid CMS.
Download dotCMS Hybrid CMS
14. Microweber
Microweber is a multipurpose CMS for both personal blogs and e-commerce sites. Though it provides a limited set of features for managing and developing e-commerce sites, if you are searching for an open source CMS to manage your content in no time, then this CMS platform may be an excellent choice to go with.
This open source CMS offers modern website templates and UI for managing the web content efficiently. It also lets you design the content site using unique drag-drop technology in real-time text writing & editing feature.
Download Microweber
15. MODX
MODX is a faster, scalable, secure, and easy-to-use open source PHP CMS. It's a free content management system that will let you enjoy complete creative freedom.
Download MODX
16. PyroCMS
PyroCMS is relatively new in the world of open source CMS, which comes under MIT license. This web content management system platform lets you design the website created in a comfortable, simple and faster way.
It's 100% free and open source with a simple, clean, consistent, and responsive control panel. Its interface is modern and simple. It has a wide range of modules that are used to add more functionality to the core system.
Get PyroCMS
17. Contao
Contao open source CMS is there around us for quite a long time since 2006. It's an accessible, easy-to-use, intuitive, and mobile-friendly open source content management system. This top content management system is quite suitable for Enterprise, Business, E-Commerce, Portals, Microsites, and Nonprofit Organizations.
Download Contao
18. SilverStripe
SilverStripe is a robust and secure, flexible, easy-to-use open source content management system available in the market. It offers some old-school type web creation content template to develop your site, but if you have a bit of coding skill or can hire a developer, then this web content management system can prove worth using.
Download SilverStripe
19. Plone
Plone is an ultimate enterprise-compatible open source content management system. It has a flexible workflow that means you control how your content is created, stored, or shared.
“A significant strength of Plone is its flexibility.”
- T. Kim Nguyen, Senior System Analyst at the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh
“The interface is simple enough for new users to start creating content in just a few minutes, yet the system can be scaled up to provide a manageable platform for tens of thousands of users across various business units.”
- Calvin Hendryx-Parker, CTO at Six Feet Up
Download Plone
20. Fork
Like WordPress, the Fork is another best open source CMS that comes prepacked with many themes and extensions. It has a user-friendly and intuitive user interface that makes it the best content management system for both professionals and beginners.
Download Fork
21. Concrete5
Concrete5 is another powerful open source content management system where you can create and manage the content without designing or coding skills. It supports modern responsive design and comes mobile-ready. It offers a set of SEO tools prepacked that ensure your content SEO is optimized from day one.
Download Concrete5
22. CouchCMS
CouchCMS is a simple and open source CMS for a web designer. If you don't have any PHP or coding knowledge, no problem, go with this to create and manage your online business or web content. CouchCMS is best for both simple blogs and multi-sites.
Download CouchCMS
23. Zenario
Zenario is an innovative and exciting open source CMS to manage the content but still isn't a full packed all-in-one CMS like WordPress or Joomla. It's reliable, secure, and the best choice for e-commerce, online database, and multilingual sites with IoT applications.
Download Zenario
24. BackBee CMS
BackBee CMS is a bit different from any other open source CMS described here. It's a fully-featured CMS platform prepacked with unique On-page Editing Technology (OPE Technology) and SEO. It focuses on mobile-first content ready and offers a powerful content editor. You will be able to write content without going to the backed and as you see.
Download BackBee CMS
25. Radiant
Radiant is also another simple web content management system with an intuitive user interface and easy to use. This CMS platform is built with Ruby on Rails Under the MIT License. It also has plugin and template supports.
Download Radiant
Final Thought
Now I have come to the last of my open source CMS article. In this review content, I have described all the best content management systems, including multipurpose CMS, static page generator CMS, enterprise equipped CMS, e-commerce CMS and so on. There are lots of open source CMS available in the market, which makes the user confused to choose the best one for the project or website.
The best content management system will depend on your purpose and aim of making the website. But if you are confused about which one to choose, I recommend installing a multipurpose CMS like WordPress, Joomla, or Drupal, which ultimately provides a lot of plugins, modules, and components to meet the different needs.
I hope this content helps you to get the best open source CMS for your dream website. If you like it, please take a moment to share it on your social media and professional network, which will encourage me to write more quality content. Moreover, if you have any queries or suggestions, please let us know in the comment section. Thank you for reading and spending some time on UbuntuPIT.
