Top 10 best open-source CMS
Making the open-source choice (or not)
The open-source culture is underpinned by values of transparency, trust and sharing that find their foundations in the origins of the Internet, when the "web" had the mission of enabling the dissemination of knowledge. What is the situation today, and what does this mean in concrete terms for CMS ("Content Management System")
What is an open-source CMS?
An open-source CMS is a content management platform whose source code is freely accessible and modifiable by all. This means that users can download, install and customize it for free. It is opposed to so-called "proprietary" software. For example, Apple's MacOS operating system is proprietary, while Linux is proprietary.
There are several reasons why a publisher might choose open source:
- opening up the code allows a community of developers to contribute to it and thus participate infixing bugs and suggesting evolutions, which can lead to an improvement in its quality and greater adoption.
- It also makes its functionality and performance more transparent, so people know how it works, which builds trust.
- Bref, developers can thus disseminate their technology more widely!
The advantages of open-source CMS
Open-source CMS are therefore regularly updated and improved by a large community of developers. Should you choose one, your company will benefit from these evolutions. It's a real time-saver for your technical team!
Also, the number of additional modules (or "plugins") being developed continues to grow, on an immense variety of subjects and themes.
In the same way, if you want to add a function that doesn't exist, you can decide to develop it yourself, which is not possible with proprietary software.
The disadvantages of open-source CMS
One of the main mistakes would be to believe that, because a software is offered as open-source, it will cost nothing and require no in-house technical resources.
In fact, even for a personal blog, a minimum of fluency is required. If you wish to offer a complex and ambitious product, technical resources remain indispensable to adapt the solution to your needs.
Another important drawback, if the source code is accessible to all, it is also accessible to hackers. So you need to be extra vigilant and keep your sites up to date to make sure you're always offering the most secure version.
Finally,using open-source software often requires extra rigor on the part of developers to ensure excellent performance, demanding ergonomics.
Our ranking of the best open-source CMS
Are you still hesitating? Here's a short presentation of the different CMS in existence to help you grasp their particularities and what sets them apart from each other.
1. WordPress, a tool for everyone
WordPress is the undisputed leader among open-source CMS due to its ease of use and active community. It's designed for beginners and advanced alike, and offers thousands of themes and modules available to customize your site.
It's also known for being an SEO-friendly CMS, which means it's easy to optimize for search engines.
Some examples of sites with Wordpress: LVMH, The Walt Disney Company, Techcrunch, Microsoft News.
2. Joomla, more complex but not too much
Joomla is another popular open-source CMS that's perfect for businesses and organizations. It's considered more complex than WordPress, but with greater flexibility and many advanced features.
Joomla is also very customizable, with a wide range of themes and modules available to enhance your site.
Some examples of sites with Joomla: EDF, Peugeot, Bayard Presse, Unesco
3. Drupal, serving ambitious projects
Drupal is a powerful CMS designed for large-scale projects. It's highly customizable, offers great flexibility and advanced features such as complex workflows, role management, custom layouts.
Drupal is also known for being a secure solution, making it perfect for corporate websites. It requires strong technical knowledge.
Drupal features modules such as DrupalGap or API services, which allow developers to create mobile and web applications.
Examples of sites with Drupal : RadioFrance, Tesla, SNCF, French government portal
4. Magento, specializing in e-commerce
Magento specializes in the design of e-commerce sites. It offers a wide variety of features for online sellers, whatever the size of their business.
For example, it offers flexible payment options, cross-selling functionality and incentive selling, as well as advanced product personalization. Note: Drupal and Wordpress offer modules for deploying online stores.
Examples of sites with Magento: Burger King, Marie-Claire
5. Typo3, for large corporations
Typo3 is a European CMS designed by a Dane and largely supported in its early days by the French Dassault group. It is robust and reliable and is currently used to create websites for large corporations such as Air France or Lufthansa. Like Drupal, it requires a high level of technical knowledge.
Examples of sites with : Smile, The Economist, Total, Bayer
6. PrestaShop, your online store made easy
PrestaShop focuses on e-commerce for small and medium-sized businesses. It offers essential online sales features such as shopping carts, flexible payment options and order management functionality.
PrestaShop is also highly customizable, with a wide variety of themes and extensions to enhance your e-commerce site.
Examples of sites with PrestaShop: Nat&Nin, Naturabox
7. OpenCart, the easy solution for small shops
OpenCart is a great option for small online stores. It offers essential e-commerce functions such as shopping carts, flexible payment options and order management features.
OpenCart is also known for being easy to use.
Example sites with : GTOmega
8. SilverStripe, for agencies
SilverStripe is a New Zealand solution based on an MVC (Model-View-Controller) framework which requires good development skills.
It's ideally suited to agencies thanks to options that handle workflows, role management, collaboration tools andthird-party integrations.
9. Concrete5, for complete beginners
You want to create a blog and Wordpress is still too complicated for you? Take a look at Concrete5. With its block-based operation, it's known as a CMS for beginners.
10. Umbraco, for .NET users
Umbraco is based on Microsoft's .NET framework. It's designed to be easy to use for .NET developers, with full documentation and a wide variety of tools.
How to choose an open-source CMS
Ready to make your choice? Here's a rundown of all the criteria to consider when making your decision.
Criteria to consider
- Features on offerfor example, content management, personalization or even governance management.
- Ease of use for administrators and users, with an intuitive, user-friendly interface.
- His flexibility to meet your specific needs, for this, observe the number of themes and modules available.
- Technical support and in particular the responsiveness of the active community of developers and web users available to help you with any problems.
- Security. On this point, you can also check the update frequency of the core, but also of extensions and other modules.
- Scalability. Over time, your project will grow (we wish it would!) and your needs will do the same. Will the tool you've selected be able to support you over the long term? For example, for internationalization, multilingualism, etc.
- The compatibility and technologies used. The CMS must be compatible with current technologies and standards, such as HTML5, CSS3 and accessibility standards.
- A living ecosystem and... trained developers... are all points that will guarantee the viability and evolutions of your tool.
Comparison with proprietary CMS
Proprietary CMS offer several arguments over open-source CMS, such as:
- a simpler user interface and more friendly for beginners,
- a personalized technical support with a dedicated contact.
However, there are also disadvantages to consider for proprietary CMS:
- the licensingand support can be high particularly over the long term,
- less flexibility and less personalization.
- the source codebeing proprietary, the development company is the only one who can make updates and improvementss, which can result in less frequent updates and less regular improvements than those offered by all open-source CMS users.
How to install and configure an open-source CMS
Where to start and what will be the first steps? Here's what you need to know to give you an overview of this decisive moment in the management and launch of your project.
Technical prerequisites
Before installing an open-source CMS, it's important to check that your server meets the necessary technical prerequisites.
This may include PHP and MySQL version requirements, as well as web server requirements such as Apache or Nginx.
It's important to follow each CMS's specifications, which are often available on their website, to ensure that your server is ready for installation.
Manual installation and via a hosting provider
There are two main installation methods:
- manual installation involves downloading the CMS from the official site, unzipping the files on your server, then configuring the database and other settings.
- Installation via a hosting provider can be simpler, with "1-click" options available for the most popular CMS. This method can also include pre-installed configuration options, such as themes and extensions.
Basic configuration
Once the CMS has been installed, it's important to configure it correctly for site stability and smooth operation. This can include configuring the database, creating an administrator and implementing security measures such as SSL certificates, strong passwords and security plugins.
It's also important to configure basic CMS settings, such as page layout and content management options, to ensure that the site functions as intended.
To conclude, using open-source CMS has many advantages, such as transparency, customizability and regularupdating thanks to an active and participative community.
In addition, open-source CMS offer a great variety of add-on modules to meet a multitude of needs and themes.
However, it's important to consider thedrawbacks such as the need for technical skills for optimal use, the security risk, as well as the need to remain vigilant about site maintenance to guarantee security and performance.