Recent study for non profit web design: top open source CMS options

A recent study, COMPARING OPEN SOURCE CONTENT MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS:  WORDPRESS, JOOMLA, DRUPAL AND PLON, by Idealware provides an overview for non profits seeking to understand the differences between the top four open source content management systems and their capabilities for web design. The study covered Wordpress, Joomla, Drupal and Plone, and discussed the specific needs and challenges of non profit organizations when faced with internet technology decisions.

Aside from presenting the various development statuses of each of the community open source projects, the report gave non profit's a high level perspective on the role of content management systems for primarily small to mid sized organizations. The report pointed out that: "The person or firm  that designs and builds  your website is likely to  be as important as what  CMS you choose." We felt that not just the personality of the web designer and/or firm but also their consulting method is crucial to the success of a project. The report did not shun firms that specialize in a particular CMS, and even stated that particular specialization may help some organizations with their buying decision. Selecting the right tool for the job may be a collaborative conversation between a design firm and the client.

For web design projects with budgets of $50,000 or greater, the report mentioned that it may be worthwhile for some organizations to consider other systems outside of the top four systems mentioned in the report. Although the underlying core of a system like Joomla is free, it is important to consider the costs of the project more carefully. "An open source CMS  takes work. You’ll either  need to put a lot of  time into implementing  and maintaining your  system, or hire someone  to do it for you."

Other considerations for CMS implementation may include:

• Hosting needs for a CMS: Not every CMS can be hosted with just any standard web host. Many have specific needs and security considerations.
• It may seem obvious, but in a buying decision, keep your objectives clear. Don't focus on trying to find a feature rich system, if all you need is a simple web presence.
• Outside of planning for implementation and content migration, the buying organization needs to consider it's ability to learn how to use the CMS. Depending on the level of complexity, dedication of staff and other real world factors, some organizations may want to learn on a live website by creating practice web pages, while other may wish to work in a closed environment.
• Balancing graphical flexibility with ease of use is an important decision for many smaller organizations.
• Open source systems naturally have security vulnerabilities as their code is openly distributed and analyzed.
• It is important to understand that the success of a project is not solely determined by technology decisions and having the most feature rich system possible. Being feature rich can even create problems at times. Each organization may have specific needs or performance goals. Technology is great when it is used well.

Reference:
Idealware: https://www.idealware.org/sites/idealware.org/files/idealware_os_cms_2010_1.pdf, December 2010