Owners of every small businesses today are trying to establish their business online and for this they will need the use of a CMS program, regardless of whether it is open source or not. CMS (content management system) will allow you to have full control over your website. An ideal CMS should be easy to use, should have the features you need to add images, video, social media integration and so on. The 5 heavy contenders in this category are mentioned below. The selection is based on the List of Best CMS Platforms in 2017 post:
#1: WordPress
Possibly, this is the most popular CMS for small businesses. Marketing being the main plus point of WordPress. It is a self-hosted open source CMS that you can install on your own host without any issues. WordPress started as an ordinary blogging platform, but provides hundreds of free and premium plugins today that can perform virtually anything. You don’t need any HTML programming language with WordPress and it works with any browser. WordPress is completely free, except for premium themes and plugins that require some little investment.
#2: Concrete 5
Concrete 5 is another CMS for small businesses, known for its ability to provide easy content editing. If your website demands for large number of pages or heavy contents with lots of static information, then Concrete 5 may be the ideal CMS for you as it provides an easy platform for frequent changes or additions. This is a completely free open source CMS that comes with a tweak of design for easy content management.
#3: Joomla
Joomla has special features for content customization and it is best known for this. Joomla platform can be customized for different users, and it can be difficult to establish if two users are working on Joomla when they are actually using Joomla – they will have a unique experience in customizing and transforming small business platforms. If your website has lots of contents with numerous YouTube videos, Joomla may be the best option for you because of its settings and tweaking capabilities.
#4: Drupal
Drupal is best known for its excellent security features, hence small business owners who need more than a platform to blog, can rely on Drupal for ultimate protection against hacks, malware and some other security threats. Drupal is similar to Joomla in so many ways, but it is more flexible and secured. Most of its plugins and customizable themes are also free, like many other open source. Drupal also comes with numerous paid plugins that provide even richer user experience.
#5: Textpattern
Textpattern is best known for its simplicity and lots of flexibilities. This CMS has mixed features of Drupal and Concrete 5 and so can be described as a hybrid between the two. This CMS is very easy to install, however, it requires that you deploy numerous tools for tweaking and customization. You may want to start by creating your own design, before you add your content but that is if you understand codes and programming. If you want to save yourself time and energy, you may want to use the pre- design templates from Textpattern because they come with embedded codes that will simplify your job.
Before you go for an ideal open source CMS, you are required to understand your needs first, and if you can invest a little extra in those close source CMS, you will definitely keep the reward of having more plugins, templates, and themes to use for your small business.
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