We’ve all had this experience at some point. A client want’s a relatively simple web site. Maybe 5 pages top. An About, Contact, How-to, Bio, Help etc…
Nothing fancy but too small to throw a large Drupal, Joomla etc etc CMS over the top of it. Maybe it’s not a blog, and wrapping Wordpress on it will be confusing and it’s blogging options will only get in the way of simple site management.
So what are the best small site CMS’s out there?
Feel free to throw out some of your own personal favorites, but here are a few I like (No Particular Order) :
1. Perch
Here’s a blurb about Perch from their site:
Perch is a really little content management system for when you (or your clients) need to edit content without the hassle of setting up a big CMS.
Perch costs £35 (+ VAT where applicable) as a one-off unrestricted license cost per website. Perch runs on your own server and there are no ongoing monthly costs. Try a demo.
2. Symphony CMS
According to their website they are:
XSLT-powered open source content management system. They focus on simple, xml based management that is both simple and elegant. There are plugins available as well. I am a fan of their clean and organized interface. Nice to have when you are handing the management over to someone who is technologically un-inclined.
3. Cushy CMS
They say:
- Allow clients to safely edit content
- No software to install, no programming required
- Takes just a few minutes to setup
- Produces standards compliant, search engine friendly content
- Define exactly which parts of the page can be changed
However, this is a hosted CMS so while you don’t have to install anything, it is not on the clients server.
I don’t really have a favorite CMS for this scenario at the moment, although Symphony is pretty nice, but feel free to check all these out and give me your feedback on them. Tell me why you like or dislike any of these, or others you guys might suggest. Actually, If you know any other good simple CMS applications please let me know as I am always in the market for better solutions to this all-to-often of a issue.
