When searching for a Content Management System (CMS), I was looking for a system that would have all the functionality for a personal website and would also be a good tool to learn as a developer. Additionally, I was looking for a system that was:
- Open Source and Free
- Written in Dot Net
- Well Supported
Here is the list of the systems I considered:
To get a detailed feature comparison of these products, I used CMS Matrix. This site lists features of 708 different CMS! Most of the systems in the CMS Matrix are not Dot Net and are not free, but all of the ones I considered are listed except VineType. You can select the products you're considering and click the "compare" button to get a side-by-side feature comparison.
Open Source and Free
There are different versions of free. Some "free" products have two license versions - one for personal / non-profit use and one for commercial use, the commercial license is not free. It seems like the least restricted type of license is BSD. Only DotNetNuke and Cuyahoga offer that type of license. Of course, free may not always be the best choice because the true cost of any CMS system includes the cost of implementation and maintenance. There are also third party add-ons for additional functionality that are usually not free.
Written in Dot Net
All of the systems I considered are written in one of the Microsoft .Net languages. DotNetNuke is written in VB.NET. All of the other systems I considered are written in C#.Net. C# is my language of choice since I am most familiar with it. It would be preferable if the core system was written in C# since any modifications I might undertake will require comprehension of the existing code.
Well Supported
When selecting open source software, support from the provider will be minimal. In addition to the support features listed on the CMXMatrix site, I also looked at popularity indicators. Popularity may not correlate with support, but for an open source product the more people using it the stronger the development community and educational resources will be.
| CMS |
Google |
Monster |
Amazon(Books) |
| DotNetNuke |
3340000 |
22 |
12 |
| Community Server* |
4940000 |
3 |
8 |
| Umbraco |
117000 |
0 |
0 |
| Rainbow Portal |
89900 |
2 |
0 |
| Cuyahoga CMS |
74100 |
0 |
0 |
| MojoPortal |
69500 |
0 |
0 |
| VineType |
25500 |
0 |
0 |
* This count is inflated, since "Community Server" is not a distinctive phrase.
Which one did I pick?
Community Server (CS) and DotNetNuke (DNN) came closest to meeting my criteria. While CS would be a good choice for a personal blog/forum site, I chose DNN because it provides additional features such as Events Management, FAQ Management, Surveys and more flexibility for overall site customization. Future versions of CS could be more competitive with DNN because CS recently bought Dozing Dogs CMS. I also liked the BSD licensing you get with DNN, whereas the CS license is more restrictive. I'm also using this site to get to know a little more about CS as well.