So, as promised, I’m going to do a quick review on 3 popular content management/blogging tools that can be installed on websites such as mine. For those that don’t know, blogging systems such as these are like control panels that help you easily update your website and blog- without worrying too much about HTML and formatting; all these systems allow users to comment on posts. I’ve tried various publishing software, and have found downsides as well as upsides to each- so here are the pros and cons, and recommendations about each one.

WordPress

Pros:

• Stylish control panel.
• Huge amount of features and plugins.
• For less design-savvy people, there are plenty of user-made themes ready for use.
• Very good spam filter.
• Once installed, easy to use and update. Can be used to create/edit entire website.

Cons:

• For beginners, it is quite difficult to learn how to make themes and integrate wordpress into existing websites without a tutorial.
• It requires a MySQL database.
• It is not as easy to install as the other two content management systems.

Recommendations:

• I use wordpress because it is very rich in features, however for beginners I would recommend trying out one of the other two content management systems first to get used to the way they are set up. Use wordpress if you have some experience with webdesign already.

Fanupdate

Pros:

• Relatively easy to install and integrate into existing websites, with a similar setup to Cutenews.
• Clean, simple control panel
• Easy to update (however, I don’t know how good the spam filter on Fanupdate is)
• Attractive blog set-up.

Cons:

• Requires a MySQL database
• Not as feature-rich as WordPress and relies on simplicity and minimalism.

Recommendations:

• I do like Fanupdate’s easy-to-update interface, however it is still not quite up to par with WordPress. I recommend Fanupdate for people who already have an existing site and wish to integrate a blogging system into it, and for people who have a basic knowledge of MySQL database set up.

Cutenews

Pros:

• Very easy to install.
• Simple control panel.
• Does not require a MySQL database.

Cons:

• Not as attractive/professional looking as the other two blogging systems.
• Bad spam filter.

Recommendations:

• For the beginner, Cutenews is an excellent blog/publishing system because it is the simplest and easiest to install out of the 3 reviewed. I recommend Cutenews as a starting point for those that have never created a website before but, like me, you are very likely to have to ugrade your content management system due to the poor spam filter.

So that was my review of the 3 content management systems- hopefully that helped you decide which to use and goodluck!

This entry was posted on Saturday, February 20th, 2010 at 5:47 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.