The Perfect CMS
After having spent years implementing various CMS solutions, we feel that there is still no easy to use system for small to medium sized websites. There are a lot of freelance and small sized web design businesses that build company websites that need a CMS – and the current selection of CMS solutions is vast.
The Open Source Systems
For small/medium sized websites, that are typical of many public company sites, there is no particular star. All of the Open Source systems have terrible user interfaces, and make it difficult for the client to manage their site. Clients want incredibly simple systems that do not require any training or user manuals – we think this is possible.
Commercial Systems
The market for commercial CMS is large, but again we have not found one clear leader. All of the systems have weaknesses, and all the ones we have tried are not simple enough in our opinion. They have to simple for the clients – that is the key to having the software become loved and subsequentally used!
Simple, Elegant & Useful
So, we are going to build The Perfect CMS. Obviously this is quite an ambition, but we feel confident that we know how to make it successful. Focus on the simplicity. That simple. You can hide all the complex stuff behind a really simple UI, so it is present but not confusing for someone who just wants to add a page or edit some content.
We’re aiming this product at small web design businesses who are producing non-ecommerce websites. This will be a hosted, subscription based solution.
Tell Us What You Need
We’re inviting you to help us compile a list of requirements. Tell us your opinions (especially if you are a designer), what makes the perfect CMS for you? Also, as this will be a commercial product, we’d like to get your idea on what kind of price you think is reasonable?
Please, help us to help you. Tell us what the web design community needs!
I’d like to see a full Web 2.0 CMS for designers. If I could find a CMS which worked well for small sized sites, and was simple to use, I would definately use it!
The current market for small sites is dire, I’d love to see some really good product for us designers. The main requirements for me would be:
1. Completely flexible XHTML + CSS templating
2. So easy to use for the client, it has to be a piece of cake
3. Complex features available to the designer if needed
4. A reasonable pricing plan
5. Fully brandable CMS interface
If you can get all these things right, you’ll be onto a winner.
Firstly, I think this is a fantastic idea. I’ve been searching for a solution to the small/medium sized website problem for a while now and so far have hit all the problems you mentioned.
The single biggest issue for me has to be the user interface. It needs to be ‘dummy proof’ and not require a 100 page user manual.
I fully agree with all the other points Sam has made, especially about XHTML/CSS templates. Also I think a basic set of functions such as form implementation, valid flash embedding and some nice menu options would probably be enough for most.
Good work and good luck!
I to fully agree with all the points Sam has made, especially about XHTML/CSS templates.
Also on my list would be:
-Per server licensing. I want to buy one system and be able to use it for any small site projects that come along. A lot of these projects are $400-$1000, I don’t want to shell out $300 for another license each time.
-Dump to HTML. If I wanted a dynamic site that had forums, photo galleries, wiki’s etc then I’ll use Joomla. But Joomla is not appropriate for many of the small business sites I am asked for. I’d like to be able to login, edit and preview pages then ‘publish’ the site to html. I built my own CMS this way and I like it.
-One or two cascading menu options would be nice. But no javascript! There are a couple pure CSS solutions that work great.
-Yes AJAX is cool but for these sites I don’t want a line of javascript anywhere in the published site.
Well thats my 2-bits
Gents, Site Foundry does exactly what you are after.
Fully brandable, XHTML/CSS templates (with smarty support), AJAX so it’s easy for customers to use, fully modular (bespoke module can be built by Site Foundry if required), £350 per license.
Most importantly it has a brandable backend.
http://www.site-foundry.co.uk
Hi I think this is a great project your working on and I am very interested. The main points I would like to see:
- CSS, XHTML, W3C compliant
- Pure php solution
- The back end to be W3C compliant (time and time again this is overlooked)
- I would actually prefer it not to be hosted, subscription service.
- Per Server licence (I always set up a dev site as well as the live site and wouldnt want to incurr 2 licence costs). I would love to see something round the $400 – $800
- Ful access to the source codes
- Brandable back end
Only trouble I would see with this project or any smaller cms, is the lack of add-on modules. This is where stuff like joomla hold there own. You know what its like, your mid way through a project and the client asks for extra functionality, then you would have to invest in bespoke development. But on the plus side of not such a large community, it means not every hacker and his pet dog will know how to take down your site
Really interesting and would be great if you kept me up to date on this.
It checks all your boxes. All your requirements are taken care of with Site Foundry.
Plenty of Modules (not all of them are published on the site plus bespoke development isn’t cost prohibitive).
• It’s not a subscription service
• All CSS/XHTML back end and front (Pure PHP Solution)
• Bulk license discounts are on offer (POA)
• Brandable backend
You should ask for a Demo version to test to destruction, go to the contact page on http://www.site-foundry.co.uk .
Build a great API,.. then go from there! Things to focus on:
A Great Content API + URL Mapping + UI for Input + Templating Engine + Scriptability.