When we talk about content management systems, its importance, the comfort that these provide us and the best way to select that perfect CMS for us.

To complement this note we bring you 10 great options for CMS to take into account when selecting the one that best suits your needs.

1. WordPress

WordPress has become a basic blogging platform to a fully functional CMS. Similarly, the core functionality of WordPress blogging remains, although with different plugins can do everything: portfolio sites, galleries, e-commerce, etc.. WordPress is fairly intuitive to use, it has various functions arranged in different sections of the site (apparently, posts, pages, etc). The way things work is pretty standard and once you get used to working in one section, is very simple to know how the other parties.

Furthermore, it is well organized and easy to find where to carry out different functions. The WYSIWYG editor provides all the basic functionality you can possibly need, including the insertion of videos, images and other media files, and makes it easy to switch from HTML to Visual.

Since many of the features are from WordPress plugins, the core platform is fairly simple, with support for pages, posts and other standard content. You only need to add plugins depending on the features you want, so there are not many “things” without using the facility.

WP is easy to use (not just for geeks) and different user permissions make it difficult for users to “break things.”

WP creates pages that are simple and quick to load. This platform makes it truly possible to design pages the way we want and can customize the themes and templates.

WordPress also has active forums where you can find the solution to any problem that is not in the documentation.

Without doubt, this is a CMS that stands out.

2. Radiant CMS

Radiant is built with Ruby on Rails. It’s really good to build basic sites with an unlimited number of pages. By extensions can add blogging functionality and gallery. The backend is simple and logically laid out, with pages, snippets and layouts as the main sections. The functions work much the same way in all sections.

Currently, Radiant is quite limited in its functionality, so it is very unlikely to end up with unnecessary functions. But for more, you can build extensions using Ruby On Rails.

Radiant has a very intuitive interface. The basic tasks such as updating or adding pages is as simple as sending an e-mail. Radiant The code produced is clean and simple.

The pages can be built basically as we desire based on a combination of snippets that we create. The documentation for end user is something light, but it is so easy to use CMS that is not problem.

3. SilverStripe

SilverStripe is a CMS that can do almost anything you want. PHP is built with the framework Sapphire, making it more customizable. One of the most interesting properties of this CMS is that designers can customize the interface for each different customer, showing only those fields of content that the customer really needs access. This makes it potentially one of the easiest to use CMS for both geeks and non-geeks. And, obviously, includes a WYSIWYG editor.

SilverStripe is suitable for more complex sites, given its capacity for customization. Furthermore, this CMS provides a great deal of support, including documentation for both developers and end users, forums and an IRC channel.

4. Joomla

Joomla CMS is currently considered the most popular open source. It works under PHP and MySQL. The interface is relatively simple and straightforward, with separate sections for handling items, menus, multimedia and other content. It also has a link to create a new item and save time. The pull down menus also provide more options for these and other sections (including extensions). Joomla WYSIWYG editor includes tons of formatting options (up emoticons).

Joomla is very powerful, so it is another CMS that is not appropriate for simple sites, which have an excess of features. It includes a number of provisions to make pages load faster, including cache and GZIP compression. Joomla also has a great list of plugins available to extend its functionality, making it suitable for almost any site that requires advanced functions. One of the cons of Joomla, is that it uses tables for layout and while there are ways to replace tables with CSS, you may not be worthwhile given the large number of tables that do not use CMS from the start.

5. TYPOlight

TYPOlight uses PHP5 and Ajax, and includes functionality for static pages, blogs, newsletters, and calendars, among other sections. The interface is intuitive while offering a wealth of features. There are shortcuts to do everything from creating forms to include Flash content. The content is displayed inside modules, which can be given CSS style. The output is available with XHTML strict. It also supports mootools and GZip.

TYPOlight may be too much for those who do not have at least some expertise. It’s not complicated, but has many options and many different forms of personalization. Includes a full WYSIWYG editor and other simple tools to make publishing content. The interface is very intuitive and logical. But the issue is that there is information everywhere.

TYPOlight includes some nice development tools such as a generator and a built-in CSS form generator. It has sufficient information on the site for both developers and users. There are screencasts, forums and a wiki for support. And in case you need advanced help is an option for paid support.

6. Frog

Frog is basically a PHP version of Radiant CMS. It has a simple user interface is fairly intuitive. Allows unlimited hierarchy of pages and allows customization of the templates page by page. Includes a simplified WYSIWYG editor. It also has snippets re-usable pieces of content that are regularly used.

The interface provides a coherent and well organized, that is user friendly, yet is powerful. The basic functionality is directed to a site with unlimited number of pages, but there are many plugins to extend this functionality. Frog creates the code is clean and semantic.

Frog has decent documentation, with enough items “how to” both for basic functions as for the development. There is also an IRC channel to get answers to all your questions.

7. Textpattern

Textpattern uses a tabbed user interface that is surprisingly intuitive. Automatically logged to us about content editor so we can add a new page, this is very good for those sites that add content regularly. Worst of Textpattern is its lack of a WYSIWYG editor. Although this uses Textile for editing content, it’s fairly easy to learn for a new user.

Pages that Textpattern puts at our disposal are very lightweight and fast loading. The basic functionality of CMS is simple, without a ton of added features that probably never would be used. Supports images, categories and articles, and not much else. But there are a lot of plugins available to extend these functionalities.

There is a great community built on Textpattern, so that documentation and support are surprisingly good. There are at least one book available, plus a support forum, weblog developers and TextBook (A user manual driven by the community).

8. Expression Engine

Expression Engine is one of the most powerful CMS. It supports almost any feature you could ever want to reach or use, either in the initial package or through plugins. It has a simple and intuitive interface. It is very suitable for any site that is not too basic. Modules for everything from statistics to user forums. The built-in WYSIWYG editor is fairly standard and works perfectly.

The CMS creates pages that are a little bulky but reasonably clean, with the exception of some plugins Javascript. Some of the available plugins or paste the JavaScript in the header of the page or, worse, right in the middle of the same code. But obviously there are always glitches when working with a CMS so complete as this.

The worst drawback of EE is that except in some instances, is rather expensive. A personal license will cost u $ s 99.95 and a business license from u $ s 249.95. You can use the free version, but only in personal sites, not commercial or do not seek profits.

9. Drupal

Drupal is another very powerful CMS that can be used for everything from corporate sites to e-commerce sites or social networks. The interface is incredibly simple, with links logically organized to create content, manage accounts and edit existing content. One of the best features of the service is its content type “Book Page”. These pages can be grouped into collections, which are called “books”, which automatically get linked together. This is a great advantage when working with this type of content. Drupal does not have a WYSIWYG editor in the initial installation, but there is a module to add this functionality.

Drupal has a huge amount of modules available, too, to add features beyond basic content management. Indeed there are plugins to be able to do almost everything that comes to mind. The code available to us Drupal is a bit more complex than simple CMSs manage some, but not this semantic longer and relatively easy to decipher.

Drupal has a huge user community, with forums in the main development site and elsewhere. There are also lots of documentation for both developers and end users.

10. CMS Made Simple

CMS Made Simple, is made really simple. Includes full template support, a surprisingly easy to use interface and a hierarchy of content indefinitely. It supports global content blocks (called snippets in many other CMS) and plenty of options for the site design. It also gives us access to many help files, including Wiki, IRC and forums. This is another CMS that does not have a built-in WYSIWYG editor, but there is a plugin to add it.

The pages provided are all XHTML and CSS compliant, which is also clean and fast loading. The initial installation has all the basic functionality we need, with plugins available to add a lot more benefits, but currently there appears to be a plug for e-commerce platform.

There is good documentation available on the CMS and there are a lot of support options, including forums and IRC.