A Content Management System, or CMS, is software that enables people to manage online content efficiently. A CMS enables people who don’t know how to build a website to still maintain and run their own site regardless. A CMS is also an incredible time-saver for people who do know how to build websites, but who would rather spend time creating content.

We (Broad Ribbon Designs) use CMSs for both groups of people — our clients who mostly fall into the first category, and other clients along with ourselves in the second category. The site you’re reading this on uses a CMS, for example.

The ‘content’ that is ‘managed’ can be anything: web pages, news articles, newsletters, blog articles, online tech/how-to manuals, online books, photo journals (also called photo blogging), video journals (also called video blogging or vlogging), and online forums. Ecommerce software is also a form of CMS, albeit more specialised.

While we have worked with other software (usually when ‘inheriting’ a new client’s legacy setup), our go-to ecommerce software is OpenCart and our two general-purpose CMSs are b2evolution and Silverstripe.

We like to have a pick of two, as b2evolution is simply better for some things while Silverstripe is better for other things. I chose b2evolution for this site broadribbon.com.au because of its excellent blogging engine for example — this was my sole reason as this blog is a major part of this site. This was also one of several reasons behind choosing b2evolution for The Jujube Tree Nursery website.

I’ll be covering Silverstripe and the reason it was chosen for other applications in future case studies.

Feel free to get in touch if you’d to discuss the setup of a CMS for your own needs, whether ecommerce, general blogging, or a complex multipurpose site. We can lay out for you the common pros and cons we’ve seen over many years, and help suggest a best-fit approach to take.

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