CMS, Part 3: Joomla!

There are two content management systems (CMS) that have become increasingly popular as of late: Drupal and Joomla.

Much to my dismay, I haven't been able to find anyone who uses Joomla (or Drupal, but we'll talk about that one later). I have done some research and learned a bit about it on my own, though.

On the surface, Joomla runs similarly to WordPress (the .org option). You download the free zip file, upload the files onto your server via FTP and enter the URL to begin installation. Fairly simple and comparable to the WordPress function, it requires your server to run the following versions:

• Apache 1.x or 2.x
• PHP 4.3 or up
• MySQL 3.23 or up

Although its functions are similar to WordPress (and several other CMSs), there are a few things that make it different. Here are my pros and cons:

{Pros}

• Easy to install,
• User-friendly,
• Knowledge of HTML is not required,
• It is an open source system,
• Very strong if you're looking to run a true Web site, blog or not,
• It's free!
  

{Cons}
Joomla is a much smaller platform (mostly in popularity) than something like Wordpress, so:

• It is updated less frequently,
• Harder to find templates,
• Support is harder to find,
• Not as customizable as with Wordpress' widgets and plugins.

And these are just a few points that stood out to me. I will say that I was unimpressed with Joomla's main Web site. Most of the system information and published help articles are timestamped for 2006 and I couldn't get the demo (that I had to sign up for) to work properly.

To see Joomla in action, take a look at IHOP's Web site or the Outdoor Photography's Web site.

I also wanted to clarify that this series is not a complete list of every CMS out there--I am focusing on the more common CMSs that are blog-based and/or have become somewhat of a household name. Watch over the next couple of weeks for Drupal, Tumblr and Movable Type to finish out the second half of this series!