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Joomla Web Content Management System (CMS)

5. Comparison With Other Web Content Management Systems

5 of 6: Comparison With Other Web Content Management Systems

Joomla CMS 6-Page Mini-Course

There are numerous Content Management Systems available in the open source domain as well as the commercial domain. Open Source software and commercial software are different in various aspects. Cost being the primary differentiator may play a vital role in your choice of a CMS. Open source CMS comes at no or marginal cost while Commercial Software are relatively higher priced.

Lots of experts agree that a commercial CMS can provide better post-installation assistance in documentation, training, stability, security issues etc. as their support staff may be available when needed. This may not be possible in open source CMSs which primarily run on the support of volunteers and not regular staff. However, Joomla! is a pleasant exception!. With thousands of developers on the project, it has built a reputation for its prompt and effective customer service. Moreover, with a strong volunteer-base, Joomla! can boast of continual development resulting in timely upgrades and new releases.

You may look at your specific CMS requirements, business conditions, available resources and client requirements while choosing a CMS. Factors like price; implementation; documentation, training and support services and customization opportunities should not be overlooked.

Some of the free and Open Source CMSs include:

Joomla!.
Mambo.
Drupal.
PHPNuke.
Post Nuke.
Plone.
TYPO3.
e107.
Open CMS.
MODx CMS.
WordPress.
XOOPS and
Zope.

Some of the commercial software include:

Vignette.
Alfresco.
RedDot CMS.
SiteKit.
Interwoven Teamsite.
Tridion.
Microsoft CMS.
Oracle portal.
Immediacy CMS.
GOSS iCM.
Hot Banana and
Fatwire Content Server.

Comparing Joomla! with other open source CMS

Joomla! is comparable to most leading CMS systems in terms of its features. Joomla! and Mambo provide an in-built contact management application and CAPTCHA (for challenge-response test) while Drupal, Plone and TYPO3 offer the same as a free add-on. There are features which they all provide as a free add-on – like job posting, guest book, chat etc.

All open source CMS are distributed under GNU GPL and may gel well with any of the operating systems. What sets Joomla! apart from the others is a strong developer community. This reflects in its highly efficient and consistent development program. The following chart tries to compare leading open source CMS based on a few important parameters.

**Web Content Management Systems Compared**
	Programming Language	Database	Web Server	FTP Support	UTF-8 Support
Joomla	PHP	MySQL	Apache	Provided as a free add-on	Limited support available
Drupal	PHP	MySQL, PostgreSQL	Apache, IIS	Limited FTP support	Available
Mambo	PHP	MySQL	Apache, IIS, any PHP-enabled web server	Not available	Available
Open CMS	Java 1.4	MySQL, PostgreSQL, Oracle, MSSQL	Tomcat, Apache	Not available	Available
PHP Nuke	PHP	MySQL, PostgreSQL, mSQL, Interbase, Sybase	Apache, IIS	Not available	Not provided
Plone	Python	Zope	Apache, IIS, Zope	Available	Available
TYPO3	PHP	MySQL, PostgreSQL, Oracle, MSSQL	Apache, IIS	Available	Available
WordPress	PHP	MySQL	Apache, mod rewrite	Available as a free add-on	Available
Xoops	PHP	MySQL	Apache, IIS	Available	Limited support available

As compared to open source CMS like Joomla!, commercial CMSs are distributed under commercial or proprietary licenses. They may use diverse databases but Oracle and Microsoft SQL server are common. Also the programming language they use varies considerably. This includes PHP, Java, Java Script, .NET, XML, XSL, JSP, Perl, etc.

Unlike open source CMS like Joomla!, commercial CMS may require specific operating systems for implementation. Vignette prefers Windows XP/2000/2003 while Oracle supports Windows, UNIX and LINUX. Like Joomla!, the web servers Apache and IIS are common in commercial CMS also.

Other than these technical specifications, there are many other factors for comparison. Features, built-in applications, support, commerce, flexibility, interoperability, management, performance, ease of use, security, etc are just some of them. Joomla! scores high on all of those parameters. Its growing popularity just underlines this fact.