I have to admit that the race for the best opensource content management software is an exciting one. Years pass and technology goes ahead but some names have the capacity to stay  on track : in 2007 modx was, in my opinion, the best PHP CMS I could implement for customers. 2008 saw an impressive competitor come up as a reliable solution, including a powerful development framework : Silverstripe version 2.2 is a must, with a simple tree based navigation and drag&drop page structure management as most visible features. Automatic image resizing, online image editing, flexible database structure, are features now common in silverstripe, sometimes shared with modx or other competitors (check out JOJOCMS, Concrete5 or even the old Wordpress !!). Of course on the development side of the moon, 2008 also celebrated the ever increasing popularity of Zend framework on the server side, and EXTJS  on the client side : those 2 powerful libraries have little implementation examples, but that is changing quickly too : the latest pre release version of MODX CMS, code named revolution,  is demonstrating the use of EXT JS to an extent that’s going to make 2009 a new era for opensource content management solutions !

Among these 3 popular content management solutions, each on has its own specific features. In a few words

• Wordpress is perfect for community based content websites
• Silverstripe is perfect for basic page management in a multiple level hierarchy, with limited user rights and priviliege system
• Concrete5 is ideal for large organisations with complex user groups and workflow schemas

what they have in common : features we compare

• unlimited hierarchy structure with drag and drop reordering
• a visual form editor
• flexible data schema for tables and records
• wysiwyg editing with advanced media management

comparison table