Ultimately, the purpose of a Content Management Software package is to create and environement where an entity can focus on the content of said site rather than the coding.  Ideally, a CMS would be put in place to ease workload on all parties – the developer(s) spend less time updating content that they may not have any attatchment to or understanding of, and content providers don’t have to worry with the technology – just the quality of the content.

I am currently in the process of testing as many pre-packaged CMS’s as I can.  Right now, I have Subdreamer and Joomla running while testing MANY add-on modules, and I am obtaining several more from sourceforge.  I plan on sharing my findings with each, but ultimately it comes down to the discussion proposed by this topic: which is better?  The custom job specific to your needs, or a pre-packaged solution.

First, let’s start with a Custom CMS:

Pros:

  • a perfect fit to your needs
  • ideally, all the major components are there
  • typically, an easier administration format, or at least one that is tailored to your org

Cons:

  • development time: the larger your set of requirements, the longer to develop, and thus the further out is your publish date
  • each new feature requires further development time
  • all changes to style outside of content require EVEN MORE development time
  • did I mention DEVELOPMENT TIME?

Pre-Packaged Solutions

PROS:

  • easy updates to the software
  • usually a team outside of your developers working on security, bug fixes
  • easy to install new modules or components
  • quick and efficient skinning or style changes

CONS:

  • an administrative interface designed to do EVERYTHING, not just what you need
  • content updates are done through someone else’s logic – going in to add or update content may no be intuitive
  • frequently, the quality of modules or components are less than ideal, or do not cover your needs
  • someone has to spend time finding components or modules – wether your or your developers.

I don’t  know if this helps or not, but it does at least give some frame of reference for choosing a solution.  Like I said, there will be more on the specific CMS’s that I test, specifically feedback on administration and overall presentation, but this is a starting point.