Well, part of the stuff I wanted to do was replace the engine for this site, but the comparison tools out there now aren’t the comparison tools that were out there in 2005. So, I had to find a way to list available tools, then I had to compare them, then I had to test them.
This resulted in a tumble down a rabbit hole I never imagined I’d be tumbling down.
I stumbled upon the Installatron website and their list of installable web applications, so I decided to start there. To get search results that weren’t trying to sell me something, I switched from Unca Google to DuckDuckGo, and then I just settled down and started searching and reading.
Then I started installing on my website and clicking.
The short version – nothing in the list below can really take this website and just run with it. I’d have to start over and rebuild everything. But, some of them might be worth checking out in their own spaces. I kinda like Grav as a simple website builder that doesn’t dumb it all down like WordPress’s Block Editor or Google’s website builder. But, I need to get my private webserver built again before I can fully test all of the below listings.
To save you some of that two-weeks worth of work, here’s the list of tools and my thoughts (warning, it’s a WIDE table):
Note on row colors:
- Red background means no-go – I can’t install it locally or I can’t test it.
- Orange background means it’s horribly out of date and unsafe to test on the public web.
- Yellow means it might be worth testing, but it’s gonna need some careful consideration before doing anything.
- Green means it’s safe and I did test it, on the public interwebs and everything.
| CMS | URL | Last Update (Installatron) | Days ago | Version (Installatron) | Last Update (Website) | Days ago | Version (Website) | Approx. Frequency | PHP | MySQL | Postgresql | Important Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| b2evolution | https://b2evolution.net/ | 9/13/2022 | 600 | 7.2.5 | 8/6/2022 | 638 | 7.2.5 | n/a | 5.6.x | 5.3.3 | n/a | EOL 03/26/2022 |
| Backdrop | https://backdropcms.org/ | 4/22/2024 | 13 | 1.27.1 | 1/15/2024 | 111 | 1.27.1 | ~4 months | 5.6+ / 8.2 | 5.0.15+ | Built to be similar to Drupal | |
| ClassicPress | https://www.classicpress.net/ | 10/16/2023 | 202 | 1.7.1 | 2/22/2024 | 73 | 2.0.0 | 4-6 months | 7.4+ / 8.2 | Forked from WordPress 4.9 | ||
| CMS Made Simple | https://www.cmsmadesimple.org/ | 12/12/2023 | 145 | 2.2.19 | 11/28/2023 | 159 | 2.2.19 | 2-6 months | ||||
| Composr CMS | https://compo.sr/ | 9/25/2022 | 588 | 10.0.43 | 3/18/2024 | 48 | 10.0.47 | 1-2 months | 5.5+ / 7.2 | |||
| Concrete CMS | https://www.concretecms.com/ | 4/3/2024 | 32 | 9.2.8 | 4/2/2024 | 33 | 9.2.8 | 1-2 months | 7.4+ / 8.2 | 5.7+ | ||
| Contao | https://contao.org/en/ | 7/31/2023 | 279 | 5.1.10 | 2/15/2024 | 80 | 5.3 | 6 months | 7.4+ | 8.0+ | Every 4th version has LTS, 5.3 has LTS | |
| Dotclear | https://dotclear.org/ | 2/14/2024 | 81 | 2.29 | 5/5/2024 | Website not loading 4/29/2024 | ||||||
| e107 | https://e107.org/ | 4/7/2022 | 759 | 2.3.2 | 11/23/2023 | 164 | 2.3.3 | yearly | 5.6+ / 8.2 | 5.x+ | ||
| Geeklog | https://www.geeklog.net/ | 9/30/2022 | 583 | 2.2.2 | 9/27/2022 | 586 | 2.2.2 | 2-4 months | 5.6.4 | 4.1.2 | 9.1.7 | |
| GetSimple CMS | http://get-simple.info/ | 8/12/2020 | 1362 | 3.3.16 | 3/3/2020 | 1524 | 3.3.16 | monthly | 5.2+ | none | none | Flat-file |
| Grav | https://getgrav.org/ | 3/25/2024 | 41 | 1.7.45 | 3/18/2024 | 48 | 1.7.45 | 1-4 months | 7.3.6+ | none | none | Flat-file |
| Lepton CMS | https://lepton-cms.org/ | 11/1/2022 | 551 | 5.5.0 | 2/16/2024 | 79 | 7.1.0 | 5-6 months | 8.1 | 5.0+ | Compatable with/fork of WebsiteBaker(?) | |
| Mahara | https://mahara.org/ | 6/16/2022 | 689 | 22.04.2 | 5/5/2024 | ??? | ??? | ??? | ??? | ??? | Converted into a subscription, lowest $240/year | |
| Microweber | https://microweber.com/ | 4/25/2024 | 10 | 2.0.13 | 5/5/2024 | ??? | ??? | ??? | ??? | ??? | Converted to hosted option, lowest $10/month | |
| MODx | https://modx.com/ | 11/8/2023 | 179 | 3.0.4-pl | 4/10/2024 | 25 | 3.0.5 | 2-6 months | 7.4+ / 8 | 5.6+ | ||
| Omeka Classic | https://omeka.org/classic/ | 8/6/2023 | 273 | 3.1.2 | 10/5/2023 | 213 | 3.1.2 | 3-8 months | 5.6+ | 5+ | ||
| PHP-Fusion | https://www.phpfusion.com/ | 10/2/2022 | 581 | 9.10.30 | 9/1/2022 | 612 | 9.10.30 | ~6 months | ??? | ??? | ??? | Site is kinda broken, invalid inline links between pages, some PHP errors, probs dead. |
| phpwcms | http://www.phpwcms.org/ | 1/2/2024 | 124 | 1.9.38 | 1/6/2024 | 120 | 1.10.2 | ??? | 8.2 | 5.6+ | Site is SPARSE on documentation and clarity | |
| PluXml | https://pluxml.org/ | 10/18/2022 | 565 | 5.8.9 | 8/1/2022 | 643 | 5.8.9 | 6-12 months(?) | 5.6+ / 7.4 | |||
| Serendipity | https://docs.s9y.org/ | 3/4/2024 | 62 | 2.5.0 | 2/13/2024 | 82 | 2.5.0 | 4-7 months | 7.3 | |||
| Silverstripe CMS | https://www.silverstripe.org/ | 3/17/2023 | 415 | 4.12.1 | 4/15/2024 | 20 | 5.2.0 | ~6 months | 8.3 | |||
| SPIP | https://www.spip.net/ | 10/10/2023 | 208 | 4.2.6 | 4/5/24 | 30 | 4.2.11 | 1-3 months | 7.4 / 8.3 | 5.0 / 8.0 | ||
| Subrion | https://subrion.org/ | 6/15/2018 | 2151 | 4.2.1 | 6/14/2018 | 2152 | 4.2.1 | 1-8 months | 5+ | 4.1+ | 2018 saw and end to frequent updates. | |
| Textpattern | https://textpattern.com/ | 8/10/2022 | 634 | 4.8.8 | 1/24/2022 | 832 | 4.8.8 | 3-5 months | 5.5+ / 8.1 | |||
| TYPO3 CMS | https://typo3.org/ | 4/25/2024 | 10 | 13.1.0 | 4/23/2024 | 12 | 13.1.0 | 1-3 months | 8.2 | 8.0.17+ | 10+ | |
| WebsiteBaker CMS | https://websitebaker.org/ | 12/27/2023 | 130 | 2.13.5 | 1/17/2024 | 109 | 2.13.5.223 | ??? | 8.1+ | |||
| WonderCMS | https://www.wondercms.com/ | 11/6/2023 | 181 | 3.4.3 | 11/5/2023 | 182 | 3.4.3 | 6-8 months | 7.4+ | Flat-file |
I have more thoughts than just those, but I figured I’d put these here and update as I find my angry post-it notes and decipher the contents.
Thanks for reading!
Skåll!!!