There are hundreds of free CMS platforms available. Of these our “suggested platforms” are our recommendation as the best option for most business websites. That being said, we’ve also included some other popular options in our “other options” section. The better CMS platforms generally have large development communities behind them, are extendable, and as an open-source platform a developer will be able to edit the core files directly as needed.
Suggested Platforms
WordPress
https://wordpress.org/
Development platform: PHP
WordPress was initially designed as a blogging (publication) platform, yet it has gradually evolved to become the most popular of the CMS options. WordPress is generally easy for most people to administer, and there is a large development community which provides a number of quality themes and a vast number of plugins and widgets to extend it. This website was developed in WordPress.
Joomla
https://www.joomla.org/
Development platform: PHP
Joomla has a large community, lots of plug-ins, and is used world-wide. It has a large number of features, and with the release of 3.9.26 there have been security vulnerability improvements and contains over 40 bug fixes and improvements.
Grav CMS
https://getgrav.org/
Development platform: PHP
The Grav CMS is rather different from WordPress and Joomla since it has a flat-file platform that requires no database. Instead, it queries its data from a set of text files. Flat-file content management systems allow for heightened speed, simplicity, mobility and security.
Other Options
Drupal
https://drupal.org/
Development platform: PHP
Drupal is not as popular as it once was, yet it remains a very flexible CMS with an active community with many plug-in options. Drupal is often considered to a developer’s CMS since it has a steep learning curve and a reputation for being difficult to theme.
TextPattern
https://textpattern.com/
Development platform: PHP
TextPattern is a lightweight and fast with a minimalistic interface. Custom fields are used to extend it more like a typical CMS. Note that this is not an “install and go” application, so there is a learning curve.
Umbraco
https://umbraco.com/
Development platform: ASP.NET
Umbraco is one of the few open source content management systems built on Microsoft’s .NET technology. It’s a highly customizable, “plug and play” solution with a steep learning curve; accordingly it is targeted at developers more than designers. Although the CMS is free, the add-ons and support packages aren’t. They also offer a cloud hosted version starting at $39/mo.
SilverStripe
https://www.silverstripe.com/
Development platform: PHP
SilverStripe is an award-winning CMS that looks more like a desktop application than a web-based CMS. It is the first open source web app to become Microsoft Certified for Windows Server. It has some effective features which include the ability to send out newsletters and view site statistics. The interface is a bit complicated due to the large number of options available.
TYPO3
https://typo3.org/
Development platform: PHP
TYPO3 is an Open Source Enterprise Content Management System with a large global community. With more than 500,000 installations TYPO3 is the most widely used Enterprise Content Management System, providing the basis for websites, intranets and mobile applications.
