Of the two of us, Tim is more of the WordPress savant than I am. While I understand the features, and I can muddle my way through designs, I cannot say that WordPress comes easily to me.
Because of this lack of aptitude, I find myself searching far and wide for different methods of Content Management. I spend time perusing Smashing (which, for the record, is published using WordPress) and making ambiguous Google searches looking for other options.
I’ve looking into Drupal, Light CMS, and Frog CMS. I’ve even had a terrible experience using Joomla in an internship back in May. They were (and are) all nice in their own respects, save Joomla, but they just weren’t what I’m looking for. I want something that is simple to use, all of the features that a user would need without all of the complexity of the typical CMS back-end.
Part of my search stems from a need to find a simple CMS for non-computer-savvy customers. I know that these business owners want to be able to update their site without having to learn all of the ins and outs of their Content Management System. Something that gives them the power to easily edit any content, without all of the “fluff”.
Then, a few days ago, I found my proverbial “Holy Grail” of Content Management. I stumbled across Cushy CMS by a chance Google search…so I decided to investigate further. I watched their video about “How to Edit a site using Cushy CMS (in less than 3 minutes)” and I was hooked. The dulcet tones of their Australian narrator complemented, and even accented, the simplicity of their demonstration.
Cushy, in a stroke of pure brilliance (on par with the first slicing of baked bread), created a system to allow a user to edit the content of a web page externally, and then use the ftp information for the server to update the page. Perfect! Like witnessing a true masterpiece, I sat back in my computer chair, reveling in it’s magnificence.
I exaggerate to prove a point, but I was really impressed. Cushy was created by Melbourne based company Stateless Systems which deserve a lot of credit for a very smart system. I highly encourage you to look into Cushy, and see if it is the right system for you.
Needless to say, I’m going to be using CushyCMS for many pages here to come. That is, when I’m not using WordPress.
Hey,
CushyCMS is great in its own right — but I think everyone prefers the CMS on their own server.
If you’re willing to shell out a small sum, which should be no problem when using it for clients, Perch CMS (Google it) is perhaps a much, much better option with a few added features. Don’t worry though, there is no Templating Feature!
Ed.
CushyCMS is very limited but does have it’s place for some clients.
Have you looked at ModX CMS?
It’s an absolute breeze, if like me you’re more of a front end devloper…well worth checking out.