50 Most Popular Content Management Systems
We all love Content Management Systems and if not, then we need them because our websites would not run at the same power and the web would not be the same. The web we know today is loaded with websites using content management systems, I doubt there are some that are not using them. That’s why bellow I’ve created a list containing some of the most popular solutions for creating any kind of website.
So in order to make things easier for everyone I’ve divided this article in more sections so that you will be able to navigate much more easily.
| General CMS | eCommerce | Wiki |
| Forums | Blog | Images & Galleries |
| Social Media | ||
General Content Management Scripts
These scripts are very powerful and require prior knowledge to use them. All documentation available on their site, but each is different.
1. Drupal
The second most popular dedicated content management script. Like WordPress, Drupal has an incredible community that is willing to help you 24 / 7. In addition Drupal is open source platform and you can find a multitude of modifications and professional designs for it.
2. Xoops
This is a CMS that is long in the charts of the best content management scripts. Xoops is simple to use with a variety of applications.
3. Typo3
I will not lie, Typo3 CMS is not designed for everyone … it is very hard to use it but once you understand the principles underlying it the possibilities are endless.
4. Zikula
Is a highly customizable open source content management system available in over 36 languages. It is very simple to use and can be a part of any kind of web related project being able to handle all kind of contents.
5. Joomla
One of the most complex scripts I’ve ever encountered. Joomla is also the one of the top three most used scripts. Do not be afraid because it has a manual of use and many more uses. Typo3 and Drupal also, what you can do with Joomla is unlimited.
6. Siteframe
The developers of SiteFrame CMS call this CMS lightweight created in order to serve the performance. It is extremely minimalist and moves as fast as light.
7. PHP Nuke
I think this CMS is one of the first scripts that I’ve ever used and this happened through 2003-2004 so it is quite old in the web industry. Not long ago, the creators of PHP Nuke returned with a new version of the script that has a lot of new features.
8. GeekLog
Is a great solution for all kind of dynamic web applications. It is created using PHP and it supports MySQL, PostgreSQL or MS SQL.
9. E107
Created in PHP, e107 portal system is there to bring you all the features needed for a real portal. The platform is in constant development bringing new features on a constant basis.
10. Plone
Is an open source CMS based on Zope and CMF. Is a very powerful script which let’s people who have less knowledge about technical stuff to handle it with ease. The CMS manages to combine beauty with performance at a professional level.
11. Alfresco
The leading CMS for enterprise systems. They are quite old in the industry and bring professionalism at a low price too.
12. Concrete5
Free and open source content managing platform created to serve marketing needs. It comes with a control bar which works as WYSIWYG editor so that you will be able to edit every page with ease.
13. NukeViet
Is the most popular CMS available in Vietnam. Their latest version include XHTML, CSS3, XTemplates and of course jQuery.
14. Mambo
Mambo or Mambo Server is not a typical CMS created for portals or blogging. The main idea behind the Mambo project is to serve the corporate websites and also family websites or personal ones too.
eCommerce
If you plan to create an online store then this is the place you are looking for because the scripts below are what you need in order to succeed.
15. Magento
Undoubtedly the most popular choose of the professionals when it comes to electronic commerce. One thing that is incredible about Magento is that everything is available 100% free. Also, behind Magento you’ll find many tools and modifications that will ease your work along with a community that will make you even more happy.
16. ZenCart
Zen Cart is a popular CMS for ecommerce is used by thousands of online shops. Along with its popularity, ZenCart comes with a friendly interface.
17. osComerce
Is an e-shop – ecommerce system which has helped over 251,400 store owners to set up an online based store. At the moment, the osCommerce website database has over 6,600 great add-ons to help you fully customize your online store.
18. PrestaShop
It has been awarded as the no 1 e-commerce solution for web stores in France and Europe. PrestaShop is a great solution for every store owner managing to bring aesthetics along with performance and ease of use.
19. Alegro Cart
Is the smart choice if you are looking for a system that has pre-configured options for marketing and if you want to have full control about every piece of content that is displayed on your website.
20. OS CMAX
Is a very powerful CMS designed to serve the need of a simple web store having all the basic features and a lot of add-ons to help you customize it as you wish.
21. Open Cart
Professionalism is the word that describes best what Open Cart does. In my opinion is the most stable e-commerce web software available providing robust solutions for your web store needs.
Forums
For people who like to chat or want to create a community based on forum interaction type, these are most popular CMS’s created to serve this purpose.
22. phpBB
Undoubtedly the most popular platform in the industry dedicated online community discussions. Personally I like to compare this #1 free open source discussion board with WordPress, but in this case is about forums not blogs. Simple, free, stable, high performance and also has tons of add-ons and modifications.
23. SMF
SMF or Simple Machines Forum is an open source CMS dedicated to forums creation and community building. SMF can be associated to a pack containing performance, aesthetics and bulletin board.
24. MyBB
Free and open source bulletin board created to serve the need of users. MyBB developers have spend quite some time on building a easy to use interface for users and admins.
25. Discuzz
One of the greatest scripts created by the popular developers from Agryia. Modern and powerful, Discuzz brings innovation to bulletin boards by making a fusion with social media websites.
26. vBulletin
This is the most popular premium platform dedicated to bulletin boards. Many say that building a forum requires quite some time and it can have it disadvantages (spamming). vBulletin is the best option for your forum and unquestionably it has the best support.
27. Invision Power Board
Is simple and extremely advanced. Invision Power Board or IPB on short can provide you with tools that will make from a simple bulletin board quite a web directory containing thousands of categories on unlimited levels. The user management is also easy and the admin control panel is a piece of cake.
Blogs
Since blogging has become a trend everyone has heard of WordPress. Be aware that there are other options for those of you who want to try something new and I can say that they are quite cool actually.
28. WordPress
Unquestionably the best CMS available. WordPress offers since 2002 the most advanced blogging platform and also a huge community that helps each day with plugins and professional themes. Due to the simplicity and modifications that are available for WordPress, it has become more than just a blogging platform now being used for all kind of web projects including Feed Agregators, Portals, Question and Answer websites and many others.
29. Nucleus CMS
Is a CMS with functions pretty similar to WordPress ones. Nucleus offers multiple author feature, creating and saving posts and managing multiple blogs.
30. B2evolution
Very powerful and free blogging CMS engine having versatile skins, easy photo management and also tons of features to help you with the creation of text articles and multimedia ones.
31. LifeType
LifeType has a system similar to WordPress Network. With Lifetype you can create multiple blogs with a single installation. It has a very nice user friendly interface easy to use for everyone.
32. DotClear
DotClear has recently celebrated turning 8 years. The platform has managed to power quite some great blogs in this time and it seems like the are releasing a new version soon.
33. FlatPress
Is an open-source, standard-compliant(XHTML Valid), multi-lingual blogging platform which unlike many others does not require a database.
Wiki
Wikipedia is a great example that manages to prove that simple can become successful when we talk about websites. Below are some scripts that perform exactly the same functions as the Wikipedia site.
34. Doku Wiki
Probably the most popular CMS created to serve the documents industry. It is standards compliant and pretty minimalist like all wikis. All data is stored in plain text files – no database is required.
35. TikiWiki
Behind TikiWiki is a large community of developers working very hard on improving the platform. Within it’s features you will be able to see that TikiWiki offers a script pretty similar to Wikipedia, forum bulletins such as phpBB and Link directories, RSS feeds etc. pretty much everything is needed for a real Wiki site.
36. PHP Wiki
This wiki provides you only the basics of the WIKI, you will not find here sophisticated interfaces or any other unordinary features. Simple and plain text is all that is needed for PHP Wiki.
Images & Photo Galleries
When we talk about photo sites we have to be very careful and professional because image counts. These meet all those requirements with ease.
37. 4images
A great image gallery creator which powers thousands of popular websites. The script was created by the popular German developers at 4homepages.de
38. Coppermine Photo Gallery
This is a script that places great importance on looks and performance. If you are looking for these two, then Coppermine is your tool.
39. Gallery
It has a simple name which says it all. Don’t be fooled by the simple name because Gallery has a great interface and also a very complex system which makes photo sharing a fortune.
40. ZenPhoto
An advanced standalone gallery focusing on bringing best out of your pictures. Zen Photo has tons of features, but what I’ve noticed is that it has Automatically generated sizes, Drag and drop sorting and moving and of course a complex file managing.
41. TinyWebGallery
Like the name says, TinyWebGallery was not created for large photo sharing websites, but for small and professional ones.
42. PixelPost
Is a free web standards compliant images gallery available in many languages and also easy to extend it or customize it for your needs.
Social Media & Dating
Sites such as Facebook, Twitter or YouTube make quite a buzz in the online. The scripts bellow are inspired by these sites and most of them really manage to bring authenticity.
43. Pligg
This is a brilliant script designed for social bookmarking. Pligg CMS is the first designed to meet the need for social bookmarking script. It is also the best social bookmarking script out there followed by a Drupal extension named Drigg.
44. Dolphin
This is my personal favorite. I love Dolphin script because of it’s amazing way of displaying content and also the great user interface which makes everybody love it. With Dolphin, you are limited just by imagination because it helps you to build whatever you like!
45. Social Engine
Is a social network script that helps you to create your own fully customizable social media website with ease. It has no powered by links in footer, it has no ads, no code is encrypted so you can enjoy customized it and make it your own.
46. PG Dating
Smart and flexible CMS platform created for helping you to establish a professional dating website easy and fast.
47. OS Date
This is the most popular script created for dating purposes which is 100% free. You can also add some extra features, but for $5 each.
48. Dzoic Handshakes
Dzoic is a community of web developers made popular with the video script. The Dzoic Handshake is the perfect script for social media and dating purposes.
49. PHP Fox
PHP Fox was created based on features collected from the major social media websites such as Facebook, MySpace, Twitter. In simple words, if you want to create a website like Facebook, PHPFox is a great way of doing it.
50. ASP Net Dating
To be quite honest, ASP Net Dating is a script pretty expensive, but if you take a look at what it can do for your Dating website, I guess is worth it.
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Very nice stuff
i am gonna to create a site soon, so this stuff would be useful for me! thanks 
I am happy that you like them!
Great designing sites
) Thanks for this collection!
I didn’t see MODX in here, another very good open source CMS.
I am so sorry! I haven’t heard of it. Thanks for letting us know.
Very helpful list. You’ve made great job.
Thanks for sharing!
I would not recommend anyone use PHP-Nuke, it is full of un-fixed security vulnerabilities and the new version you refer to (8.2) is exactly the same as the previous version despite claims by the vendor that it has “numerous fixes”. In a file by file, byte by byte comparison, the only real change is the addition of a non W3C compliant theme. For those wanting something similar in terms of ease of use, ease of development, they should try RavenNuke.
I didn’t know these things, but I will look into it! Thanks for sharing your knowledge about it!
That’s a very consistent list of content management systems, I also appreciate that you created a structure easy to follow so that we can find whatever CMS we need much more easily.
I agree with you that Drupal, WordPress and Joomla are the best platforms in the list, but e107, Xoops or Concrete5 are also brilliant. Xoops is very old in the industry and has some tricks of it’s own, the e107 platform has lots of cool extensions and Concrete5 even if is quite new, it comes with the best visual solution out there so that for beginners is best.
I’ve also used Typo3 which is great for mass projects and for forums I would recommend using Invision Power Board! I like it because it has lots of features and many SEO experts recommend it. Also sites like Softpedia, The Plannet and many other websites choose their forum software to be IPB because it brings best results.
Thanks for the list!
hm… i am sorry for being a little dull but i believe your website would look a little bit better plus a little more easy to the eyes if it had more of a brown feel to it, however that’s just me. great article anyway!
Best regards!
+1 for MODX. Expression Engine should also be mentioned. In my opinion, those are the only 2 PHP CMS’s that use a sensible architecture. Many of the popular solutions (most notably WordPress, Drupal, and Joomla) employ really dirty template layers, so heavy customization often makes sites built with them an untenable mess.
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I am really glad to see your nice article, you have really dig deep to rate CMS well.
Nice job dude!