Small-biz solution: Six content-management systems for under $100,000

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Small-biz solution: Six content-management systems for under $100,000

Bill Machrone
Contributing Editor PC Magazine
Wednesday, March 7, 2001

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Don't keel over from sticker shock! Believe it or not, you can get a workable content management system for as little as $3,000. Then again, you can go mid-range, as in around $95,000...or go whole-hog with a high-end system, which will set you back many hundreds of thousands, or even a couple of million dollars.

PC Magazine recently reviewed a half dozen content-management systems that cost less than $100,000. (Click for more.) One of them might have your name on it.

HOW DO YOU KNOW if you need a CMS? If you're spending more time managing content than creating it, that's probably the first big sign. If maintaining your site used to be a one-person job, but now requires several people, you definitely need a CMS.

But the greatest application of content management is separating content creation from page design. All of these systems do this, and it's vital for allowing nontechnical people to update the site.

One of the keys to making a site work smoothly (or for any publishing venture, for that matter) is smooth, well-defined workflow. All of these packages let you define workflow and handle the routing from individual to individual or department to department. Some are much more flexible than others, however.

OUR REVIEW LOOKS AT SIX of these lower-priced CMS packages, with lots of hands-on testing to give you a sense of what it's like to own one, plus a case study that shows the before-and-after difference that a CMS made for one site. We've got two Editors' Choices and an honorable mention, so if you've got the need, we've got the recommendation.

Do you use a content-management tool? Would you buy one of the solutions reviewed in PC Magazine's roundup? TalkBack to me.

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