Simple PHP CMS as an alternative to hacking Wordpress

Question

For creating common user modifiable site I've been forcing Wordpress to do the work of a CMS. It's worked and the back-end is purdy but it's just too hacky for my tastes. So I'd like a simple CMS that is easy to customize and add dynamic content to.

Right now it looks like modx is my best bet. I've tried Joomla a while ago but it was a real pain to customize and the back-end was not intuitive.

Basic requirements:

• Free
• Runs under PHP5
• Easy to customize
• Easy for content authors
• Easy to add dynamic content

If it doesn't have these, then I doubt it's more fit than modx.

Answer 1

I'm a huge fan of modx, I don't have much to add other than to say if you are happy with modx and it does what you need then stick with it.

I just haven't come across anything as easy to use for a developer. The template system, ease of creating your own snippets if you can't find what you need already, everything just seems to fit from a developers point of view.

I have also had no trouble training clients to use it.

The main problem with modx for me is that I haven't really been impressed with any shopping carts/store solutions for modx yet, but I guess it depends on what kind of site you want to make.

Answer 2

i can recommend frog cms http://www.madebyfrog.com/ it's a copy of radiant cms (which is running on ruby/rails, see http://www.radiantcms.org/)

Answer 3

Have a look at this http://php.opensourcecms.com/scripts/show.php?catid=9&cat=Lite The list contains very lite php opensource CMS, most of them dont even use a database. You can go through the demo of these and pick the one you like.