Choosing the right content management system (CMS) can be a real headache. You’ve got to match the project in hand to the features the CMS offers and the technical ability of the users who’re going to be updating the site. All the big CMSs have their plus, as well as their negative points and I’m going to try and summarise them here.

My experience lies with the open source CMSs, so I’m going to compare the big 3 contenders: Drupal, Joomla and WordPress. I also use Sharepoint a lot on intranets, and have seen some positive things from commercial CMSs such as Episerver.

Drupal

Overview: A complex CMS which provides developers the nuts and bolts to build pretty much anything they want.
Learning curve: Vertical!
Ease of use: Once a developer has set it up, Drupal can be easy. However the process of setting it up to work as you require can be frustrating.
Support: Drupal has a large community of users, but getting an answer to a forum post is more miss than hit. Best to use a support site like StackOverflow.
Final word: Drupal is by far the most powerful open source CMS, you can configure it to do just about anything! But if you are not a PHP developer with patience, good Google skills, and some Drupal experience,  you could be tearing your hair out within hours. Drupal is the only one of these three CMSs which has broken the barrier to being used by large companies though which speaks volumes about its versatility and robustness.

Joomla

Overview: A powerful and usable CMS that can be customised easily and developed into a unique site.
Learning curve: The basics are easy, yet there is a lot to learn.
Ease of use: Installs out of the box, and a novice user could have a generic blog running in minutes. Theming and creating more complex sites takes time and patience though.
Support: Joomla has a large community of users contributing custom modules and support. You can also buy themes or more complex modules from dedicated Joomla developers.
Final word: Joomla is easy to use and set up, and the WYSIWYG approach to the interface makes it very friendly for novice users. However theming a site or creating custom functionality still requires a developer who is comfortable in PHP. As with Drupal, you can pretty much do anything you like with Joomla and it is easier to use, even if it is less flexible.

WordPress

Overview: Highly usable, perfect for blogs and websites which don’t deviate too far from the blog pattern.
Learning curve: Very gentle.
Ease of use: Plain language and features which just work! Sip your coffee and let WordPress do it for you.
Support: WordPress has a massive and friendly community, a great developer API and support options coming out of its ears.
Final word: If you want a blog, use WordPress. It’s easy to theme and create a unique look, and the API is a dream for developers. It’s highly usable even for novices, and is robust enough to build reasonably complex sites. WordPress is not really designed for non-blog sites though, so I would recommend one of the other options for a commercial site.

Conclusion

The scores I posted above reflect that all of these CMSs do a good job, while none are perfect. Each can be made to work with whatever you need, and the only reason WordPress marginally outscores the others is its usability and support.

There is no hard and fast rule to which CMS you should use. My approach is that a lot depends on the skills of the people who will be maintaining the website, and although Drupal can be made into whatever you desire thanks to its nuts and bolts architecture, it can be daunting and obstructive to people with no Drupal experience or training. Joomla is much “friendlier”, and is built on a robust framework which enables some pretty spectacular things to be achieved, but it still needs a developer to unleash this potential. WordPress is a joy to use but is just not built to run large complex sites so can’t be recommended for all projects.

Someone who knows what they are doing can customise and extend each of these CMSs until the cows come home, the difference is just how long it takes them to do so, and how much hair they have left once the project is signed off.