Establishing the Need for a Simple CMS

There’s a real problem with content management systems. I’m not talking about the big enterprise platforms. I’m talking about the basic content management software that simple web sites need and use. They often do too much. That’s right. Modern content management software does too much.

For example, I have a friend with a pretty average technical acumen. This friend needed a simple website for an organization that he had started and I, being a web nerd, decided to help him set up a web site. So we did the usual. I went to Godaddy and bought a suitable domain along with a basic Linux hosting account. I found a template for his site and we paid a fair price for a nice pre-made design. So the next step was to get him up and running with a cms so he could manage all of his content without needing any further assistance from me.

My first instinct was to go with Drupal. I have tooled around with Drupal in the past and it has a good reputation among the web-savvy. So I installed Drupal, started configuring the site and I soon realized, this is way more functionality and configuration than my friend needs. Not to mention, it’s way more than he can handle. A little time with Joomla presented the same dilemma. These systems have too much complexity; too much functionality; too much configuration. Not only that, but working with the template frameworks of these systems was going to be a nightmare. Remember, I already spent some money on a pre-made template for this site. I was going to have to make the template fit the cms. Not fun.

So, with all these issues before me, I realized why so many developers end up rolling their own cms system. It’s because what’s out there is more than a simple site needs. A simple website needs a simple cms. Don’t get me wrong, Drupal, Joomla, Worpress and the like are all great systems and they have their markets, but often they are more complex than necessary. Another major issue with the standard content management system is the need to have a database running on your server and the need to install software. It’s always a problem to have to patch your cms because of some update, or deal with setting up a database to run your cms.

Just like software is moving more and more from the desktop to the cloud, it seems advantageous that server based systems might do the same. Instead of installing 10 versions of Wordpress on the sites of 10 of your clients (all separate, all requiring maintenance), why not host your content management software in a central location? This way all of your client’s content is in one place and there are no software installations or databases to maintain. Centralizing content makes good sense. CMS as a services makes good sense.

So here is a list of the problems with content management systems:

• For simple sites, most cms systems have too much functionality
• For simple sites, most cms systems are too complex for users to use
• Templates force design compromises (the cms should compromise, not the design)
• Software maintenance across many installations of a cms system is a nightmare
• Managing the content of many web sites in many locations is a nightmare

These are the reasons I created F3CMS, a truly simple cms. I was tired of trying to explain to people how to use a cms. I was tired of configuring them. I was tired of trying to align cms template content with custom designs. And I wanted a single place to manage sites that would require no software installs or databases.

And that is why F3CMS was created and that’s what it does. Clover Content is extremely basic in terms of functionality and this is by design. I wanted to make it so easy to use that anyone could just look at it and “get it”. Being easy to use is not enough. For a simple cms to be truly simple, it also has to be simple to set up and simple to maintain.

The setup with F3CMS is as easy as could be. You download a folder, put it at the root of your site and add 2 lines of code to the pages you want to be dynamic. It doesn’t get any easier than that. There’s no database to maintain, no software to patch, no template system to conform to. And all of your client sites can be centrally maintained. All of your client’s content can exist in one place, while their sites are scattered all over the place at various hosting facilities.

That’s what makes F3CMS unique.

• It’s functionality is basic
• It’s so easy to use that my grandpa can maintain a site
• There are no templates to use, so your design can take priority over your cms system
• There’s no software to maintain – this is great if you have a lot of clients spread out all over the place
• All of your content is in one location making site maintenance a breeze.