David Gillaspey
Mon., May. 25, 2009, 11:40 am
Everyone,
On my website, Great Church Websites, which hosts and administers this forum, I've always tried to provide resources for three segments of the church and parish website market. These are: 1) churches and their paid and/or volunteer staff who create their own website; 2) churches who hire an outside web designer or company to create a website for them; and — the subject of this post — 3) churches that use or want to use a web Content Management System (CMS).
(What is a web Content Management System? Briefly, it's a browser-based system that enables anyone, whether he or she has web design skills and knowledge or not, to update or add new content to a website. However, as noted below, CMS solutions now have advanced far beyond this basic purpose.)
Regarding the latter, there are both open-source (free) and commercial CMS solutions available. There are plenty of resources on the internet to inform organizations about which open-source CMS might be most useful to them. But I didn't know of other listings or websites that focused on commercial CMS solutions for churches and parishes. On my website, then, for several years, I've maintained a directory of commercial, or proprietary, CMS solutions for churches and parishes. Admittedly, it was not particularly useful.
So today I'm announcing a major upgrade to this directory. Over the past couple of months, I've spent many hours carefully researching the websites of 62 providers of branded CMS solutions for churches and parishes. I've identified as many features as I could by researching their websites (it wasn't always easy). I compiled this information into a searchable database or directory. I added to this database contact information (address, phone numbers) for each company, if listed on its website, as well as prices for its product(s), also if listed.
To search the directory, go to http://www.greatchurchwebsites.org/web_content_management_systems_vendor_directory.php
The database or directory can be searched by any of 200+ (yes, you read that right!) features, the most useful way to search; as well as by product name and by keyword or phrase. The latter option will be least useful, but can be used to find vendors located in a particular U.S. state (but not metro area) or, say, England.
To reiterate, my directory does not include open-source CMS solutions such as Joomla, TYPO3, Mambo, Drupal, DotNetNuke, etc. I'm completely in favor of churches and parishes using open-source CMS solutions, but information about these products is already available elsewhere on the internet and I don't need to waste time duplicating the efforts of others.
What's significant about my research is that it makes clear that web CMS solutions for churches and parishes have really come of age. All of the products in my directory offer highly useful features for ministry and even church management. It would take an in-house web designer or programmer a long time to develop these features. And once developed, the features would have to be extensively tested to ensure they work.
(Or you could pay an outside web designer or company a ton of money to develop these features just for your church or parish, but the features you need most may already be included in a web CMS solution.)
Now, the downside is, some of these CMS products are quite expensive, but again, the solutions come packed with features, and the features are customer-tested. Not all of the CMS solutions in my directory are expensive, however. Even the most expensive ones typically offer several product "suites" at different prices; the more expensive suites have more features, as you might expect, but there are lower-priced options (with fewer features) that might fit your church or parish's budget.
As a final note, I'll add that there are many web design firms who have developed their own CMS for use on client sites, but these companies generally are not included in my directory of CMS solutions. (They're listed instead in my directory of web designers and web design firms; click here (http://www.greatchurchwebsites.org/web_designers_search_results.php?wS%5B%5D=5&Search=Search&sT=) for examples.) By contrast, my directory of web CMS solutions for churches and parishes strictly focuses on name-brand CMS solutions. In other words, the companies whose products are listed in my CMS directory basically do one thing: develop and sell a name-brand CMS solution.
(Oh, and two more things to note: a few of the CMS solutions in my directory are commercial solutions based on open-source software. Also, two of the products included in my directory are free, as they were developed by ministries, for ministries.)
Please check out my upgraded directory when you get a chance, and let me know what you think.
On my website, Great Church Websites, which hosts and administers this forum, I've always tried to provide resources for three segments of the church and parish website market. These are: 1) churches and their paid and/or volunteer staff who create their own website; 2) churches who hire an outside web designer or company to create a website for them; and — the subject of this post — 3) churches that use or want to use a web Content Management System (CMS).
(What is a web Content Management System? Briefly, it's a browser-based system that enables anyone, whether he or she has web design skills and knowledge or not, to update or add new content to a website. However, as noted below, CMS solutions now have advanced far beyond this basic purpose.)
Regarding the latter, there are both open-source (free) and commercial CMS solutions available. There are plenty of resources on the internet to inform organizations about which open-source CMS might be most useful to them. But I didn't know of other listings or websites that focused on commercial CMS solutions for churches and parishes. On my website, then, for several years, I've maintained a directory of commercial, or proprietary, CMS solutions for churches and parishes. Admittedly, it was not particularly useful.
So today I'm announcing a major upgrade to this directory. Over the past couple of months, I've spent many hours carefully researching the websites of 62 providers of branded CMS solutions for churches and parishes. I've identified as many features as I could by researching their websites (it wasn't always easy). I compiled this information into a searchable database or directory. I added to this database contact information (address, phone numbers) for each company, if listed on its website, as well as prices for its product(s), also if listed.
To search the directory, go to http://www.greatchurchwebsites.org/web_content_management_systems_vendor_directory.php
The database or directory can be searched by any of 200+ (yes, you read that right!) features, the most useful way to search; as well as by product name and by keyword or phrase. The latter option will be least useful, but can be used to find vendors located in a particular U.S. state (but not metro area) or, say, England.
To reiterate, my directory does not include open-source CMS solutions such as Joomla, TYPO3, Mambo, Drupal, DotNetNuke, etc. I'm completely in favor of churches and parishes using open-source CMS solutions, but information about these products is already available elsewhere on the internet and I don't need to waste time duplicating the efforts of others.
What's significant about my research is that it makes clear that web CMS solutions for churches and parishes have really come of age. All of the products in my directory offer highly useful features for ministry and even church management. It would take an in-house web designer or programmer a long time to develop these features. And once developed, the features would have to be extensively tested to ensure they work.
(Or you could pay an outside web designer or company a ton of money to develop these features just for your church or parish, but the features you need most may already be included in a web CMS solution.)
Now, the downside is, some of these CMS products are quite expensive, but again, the solutions come packed with features, and the features are customer-tested. Not all of the CMS solutions in my directory are expensive, however. Even the most expensive ones typically offer several product "suites" at different prices; the more expensive suites have more features, as you might expect, but there are lower-priced options (with fewer features) that might fit your church or parish's budget.
As a final note, I'll add that there are many web design firms who have developed their own CMS for use on client sites, but these companies generally are not included in my directory of CMS solutions. (They're listed instead in my directory of web designers and web design firms; click here (http://www.greatchurchwebsites.org/web_designers_search_results.php?wS%5B%5D=5&Search=Search&sT=) for examples.) By contrast, my directory of web CMS solutions for churches and parishes strictly focuses on name-brand CMS solutions. In other words, the companies whose products are listed in my CMS directory basically do one thing: develop and sell a name-brand CMS solution.
(Oh, and two more things to note: a few of the CMS solutions in my directory are commercial solutions based on open-source software. Also, two of the products included in my directory are free, as they were developed by ministries, for ministries.)
Please check out my upgraded directory when you get a chance, and let me know what you think.