A Quick Review of the 7 Best ASP.NET Content Management Systems
ASP.NET seems to have more and more quality options
regarding extensible content management systems with each passing year.
Depending on your needs, there are excellent options available both with
commercial licenses or open source code.
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PHP may be king of the web, but that doesn't mean there isn't room
for some stellar ASP .NET CMSs that can not only give you the power you
need to develop gorgeous, high-concept websites with a strong backbone
but will also give you experience working with the ever-popular .NET
platform used in business. Whether you're looking for a commercial
solution or something born out of the open source community, these top
seven ASP .NET CMSes can give you
the functionality and the support you need to get the job done.
Top 7 ASP.NET CMSs
1. DotNetNuke
Of all the ASP .NET CMSes out there,
DotNetNuke
is probably the most well known and popular. One of the reasons for the
popularity of this CMS is due to its multiple versions which allow for
the flexibility to accommodate a beginning web developer, a small to
medium sized business, or even a large enterprise. It has enjoyed a busy
development since before 2003 that continues to this day.
For those that don't need much support other than what the open
source community can provide, there's the DotNetNuke Community Edition
offered under the BSD License. It contains most of the features which
comprise the other editions, but the support is left up to the
community. The Professional Edition gives you support from the
DotNetNuke Corporation along with a few more features, and for a (much)
increased price, the Enterprise Edition gives you a few more features
along with phone support.
This CMS has been around for a while, so it's very stable and there's
a plethora of add-ons in the community, so it's definitely the first
stop if you're looking for something that's proven.
2. Orchard
Provided under the New BSD License,
Orchard CMS
is Microsoft's hand in the open source world. The Orchard Project is
based on a community, backed by full-time developers from Microsoft,
that develop components and scripts that are open tools for developers
to create applications, and their primary focus at the time is Orchard
CMS. Despite some slow development in the beginning, Orchard has struck a
chord with the open source community, and the number of contributors is
growing every day.
While some of the things you'd expect in a more robust CMS might be
missing, there's several fantastic back-end features which will delight
anyone who is looking for a young project to support that has a great
prospect of growing in the future.
3. Kentico
Another CMS offering multiple licensing options is the
Kentico
CMS. The free license requires you to keep the logo and copyright
information on your page, but the commercial versions offer support and
allow you to work without the branding. It's designed to be easy to use
for even novice users, so web development should go fast with someone
who is experienced.
Kentico's focus lies in three areas: Content Management, E-Commerce,
and Social Networking. That broad base makes it an excellent choice for a
wide variety of technology ventures. If the company's success, showing a
three year growth of 553%, is any indication, this is a CMS to keep an
eye on.
4. Umbraco
As an open source project,
Umbraco
isn't going to break your budget, and it has really come alive over the
past few years. It was first released in 2004 but it took a little
while for it to gain traction. Lately, though, it has become very
popular with designers due to the open templating system and ability to
build in guidelines that automatically format the content writers
provide. Also, it uses ASP .NET “master pages” and XSLT, so you won't
have to work with a heaped-together templating format. It's written in
C# and is happy to work with a variety of databases, so hosting
shouldn't be a problem for you.
In 2009, CMS Wire dubbed Umbraco as one of the best open-source .NET
CMS options available. In 2011, it was averaging close to 1000 downloads
a day via
Codeplex and is highly ranked amongst top downloads via the
Microsoft Installer.
5. mojoPortal
mojoPortal
is another open source CMS option based upon the .NET framework. It has
a very active developer group and is consistently being updated. While
it is free to download and use, there are a number of commercial add-ons
that are used to help fund the project. When it comes to developing
your own applications, many people prefer mojoPortal because it can act
as a starter kit for advanced .NET sites or portals.
mojoPortal is also considered to be very strong as a standalone CMS.
It is easy to learn and very simple to use. It includes a variety of
different tools such as blogs, photo galleries, chat, newsletters,
pools, forums, and much more. It also has a very strong community which
makes troubleshooting extremely simple.
6. Sitefinity
Sitefinity
is a commercial .NET content management system with 5 available license
editions ranging from free for personal use, to $499 for small
businesses up to $19,999 for enterprise use. The license will last for 1
year and during this time, you will get every update and free technical
support with paid licenses. Once the year is up, you can still use
Sitefinity to run your sites, however you will no longer receive free
support or software updates. It is also important to note that the
standard license is only good for one domain.
Currently Sitefinity is responsible for powering more than 200
government websites as well as large companies. Some of their most
prominent government websites include: The White House Federal Credit
Union, United States Courts, Downtown Fort Worth, and the Canadian
Securities Transition Office. Additional customers include: Toyota,
Vogue, IKEA, Chevron, Bayer, and Coca-Cola. With the price tag as high
as it is, you'll want to be sure you're happy with it before you buy it
by trying it first, but if the big boys are paying nearly $20,000 a year for it, you know the customer service is going to be top notch.
7. Composite C1
A relative newcomer to the ASP.NET market,
Composite C1
was originally sold as a commercial CMS in Northern Europe until
September 2010. Now, it's a free and open source CMS in version 3.0
that's offered under the Mozilla Public License. It's focus is for web
developers working on corporate websites, so its learning curve is most
likely too steep for the neonate. The 3.0 version, released in December
2011, was only downloaded a little over 1000 times from codeplex, but
despite it's dark horse status, it continues to be a well designed CMS
for the more experienced developer that wants their CMS to be more
functional than it is beautiful.
There are enough free community and commercial add-ons for you to
plug in the functionality you need quickly, so Composite C1 is worth
checking out if you want to get your hands dirty.
ASP.NET seems to have more and more quality options regarding
extensible content management systems with each passing year. Depending
on your needs, there are excellent options available both with
commercial licenses or open source code. In order to determine which one
is best you, it entirely dependent on what features you want included.
While there are other options available, these Top 7 ASP.NET CMS options
are all excellent choices.
