Cost: $99.95 / $149.95 /$299.95

Development: Commercial

Specialization: Blog, Forum, Gallery

Source: Closed Source

Hosting: Own Server, Subscription

License: Custom License

Programming: PHP, XML

Database: MySQL

Our Impressions:

ExpressionEngine is best for those that want a feature-rich (blog, dynamic content, static pages, etc.), but have a little programming knowledge. (Hence why designers often gravitate towards this system). While EE does not have a huge development community for modules, they do provide fantastic support through their forums.  Custom fields can be set up and controlled by very specifically by the designer. Another impressive thing is how they have implemented their templates (themes); it does not take a die hard programmer to build a custom theme.

The system can be frustrating at times in that there are menus buried in menus buried in menus. It can take awhile to find what you’re looking for. Once you hit that lightbulb moment though, you’re in for a treat.

Cost: Free, $395, $1,499

Development: Commercial, Community

Specialization: Blog

Hosting: Own Server, Subscription hosting

Source: Open Source

License: GNU GPL

Language: PHP, Perl

Database: MySQL, PostgreSQL, SQLite

Our Experience:

Movable Type has a great interface that makes blogging easy. One of the most unique things about it is that it is built to handle multiple blogs/sites, and each one can have unique settings and templates. It’s easy to publish content in either entry or page form, and add custom fields as you go.

Being both a commerical and open source CMS you get the advantages and disadvantages of both sides. You can know that it is pretty safe to use it on a client project because there will be support for it in the future. But the price to use it for a business level gets high, especially for 20 authors!

Cost: Starting at $499 for commercial use

Development: Commercial

Source: Closed Source

Hosting: Option

License: Custom License

Programming: ASP.NET

Database: MsSQL, MySQL, Oracle, SQL Azure

Our Experience:

Sitefinity is layed out really well and makes things easy to understand. The main focus is on pages within the administration. Editing pages makes use of a cool edit-in-place deal that shows you which content can be edited. There are lots of modules too, like polls, forums, blogs, lists, events, etc. so it can handle a lot of kinds of content.

Theming a site with Sitefinity may take some extra time to figure out. You have to create a master theme, and then apply both skins and css to it, and then define what kinds of content can go in it.

Cost: Free, $1999, $4500

Development: Commercial

Source: Pay for Source

Hosting: Own Server

License: Custom

Programming: ASP.NET

Database: MS-SQL

Our Experience:

Kentico works in a traditional CMS way: you add pages in a hierarchy, each page has separate zones (like left, top, or main), and then you can add content parts to them. The nice thing is that the CMS has a huge variety of content parts, from forms to blogs, to videos, etc. They have gone to great lengths to think about what you might need to add to the site. It is a flexible CMS that would work for a variety of sites.

At times, the editing window can get crowded and full, each page also has a lot of options which could get confusing for some non-technical clients. The free edition is limited in some ways, but still packs a lot of power. The other versions can get expensive, see the Feature Grid for all the details.