Content management systems are becoming more and more popular due to their simplified design and flexibility. It doesn’t hurt that most popular CMS are open source as well.

Plainly speaking, using a CMS to build your website is a good idea.  You can use any content management system that fits your technical and customization requirements. There are many choices, but we imagine your research will lead you to consider Joomla or Radiant as content management system.

Joomla is PHP based CMS while Radiant CMS is built using Ruby on Rails. Radiant is a logical choice for those who have invested in Ruby on Rails based applications while Joomla is used by technical literate developers and designers.

Joomla include features such as caching to improve performance, ability to produce RSS feeds, printable versions of pages, news flashes, blogs, polls, website searching and language internationalization.

Radiant also contains caching and other functionality.  Key concepts of this Rails CMS include Layouts, Snippets, Page Parts and a custom tagging language called Radius.  Customization can be achieved through Radiant Extensions. Through Radius, you can create your own custom tags to give CMS administrators the ability to craft dynamic functionality without being a programmer.

All functionality available in Joomla can be achieved in Radiant CMS.

Radiant is so fast and flexible and uses hierarchical model to arrange pages and also content of each page of the Web site. To add a child page for a particular page you just need to click “Add” button and locate your page. It is as simple as registering by few clicks on a website.

Joomla consist of many different parts which are being as modular as possible, allowing extensions and integration. An Example of such extensions is “Plugins”. Plugins are background extensions that allow a new functionality in Joomla. Plugins are used for different purposes and they can be added as modules or standalone plugins.

Before choosing a content management system, you must be aware of your purpose for creating the website. Then you will be able to choose and differentiate between different CMS and can find the appropriate one for you.

Looking beyond a PHP CMS vs. a Ruby on Rails CMS, it will be beneficial to know how much customization is going to be needed for your project.  Most often CMS projects involve some level of customization.   By knowing the amount of customization required of both systems, you can make an educated choice on which CMS is best for your project.