Our CMS of choice: ModX

Content management systems (CMS) are an integral part of websites large and small. Among the open-source platforms lies a CMS rapidly gaining momentum, called MODX.

Like WordPress, Drupal, Joomla! and many more, MODX runs on PHP and MySQL, which are industry standards among open-source technologies. If these acronyms seem foreign, just know that open-source means it's generally available at no license cost and available to modify as needed.

Many of the open-source CMS frameworks come stock with powerful tools, but can be difficult to modify. End-users don't need to worry about this much. Developers do. Developers need flexibility in order to meet the demands of each client's unique online aspirations effectively. This way, a more intuitive end-user experience can be built. MODX is flexible for both developer and end-user alike, which is one of the reasons we use it frequently here at the nest.

For developers, the MODX system has a nice separation of code from templates. This makes it much easier to modify functionality without having to search through PHP tangled around lines of HTML.

For end users, MODX has a nice user interface which makes updating content in appropriate areas very straight-forward and intuitive. In its most recent code-base, called MODX Revolution, even more granular changes can be made allowing for a truly customizable experience. In fact, managing multiple sites can be accomplished through one user interface. And now that Revolution has full blogging capabilities, it makes the framework extremely appealing.

To be fair, each CMS has perks and benefits. We use a variety of solutions here at the next. However, we have found that MODX has the flexibility to satisfy both developer and end-user alike in a large variety of situations.