Are there any .NET content management systems that focus on usability and leave out the bloat?

Question

I work in a shop that is mostly .NET based, and we're trying to pick out a content management system to use. This means we mostly likely won't be able to use any of the common open source CMS projects (Plone, phpNuke, anthing not based on .NET, etc.).

Since I'm a huge usability nerd (just finished reading The Design of Everyday Things by Norman), I've been looking at them from that point of view. Frankly, I haven't been too impressed. This quote sums it up:

Most open source content management software is useless. The only thing worse is every commercial CMS I’ve used. - Jeffrey Veen

Here's a short list of our requirements:

• Has to be .NET based
• Prefer open source or on the inexpensive side
• Limited feature set (we don't need too many features and they make things harder to use)
• Does need Active Directory integration and robust permissions
• Should be focused on web standards and usability

I know it's probably an impossible feature list, but are there any content management systems that kinda sorta look like they might not suck more than a Dyson?

Edit:

Here's the current situation:

• I'm going to push for N2. I've got Active Directory integration working well (I even wrote a custom role provider). The only thing missing is workflow functionality. Hopefully I can get something going with that since it's the last sticking point. The N2Contrib project might provide a starting point if I can figure it out.

• I would still love to check out Stencil CMS if/when it gets off the ground.

• One of my co-workers was trying to get Umbraco going but wasn't having much luck.

Thanks for the help!

Disjoint

Answer 1

Check out N2 (http://n2cms.com/). I think that it covers most, if not all, of your requirements (I don't think it has Active Directory capability at this time). We are using N2 and I have really enjoyed how flexible it has been.

Spermatozoon

I would love to check out N2, but unfortunately we haven't upgraded to Visual Studio 2008 yet. Even though the sample code projects say they should work with 2005, they really don't. I might end up having to download the demo of 2008. Thanks for the suggestion. – Disjoint

Yeah, the 2005 thing is annoying. We're running Visual Studio 2005 as well. If you go in and edit the project file in Notepad and change the <ProductVersion> tag from 9 to 8, you can open the solution in Visual Studio 2005. – Spermatozoon

Answer 2

Self-plug is lame, but what you're describing is pretty much exactly what I am getting ready to release for $79 a pop. If you're still looking in a few weeks, take a peek. If you'd like, shoot me an email ([email protected]).

I've heard both positive and negative feedback about Umbraco. A lot of people like Graffiti, but it's more blog-oriented than a full-blown CMS.

Jhelum

We've been looking for a couple months now, I'm sure a few weeks won't make a difference. You've got me interested so far. – Disjoint

Answer 3

My company just completed a review of several commercial .NET-based CMS/portal platforms and, while I can't reveal who was in them (thanks, NDAs!), I can tell you that IMO they all sucked very, very badly.

Good luck on your search. I'll keep an eye on this thread in the hopes that there's something we missed.

Laurielaurier

Answer 4

We had a similar set of requirements and chose Telerik Sitefinity. It's got it's faults but overall I've been happy with it so far.

Suspicious

In my experience, if Sitefinity is anything, it's not simple or lean. – Jhelum

Could you tell me a little bit more about your experience with Sitefinity? We did look at that initially, but it seems like their purchasing options only allow you to use one domain per license, which might be a problem for us. – Disjoint

Answer 5

Unfortunately Jeffery speaks the truth. Which is probably why I build a new custom cms from the ground up every few years. Basically, the motivation for "boxed" CMS packages is to have every feature on earth and be everything to everyone and therefore do nothing particularly well for anyone. With the feature bloat comes the usability nightmares. Unless you start customizing and then you usually end up forking the project and losing the advantage of community updates.

Swarm

Indeed. We need CM software that does very little but does it very well. It needs to save you time and effort on the common things and get out of your way for everything else. Most dictate the way a web app/site should work, and trying to break out of that model costs so much its a wash with developing one from scratch. – Jhelum

Answer 6

Kentico CMS according your list:

• Has to be .NET based

It's .net based, .NET Framework 2.0 or later

• Prefer open source or on the inexpensive side

Free edition which can be used for commercial purposes is available, paid license starts at $750, source code is an option

• Limited feature set (we don't need too many features and they make things harder to use)

Many built-in modules/features, anyway they can be easily disabled to keep the UI simple to use

• Does need Active Directory integration and robust permissions

AD, Forms and Live Id! Integration

• Should be focused on web standards and usability

UTF-8 Support including RTL languages, WAI Compliant, XHTML Compliant, XML, XHTML, HTML, XSLT, CSS.

Instant on-line demo or download available at: http://www.kentico.com/Download.aspx

Claudeclaudel

We spent a bit of time evaluating Kentico. We ended up not being able to get it easily set up for development in our environment, which pretty much killed it right there. – Disjoint