What is a good barebones CMS or framework?

Drupal's include system should keep everything relatively lightweight as long as you only include what you need. Despite the fact that it comes with a smattering of modules, what you choose to enable is all that will be included at runtime. If you have to get under the hood and make modifications, I'm also a firm believer that Drupal is a more friendly and elegant system than Joomla. We use Drupal at my work-as much as a framework as a CMS-and it has proven pretty reliable in keeping development practices at a high level.

I think the best is CMS Made Simple. Seems like drupal takes awhile to customize.

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[**Wordpress**][1] is a very powerful but simple CMS.

[**bbPress**][2] is a very simple but integrated forum (easy, Wordpress user account integration with cookies and all).

Since you have programming experience you may find Wordpress to be the perfect match (PHP, MySQL) with plenty of plugins and hooks to help you achieve what you need. For example, there is a [featured posts plugin][3] that will put selected content on the front page.


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I need to jump on the Umbraco bandwagon here. As far as ease of use from a developer standpoint goes, there is nothing easier than umbraco and v. 4 has full master page support and a tone of other stuff... and it's free.

For windows take a look at the [DotNetNuke][1] is asp.net based, free and open source and easily skinned and modified, there is also a thriving market in add-on modules. In addition most hosting companies offer it as a pre-installed application


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[Expression Engine][1] is fantastic. It's free to download and try but you must purchase a license if you are making a profit with it.


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I realize I'm a couple years late to the party but I was looking for something like this myself and ran across this post while doing Google searches for 'barebones cms'. Along with this post, this turns up:

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There is also a forum on that site.

A similar combination could probably meet or exceed all of your criteria. Although, as others pointed out, you weren't particularly specific on the details.

While the original author is probably long gone, hopefully someone else finds this useful.

**WordPress** actually has a forum plugin - it's nothing fancy but it's there. It handles user management et al and has a big community for plugins and themes. I think it is probably the easiest CMS to install & run (I've done some legwork here). There are plugins that update the core & plugins automatically (take that Drupal). I've tested these and they seem pretty solid. As usual - backup beforehand.

For .NET **MojoPortal** looks pretty good and is lighter than DNN. I saw the edit but thought I'd include this anyway since it looks like it's worth checking out.

**Drupal** is a language unto its own - I wouldn't tackle it unless you're going to do so with some regularity, otherwise it's just another different framework to learn. The uplink into my brain is at capacity already so I gently pushed it aside. The themes tend to look the same too.

Joomla may suit your users for usability.

I'd go for a pre-made framework myself because it would have a community and expansion capacity. What your client wants today will pale into insignificance tomorrow.