Contao (TYPOlight)
Contao is an older CMS with a new name. Formerly TYPOlight, they changed the name to avoid confusion with TYPO3. Contao isn’t light either, its a fully featured CMS that many enjoy using.
Username: k.jones
Password: kevinjones
Current Version: 2.9.1
Cost: Free
Development: Community
Hosting: Own Server
Source: Open Source
License: LGPL
Language: PHP
Database: MySQL
Our Impressions:
Contao is everything we like about TYPO3 with a more modern interface, easier templating, and fewer options (in a good way). It was made to handle small to medium websites that use varying kinds of content. We really love the way it handles different “content elements” (like regular text, forms, filelinks, multimedia, etc.) and then you can tell it where to go on your site.
Contao still leaves a lot of “layout decisions” up to the editor, like changing where things are placed on a page and what styles they should use. Some designers may not be happy to give up this freedom.
Helpful Links:
- Contao CMS Home The home of the Contao community.
- Contao Forum Ask some questions about Contao.
- Suggest a Link
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User Reviews: Submit Your Own
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Voting has been open for this CMS since Sunday, March 15th, 2009. There are a total of 6 Reviews for this CMS. You can follow future reviews through the RSS feed if you'd like.
Review by Andrea Bizioli May 7th, 2013 8:30 am
Review by Ste February 11th, 2010 6:30 am
Strengths: Typolight is amazing for designers as it allows for them to add news and events and other modules that usually would have required me to pay a developer to write a php script (which would not have been cheap). the extensions all you to do all kinds of different things… some add extra usabiliy such as a text editor for CSS (meaning you can edit more than one selector at a time without having to go back).
Weaknesses: not much documentation, this can be a draw back especailly when you start using the system however i managed to figure out how to do most things and within 2 months i was working much faster that i ever have with any other system.
Review by Luis Puesan November 26th, 2009 4:54 am
Strengths: Fast and easy to install, even as local test installation I did not have any problem at all. It is clean, concentrated in Web Standard. Better learning curve than Modx, Drupal, Joompla, and WordPress. I was able to start designing a site using CSS in less time than Modx.
Weaknesses: Lack of well documented tutorials, I have to download a copy just to see how it works and still took me some time to figure out how things are done. I believe that going back and for to add a page is very over taken, but it is something that it can be designed better with other versions. Most of the documentation is in German.
Review by Américo Santos September 16th, 2009 5:39 am
Strengths: Works with the standards for code, usability and accessibility.
Fast, clean and css oriented.
Most of all: you can adapt almost any layout to it, unlike many CMSs that produce the same boring pile of boxed elements.
Weaknesses: Requires PHP 5.2, still not easily found.
Review by Fred June 16th, 2009 1:36 am
Strengths: It’s free and powerful.
This is the first free CMS I found that suits my requirements (tried CMSMadeSimple, WP, Joomla, Drupal).
I find the logic of it quite intuitive.
Thank to its documentation, I could setup my site quite easily (well, you still need to understand what it’s all about).
Weaknesses: I find it laborious having to edit each style selector individually (click to edit, edit, click to save) rather than editing one single sheet document.
It took me some time to understand the front-end / back-end user distinction (members vs. users)
Requires PHP 5 so will not work on some ISPs (like http://www.free.fr in France): well this actually a weakness of the ISP, not Typolight itself.
Review by Ben April 2nd, 2009 10:33 pm
Strengths: 1. Flexibility of content and layout
2. Upgradable through “live update” with just the click of a button
3. Extensions can be installed through the “repository” by clicking a button
4. Versioning and undo
5. Powerful templating through page layouts, modules and css
6. Strong community with many active developers
Weaknesses: The only weakness I can think of is that the documentation could be somewhat better. It is very comprehensive though.
Strengths: No pre-defined structure, so you can build your website fro the very beginning.
No limit in creativity: you can build your website exactly as it was designed, using just HTML and CSS.
Easy multi-domain managing using different root pages.
Easy multi-language managing (free extension).
Highly customizable modules through templates.
Very good tools in the core: FAQ, News, Newsletter, User Management, Comments and so on…)
Nice and clear backend interface, no mess up even with third part extensions.
Very accurate and in deep setting of backend user permissions.
Weaknesses: The only one already shown: more documentation in German language than in English