Thursday
26Nov2009
Rails CMS Alternatives
Thursday, November 26, 2009 at 8:54AM
I've got a client who wants to integrate a CMS into an existing Rails application. As a result, I've started in on an evaluation of what's out there, to help us make the buy-vs-build decision. Here's the list of potential software that I came up with:
Rails CMS alternatives
Active projects:
adva-cms- repo: http://github.com/svenfuchs/adva_cms/
- site: http://adva-cms.org/
- Last update: 11/24/09
- "the cutting edge Rails CMS platform"
- Engine-based CMS
- repo: http://github.com/browsermedia/browsercms
- site: http://www.browsercms.org/
- Last update: 11/25/09
- "Humane Content Management for Rails"
- gem-based dedicated CMS
- site: http://groups.google.com/group/rubyonrails-goldberg
- repo: http://github.com/urbanus/goldberg (rails 2.3 compatible fork at http://github.com/lardawge/goldberg)
- "the rapid website framework for Ruby on Rails"
- Last update: 4/28/09
- plugin-based CMS
- repo: http://github.com/kete/kete/
- site: http://kete.net.nz/
- Last update: 11/20/09
- "a mashup between content management and knowledge management"
- Dedicated app, closer to wiki/blog than CMS
- repo: http://github.com/radiant/radiant
- site: http://radiantcms.org/
- demo: http://radiantcms.org/demo/ (admin/radiant)
- "Radiant is a no-fluff, open source content management system designed for small teams."
- Last update: 11/13/09
- Engine-based CMS, mature project
- repo: http://refinerycms.org/
- site: http://refinerycms.com/
- demo: http://demo.refinerycms.com/session/new (demo/demo)
- "a simple, easy to use, well presented content manager for small businesses."
- Last update: 11/24/09
- Dedicated CMS built on top of Rails
- repo: http://github.com/desaperados/seed
- demo: http://seed.mediacollectiveslice.com/ (admin/administrator)
- Last update: 9/22/09
- "a Common Sense CMS"
- Dedicated CMS built on top of Rails
- repo: http://github.com/trevorturk/static/
- site: http://almosteffortless.com/static/
- demo: http://static.heroku.com/
- "super simple Rails CMS built for Heroku"
- Last update: 10/16/09
- Dedicated CMS built on top of Rails
- repo: http://github.com/atd/station
- site: http://rstation.wordpress.com/
- "Station is to Rails in Content Management System like Rails is to Ruby in Web Development."
- Last update: 11/21/09
- Engine-based CMS
- repo: http://intraducibles.com/projects/typus
- site: http://github.com/fesplugas/typus
- demo: http://typus.heroku.com/ (user@intraducibles.com / columbia)
- "Trusted users editing structured content"
- Last update: 11/20/09
- Not really a CMS, more of a way to spin up an administrative backend via generators
- repo: http://github.com/zena/zena
- site: http://zenadmin.org/en
- "CMS (content managment system) with a focus on usability, ease of customization and web 2.0 goodness"
- Last update: 11/25/09
- Dedicated CMS built on top of Rails
Inactive projects:
Ansuz CMS- repo: http://github.com/knewter/ansuz
- site: http://ansuzcms.com/
- "an open source Content Management System built in Ruby on Rails."
- Last update: 3/19/09
- Dedicated CMS built on top of Rails
- repo: http://github.com/darthapo/comatose/
- site: http://comatose.rubyforge.org/
- "a micro CMS implemented as a Rails plugin"
- Last update: 2/26/09
- plugin CMS functionality for any Rails app
- repo: None - versions available by download
- site: http://www.geegocms.com/
- "Manage content with style"
- Last update: 2007?
- Dedicated CMS built on top of Rails
- repo: None - versions available by download
- site: http://thetis-sysph.sourceforge.net/
- demo: http://sysphonic.com/thetis/
- "The World-Strongest Groupware"
- Last update: Jan. 2009?
- Dedicated CMS and groupware app built on top of Rails
Dead projects:
Rubricks- repo: http://rubyforge.org/projects/rubricks/
- site: http://rubricks.org/index_en.html
- "Ajax style content management system powered by Rails"
- Last Update: Nov. 2008
- site: http://widgetfinger.com
- Thoughtbot site that allowed generating brochureware right in the browser.
- Scheduled to go offline 12/21/2009

Reader Comments (6)
Might be nice to include in the list whether each CMS has good test coverage. For instance Refinery although nice, has absolutely no tests and is therefore out of the question for serious projects.
Evaluation results? Which one are you going to use (and why)? Which ones to avoid would be nice to know as well (no tests, crappy design, etc.).
I haven't done the actual evaluation yet. As I get useful info I'll update the list.
This is a really useful post. Thanks Mike! I watched the whole BrowserCMS video. It got me thinking differently about what I'm doing in Rails (always with the custom code) versus what's going on in the Drupal world.
There's also RailFrog which hasn't seen love in a while.
Nice post. There is also a project named Sandstone which intends to be a a drop-in, customizable CMS as a plugin, see this GitHub repository