LightCMS is too simple and powerful not to use
Rating: 10 out of 10
December 09, 2016
JR
Vetted Review
10 years of experience
As web designers and front-end coders, we use LightCMS as one of our go-to content management systems for our client's websites. It is a hosted CMS that provides us with two things a "from scratch" website project needs: hosting and data-driven modules. We no longer had to rely on internal hosting or bulk hosting solutions nor did we have to involve developers at additional cost to build basic data functionalities. Our group of 6 designers and content specialists are using it daily.
- LightCMS provides all the major functionality 90% of sites need. It keeps out of its own way by making these solutions intuitive and simple and not trying to solve every problem for everyone which would over-complicate the tool-set.
- This is the easiest to use CMS we have ever seen. I tell my client's that if they can make a Facebook post, they can manage their website, and it's true. Their UI is so easy and keeps getting easier to use. Untrained users get it in minutes and are able to manage their sites without our help.
- LightCMS's code is simple and light-weight. Sites are fast and the CMS doesnt get in the way of performance.
- You can do almost anything you want (except server-side programming) with LightCMS. So, we can create any design we want and it works great with Light CMS's tokens and editable regions concept (which is also simple to implement.)
- Constantly upgraded and fixed, the product is 1000x better after 10 years of working with it, but is still simple and not bloated.
Cons
- While keeping it simple is LightCMS's thing, some of the elements/modules could use deeper options or control for advanced users.
- Some content, such as calendars, cannot have data exported/imported easily.
- Support was amazing 10 years ago. We openly talked about how awesome they were... it isn't as good as it once was, but is still way above almost every support of other CMS systems we have used.
91.25%
9.1
72.5%
7.3
N/A
N/A
80%
8.0
N/A
N/A
- While I always think the price could be cheaper, LightCMS is incredibly inexpensive if you consider the costs of hosting, support, and upgrading is all included.
- As part of their partner program, we are able to control client accounts from our master account, making moving between clients easier and supporting them faster which ultimately makes our labor costs better.
We have looked at hundrends of CMS's and LightCMS is a perfect entry-level system for most of our small to mid sized clients. LightCMS's feature set is less complex than almost every other system and the actual interface is miles ahead of most other CMS systems. It's simply thought out better. It lacks sensibility and an API as well as other advanced features many more expensive or more DIY systems have, but the simplicity makes up for it.