TrustRadius Insights
Movable Type is a versatile tool that has found multiple use cases across different industries and organizations. Web designers rely on …
Overview
What is Movable Type?
Movable Type is a Perl-based content management system from Six Apart, featuring the capability to host multiple weblogs and standalone content pages, manage files and user roles, templates, tags, categories, and trackback links.
Recent Reviews
Pricing
N/A
Unavailable
What is Movable Type?
Movable Type is a Perl-based content management system from Six Apart, featuring the capability to host multiple weblogs and standalone content pages, manage files and user roles, templates, tags, categories, and trackback links.
Entry-level set up fee?
- No setup fee
Offerings
- Free Trial
- Free/Freemium Version
- Premium Consulting/Integration Services
Would you like us to let the vendor know that you want pricing?
2 people also want pricing
Alternatives Pricing
What is Wix?
Wix is a free, hosted website builder, designed to be user-friendly and customizable without requiring coding from the user. It is well-known for its eCommerce solution, which allows users to build an online store.
What is Squarespace?
Squarespace is a CMS platform that allows users to create a DIY blog, eCommerce store, and/or portfolio (visual art or music). Some Squarespace website and shop templates are industry or use case-specific, such as menu builders for restaurant sites.
Product Demos
Movable Type 3.3 installatie
YouTube
Movable Type Memo Plugin With Techmeme RSS
YouTube
Product Details
- About
- Tech Details
What is Movable Type?
Movable Type is a Perl-based CMS from Six Apart, featuring the capability to host multiple weblogs and standalone content pages, manage files and user roles, templates, tags, categories and trackback links. Six Apart was formed in 2001 as a blog solution provider in the US. In
2003 the company founded Six Apart KK, a Japanese legal entity. In
November 2010, Six Apart joined forces with VideoEgg to create a new
company called SAY Media. In January 2011, Six Apart KK was wholly
acquired by Infocom, a Japanese IT company listed on the Tokyo Stock
Exchange. Six Apart KK has assumed responsibility over all intellectual
property and business operations of Movable Type, as well as trademark
rights of Six Apart. The new Six Apart, a Japanese corporation formerly
known as Six Apart KK, currently develops, markets and supports Movable
Type for a global user base.
Movable Type touts a template markup system near in complexity to HTML. It is designed to support unlimited users and expanding without degrading site experience or increasing page load times. Custom fields, themes, plugins and the data API support great configurability. Its decoupled architecture supports flexible deployment for multichannel delivery. It is proprietary software.
Movable Type touts a template markup system near in complexity to HTML. It is designed to support unlimited users and expanding without degrading site experience or increasing page load times. Custom fields, themes, plugins and the data API support great configurability. Its decoupled architecture supports flexible deployment for multichannel delivery. It is proprietary software.
Movable Type Technical Details
| Operating Systems | Unspecified |
|---|---|
| Mobile Application | No |
Comparisons
Compare with
Reviews and Ratings
(16)
Community Insights
TrustRadius Insights are summaries of user sentiment data from TrustRadius reviews and, when necessary, 3rd-party data sources. Have feedback on this content? Let us know!
- Business Problems Solved
- Pros
- Cons
Movable Type is a versatile tool that has found multiple use cases across different industries and organizations. Web designers rely on Movable Type to build content management systems for their clients, enabling easy modification and addition of content to websites. According to reviewers, Movable Type serves as a lightweight CMS and blogging platform, making it ideal for setting up small to medium-sized websites for various clients.
One notable advantage of Movable Type over Wordpress, as reported by users, is its reliability and enhanced security features. By creating static pages, Movable Type minimizes the risk of compromising the site's security. Fashion publications leverage Movable Type as a blogging tool for editors and writers, streamlining content creation processes and boosting their SEO strategies. In addition, companies utilize Movable Type as an intranet system, providing employees with access to internal resources and reducing the need for frequent departmental calls.
The Creative Media Department of organizations manages multiple websites using Movable Type, benefiting from its ability to make design and content adjustments from a single installation. Educational institutions have also embraced Movable Type as a means of facilitating communication about class projects in a blog-style format. Furthermore, newspapers find value in using Movable Type to quickly reproduce print stories online, simplifying the publishing process and enabling efficient article tagging. Lastly, Oberlin College & Conservatory's Office of Communications Division utilizes Movable Type to manage student blogs effectively and maintain a strong presence on social media platforms.
Overall, Movable Type proves itself as a reliable solution with diverse applications in web design, publishing, education, and internal communication within organizations.
Intuitive and Easy-to-Use Custom Fields: Several users have found the custom fields in Movable Type to be intuitive and easy to work with, even when compared to other popular blogging platforms. They appreciate that custom fields can be defined for different entity types and are easy to find and use in the new content form.
Rich Templating Language: Many reviewers have praised the rich templating language in Movable Type, mentioning that it comes with numerous built-in features. They note that there is less need to extend for further templating functionality, and some users even mention adding their own PHP code to enhance the features.
User-Friendly Interface: Users consistently highlight that Movable Type is easy to use straight out of the box, thanks to its user-friendly interface. Navigation is effortless, making it a breeze for both beginners and experienced users alike.
Cons:
- Complicated Backend Customization: Some users have found the customization of the backend in Movable Type to be more complicated compared to other CMS platforms like WordPress or Drupal, making it difficult to rebrand the interface without hacking core files.
- Confusing Licensing: Several reviewers have mentioned that the licensing of Movable Type can be confusing and has undergone changes over time, with an open-source version of MT6.x no longer available.
- Limited Plugins and Media-Friendliness: Users have noted that Movable Type has a limited number of plugins compared to popular CMS platforms like WordPress or Drupal, and also found it less media-friendly with difficulties in embedding video and images, constantly needing resizing for proper display.
Note: The cons listed above are based on user feedback and opinions about Movable Type.
Attribute Ratings
Reviews
(1-10 of 10)Companies can't remove reviews or game the system. Here's why
We had two CMS used by our fashion publication - one was an in house, custom made CMS which was clunkier but more flexible with back end coding, and the other was Movable Type, which we used for our shorter, newsier blog posts since content was easy to build for producers, and even editors and freelance writers who weren't well versed in web production.
- Easy to use straight out of the box, very user friendly with an intuitive interface.
- Great for team use where there are multiple editors and writers fixing and editing each other's works. It's easy to track who last made the latest edits.
- Stellar support team and system. I've found that Moveable Type's support system is generally more responsive and helpful than WordPress.
- Very difficult to tamper with back-end coding, which is why we had a separate CMS for our bigger articles and interactive content.
- Limited number of plug-ins compared to other popular CMS like WordPress or Drupal.
- Not as media friendly as I would like. Movable Type was VERY finicky with embedding video and images. Constantly had to resize images and mess with video size to make sure it would display at the right size on the website.
May 14, 2014
My type is Movable Type
Score 6 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
We used Movable Type as a blogging tool for our editors/writers. With the amount of content being posted to our site on a daily basis, the blogging platform helped boost our SEO strategy.
I've also used Movable Type to build CMSs for a lot of my clients that were looking to manage their own websites. The CMS helped makes it easy to update content on your website and at the same time allows you to post blog entries on a daily basis. This helps keep customers informed of company announcements.
I've also used Movable Type to build CMSs for a lot of my clients that were looking to manage their own websites. The CMS helped makes it easy to update content on your website and at the same time allows you to post blog entries on a daily basis. This helps keep customers informed of company announcements.
- User-friendly interface which makes it very easy to navigate.
- It allows you to easily create multiple blogs in one installation.
- I like the long list of plugins that are available to use.
- Better gallery plugin
- Publishing
- Template tools
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
I was using Movable Type to set up small-medium sized websites for various clients including my own portfolio website for myself. It is a good lightweight CMS and blogging platform. I would usually choose Movable Type over Wordpress because it is more reliable out of the box. It is difficult to "Fireball" a Movable Type site because the platform creates static pages.
- Renders one or more static pages per node/content item. Static pages are better for high traffic sites because dynamic sites do not always properly implement caching and are more likely to fail from needing a constant database connection.
- Out of the box, the custom fields in Movable Type are much more intuitive to work with than Wordpress and other blogging platforms. The custom fields even work better than some dedicated content management systems such as Joomla. Custom fields can be defined for several different entity types such as content and taxonomy. The fields show up in the new content form and are easy to find and use.
- The templating language in Movable Type is extremely rich and has many nice features built in. There is less of a need to extend for further templating functionality and you can also add some of your own PHP to the mix to add more features.
- The installation of Movable Type still needs improvement. I've had to learn quite a bit about setting up my own apache servers in the past, but most of the needed modules for Movable Type come preinstalled nowadays with many server stacks.
- The customization of the backend is much more complicated in comparison to Wordpress or other content management systems. It is difficult to rebrand the backend interface without hacking core files.
- The licensing of Movable Type is confusing, keeps changing and now you're unable to get an open source version of MT6.x.
- Movable Type could use its own command line utility like Drush for Drupal.
May 02, 2014
Moveable Type @ The Daily Collegian
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Moveable Type was used in a CMS function to reproduce print stories quickly online for my college's student newspaper. We were able to copy and paste stories into the CMS, attach the appropriate tags, and publish the stories so they would appear online as the print version of the newspaper was produced.
- Tagging
- Pages
- Archiving
- Security
- Multimedia integration
- Memory leaks
April 30, 2014
Movable Type - Good platform that wants to be free
Score 6 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
It is used as the company intranet. I set up a MT site for each employee to log in to for internal resources. This minimizes calls to each department because people can just log in to the intranet and get what they need. It is used across the entire organization.
- Blogging
- Content Management
- User Roles
- It cost too much
- Should be free
- Creating your own templates should be easier
April 30, 2014
Flexible & Multi-Purposed Website Platform
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
The Creative Media Department of our company used Movable Type to manage many of the websites that our company ran. From the President's Blog to the news pages on our ministry partner's websites, our creative staff was able to make any design and content adjustments to all of our websites from a single installation. We also had several stand-alone websites for expeditions which were hosted by the software and accessible by additional users. Having all of the content management for multiple websites available in one location really was key for our company needs and workflow.
- Movable type seamlessly integrates multiple websites in one installation which allows easy access to the content and design.
- Template tags and coding is well documented by Movable Type to provide developers like me the tools required to make completely custom designs.
- The more recent versions of Movable Type have really upped the ante on how broadly the platform can be used (such as for blogs, forums, e-commerce, etc.)
- Especially on the older versions, the limited number of well-developed third-party plugins is problematic for efficiently developing a well-functioning website.
- Versions of movable type which didn't allow pages to be constructed were difficult to create continuity in design and easily editable pages for our editors.
- The installation process could be simplified to make it easier for those new to a CMS to install.
Score 3 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
The organization I was with used Movable Type for blogs written by students and faculty. It was used by the whole organization, though it is now being phased out. It addressed a need to communicate about class projects in a blog style format.
- Once you understood how the MT language and framework worked, customization wasn't too difficult.
- Allowed for levels of user access.
- Ease of creating RSS feeds.
- Very clunky and out dated product compared to WordPress or Blogger.
- Not user friendly. Required a lot of training.
- Difficult for users to layout their blog entries as expected.
- Difficult to upload images in a consistent format.
- Features that never worked consistently: password protection.
- Blog frequently went down.
April 22, 2014
GTD: Gets Things Done
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
When I worked at a newspaper, we launched an entertainment website that functioned as an arm of our entertainment section. It was used by about a dozen people, who essentially functioned as bloggers. So basically, we were using it as a content management system. I also seem to recall that the newspaper used Movable Type to make posts to the news side of the website. We all had our own logins and would schedule postings to particular parts of the entertainment website and the newspaper site. I would characterize our use as departmental, specifically from an editorial perspective.
- It provided easy management of blog postings. I was able to set up content early and schedule my posts for a later date.
- The interface was user friendly so you don't need to spend a lot of time in training. I was able to figure out a lot of the product on my own.
- You could assign different administrative privileges to certain people. This means that certain people could only post to certain modules.
- While it's beneficial to be able to assign administrative rights to a user so they can only post to certain places of a website, I can recall that Movable Type did not inform general users of the types of privileges they had. So, for example, when I knew I needed to make a posting to a certain area, and was unable to do so, I was not informed that I did not have access to make that posting. It would have been helpful for Movable Type to post a message on the screen, saying that I needed more permissions. This was very frustrating, especially when I was on deadline for a newspaper story.
- Unfortunately, (or fortunately), I do not recall other negative experiences. I thought it was a pretty clean, friendly interface.
April 09, 2014
First Experiences With Movable Type
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Movable Type is used by the Office of Communications Division at Oberlin College & Conservatory. As a student blogger, we utilize the program to manage the Oberlin blogs for all contributors--students, admissions people and past bloggers. It helps us to effectively address a social media presence issue as well as helps Oberlin to successfully market its breadth of student perspectives while begin something fun and easy to engage with.
- I like that there is a quick post option-- in the event that I ever need to post a blog quickly, I can do so.
- There is an autosave function! One time, I mistakenly worked on a draft and did not save it but the server (thankfully) auto-saved my work and placed it in my draft box for me to return to later.
- The preview tool truly comes in handy with assessing formatting issues, spelling errors and other proofreading necessities.
- I would love to see more streamlined features for my writing-- like a smoother toolbar for bolding, underlining and italicizing things.
- The work screen can often be very bland, I would enjoy seeing different ways of customizing my screen.
- I would appreciate having a sidebar that shows me quick options (how to insert images, how to reformat lines, etc.) because it would make my writing process go a bit faster.
April 08, 2014
Movable Type Review and Evaluation
Score 6 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
I primarily used Movable Type when I was performing free lance web designing. I would use it at the CMS for clients so they could easily modify and add content on their sites without having any coding experience. I used Moveable Type over its competitors because it was more open to modifications and customization. It was very easy to template and depending on how proficient your PHP and SQL skills were, you could make the platform do anything you wanted.
The man issue I had was implementing the dynamic page load portion of it. I couldn't get it to work so many of my pages were loaded statically. The issue with this is some of my site's typical side bar content (ex. Recently posted....) content was not updating. I also used the system on a site that grew to about 800+ pages. This resulted in build errors and system errors.
The man issue I had was implementing the dynamic page load portion of it. I couldn't get it to work so many of my pages were loaded statically. The issue with this is some of my site's typical side bar content (ex. Recently posted....) content was not updating. I also used the system on a site that grew to about 800+ pages. This resulted in build errors and system errors.
- Very easy to theme.
- The control panel is simple enough for the basic user to figure out
- Very easy to add plugins and more complex code.
- The actual plugin website seems out of date and not well maintained.
- The system seemed to crash for much larger sites (800+ entries).