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Movable Type

Movable Type

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.

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Recent Reviews

TrustRadius Insights

Movable Type is a versatile tool that has found multiple use cases across different industries and organizations. Web designers rely on …
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My type is Movable Type

6 out of 10
May 14, 2014
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 …
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GTD: Gets Things Done

7 out of 10
April 22, 2014
When I worked at a newspaper, we launched an entertainment website that functioned as an arm of our entertainment section. It was used by …
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Pricing

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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

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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.

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Product Demos

Movable Type 3.3 installatie

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Movable Type Memo Plugin With Techmeme RSS

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Product 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 Technical Details

Operating SystemsUnspecified
Mobile ApplicationNo
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Comparisons

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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!

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:

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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

(1-4 of 4)
Companies can't remove reviews or game the system. Here's why
Jean Louis | TrustRadius Reviewer
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.
  • 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
Will this be used just for blogging or will this be used as a content management system?
What plugin will I need for my website? Some CMS have plugin but they may not function the way you would like them to. So always do your research before making a selection on what CMS to use.
  • It's a good tool when it comes to blogging.
  • There a lot for a developer to know and understand when building a template.
  • It is no longer free.
I've used Joomla! and Drupal. Both are power CMSs but I found it easier to work with Movable Type. Every CMS has its positive and negative points, but I found more benefits to using Movable Type compared to Joomla! and Drupal.
I think there are still improvements to be made. I haven't tapped in to the full functionality of the CMS yet but the rating I give it now is only based on what I've been able to use it for.
Dennis Dewey | TrustRadius Reviewer
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.
Is your business an enterprise level business that has more than a half dozen different content types? If so, then you might want to use a dedicated CMS rather than Movable Type. Movable Type is best used on small / medium sized businesses and is not the best solution for a full-fledged CMS. If you're using your content for something other than just displaying a website, then it's probably not for you. Movable Type works great for news/blogging sites. In fact, Daring Fireball, one of the most popular Apple-centric blogs is using Movable Type as its publishing platform.
  • It works well enough on shared hosting so it yields good returns in situations where your client cannot afford dedicated servers.
Movable Type is better than Wordpress because it generates static sites that cannot be broken by losing your database connection. The custom fields in MT are superior to Wordpress because of the way the fields are presented in the new content form. You need to get paid plugins in order to get that kind of functionality in Wordpress. Most of the templates in MT can be customized with greater control because you're provided with more templates.
I am most likely to use it in situations where there is not much at stake. I have less faith in the platform because of the direction I see it going in. Movable Type never really won the blogging wars with Wordpress so its future is still a bit uncertain. Most people I know have given up on Movable Type and have moved on to other platforms so I can't recommend it in most situations.
Kurtis Amundson | TrustRadius Reviewer
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.
Movable Type allows for great flexibility, and would be great for creating a large, multi-page, multi-purpose website. I would not advise someone to use Movable Type if they are just creating a simple 3-page portfolio website. The time to construct the site compared to the return investment of content in the end, I don't see as being worth the effort. But a fully dynamic site with many variables, is definitely one that I would recommend using Movable Type as the content management system.
  • Movable Type definitely increased employee efficiency. Having everyone on the same platform to edit multiple websites from system is crucial.
  • Expanding our website presence was a super simple process with Movable Type. All we needed to do was add another site, destination folder, and we're ready to go.
  • Having all of our web designers on the same platform helped immensely with communicating information and structuring education for new employees.
  • WordPress,ExpressionEngine
Compared to other content management systems that I have used, Movable Type is certainly a top-of-the-line platform. It is my primary choice when building large and intense user-based websites. If I'm building something simple, like a client portfolio website, I may stick with Wordpress. Movable Type misses some of the ease of use which Wordpress is known for, but Movable Type certainly beats it when you need to build a large-scale and user-intensive website with lots of populated user content.
I would renew my use of Movable Type when an opportunity comes up for a web project where the client wants to start a journey to construct an incredibly interactive user-based website. I really enjoy working with the Movable Type short codes and creating the custom applications for my clients and that would bring me back to working with this great platform.
Joffroi Holcombe | TrustRadius Reviewer
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.
  • 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).
If someone was well versed in PHP and SQL, I would recommend building a system from scratch. If they are more comfortable using a system then can customize, but that has the backbone already created, this would be a great tool. If they have a very limited knowledge of coding, I would recommend Wordpress just due to the more available plugins and templates.
  • Most of my Movable Type sites were smaller scaled or did not really have marketing goals so this isn't applicable to my case.
As mentioned, this tool is great for small companies that have no web experience and want a designer to build something they can eventually update and maintain. For larger scale sites, I would be more comfortable creating everything in-house.
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