Here's one place to search for them if you want to look for and compare:
This site has lots of info as well, but I think it includes open source AND closed source offerings:
By the way, I only mentioned Drupal, b/c it's what I use. When I first learned about CMSes a few years ago, I liked the general idea, however I specifically liked Drupal, b/c of it's many options of customization as well as it's performance vs the other most popular ones.
Probably the most popular are:
phpBB (for forums, if you are mainly looking to setup a forum)
Drupal
Joomla
Wordpress
Seems like there was at least one or two other "popular" ones, but I just can't think of them right now. Of those, Wordpress may be the most common. And though many Wordpress sites have an icon, link, etc on their site to show it's a Wordpress site, I doubt it is required. Only way to know for sure is to read the licensing agreements.
From what I read about the various CMSes, Drupal can have the biggest or one of the biggest learning curves, so in that respect it's not the best choice. But I wasn't concerned with that aspect as much as the flexibility and performance aspects.
One other thought - if you DO go with a CMS, make sure you find a host that seems to do well with sites based on your particular CMS. The web host can make all the difference there.
As far as hosting, I used to have the sites I work on hosted with 1and1. I think they are a very good host for static sites where you don't really need to get into the nitty gritty of things. But as soon as you need to customize anything, or particularly you need to run a CMS, or specifically the drupal CMS, well let's just say I wasn't impresed. As much as I liked that host, I had to go hunting. I came across a host named AnHosting, and read a couple different reviews, but the one that fit better to what I was looking for, as far as the info provided, was the one by John Forsythe, designer/owner of
Now, there are many hosts that do well with CMSes. I only mention the one I mention, b/c it's what I decided on, and it's what I use. I don't have the finances to go out and try everything out there.
Here's the review by J.Forsythe on Anhosting for use with Drupal websites:
There are some other hosts I've been curious about, and would love to try to compare, but I don't want to spend extra when I can do well enough with my current host.
I will say that I have at times wanted to try Joomla and Wordpress to compare, myself, but just haven't taken the time to do so. Once you've got a host setup that will support CMSes well, you can always try the different ones if you have and want to take the time. Frankly, you won' tknow which you prefer, really, unless you try them all I suppose. I've read of folks going from drupal to the others, as well as from the others to drupal. It's all about what you like best, and what works for you.
And now, back to my coffee, and away from the keyboard!
![[morning] [morning] [morning]](/data/assets/smilies/morning.gif)