The Great Church CMS Hunt Is On

At the church where I serve as the on-staff web developer (among other things), we’re now looking at taking the site to the next level…CMS-style. While there are plenty of CMS solutions available – some free and some, well, not-so-free – there are very specific needs within a church environment that the one-size-fits-all mold of a Joomla or Drupal-style CMS can’t quite accommodate (in my honest opinion).

As I’ve begun the intense search for a solid and long-term solution, I’ve encountered some interesting things. For churches – there are more and more CMS options available today while the niche market itself is still in a bit of infancy. I realized just how relatively new this market is by the absolute lack of good sites that offer not some but ANY informed reviews of the various options available. If you’re researching this…you’re pretty much on your own with little to no information outside of the CMS companies themselves which will naturally have a favorable bent towards their product.

Well, I intend to shed some light on this as I finalize my proposals and we move toward the next stage of our church’s web presence. In fact, I’ve already made my decision … now it’s just a matter of convincing the leadership that the cost is not only worth the investment but is essential to our future growth as a fellowship.

More to come…but here’s some names to whet your appetite for what’s to come: Sky, Ekklesia 360, Arena, Church Web Works, and Osmos.

I’ll be posting general thoughts on each company and what they offer (and don’t offer). I’ll also go through the reasoning we’ve been working through in making our selection. To follow with me – make sure to subscribe to the RSS feed.