While developing my own content-management system for the company in which I’m working for, I was bound to research on other CMS from the inside and the outside. From the developer’s view to the designer’s view, I’ve visited countless number of web development companie’s website and their CMS websites. A lot of them follow the same principles from one another. If you’re a company or someone that is making their own CMS system or have one already developed for your clients, you might ought to consider to brand your CMS after looking at these websites.

WordPress – the infamous WordPress has to be included for several reasons. Easy navigation, straight-forward message, and because just because everyone loves WordPress.

Surreal CMS – They got a really simple-looking website, but it works well with its main feature shown on the front page with a link to 3 introduction/help videos.

LightCMS – I absolutely love this design. There’s a big introduction video for to catch your attention upon entering the main page. Do I have to mention the page itself looks as if someone scribbled some edits on it?

Plone - This design incorporates a description that looks like a “tag-cloud” linking to parts within its site. The design is quite minimalistic from the graphics, to the logo, and overall design, but it works well. After all, don’t we all want a CMS that is simple to use?

modx – While the one before this used like barely any colors, this one uses a lot of colors on the spectrum. The javascript-based slider is nicely done as it briefly shows us the main questions we all have when searching for a CMS.

Joomla – I almost forgot to include this. Joomla is obviously made for developers and what is better for developers than a forum, wiki-based documentation, and developer’s section?

eZ Publish – Like Joomla, it looks like it’s targetting developers more than designers. But I choose to include this CMS website is because it gives not only developers, but also web companies a lot of information and support throughout the website.

Expression Engine – I knew this was made by a Mac from the moment I saw it because the tab switches reminded me of Xcode icons. And no, it wasn’t the screenshot that gave it away, well maybe just a little. Nonetheless, just the fact of the similarities of Xcode, the design gives me an impression that this CMS has a variety of tools for your CMS needs.