over 7 years ago from Riho Kroll, Lead UI/UX Designer
I'm looking for an extremely lightweight CMS that allows for creating custom data structures, with image upload and some admin panel functionality, where information can be edited and added on some frontend. Is there something like that out there?
Kirby CMS
I second Kirby. It works without any database at all
+1 for Kirby.
… extremely lightweight CMS that allows for creating custom data structures, with image upload and some admin panel functionality, where information can be edited and added on some frontend…
Everything you described is exactly what makes Kirby so great! I'm currently remaking my portfolio using Kirby, and it is amazing how powerful and customizable the backend is. Especially for Portfolio pieces, where you might want to have granular control over every field. Unlike Wordpress, you can also customize what type of fields your front-end uses for different sections. i.e. radio buttons for categories, in-line file uploading for featured/hero images, etc. Best of all you can download it for free. The only limitation is your coding ability (you need to be comfortable modifying the backend slightly, but it's nothing too complicated). Sorry if I sound like I'm gushing – I've been using it for the last few weeks and I'm kind of blown away.
I'm actually in the process of redesigning my website on it. I'm slowly learning php as a result. OMG I have freaked out over technology this much since I first used Sketch.
I think https://grabaperch.com/products/perch would do that for you
Wow! Yes, that looks exactly like what I'm looking for.
Looks great!
Recommend Perch too. It's easy to get to grips with – once you get into the realm of List/Detail pages it can be frustrating, but there are plenty of examples and a good community for help.
It's well worth the money.
I think Craft CMS is leading the way on this. But as always, depends on your knowledge and comfortability
This looks quite compelling, but there is no getting started guide? Perch has an awesome intro video, which explains their product and how to use it. Is there something similar for Craft?
I used Craft CMS for one of my recent projects and I was quite satisfied with its versatility and simplicity. Unfortunately their getting started guide isn't very helpful at all, but they created multiple videos about their features.
There a couple of helpful tutorials (here are some of them listed), I used this one as a starting point.
Go to [mijingo.com](mijingo.com). Ryan has created some great beginner videos for Craft CMS that will get you started.
I'd check out the Mijingo tutorials. Or, you know, Google.
Craft is really solid, lots of plug-ins, easy to template and has nice api support if you use anything like React.
I used Craft CMS for our new site, and I was really pleased with it overall. It's fairly robust and has some useful plugins.
I've also built sites with Kirby. I like it a lot, as well, when I need a really lightweight CMS. It's super simple to build out and has fairly customizable admin panel.
Webflow, and you can design the front end too.
Siteleaf looks good.
+1 Siteleaf, it's a dream to use
It looks very focused on blogs. I'm more interested in a system that can let me define even what the concept of a "page" is.
Using OctoberCMS at the Moment. https://octobercms.com
I'd definitely recommend Perch CMS for this. It's extremely lightweight and quick – and if it's for a client, they'll love the ease of updating content with it.
I'd recommend Perch CMS too. It's a fast, lightweight platform with great support should you need it.
I always love working with http://www.statamic.com
You should check out http://getcockpit.com One can build custom data structures and stuff, it is also easy to install and get started. It's not really a cms that will create pages for you. You basically create the php pages yourself and then include it as a backend for that page. It can be used for so many things really.
This seems really cool! Although the front-end code readability seems to drop drastically from using this.
Good choice! I love cockpit, my fav CMS!
I'd recommend Perch highly. We use both Perch and Perch Runway (fantastic for larger projects) for all our clients. It's lovely to work with and the clients find it easy to use. It's a really robust but lightweight CMS.
Definitely recommend Perch CMS, we do all our new builds with this CMS. You could sign up to one of their demos... https://grabaperch.com/demo
Check out Concrete 5. From what I remember, it has a nice frontend editor. http://www.concrete5.org/
Ghost?
I've used Ghost for a few side projects and it's great for simple websites. The templating uses Mustache which is very easy to pick up and build with, the editor is well designed and very usable, and the team update and add new features regularly. I'd highly recommend it.
Sounds like the perfect use case for Contentful if you're comfortable working with an API.
I don't mind using an API. The admin panel seems a bit too limited though. I would like custom fields for just an image for example. As an example, I want to be able to define a cover image, a logo and a description for a page. It doesn't seem like there's a straight forward way for me to do something like that with Contentful.
Grav CMS
I'm currently looking at this as well, reading up on the documentation before jumping into it. How good/easy/fast is it?
I have yet to use it, but Dropkick looks promising.
Depends on what programming language you are most familiar with.
http://keystonejs.com/ is really nice right now.
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