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I run a software company selling downloadable software. Currently my site is written entirely in HTML, using a text editor. I upload it by FTP.

The chief problem I have identified with this approach is duplication. The following items are duplicated in every page:

  • Logo
  • Header
  • Footer
  • Common links (e.g. the link to my download page is in many different places)

This becomes a maintenance nightmare.

I want some way to resolve this. I want: - Templates - e.g. for the header and footer - Variables - e.g. to reference common links

I want the solution to allow plain HTML coding.

It has to be cheap, say less than $15/£10 a month.

What is the next step after plain HTML?

Edit - I've found that there are different classes of these systems: - Static site generators ( http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=700031 ) - Dynamic server side

I tend to prefer the first, because the simpler hosting keeps my costs low.

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closed as off topic by Zuly Gonzalez♦ Mar 23 at 15:40

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9 Answers

up vote 1 down vote accepted

You can try to use a static site generator like Jekyll.

It's designed exactly to avoid the headers and footers duplication using a template mechanism.

A full blow Wordpress install is really powerful, but learning to use all this power can take a lot of time.

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I like the look of this. Given that it produces static HTML it means I can also stay on my cheap standard web hosting package. – Dan Gravell Nov 5 '09 at 12:58
I implemented Jekyll last night. It's great. I have awarded this response as the answer because it is closest to my immediate needs, but other responses are valid too for different situations I think. – Dan Gravell Nov 11 '09 at 10:01
up vote 7 down vote

You should check out Joomla, Drupal or WordPress.

They are more than sufficient for your needs.

Checkout this question at superuser.com.

Another option that you can look at is Google Sites. It does everything you need.

Edit: All these CMSes are free; and all that you have to pay, is the domain name and the hosting space, which works out to be less than 40 usd per year, in my case.

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+1 for Drupal. I don't have any experience with Joomla. Wordpress doesn't have the all the power that the OP seems to be looking for, but drupal can handle that hands down. – Rob Allen Nov 5 '09 at 15:30
up vote 1 down vote

Forget about CMS. It's very difficult to customize once your business needs something specific. I would suggest try django instead. See my reason why. It's very easy to get running, but it doesn't tied you from doing anything specific.

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Django looks nice but it's almost too powerful. I don't need a fully dynamic website, I just want to remove duplication. Also are there hosted django options available? – Dan Gravell Nov 5 '09 at 12:56
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@Dan: It's worth mentioning that there are static site generators build on Django's template system, for example [Hyde][1] or [AymCMS][2]. This way, you get a fast web site without duplicating efforts and you can extend it easily if you ever need to. [1]: github.com/lakshmivyas/hyde [2]: aymcms.com – Claus Schwarm Nov 5 '09 at 15:38
@dan, you can try webfaction.com, I think it is quite affordable – jpartogi Nov 5 '09 at 20:36
up vote 0 down vote

the greatest and simplest cms i encountered is cmsimple.com cant recommend enough. no databases, just adjust to your liking and upload to the server.

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up vote 0 down vote

found that. I were also looking for same, but didn't get time. But now i found it. it's jojo cms. It is based on php and mysql and easy to setup. you can google for jojo open source cms to downlaod it.

if you didn't get it set up, i can help you. and even if you don't like this cms, i can create one for you.

my site is currently not working. but it will be very soon.

rakesh 360degree solutions.

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up vote 0 down vote

Checkout CMS like Joomla or Drupal. They are extremley well designed and easy to use if you have some basic knowledge and patience to tinker around. The reason Joomla is amazing is because its like firefox browser. It has got thousands of extensions built by the community. Think of a new use, and probably there's already an extension for it.

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up vote 0 down vote

I would highly recommend newbie CMS here: http://newbie-cms.com/demo/admin/
Unbeatable price and very intuitive interface just for any newbie. As the ad says, it's CMS but easy and you can actually get any website template off the web and use it in 3 minutes. The video is on the website.

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up vote 0 down vote

Joomla I find is easier to use than Drupal, however they both have many 3rd party add-ons which make either of them very versatile. I prefer Joomla both for ease of use and more third party extensions.

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up vote -1 down vote

CityDesk might fit your needs: http://www.fogcreek.com/CityDesk/

A 50 page version is free. It's Windows software where you componentize your pages just as you describe and then CityDesk puts them together and generates the final HTML pages.

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Sounds ideal. Unfortunately I'm a Linux user... (apologies for not mentioning) – Dan Gravell Nov 8 '09 at 13:27
Why the negative? – pbreit Jan 1 '10 at 1:14
is citydesk even maintained anymore? When was the last update? Why not use something that actually has other users? – TimJ♦ Dec 13 '10 at 0:45

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