Plone: the Transformer
- Open source and free
- Built with Python
- Built on the Zope platform (http://www.zope.org/)
Installation:
http://docs.plone.org/manage/installing/installation.html
Features:
- Content management and publishing
- Forums
- Wikis
- User and group authentication and management
- Search function
- Version control
- Workflow management
- Nice in-site editing for content creators
- Themes: roll your own, download a free one, or buy one
- Lots of plug-ins
- A large and active developer community
- Great support and documentation: https://plone.org/support
- Other active support communities like: http://www.whoishostingthis.com/compare/plone/resources/
- Very good web standards support
- Accessibility compliant
Choose it because:
- Plone is huge, and can handle huge requirements.
- Python is a religious choice, like any programming language. There’s a substantial number of developers available, though not as many as PHP, perhaps.
- Zope is a commitment. It’s not just Python; it’s Python on steroids with muscle grafts and an attitude.
But if you want the maximum features, and are a deep coder ready to deal with a complex platform, Plone is likely the platform for you.
One Odd Note:
Plone sites are contained lock, stock and barrel inside a single file, usually named data.fs. This is weird, and can cause problems when hosted on 32 bit OSs that choke on files larger than 2GB.