[TYPO3] SPAM-LOW: Re: Typo3 vs other CMSs

[Erik Svendsen]

Hello Christoph,

> Lol, I'm getting the message, thanks all :) I guess it's the same with
> all the Photoshop vs Fireworks, MT vs Wordpress etc discussions. There
> will never be agreement, but the more competent and customisable your
> tool, the more diffcult it will be to set up and learn.

True!
 
> I played around all day with Joomla. In my particular case I feel that
> (apart from the very important point that it displays no site
> hierachy, which indeed hurts!) most of all it will be easier on my
> clients. 

Haven't tried Joomla, but Mambo some years ago. Easy start, but after three 
days I got frustrated. Couldn't implement my complex design in a easy way. 
Tried eZ Publish and PostNuke also. Started with TYPO3 and this wasn't a 
easy start. But using the right documentation I managed what I didn't managed 
in Mambo in a couple of weeks.

And I'm not sure it would be easier on your clients in a longer term with 
Joomla. It depends on what they will expect in the future about functionality.

> Now most of my clients are at the same web savvy level as my wife,
> i.e. no idea. They want to control their websites or want their
> secretary to do so, without any need for training. So I install a CMS,
> explain the basics and then charge for more advanced stuff. Keeps them
> happy and relieves a lot of maintenance work for me. I don't think any
> of my clients would ever manage to learn Typo3. One example:

None of my client have learned TYPO3, except how to manage content. It takes 
about two hours of training and/or a 20 pages manual. And it's ordinary users, 
who only knows how to use MS Word, Outlook and IE. And they find the pagetree 
and use of actions/shortcuts really helpful. But as opposite to Joomla, I 
can't make an installation out of the box, I have to develop a solution who 
is suited my client. We have to agree on branding, design, functionality 
and so on. But then the client also get a solution who probably will live 
for 3 - 5 year with necessary modifications. With more and less endless possibilities.

http://www.linnearad.no/fileadmin/bilder/sjomat_backend.gif, show how the 
backend looks for one of my clients. 75 % of the work can be done from this 
list.

Your main consern should be, which solution would serve your clients in the 
long term, and you have to think 3 years.

And I think TYPO3 would give more cost up front, but I'm not sure the total 
cost over three years would be much different.
 
> One client of mine wants different templates for different pages. In
> Joomla he just clicks and assigns a template to a page. In Typo3 he
> would need to learn TypoScript and all sorts of stuff.
> 
> Basically in Joomla my client can switch on and off all sorts of stuff
> and readf the docs and learn how to use it. With Typo3 he wouldn't
> even understand the first 5 lines of any doc I've read so far, and I
> really have read a LOT.

As others has explained, this is easy with TYPO3, no need to learn TypoScript. 
One of my client has different templates. I suppose I was making a one page 
document how to do it. Remember, all the docs you have read are more and 
less developers docs. Thats somehow a problem, very little user documentation 
is public.
 
> So bottom line is, from my very short experience: Typo3 is a pro
> developers tool with immense capabilities. Great to build complex
> stuff. But I can't really present  this to any customer of mine as a
> CMS. If even I got intensely frustrated by it I don't even want to
> imagine what it would do to a mere Joe Sixpack who can't even
> configure their email address properly (and I say this without any
> disrespect, I can't fix my spark plugs either!)

Yes TYPO3 is a developer tool, it's more a CMF than CMS. But I think you 
have a wrong approach, you should not sell CMS to your clients, you should 
sell the right solutions to your clients. Which CMS who is used are of lesser 
importance, as long as it can do the job in a long term. And I never present 
my clients with an unconfigurated backend of TYPO3. They got a presentation 
of a backend suitable for editors.

But if you have client with a lot of differences in feature request, i find 
TYPO3 a very good tool. Because it gives me the flexibility to deliver everything 
from small sites to more complex solutions. With small sites, I import predefined 
templates who makes it really fast to get the site up and running.

To me the really important question is, which tool will give you a solid 
business in the future.


WBR,
Erik Svendsen
www.linnearad.no