GraffitiCMS claims it is an alternative to WordPress. Charles Stricklin mentioned it his blog. So did Matt. The question is, Is GraffitiCMS really better than WordPress? Let’s take a closer look.
Comparison Chart
| ✓ WordPress | GraffityCMS | |
|---|---|---|
| Product | ✓ Since 2003, now version 2.3.2 | Private Beta 1 |
| Development | ✓ Open Source (Free) | Proprietary |
| Platform | ✓ PHP, Linux (Free) | ASP.NET |
| Database | ✓ MySQL (Free) | VistaDB, SQL Server |
| User Base | ✓ Millions of users | A handful of users |
| Themes | ✓ Thousands of (Free) themes | A handful of themes |
| Installation | 5 steps, 5 minutes | ✓ 3 steps, 2 minutes |
| Price | ✓ $0 (Free) | $199, $99 |
It looks like WordPress wins hands-down. Graffiti claims the installation is faster than WordPress. Ok, I’ll give them that, although I know WordPress is by far one of the easiest software I’ve ever installed. By looking at the installation steps, the steps seem to be identical, perhaps GraffitiCMS even omitting certain steps to appear easier. I’m not about to pay $99 or $199 just to find out if the installation process is really faster than WordPress.
What is interesting is the word Free seems to crop up everywhere in the comparison chart. That’s the bottom line for me.
Thank you for putting this chart together. I almost did the same thing but yours turned out much nicer.
Ulysses, you note “PHP, Linux (Free)” for, um, platform. It should really just be “PHP,” which is available for nearly every web server you can run. Even IIS…
:)Also, though WordPress is developed for MySQL, there have been ports to other databases. Another plus for open source!
Just to be clear…
1. Graffiti will run on Linux and Mac OS X using Mono
2. Graffiti runs on MySQL
3. Price is free for personal use and $99 for commercial use
4. It’s a public beta
Rob Howard,
your comment here is in direct conflict with what your graffiti website states. Either you are wrong, or the website is wrong…
to quote from Graffiti sites,
1. “ Installing Graffiti CMS is very easy, but it does have two requirements:
1. You (or your web host) must be using one of the following operating systems: Windows 2000 Pro, Windows 2000 Server, Windows XP Pro, Windows Server 2003, or any version of Windows Vista Home Premium or above.
2. ASP.Net 2.0 must be installed on the computer or server.
”
2. “ Graffiti supports two different database providers.”
3. You made the $199 typo, which you later corrected. It’s not anyone else’s fault you guys made a typo. (and hopefully the code doesn’t have typos)
4. “Graffiti is currently in Private beta”
Just thought you’d like to know why the miscommunication and misunderstanding is happening.
Good Luck with your endeavors.
basically, why would you pay for it when they are giving it away?
Matt,
Rob Howard said it was free for personal use, but I don’t see it on GraffitiCMS’ website. In addition, many people don’t have access to ASP.NET, Windows 2000 Server, or Windows Server 2003 with IIS server since most web hosting companies run Linux and PHP. Adding a Mono Application Server might be a little over the top for most people. The same goes for the supported databases except MySQL which is freely available.
Obviously userbase and themes isn’t really a comparison point at this point (that sounds so broken): Graffiti is new, after all.
About the “2 minute installation”, I don’t really know why this even matters. When you’re setting up your CMS or blog for a site that’ll profit you 500000% the costs it took to start in the future, what’s so wrong about a 3 minute difference?
(Besides, one click installers exist.)
And besides, the damn thing is a CMS! Not a blog!
Um, WordPress is also a CMS. And its about the features, not the price tag. I would have run WordPress on my blog even if it wasn’t free. Heck, even Movable Type is better than graffiti and even they went free recently.
Seriously, any application that’s solely made to run on IIS sucks…
Content management system in the classic web sense of the word (e.g. what PhpNuke does).
If it costs 99$, the features don’t matter.
Maybe, a better comparison is GraffitiCMS vs Drupal or Joomla?
I have never read so much narrowminded opinions…
Just because WordPress runs in Linux or PHP, that DOESN’T make it better. Just a different platform.
Comparing themes against a not yet final product is pathetic and narrowminded. Did WP have 100000 themes on day 1 ? I don’t think so.
The development row is also stupid. You can develop for Graffiti, the source is available. Just because you CAN’T SEE it doesn’t it cannot be done.
Userbase is also pathetic when the product just came out.
Likewise for price.
All in all, a lame review by some narrowminded fanatic fanboy who is scared of some competition.
This chart is a load of bullocks!
Product : It’s released
Development : Proprietary, but with an excellent plugin system so you can add anything you want
Platform : Anywhere you can run ASP.NET
Database : A lot, VistaDB (default, free), MySql, SQL Server, Access
UserBase : Not yet too much, but tens of millions on Community Server. These guys know what they’re doing!!!
Themes : Not too many, true. But extremely easy to build. If you know HTML you can tweak this until you drop.
Installation : 2 minutes on a slow machine, yeah…
Price : $0 for personal use
Thanks for listening and changing the chart.
Graffiti is open source now at http://graffiticms.codeplex.com/
Thanks Binu for letting me know of the recent changes to GraffitiCMS.
I’m a .net coder and looking for a .net CMS. Graffiti just isn’t it.
I installed Graffiti from the Codeplex site an hour ago. Even now, 3 years after it first came out, it’s nothing but a simplistic blog editor. It’s NOT a “CMS” in the real sense: ie. you can’t create a web site with normal pages. There’s no page creation at all. As far as I can see, there one page – the home page – which you can add blog posts to. That’s it. All that code, all that development work, and that’s all you can do. Bizarre.
The Admin menu is: Dashboard, Write (new post), Posts, Categories and Comments. Nothing about web pages at all. If you want a one-page web site you can add posts too, then I guess Graffiti is for you.
Ironically WordPress, which was originally a blogging platform, is used for all kinds of web sites now, not just blogs. Graffiti simply does not compare, it’s not in the same class. Graffiti is perhaps what WordPress was when it was first being developed.
As a .NET person, it’s frankly embarrassing that Graffiti is out there purporting to be a CMS at all. Perhaps it’s real function is to serve as a technical base for developers with practical ideas on how a CMS should work.
WordPress has made greater strides since this article was posted 3 years ago. Clearly, the separation is much wider at this point.