The website you're reading right now runs on our own content management system (CMS), Light CMS. So why would a team that has built and managed WordPress sites for its customers for over 25 years write a CMS of its own?
Because most websites don't need everything WordPress brings with it. A typical small business site has a handful of pages, a blog, a contact form and some pictures. Yet a WordPress site usually needs a separate database server, a collection of plugins to add features, and a steady stream of updates to keep all of those pieces working together and secure. We wanted something smaller: a CMS that has what most sites need built in, and nothing they don't.
Everything in one folder
Light CMS keeps the whole website in its own folder. All the content (pages, blog posts, settings and form submissions) lives in a single database file, and pictures sit in an uploads folder beside it. There's no database server to set up, no database passwords to manage, and nothing outside the site's folder that it depends on.
That makes a Light CMS site easy to move, easy to back up and easy to restore. A one-click backup downloads the entire site as a single file.
Our first version of Light CMS went even further and stored every page as a separate text file, with no database at all. It was fast and simple, but it meant editing files and uploading them to make any change. Moving to a single, self-contained database file kept the simplicity and added something our customers asked for: an easy way to edit the site from a web browser.
Simple to set up and run
Light CMS runs on ordinary, affordable shared web hosting. Installing it is a matter of uploading the files, opening the site and filling in a short setup form. From then on, everything is managed from the admin area in your browser:
- Pages and blog posts are written in Markdown, a simple way of formatting text, so there's no HTML to learn (though you can use it if you like).
- Images, videos, sliders, cards and forms are placed on a page with short codes, such as
[image:photo.jpg]. - The site's look (logo, colors, fonts, header and footer) is set on a Theme screen. No template code to edit.
- Contact forms are built in the admin, and messages are both emailed and kept on the site.
- Search engines are looked after: a sitemap is created automatically, and when a page moves, the old address is redirected to the new one.
Secure by design
A smaller system has less that can go wrong. Light CMS has no plugins to keep up to date, and its admin area includes optional two-step login, enforced secure (HTTPS) connections and protection against repeated login attempts. When a new version comes out, the site updates its own database automatically, after first saving a copy of it.
Is Light CMS right for you?
WordPress is still a great choice for large sites, online stores and sites that need a specific plugin, and we continue to build and manage WordPress sites for our customers every day. But if you want a fast, tidy website that's easy to look after, Light CMS may be all you need.
Light CMS is free and open-source software, and you can find it on GitHub. If you'd like us to build your website on it, or help you decide which CMS suits your business best, get in touch.