In my freelance work developing website designs I’ve consistently noticed that clients don’t want a lot of complexity. Simple sells.
Everyone wants something custom to have their website stand out, but they also don’t want to learn how to go in and edit HTML content in a back-end. This leads to a side career of website management, being contacted again and again by a client to simply update some text on a page. I honestly don’t mind this, but some clients do!
What if I could make it so that a client can just click on a page and then edit it very easily?
Enter Surreal CMS and CushyCMS, amazingly easy to use web based platforms that allow me to give users different levels of permissions based on their knowledge. If they know what they’re doing, they can go right into an intuitive interface and edit the full source code of a page. Or if they’re a little lost, I just give them access to edit the text in a few paragraphs that I predetermine with a simple CSS class. If you can use a text editor, you can edit a site!
Surreal CMS and CushyCMS are very simple and straight forward “light” Content Management Systems. They let me set pre-defined areas on the source code of web pages that can later be edited after the page has been published. They provide an easy to use interface for clients and require no installation of extra software on the server; they don’t require PHP or ASP.
The main concept behind a light CMS is allowing designers to focus solely on the design aspects while creating a website, so they can create a website just like they would for themselves.
The content side is amazing. There is easy inline editing, powerful user management, a full-featured file manager and an incredible revision system built right in. After a client accidentally wipes out a whole section of important text on their page, they can simply revert to the previous save of that page.
Surreal CMS and CushyCMS support administrator and standard user (editor) accounts. The administrator account allows me to setup the site details, like Site URL, FTP account and assign pages. The standard user account is for clients (or designers too) to make changes to the website via using an easy to use interface.
Both Surreal CMS and CushyCMS offer a free plan for personal, educational, and non-profit use. Optional pro features include commercial use, analytics dashboard, branding features, repeatable regions, page cloning, and unlimited sites.
These products are a breath of fresh air from the typical clunky and complex systems I see people using to manage their content.
If you’re a designer, developer or just want an easy and pleasant way to stay on top of your website changes, you owe it to yourself to check out Surreal CMS and CushyCMS!
If you’re a client looking for a non-scary method to update a few paragraphs and headlines on your website, ask your web manager for one of these platforms!