Firstly, look at whether you need a CMS. Logging into a site doesn’t require one. Secondly, look at basic systems like WordPress or Drupal where you can get away with doing as little customisation as possible. If you need a system where you find yourself doing configuration and programming use something like Plone. That at least has a sane system underneath it in Zope and Python. Oh, and it also has a sane front-end that is standards compliant. Buying a system in is also an option.

There should never be any reason for any software to invent its own language. If you see something that has then it’s trying to do something that is horrifically error prone and ultimately impossible – customise away a CMS. Implementing a language also has its own performance issues.

I haven’t even touched on the deployment issues…….

I use both TYPO3 and WordPress. I settled on TYPO3 after months of research and kept concluding that it was the best in terms of feature sets, expandability, and enterprise capability. As for performance, many things can be done to MySQL, Apache, and TYPO3 to ensure optimum response. There are some huge sites using TYPO3 with great success.

For Acqal, most of our clients are coming to us specifically for TYPO3 as the tools they’ve been using are too limited or want better qualified TYPO3 support.

I do keep an eye out for frameworks and CMSs to use as I do have my own “I dislike TYPO3 days”. However, with our enterprise needs clients, it’s rare when TYPO3 isn’t the right fit.

However, if all you really need is a blogging tool and a system running out of the box, then Word Press is indeed a better tool than TYPO3. However, when you want to start involving more than 1 writer, multiple editors, multiple languages, automatic graphic generation, thousands of plugins, and a multiple tier structure; then TYPO3 is better than Word Press.

A blanket statement of X is better than Y, without Z reasons can be construed as an uneducated response.

In the end, use the right tool for the job.