When I started working here Seattle, WA, the first thing I learned is how to use Sitecore (CMS). I was trained and got certified to use Sitecore to develop web sites.
I am so much impressed at how simple it is to build web sites and how friendly the user interface of Sitecore is. My only concern about Sitecore is that it is so expensive, I couldn’t recommend it to my former employers whom I know has a tight budget. Is there any “cheaper” or “free” web CMS applications that is at least close in terms of features to what Sitecore has?
And the search begins…
There is nothing that is close in features that is free, nor cheaper.
When it comes to features, Sitecore is #1.
There is a free version of Sitecore, but you are only allowed to use it for your own purposes, not for commercial use.
Sitecore has a product called “foundry” which is a product built on top of Sitecore. The purpose of foundry is to give end-users without any HTML knowledge access to building their own small website. Foundry is also expensive, but compared per-site (as foundry can contain many many small sites), the price is rather small.
When I develop sites that needs to be cheaper than Sitecore, I use Umbraco, which is a .net CMS. Umbraco is a tricycle if Sitecore is a Space rocket, but Umbraco provides med with the tools for developing small-scale websites pretty fast.
Umbraco is free of charge.