4 Best Open Source Website Builder

Do you want to create your website using open source software? Well, check this list of the best open source website builders.

The web works with open source software. Most of it is for the backend, with most of the world's servers running on some form of Unix or Linux. These servers run hundreds, if not thousands, of open source utilities, script interpreters, etc. From time to time, however, open source things make their way to the browser, where the user can see it.

So, on this article, I wanted to highlight some of the best open source projects website builders that you should check if you're going to create an excellent website.

1. Wordpress

Wordpress is perhaps the best open source website builder which step by step and without making too much noise has ended up becoming one of the essential content management systems (CMS) on the Internet. With it, run from the smallest blogs to the most critical media, such as The New Yorker, BBC, Forbes and so on until 25% of the websites around the world are present, according to Forbes.

WordPress itself has provided the data, so as any data obtained from the interested parties themselves, they should be taken with caution. According to say, 75 million websites use it as CMS, which in turn makes 409 million people see more than 23,600 million pages hosted in WordPress each month, and users create 69.5 million new posts and 46.8 Millions of new comments monthly.

The secret of WordPress goes by having been able to arrive before many other proprietary alternatives to a growing sector, but also in its flexibility. The community is a crucial point for any open source website builder project, and in its case, this has translated into millions of plugins and add-ons that help improve and adapt its usability.

There is also a negative part. For starters, being so popular means that every time it has to report more vulnerabilities that are discovered and exploited to attack websites that use this technology. Also, as it happens in other dominant platforms, you can find with several defective plugins that hide malware.

Undoubtedly WordPress is one of the best open source website builders that you should try.

2. Joomla

Content Management System Joomla was initially developed from the open source program Mambo. Due to the differences regarding its commercialization, a large part of the team involved in the development of Mambo turned its back on it and focused on the development of Joomla as its project.

The first version of this CMS was launched in 2005. Since then, this content manager's hobby has not stopped growing as one of the best open source website builders, reaching several million downloads and a large number of registered users. Joomla is written in the PHP programming language and uses MySQL as a database. Due to its popularity, this CMS has a vast and active community that has been responsible for developing thousands of extensions (within which are components, modules, plugins, and templates), so, compared to other free CMS, Joomla even allows the development of highly complex projects.

The fact that Joomla has become one of the most popular open source website builders is mainly because the implementation of this software is relatively simple. Even if the user only has basic knowledge, after a short training period, it is effortless to build your website with Joomla.

3. Drupal

Drupal is an open source website builder, written in PHP and developed by an extensive community and maintained by Drupal Project.

Its modularity and ability to parameterize have made it very popular and used for different types of websites, from business portals to personal blogs, through social networks, forums or online stores.

The CMS stands out for the quality of its code and generated pages, respect for web standards and a particular emphasis on the usability and consistency of the entire system.

However, its flexibility and adaptability, as well as a large number of additional modules available, make it suitable for many different types of websites.

It includes a large number of functions in the original product. Also, new features can be added through the installation of additional modules, developed by the extensive developer community. You can also develop customized modules.

4. OpenCMS

OpenCMS is an open source website builder from the German company Alkacon Sofware that is responsible for both its distribution and its ongoing development. Although the community that supports it also contributes to the improvement of the system. The continuous work of all the involved parties results in the creation of free templates and add-ons to which the usual extensions of any CMS will be added. The features that differentiate it from the rest are, on the other hand, its simplicity of use and the ease with which contents can be elaborated and managed.

OpenCms is based on the XML markup language and various Java technologies, unlike most important CMS such as WordPress, Joomla, Drupal and TYPO3, which use the PHP programming language. The OpenCMS content manager doesn't depend on any platform, it works in any operating system, and it is executed directly in the web browser. Previously, you must have linked the CMS with a database such as MySQL, PostgreSQL, Oracle, HSQLDB, DB2 or MSSQL.

OpenCms forms the basis on which the web pages of some of the largest companies, such as the sporting goods manufacturer The North Face or the Lavazza coffee maker, are set up. About the size of web pages, the system offers numerous options and allows the creation of both small pages with a simple structure and large portals, although it is ideal especially for medium to large projects.

OpenCMS is also appropriate for the creation of intranets and extranets. If you want to get a first impression of the services and features it offers, you can access its demo version in English.

So far those were the best open source website builders that you can try to build your own website.

Do you use another open source website builder? Let me know in the comments section to add it to the list.