Content management systems (CMS) provide software to manage digital content on the web. Without a proper CMS, creating and organizing content for websites or web applications can be difficult, especially for large projects with substantial content and collaboration.
CMS software typically provides graphical utilities like admin panels, content editors, media managers, user account controls, and tools to customize most aspects of a website. Many extensible CMS platforms exist, like the PHP-based WordPress. Some organizations even develop private CMS for internal use. This article covers popular open source CMS software powered by the Python programming language.
Django CMS
Django CMS is one of the most widely used Python based CMS, with over 400,000 downloads. Built on the Django web framework, it provides comprehensive documentation and support from a large community. The focus of Django CMS is providing secure, fast tools to simplify content management.
Architecturally, Django CMS uses Django models to represent content structure. Developers can extend the data schema with custom fields and relations by subclassing the provided abstract models. Templating relies on Django templates, with placeholders and tags to manage layouts and embedding content. Plugins and extensions integrate via hooks into the request/response cycle.
Key features of Django CMS:
- Presets for different content management needs
- Custom themes and branding
- CRM integration
- Extensive official and third party plugins
- Frontend editing
- Drag and drop interface
- Multi-language support
- Granular permission system
- SEO and metadata tools
- Hierarchical page structure
Django CMS sees frequent minor releases on a rolling basis, with major releases every few years bringing architectural improvements or migration to newer Django LTS versions. The project is stewarded by Divio AG, with hundreds of open source contributors.
Installation instructions, documentation, plugins, and source code are available on the Django CMS website.
Wagtail
Wagtail has over 32,000 monthly downloads. Like Django CMS, it focuses on secure, rapid development and easy content authoring.
Built on Django, Wagtail uses similar patterns for models, templates, and extensions. For content modeling, it uses a streamed page hierarchy with field encapsulation for reuse. Wagtail promotes separation of concerns between authors, editors, and programmers. It ships with an optimized PostgreSQL backend focused on editorial workflow performance.
Main Wagtail features:
- CRM integration
- Graphical interface for content management
- Modern admin dashboard
- Integrated search
- Real time previews
- Built-in version control
- Multi-site management
- Integration with Django apps
- Static site generator
- Plugins and modules
Wagtail follows semantic versioning with minor releases every few weeks and major breaking releases every 8 months on average as Django compatibility allows. It is published under the BSD license by Torchbox Ltd.
Resources for Wagtail, including installation guides, docs, plugins, and source code can be found on the Wagtail website.
Plone
Plone has over 450 contributors and hundreds of thousands of downloads. In development for over 20 years, Plone excels at managing enterprise level websites and applications. Although individuals can use Plone for personal sites, its main focus is enterprise content management.
Built on Zope, Plone uses a layered architecture organized into policy and mechanism tiers. It is highly modular, with over 1500 add-on products. Plone promotes accessibility and separation of markup, logic, and styling. It ships with integrated support for versioning, workflows, multiple languages, and content reuse.
Key Plone features:
- Robust enterprise security
- Extensive media management
- Accessibility tools
- User management
- Granular permission controls
- Multi-lingual support
- Content reuse without duplication
- Indexing and batch workflows
- Fine-grained object lifecycle
- Sophisticated caching strategies
Plone follows an open RFC process. Releases deliver new features on a regular basis with long term support versions every 2 years. Contributors include individuals and organizations using Plone. Paid support options are available.
Installation instructions, documentation, add-ons, and source code are on the Plone website.
Lektor
Lektor combines a static site generator with a CMS. It uses a "flat file" structure to store content in plain text files organized by folders. Lektor doesn‘t require a database server. The strict structure and text file format integrates seamlessly with version control.
For content management, Lektor provides a graphical admin dashboard and APIs. It emphasizes organization and structure to manage projects.
Architecturally, Lektor builds static output through templating its structured flat file content model. It supports custom content types, Taxanomy, and relations to avoid duplication. Lektor ships with built-in support for Markdown. Theming uses standard HTML and CSS.
Resources for Lektor:
Superdesk
Superdesk offers a "headless" CMS tailored for news publishers. Headless means it focuses entirely on the backend – APIs, commands, and admin tools. It does not include frontend rendering. To build a site, developers can connect to Superdesk‘s APIs from their own custom frontend.
As a newsroom CMS, Superdesk excels at content production and distribution workflows. Core functionality optimizes content ingestion, assignment, verification, association to media, and output across different channels. Flexible custom fields and schemas represent evolving requirements in journalism.
The open source community edition supports up to 10 users. Paid licenses have no user limit. Partners provide hosting or customers can install on their own servers.
Resources:
Comparison of Python CMS Platforms
The systems profiled have significantly different technical architecture and design philosophies:
DjangoCMS and Wagtail build full web publishing systems. They couple content storage with web site delivery, templating, plugins, etc. But this comes at a cost – more security exposure and tighter coupling. Upgrades can be more disruptive.
In contrast, Plone and Superdesk embrace a purer “content first” model focused exclusively on content management primitives like modeling, workflow, permissions, media handling, organization. No assumption exists about a website or delivery channels. Custom frontends can consume the content as needed.
Lektor bridges both approaches, augmenting its Git-based content store with flexible output channels, templating, and addons specifically for static sites.
For basic brochure sites, DjangoCMS‘s batteries-included web publishing may suffice. For large enterprises or newsrooms distributing to diverse channels, Plone or Superdesk better separate concerns. Lektor hits a nice middle ground for many projects, blending simple content management with static site compilation.
Conclusion
The CMS covered in this article represent the major open source Python-based systems with strong communities and active development. They span solutions fitting personal blogs, through enterprise portals, all the way to optimized newsroom workflows.
For developers evaluating these platforms, consider your content types, formats, structure, and desired delivery channels or consumption use cases. Review the assumptions built into the CMS object model and hosting architecture to guide your choice. Across the solutions profiled, Python proves itself a versatile tool for content management systems ranging from simple to sophisticated.
