A look at Telerik Sitefinity, probably the most common CMS you've never heard of.

Telerik Sitefinity is the world's fourth most popular content management system: not a lot of people know that. Whereas Joomla!, Drupal, WordPress and TYPO3 are based on PHP architecture, Sitefinity is based on Microsoft's .NET infrastructure. It is designed solely for enterprise level web development, with emphasis on CRM [customer relationship management] and pricing plans which reflect its target audience. Therefore, Telerik Sitefinity is best avoided if you have champagne ideas on an own-brand lemonade budget.

Unlike the four open source content management systems mentioned earlier, Telerik Sitefinity is a proprietary CMS. Its core users are Fortune 500 and FTSE 300 companies, with ample resources and an established customer base. There are four versions available: Standard and Intranet Standard, Professional, Online Marketing, and Enterprise editions. The amount of features, even on the Standard and Intranet Standard Edition are staggering. These include a desktop image editor, built-in device emulator and connectors for backend services. More premium priced versions include the Telerik AppBuilder and full eCommerce facilities.

Why Choose Telerik Sitefinity

• Modular: comprehensive themes and extensions available, whether you wish to expand or streamline your website;
• Support: telephone and online support, plus Dedicated Enterprise Support Officer (Enterprise Edition clients);
• Excellent For Enterprise Level Websites: cast-iron security and tight control of plugins by Telerik;
• Full eCommerce Options: for most users, Sitefinity has a comprehensive amount of options from tax management to shipping options;
• Personalised Content: more customer specific content based on his or her spending habits and/or searches;
• Social Media Integration: supports social sharing buttons, Twitter URL shortening, blogs and forums;
• SEO Friendly: includes built-in Web Analytics, SEO friendly URLs and filtering tools;
• Supports Responsive Web Design: includes built-in responsive layouts and previews for mobile devices.

Support is dependent on the package purchased by the client, with greater support available by 'phone and dedicated support officers for purchasers of the Enterprise Edition. There is also advanced file management facilities and an automatic thumbnail image generator. Enterprise clients can manage more than one website via Sitefinity Multisite Management. This enables multinational companies to set up regional versions of their website.

Sitefinity is vertically integrated as standard with facilities for eCommerce and a wealth of plugins. Its eCommerce facilities allow for a personalised shopping environment, based on consumers' searching and purchasing habits. Microsoft Word documents can also be converted to PDF files, and there's connectors available for CRM databases like Salesforce, Marketo and SharePoint. There is comprehensive SEO facilities and Sitefinity supports responsive web design as standard. Sites can be tested via a number of mobile device screen resolutions.

Telerik Sitefinity is designed not only for the most complex of websites, but also intranets. For anything other than a multinational company or well established national player, it is overkill. If you're willing to splash the cash and happen to be au fait with .NET architecture, then give it a go.

Telerik Sitefinity

• Latest Stable Version: 7.0
• Popularity: 4th
• Number of Sites: 581,692 (02 June 2014)
• Used By: Philips, NASA, Marks and Spencer, Boeing, Kodak, BT.