Cushy CMS bills itself as an online content manager created to “take the work out of managing content” that is “Super. Easy. To. Use.”.
Account creation takes less than 30 seconds from start to logged in. They score big points from me on this. Had it not been so fast I wouldn’t be doing this review. Anything that makes me click a link from my email to verify an account and then manually enter my login details irritates me enough to pass it by completely. You can get signed up and start using it faster than you can type this sentence.
Once you’re logged in, it works like this:
You set up a site like you would in any other IDE. Tell it the name of the site, FTP info and where your root folder is. Anyone who has used DreamWeaver or something similar to create a Project/Site won’t have any issues here. No software is installed on your server and nothing runs on their server, which is where I have a problem with them call this a content management system. It’s more like a RCE (remote content editor).
For every file you want to be able to edit with Cushy CMS you must first create the file in your offline editor and apply the class “cushycms” to any section of the page you want to edit. You can make the heading and content editable or the whole damn page, it’s up to you. Once you do this and upload the file you’ll be able to log into Cushy CMS and edit those sections from there using their simple (read: vanilla) WYSIWYG editor.
That’s it. That is Cushy CMS. Well, mostly.
The value in Cushy CMS - it’s free by the way - is in that you can create these simple sites for clients and then give them access to edit their sites. Giving them access is as stupid easy as creating an account as well. The downside to this free account is that they go to cushycms.com to log in and see the cushycms branding. Somewhat unprofessional, no? The $28 a month pro account however, gives you completely white-label branding and allows you to assign it to any domain of your choice. You don’t get the software, but it’s on your domain with your logo and to your clients it just looks like you have your stuff together.
My opinion of Cushy CMS is that it fills a niche very well. These guys saw a whole in the market and gobbled it up. The interface is nice and it just works. It’s easy to understand and easy to implement (albeit time consuming). However, it is not - in my opinion - a CMS. It allows you to edit content on a per-page basis. The content has to physically exist on your server and it’s all static unless you build yourself a flatfile CMS of your own (if you want one, I’ve got one I use personally. Comment below and I’ll send it to your email address). Cushy CMS isn’t going to replace WordPress, but for what it is, it’s great.
Great write-up! My thoughts exactly on this simple-yet-useful CMS. I’m interested in your flatfile CMS. Could you please send me a bit more info on it?
Cheers!
I just came across CushyCMS today. I agree with everything you said. I tested it and it seems to work perfect.
I would be interested in your flatfile CMS.
I really hope this CushyCMS worksout for me. I’ve been updating client sites for too long. Now it’s there turn.
Thanks for the great write up
Jeremy
Releasing my flat file CMS is something is something I’ve planned on for a while. It’s nothing special really, but it’s great for rapid prototyping and building small websites. I’ll see if I can find the time this weekend to post it. Check back for updates.
[...] came across Cushy CMS a few days ago and was surprised I hadn’t heard of it or seen it discussed here. I did a [...]
[...] came across Cushy CMS a few days ago and was surprised I hadn’t heard of it or seen it discussed here. I did a [...]
[...] is a frakkin awesome tool, but it’s not a CMS. It’s more like a RCE (remote content editor).read more | digg [...]
I think there are too many great CMS’s proper that offer more for $28 PM if you want to offer it to clients. But i see it as a great way for shoestring netentrepreneurs who own a couple of sites and need to regularly update content and are tired of blogs, and for web savvy business owners.
If you are a web designer, then i think you could say to a client “look, i can build you a great looking site and charge my going rate. And i can also offer you a free CMS which you can easily use to update sections of your site, and it’s called CushyCMS, “. So, be transparent about it. They’ll appreciate your honesty and that you’re not trying to sell it as your own CMS or rip them off. The other route is offer the pro account.
take a look at:
tweakcms.com
squarespace.com
speaklight.com
easywebcontent.com
I’ll have to check out those others you have mentioned and possibly post a comparison Kiribu. Thanks for the info.
Loved the article..
I would just say that CushyCMS is built for a low budget websites and yet to be
a real CMS that works fine with search engines etc..
some customers just have a low budget and doesn’t care weather it’s CMS or not (CMS ???!!??)
I point that services to those who doesn’t have basic knowledge and won’t even care weather their own CMS
is branded or not.
I would love to hear about the one you where talking about
Hiya Gil,
Here’s a link to the flat file CMS I mentioned
Very intriguing. I’m going to study its possibilities.
One issue: call be paranoid. Or cautious. But…
The demo shows user providing “Cushy” with my FTP username & pw.
Gives me pause.
Your thoughts? –ricardo
My only response to that is use at you’re own risk
in reply to Ricardo, some hosts provide the option of creating accounts with certain access rights on the host server, which I guess is how I would handle cushy cms, create an account seperate from mine and give it write access but not the ability to do anything else.
Great review, and I agree. Also what is this flatfile CMS you speak off?
Thanks so much in advance!
flat file cms
Great article- you’ve got style. Cushy looks exactly like what I have been looking for- but I would like to try your flat file if you could send it out. Thanks!
Thanks for the great information. I stumbled upon the Cushy CMS site a while ago, and just recently had time to explore it further. I”m looking for a CMS that I can implement for my clients, and thought this might be an option. What I dislike about Cushy is that you have to use the class attribute of the various tags to designate an area as editable, which eliminates the option to have CSS enacted on that tag based on its class, or else you end up with unnecessarily bloated code from adding extra divs and spans to accommodate this. I’d love to hear your thoughts on this aspect of the program.
Also, thanks for sharing your flat-file CMS. I plan to experiment with it.
Terri
beyond the office
Good article. I’d be interested in your flat file CMS. Please can i know more.
Thanks
Terri, adding the CushyCMS class to an element doesn’t limit your ability to assign other classes for your own purposes. Just put multiple classes in the value of the class attribute, separating them with spaces.
Thanks for the write-up. I’ve been looking at Cushy for an independent freelance client.
I’m also interested in your flatfile CMS, if you could please email it to me.
thanks!
For the second time in 5 comments: Flat File CMS
I’m also interested in your flatfile CMS, if you could please email it to me.
nevermind…i see it… but just for the heck of it post it again in 5 more comments! LOL
hi Greg, i hv seen it before.the cushy cms but if you don’t mind. I’m also interested in your flatfile CMS, if you could please email it to me.
thanks Greg!