Comments on: Unify: making sites simple for clients

By: Cass Cassidy

Cass Cassidy — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 07:47:16 +0000

You saved my life!
After three days trying Perch out I was ready to give up, the client need to be back on deck by Monday and it was Sunday already. Then I read your article; Unify is easy and robust (so far), it seems very well put togeher – impressed.

Big Thanks

By: Lina

Lina — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 12:55:54 +0000

I am a designer who’s just now trying out Unify for simple websites I have coded in html/CSS. Like Monica above I love coding and having that freedom to create whatever I like. I have tried out things like WordPress, Joomla and Prestashop and they are good but to complicated for my needs and I hate having to modify someone else’s template. What I have been missing though is the ability to offer my clients a way to update their sites themselves. Most of them are are not very ‘computer-savvy’, they can just about email and surf. So I hope that Unify (or any similar CMS) can be the answer for me. I have so far run into some minor complications but I hope they will be easily solved.
Thanks for the article!
Lina

By: Leon

Leon — Mon, 06 Dec 2010 20:16:59 +0000

Thanks for the link. I’ll take a look at Couch.

By: kksidd

kksidd — Mon, 06 Dec 2010 18:41:45 +0000

Hi Leon,

Since you liked Unify, I am sure you’ll also love CouchCMS (http://www.couchcms.com/).

We created this CMS specifically for web designers and it addresses all the problems you mentioned with the more heavy-weight CMSes -
1. It retrofits within *any* existing static site or design.
2. You can mark out any number of regions on a page that are to be made editable.
3. It uses simple XHTML like tags to do everything – no PHP needed at all.
4. For the end-users (the clients), Couch can boast of the simplest admin panel you’ve ever come across.

Best ofall, it is free for personal and non-commercial sites.

Perhaps you’d like to take a look at it, and, maybe, review it.

By: Leon

Leon — Mon, 29 Nov 2010 15:33:27 +0000

@James

Thanks for your comment. A license is pretty cheap, so it’s easy to try out.

By: James Carroll

James Carroll — Sun, 28 Nov 2010 16:33:38 +0000

I’m very much liking the look of this system. I currently use WordPress for all my sites but it is simply too complicated and bulky. It can do everything, but that’s the problem.

Will definitely be investing in a few Unify licenses. Thanks for the article, it’s always nice reading a review that’s written in a praising way!

By: Leon

Leon — Sun, 26 Sep 2010 21:13:50 +0000

@Sue — I’m about to build a site with Unify that includes a gallery. I guess you just create a repeatable area with your image, caption etc.; I can’t see it being a problem. You can upload images using Unify

Actually, that’s another strength of Unify; it’s pretty easy to create simple lists of all sorts of data items (events, for example), which can be difficult in CMSs.

By: Sue

Sue — Mon, 20 Sep 2010 18:16:29 +0000

Really like the look of Unify. Does anyone know how it handles photo galleries?

@matthew C: Did you ever try out Perch?

By: Leon

Leon — Sat, 10 Apr 2010 07:58:32 +0000

Thanks for your reply, Monica. It’s definitely worth learning something like WordPress for more complex sites. But it can get somewhat tedious. Working in “plain” HTML is quicker and, as you say, more fun. And there’s less to go wrong, of course.

By: Monica

Monica — Sat, 10 Apr 2010 06:06:32 +0000

Thanks so much for this article! I’m a designer. I absolutely LOVE to code from scratch and make my own creations from scratch. It’s just part of the artist in me. What I don’t like about WP and many other CMS’s is this idea that I had to take someone’s theme and then break it down from there to make my own “creations”. Or, somehow learn how to create my own theme. That’s a steep learning curve for someone with an HTML/CSS background only. I also felt restricted by templates and themes.

Unify and similar CMS’s to someone like me, gives me more freedom to create exactly what I want, how I want it and just specify what my client can and can not alter. This is especially great for my clients who are mostly individuals and small businesses who don’t need anything as robust as WP or Joomla to just add or subtract some text or images from time to time.