Please help me choose between Total CMS and Pulse

Classic Stacks
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Hi there!

This is my first post and I would ask your advice on selecting a CMS for my new website.

I love working with rapidweaver and have a website online already some time that uses Armadillo.

For my new website (using a new logo and branding), I would like a more visually attractive / modern blog as I will be using more photography instead of primarily text at this moment. Also SEO optimization possibilities are something I find important.

I would like to be able to change other content on the website using a CMS too. At my current website, I only use Armadillo for the blog.

I would like to make my website (and preferably also the blog) available in two languages. Have used RWML before, but maybe Pulse and Total CMS have an integrated solution for multilangual websites / blogs?

Costs are less of an issue for me: Iā€™m happy to pay a per domain fee for the best solution.

What are your thoughts? And what do you see as the main differences between Total CMS and Pulse? I find it really hard to distinguish the differences.

What would you choose at this moment given the possibilities that both solutions offer right now?

Thanks a lot for sharing your thoughts with me.

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I have only briefly used Pulse (and have used TCMS a fair bit) so I canā€™t really speak about feature differences as I am not versed enough on Pulse. (I also canā€™t speak to the multi-language abilities of either)

However, I found TCMS to be a bit more intuitive when i am building out a site. (Now, I donā€™t know if use TCMS more because itā€™s more intuitive for me, or if its more intuitive for me because Iā€™ve used it more). I also like the ability to create the CMS Admin page exactly as you want it.

Itā€™s also very flexible in how you can use it (it goes way beyond just blogging ability) which may not be of huge value to you right now in the context of your own site but if you ever do work for others, itā€™s a great tool to have. (By all accounts, Version 2 is another leap forward and will be a free upgrade).

I also find it personally comforting that TCMS has a large presence in RW and is a pretty central focus for Joe Workman. This isnā€™t an indictment of Pulse by any means but I just feel a little better knowing how ingrained TCMS is around here.

Both developers have excellent reputations, though, and Iā€™ve had good customer service experiences with both.

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I havenā€™t used Pulse, but I recently decided to use TotalCMS. Their features seem similar, in some cases of course, one is better than the other. However, I do appreciate Joe Workmanā€™s commitment to the RW community, and his interventions in this forum.

I also noticed that both Pulse and TCMS are now priced wellā€¦

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I use Easy CMS for some sites and Total CMS for my main site. It does everything I need and it does it well so TCMS gets my vote.

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Hi, I am Jannis, creator of the Pulse Stack integration into RW.
Both Pulse and Total CMS are great products.

I would like to anwer your special question regarding the multi language functionality. This is already inbuilt into Pulse Core and also available inside the RW integration: https://instacks.com/pulsecmsstack/tutorial/#multi_language

Cheers, Jannis

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Thanks for opening this discussionā€¦

Both options are pretty solid and should cover you on your outline regarding SEO, photography, Multi-Lingual (as @instacks) mentioned.

If you have any questions please let us know and good luck in the project!

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Hi Jannis. I was reading about the ML feature, and found a Typo. Not important but it ā€˜made my dayā€™ - I needed a laugh. Posted in good faith:-)

ML%20feature
ML%20feature1050Ɨ159 34.4 KB

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Thanks a lot for your reactions, Iā€™ll make my choice later this week. The fact that Pulse offers multi language functionalities is interesting.

Does anybody know if this also works for the blog?

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You can still handle multi-lingual sites well with Total CMS as well. You can replicate the exact dynamic switching mentioned with the Pulse stacks with my Agent stacks.

I have typed up some more in-depth (and as unbiased as I could be) comparisons on other posts in this forum. I assume that you did a searchā€¦

Remember that Total CMS has a 30 day trial so that you can take it for a test drive.

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Yes to multi-lingual (if you are lucky enough to be able to blog in many languages!)
Thereā€™s also a demo @Double_a :slight_smile:

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I settled on Pulse for a lot of reasons:

  • pay once use on multiple websites
  • developer (Yuzool) is a long time Rapidweaver developer, and has always had quality products and good support
  • on that note, the developers have been constantly adding new features to Pulse, and are very open to new ideas from the users like me
  • Multilingual support built in - an example of a Rapidweaver/Pulse/Foundation multi language website here www.vocon.ca
  • Iā€™m a big fan of how the ā€œblogā€ works in Pulse - easy to setup, easy for the clients to add new posts
  • great Rapidweaver integration, but you can also use it outside of Rapidweaverā€¦ I just built my first Blocs website with Pulse integration, and playing with the ā€œPulse Builderā€ for a new one, the ā€œbuilderā€ is a free design tool that you can use to create drag and drop designs (kind of like stacks, but free and included with Pulse) I still use Rapidweaver for most of my websites, but it is nice to have options, and not be ā€œlocked inā€ to Rapidweaver if you ever decide to move elsewhereā€¦
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My 2Ā¢. I chose TotalCMS. Iā€™ve put up a somewhat complicated site from scratch - I havenā€™t used RW since 2010! To design/build my new site took 3 weeks. My son who is a WordPress geek takes 2-3 months to put up a similar site.

I will add that I really appreciate the support Iā€™ve from Joe Workman and his colleagues.

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