Byrne Tony Byrne

Follow Tony on Twitter @TonyByrne

Update on CityDesk

30-Jun-2005

Tags: Web Content and Experience Management, Selecting Technology,

Don't be surprised if you haven't heard of CityDesk CMS from FogCreek Software. FogCreek's other product, FogBugz, is much more widely known, perhaps because of founder Joel Spolsky's well-deserved guru status in the software development community. CityDesk is a Windows desktop application for managing small websites -- think Macromedia Contribute before its time. Since its inception 4 years ago, CityDesk can boast nearly 50,000 seats (though not are all paid licensees -- you can use CityDesk for free to manage up to 50 pages), and continues to sell at a modest clip. Amid the rise of highly usable blogging tools for personal publishing, CityDesk's continuing popularity suggests that blogs -- which emphasize a date-driven, diary-like content type -- don't work for all personal and small-business website use cases. Don't look for major enhancements to CityDesk, given Spolsky's famous aversion to "featuritis" and "road maps." And here CityDesk and its blog competitors share something in common: simple is often better.

    Now Get the Complete Real Story

    Vendor Evaluations

    Learn the real strengths and weaknesses of major vendors from around the world, in our research stream.