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TYPO3.
TYPO3 is an open-source enterprise content management system for large, multilingual websites with many editors. It is widespread in German-speaking countries among universities, public administrations and larger organisations, and offers fine-grained permissions, workspaces and long support periods.
TYPO3 — Explained in Detail
TYPO3 was developed in the late 1990s by the Dane Kasper Skårhøj and is now carried forward by the TYPO3 Association and a commercial company. The software is free and licensed under the GPL. Its core is tailored to organisations in which many people work on many pages: a page tree with fine-grained access rights per section, workspaces for drafts and approvals, built-in multilingual support and several websites in one installation. Major versions receive security updates for several years as LTS (long-term support) versions; after that an upgrade to the next major version is required.
Compared with WordPress, TYPO3 is more structured and stricter. Content is maintained in content elements whose presentation developers define through templates; editors cannot change the layout at will. In large organisations that is an advantage, because the look stays consistent. The price is a steeper learning curve, a smaller pool of specialists and upgrades that quickly turn into projects of their own when custom extensions are involved.
A typical scenario: an organisation has run a TYPO3 website for more than ten years, with several hundred pages in two languages. The major version in use will soon stop receiving security updates, and several extensions are no longer maintained by their original developer. The question is then not just 'upgrade or switch' but, first: how many people actually maintain the website, how many pages bring in visitors, and which functions are still in use? An inventory answers that in a few days and prevents an expensive upgrade from preserving content that nobody needs any more.
The honest distinction: for an SME with a handful of pages and one or two people maintaining them, TYPO3 is as a rule oversized. Its strengths only come into play with many editors, permissions and languages. Anyone switching from TYPO3 to another system must above all safeguard the URLs: every old URL needs a 301 redirect to its matching counterpart. How such a switch is planned is explained on the website redesign page.
Related Page
Content Management System (CMS)In-depth on the blog
Headless CMS vs. WordPressFrequently Asked Questions About TYPO3
The software is open source and free of licence fees. Costs arise for hosting, development of templates and extensions, maintenance and, above all, upgrades between major versions. For older versions past the end of regular support, paid extended support is available.
TYPO3 suits large organisations with many editors, fine-grained permissions and several languages or websites in one installation. WordPress suits smaller teams that want to publish quickly and value a large choice of extensions. For an SME with few pages, TYPO3 is usually more system than necessary.
When a major version upgrade is due that, because of custom extensions, amounts almost to a rebuild; when hardly any specialists are available for your own installation; or when the organisation now works on a much smaller scale than when TYPO3 was introduced. Beforehand, an inventory should establish which pages and functions are actually needed.
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