Textpattern vs. Movabletype

“Textpattern (A flexible, elegant, easy-to-use content management system for all kinds of websites, even weblogs.)”:http://www.textpattern.com/ is finally out! I’ve been waiting for months for a public release, as based on the interface alone its brilliant. If Movabletype 3.0 doesn’t match up, this website will be switching over to Textpattern. While MT 3.0 is in “alpha testing”:http://www.movabletype.org/news/2004_01.shtml#000885, Sixapart is taking very long about it. The problem with MT is that while it does a whole lot more than Textpattern, too many of the added functionalities seem more like hacks than things planned and integrated into the CMS. Over time, Textpattern should also have a large number of plugins available which should cover just about all the functionality needed. Dean is planning to add subcategories to Textpattern, while MT will most probably only have them in the pro version. Textpattern appears to be BSD licensed, so it’s free for commercial use – another plus point.


Besides all the technical doodads, at the end of the day what really matters is the interface. When one is going to be writing, it helps that the interface is visually appealing and easy to use. Textpattern wins hands down in that department… although MT 3.0 will have a “new user interface built with CSS”:http://www.movabletype.org/news/2003_12.shtml#000878.

At the end of the day, both fall far short of what the “next generation of blogging tools should be like”:http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/bloggerCon/2004/02/24, -although MT 3.0 shouldn’t be too far away-.

Scratch the above. ‘WordPress’:http://wordpress.org/ seems to be the only one implementing subcategories and other advanced features. ‘Drupal’:http://drupal.org/ already has them, but it’s far too complex. So its a three horse race now…

6 thoughts on “Textpattern vs. Movabletype”

  1. Oh, great. So, now we should wait for the battle to be raged, haan? No problem, I would be happy if a decent CMS/blogging tool happens to appear at the end of the year. Till then, hail notepad:$

  2. I just moved from TypePad over to my own domain and have been using WordPress there. Although I’m comfortable with the installation and interface, etc., was wondering if you had any thoughts on how Textpattern compares, and how easy it is to set up/customise templates. I can’t seem to work the CSS/PHP linkage in WordPress, probably because I’m very inexperienced with creating webpages that aren’t “pure” HTML. Can Textpattern import MT and/or WP entries, or is it a better program to use, period? I’m still in my first week of going live, so I’m OK with playing around a bit and updating my CMS. Any suggestions?

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