DNN serves a purpose, but...

I spent this weekend working with some of my coworkers to develop a content-managed website for a local charity. We've worked 37 hours since 2:30 PM on Friday, so we're a bit short on sleep... which may explain why I'm feeling feisty.

So, about that feistiness...

DNN is not my favorite tool. For this weekend charity challenge, we developed the website on the DotNetNuke (DNN) platform to ensure that the small staff at our charity would be able to manage it. DNN provides tools to update site content, upload photos and documents, and manage event calendars, announcements, etc. So, it serves a purpose. But, those features come at a cost. The platform is slow, it is cumbersome to style, and it is not a good platform for custom applications. It is a simple CMS platform.

I have developed many DNN sites over the past few years, and I had hoped the performance shortcomings and feature bloat would have been addressed in this new version. I was disappointed to learn that it's still the same ole' DNN... painful.

Our team is happy with the choice to use DNN because it will provide a solid solution for Cedar Hill ISD. It's simple. But, i would not recommend it to any organization with a dedicated IT staff or any organizaiton that wishes to extend it with custom features. Look to a different platform (SharePoint, Sitecore CMS, etc.) instead.