Savvy vs Farcry

Posted At : March 11, 2008 12:59 PM
Related Categories: Coldfusion

I started a new job this year, and I am looking to implement a CMS. I have looked at Savvy (a commerical product) and Farcry (an open source solution). I have to say, I am pretty impressed with both.

I have seen a couple of presentations on Savvy, and it seems easy to install and implement. I have installed Farcry (version 5 beta) and it also was a breeze to install. From what I can see, both seem to be very flexible, but I don't see how I can justify paying thousands of dollars for Savvy, when Farcry seems to do everything. One feature I like in Farcry is that you can download a LDAP plugin to authenticate against Active Directory. Savvy was missing this feature. I also like how Farcry comes with a built in Reporting...Not sure if Savvy does.

I plan to still evaluate both, but if anyone else has any other suggestions or comments, that would be great! Does anyone know if there is a comparison chart between the two CMS's?

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I may be a bit biased (I work for Savvy Software), but I happen to think that both products are great. As are some on the higher end of the price spectrum. CF has lots to pick from.

It comes down to what tool is going to do the job for you. I am happy to give a quick personal demo, and send you a trial package to review.

Also, regarding pricing, we aim to be as transparent as possible regarding what we charge and its all online. However often people don't realize we have a much lower price for developers who install multiple times (we call em resellers).

Thanks for considering us. Joshua

# Posted By Joshua Cyr | 3/11/08 1:52 PM

I'm working on a secret project which I hope to roll out shortly and it's using Savvy.

I looked at a few other CF based CMSs (FarCry was one of them) and so far Savvy is working great.

I think Savvy fits the bill perfectly if you want an off the shelf CMS. Documentation is awesome and the user interface is a no brainer.

FarCry on the other hand had poor documentation and a non-intuitive UI. But - it's MUCH more flexible. So you really have to ask yourself what is more important?

# Posted By Jim Priest | 3/11/08 2:52 PM

I agree generally with Jim. This isn't really a fair comparison. FarCry is more in line with "enterprise" CMS systems which while flexible have a very steep learning curve for both you and your end-users IMO. Savvy is great as a basic CMS that is both easy to implement and easy for end-users. However it isn't what one would classify as enterprise level (and that is not a criticism).

# Posted By Brian Rinaldi | 3/11/08 3:08 PM

I was in the same situation and finally end up using AssetNow NX which I would qualify to be an "Enterprise Level" CMS. It's really flexible, there's pretty much no limitations. I'm about to roll out my first site using it in a few days. You can have a look at www.assetnow.com.

# Posted By Jean-Michel Godin-Duguay | 3/12/08 2:22 AM

@ Joshua: It would be great to have access to a demo or trial. Let me know what I need to do.

@Jim: Looking forward to seeing the "secret" project. :)

@Brian: Do you have any CMS's that I can compare Farcry with? Savvy?

@ Jean-Michel: I took a look at AssetNow NX and it looks pretty solid. I will evaluate that also.

# Posted By Chris | 3/13/08 12:01 PM

I have tested Gerobase, Speck and Bytespring. None are
enterprise level. Here are links to my reviews:

http://www.remotesynthesis.com/blog/index.cfm/2007...
http://www.remotesynthesis.com/blog/index.cfm/2007...

Lastly, there are a couple that I have not tried such as WebOs
(http://webos.riaforge.org/) and Boomsocket
(http://www.d-p.com/keyword/BoomSocket.cfm) - the former is relatively
new and I know little about and the latter being enterprise level but
only supports MSSQL at the moment.

# Posted By Brian Rinaldi | 3/13/08 11:22 PM

For small-midsize projects BoomSocket is best tool and for an enterprise level one, FarCry is the best.

# Posted By Shimju David | 3/18/08 4:20 AM

FarCry is something you could use to *build* products like Savvy. There is nothing stopping someone from releasing a cut-down, highly simplified version of FarCry to install a solution targetted at simple CMS requirements. And in fact such a project would be an ideal contribution to the FarCry community. As it is, the out-of-the-box CMS solution FarCry CMS is probably more than you'd want for a simple web site and less than you'd need for an enterprise one -- its an example of what's possible. Granted its an "example" that many people just deploy straight into production.

# Posted By Geoff Bowers | 3/19/08 1:16 AM

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