How does Meditate compare to other website management tools?

We don't call Meditate a Content Management System, because that term has been applied to many tools that try to take over all your design and development tasks. Meditate is actually a more pure CMS because it focuses on content management, and allows website developers to implement designs and build functionality directly, using whatever tools or techniques they choose. Here's a list of capabilities to consider when evaluating Meditate:

Meditate does…

Work with a variety of website architectures: Meditate doesn't dictate how you build your site; it works with content stored in Contemplate content files, Dreamweaver template files or databases. In fact, Meditate doesn't even run when users visit your site; it only runs on the back-end when you edit content.

Support multiple users: You can set up as many users as you like with different permission levels. For example, one user might be allowed to edit content but not publish it; that user would save the content for review, until another user with more permissions approves and publishes it.

Track versions: Meditate automatically saves every edit you make in its own database. You can view a history of past changes, and roll back to any version with just a couple clicks.

Manage scheduled publishing: If you enter a time and date when you save your edits, Meditate will store them in its own database until that time arrives, then publish them automatically. It will even email you a confirmation that your edits were published.

Work with larger admin systems: If your website has a larger admin system that controls other data or functionality, you can embed Meditate into it, so that your administrators only need to remember login information for one interface.

Meditate doesn't…

Manage navigation functionality: Rather than provide a limited set of menu options, Meditate leaves navigation up to the web designer or developer, so that each website can be unique. But if you set up your menu items as an HTML list, then you can use Meditate to edit that list.

Provide message board, gallery, analytics or other functionality: Good software is already available for most common website functions, and some developers might prefer to build this functionality on their own. Meditate leaves your web functionality alone and focuses on your web content.

Manage templates or site layouts: Again, Meditate leaves your web design alone and focuses on your web content.

The product that most resembles Meditate is Macromedia Contribute, but Meditate offers some advantages:

Web-based

While Contribute is a desktop application (and every user needs a license), Meditate runs from a single installation on your web server (and you can add as many users as you wish).

Non-proprietary

Contribute is designed to work in conjunction with Dreamweaver, which you can use to make site-wide template changes. Meditate can work with any templating system or framework, including its sister product, Contemplate™ Web Templating System.

Scalable

Meditate can edit HTML stored in flat files like Contribute does, but it can also edit HTML stored in a MySQL database—and it doesn't dictate the design of that database.