About all the Paysite CMSs we have available today
 

I spent the last couple of days reading and researching about the different paysite CMSes we have on the market now, those seems to be the most popular ones (feel free to add to the list)

ElevatedX - about $4k
http://elevatedx.com/

MAS - about $4k (not sure)
http://www.mansionproductions.com/mas/

CARMA - $3.5k
http://www.toomuchmedia.com/products/carma/

ThePaysiteCMS - $???
http://thepaysitecms.com/

SiteDepth - $900
http://sitedepth.com/

aWiz 280 euro
http://v5.awizsoft.com/


Because I'm still not quite sure which one to use, I would like everyone who has any experience with any of them to share it and vote for the one he is currently using or think is the best.
We are looking at price range from about $400 to $4000 so keep in mind and the value for money factor.

Thank you

ok we have few votes now, but no replies :>

I'm of course a bit biased but I will still give you an honest answer :)

ThePaysiteCMS while a good product by good people but it is out of your indicated price range.

Sitedepth and awiz are decent products if you want to keep things simple. They will do the basics and are priced lower. If you want to really customize your members area and have total flexibility you need a different product tho.

That leaves CARMA, MAS, and ElevatedX.

I have seen some good feedback about MAS from Mansion clients however the demos I have seen of it do not put it at the level of CARMA and ElevatedX. It is a good solution if you also want to pay a monthly fee for an outsourced employee to build and maintain your members area with the software as Mansion provides this service as far as I am aware.

Now we're down to CARMA and ElevatedX. IMO they are the two products out of the list that sit at the top. I believe CARMA can be a bit more flexible with allowing you to design your members area EXACTLY as you wish however that creates a larger learning curve and more involvement on your part of on the part of the integrator. I think ElevatedX is a bit more polished and carries a few native features which CARMA does not.

We have spent a lot of time the past year plus with NATS v4 and now that is starting to roll out (smoothly!) with the second phase of beta starting this week. Once mass upgrades are started to NATS v4 we are beginning a major rewrite of CARMA to CARMA v2.0. I will make sure as I did with NATS v4 that CARMA v2 is WAY ahead of any other solution. However, CARMA v2 is going to be at least 3-4 months away I would say.

As you are a NATS user now you should also have a cleaner integration with CARMA (v1 and v2).

Both CARMA and ElevatedX are great products and I believe you will be happy with either one.

The bottom line I guess is you will put more work in with CARMA but you have total flexibility as well as the opportunity to participate in the reworking of CARMA v2.

I've been building custom CMS products for people. Often times an off the shelf CMS forces you structure your site in an artificial way and creates workflows that aren't quite optimal for what you are doing. Let me know what features you need. Hit me up, it might be worth exploring a custom option.

you're fast LOL I was coming in to post exactly the same thing, if a person knows exactly what they want why not code exactly what they need/want. When you're getting into the $4k range there's quite a few programmers who will do quite a bit for that price range.

I do like custom and have had custom scripts created for several small tasks that I have needed. Never anything on a large scale though. I have heard people say that most custom scripts on any sort of large-scale you end up needing a programmer quite often to fix things and add little extra features while the leased products typically give you support and overtime upgrade with additional features.

Do you have any input regarding that?

You're going to get less and pay much more in the long run going the custom route.

You have to hope that the person who wrote it doesn't disappear and is available long term to make modifications, fixes, feature additions, and provide general support for the product. The last thing you want to do to a programmer is hand them someone else's code to work on. They hate it :) Either way this will get costly after a while.

Also, you have more issues to worry about as security goes with one person using the solution as opposed to many people using the solution.

With CARMA you are not stuck to a certain flow which does happen with some solutions as was indicated above.

Bucksmania, something to remember.

Having a good product out of the box is only half the battle.

The other half is having good support and documentation. Will there be someone there to walk you through the setup so you can learn everything you need to know in one day instead of doing trial and error for weeks?
Will someone be there to fix security exploits, bugs, and help you with tech support issues down the road?

I personally tried to use the two cheaper CMS's on your list...and threw both of them out because of support/documentation issues. It didn't matter how much money I was supposedly saving, I could never get anything accomplished.

I thoroughly researched the more expensive options and I settled on Elevatedx.

I have no regrets about doing so.

1) Absolutely in the long run you end up with so many more features but depending on your needs you may find 90% of those are of no use to you.

2) Absolutely true if you hand a codebase to another programmer odds are they'll hate it. I'm just finishing up re-writing a CMS for a guy because some czech idiot did things insanely poorly and the script was using triple the resources that it should have. BUT if you go with a REAL programmer they'll still be around in a couple years when you're ready for upgrades. From what I've read about Brandon he's building up a solid rep.

3) As for security issues as long as the programmer is aware of all the common exploits a custom solution is MORE secure in the exact same way a mac is more secure than windows. If there's only 1 person using it nobody will bother spending the time to exploit it.

What it all comes down to is look over the demo's and if that 3-4k is going to be be exactly what you need out of the box simply go for it! If nothing seems to fit then in that price range you really do have some options for some custom solutions.

I think longevity is really an issue, both for custom and out-of-the-box. So many people come and go, it's hard to really know who you can "trust". Even the larger "companies". I think knowing that an actual staff and office is sitting behind a particular product is a little bit of a relief to the customer, knowing that this particular company needs to stay in business to feed many families. While a one-man shop... who knows... maybe next week he will get a good job offer or just decide he no longer wants to work with clients. I've seen it happen... I think we all have.

it looks like my waiting has paid off.... I really wanted to go with ThePaysiteCMS but thought the price tag was a bit steep so i held of on going forward with 1 of my projects... i spent many hours reading up on all the popular CMS software solutions and i believe ThepaysiteCMS is by far the best out there and i did not ant to settle with 1 of the others. WELL it looks like they are getting ready to LEASE it now, the pricing page shows leasing options but does not seem to be functioning for me... i will be shooting those guys an email in the morning (GREAT GUYS THERE TOO).

BucksMania, definitely consider ThePaysiteCMS in your search for a CMS

Yes, it is a possibility there may be bugs in the program that are found further down the road. This is true for ALL software. However, it is "generally" less likely to happen in an off the shelf product.

As far as upgrades and adding things you need, you are at the mercy of the company. If you have something that only you will need they most likely will have no interest in adding it. Even if they do add something who knows if it will be exactly what you need or how long it will take or when they get around to it.

When you go custom you have the source code so you can always hire someone else. You have the source code. Omar from Sitedepth will sell the code and is generally very responsive to.

As far as a programmer picking it up and it being a problem, that's why you hire good programmers. A good programmer will use standards and commonly agreed upon conventions. I try to adopt MVC and Ruby on Rails conventions as much as possible, even in my PHP code. The advantage being it is extremely easy for another programmer to understand and pick up. What programmers hate is having tables nested 10 levels deep with malformed HTML with no comments from a coder oversees that has only been programming for a few years. Using descriptive variable names also helps.

Having built numerous CMS solutions I learn from each one and they get better and better with each iteration. The code gets leaner and leaner, and easier and easier to maintain.

With a custom solution you can design your own workflow. I've used products out there where it was such a pain in the ass to use their interface I looked at the database and updated it directly. If it is set up exactly how you need, then you're going to get your job done a lot easier in a lot less time. Time is money. If you have to spend 2x more time maintaining your site, then you're getting paid half as much for your work.

We use Carma and like it alot, so far isn't anything we haven't been able to do with it. But for any CMS you will need to know your goals on content scheduling and management. If you have those outlined it would be more helpful for a CMS suggestion.


The only negative I've ever found with Carma is the lack of programmers that can integrated it with a site design.

John,

I have a question. Can 1 Carma install be used by two or more seperate servers? Say I have content on Carma box 1, that I want to have on sites that are located on Servers 2 and 3. Is that possible?

Thanks John. It's very nice when you see such profesionally objective opinion from someone related to one of the products :thumbsup

Calidiapex is the evolution of XTract, which I have been using for the past two years. It's in beta now, and looks great. I'm hoping to upgrade sometime in the near future.

Definitely worth checking out if you're not wanting to spend $5k+ for a paysite CMS.

http://www.calidi.com/

how i can take a look at it?

Just send me an email and i will create a beta account for you :winkwink:
support_nospam_@calidi_nospam_.com (without the _nospam_ parts)

MAS for me
 

MAS is powerful, flexible and easy to use :thumbsup

The template system lets you easily skin it and you can use as many or as few of its features as you want to give your site its own unique flavor; the support is outstanding and the built-in 2257 system makes it even more worthwhile.

I think that the bigger your operation and the more sites you have, the more useful it is, but for a solo site operator such as myself, it provides an incredibly powerful platform and wide range of options that can set a site apart from its competitors.

MAS is a definite winner :)

John, you are right about the demo we have on display for MAS. It definately does not justify the product itself as it is very very old. We have been too busy working and supporting clients to have had the time to launch the new demo out soon. The product itself, however, is quite different now.

In the course of MAS development our focus has always been pointed towards flexibility, reliability and speed (both for MAS admin and the members areas) in a traffic-intense environment, and not towards having a basketful of features with doubtful performance.

The coming week we will be officially announcing MAS version 1.8 (we are not big fans of quick jumps into major version numbers like many software companies do). Along with numerous performance, security and interface improvements, some of the major features in this version, which are not in the demo includes:

Fully integrated support for Cavecreek/Level-3 CDN network
100% compatible and preloaded leased feeds powered by SexEntertain (SexEntertain Content & Plugins, Vivid, Hustler Content, FullonVideo, Cherry Boxxx, Erotic Men, Total Hentai)
Advanced options for automatic content rotation
Batch actions for quick altering of multiple content set properties (categories, templates, find&replace in titles/descriptions and more); Undo of last changes
News & Events for multiple sites
Secured feedback mailing form (with captcha verification)
Alert & prevention system against injection of malicios commands in templates
Periodically flushing/dumping history tables to optimize DB performance
Limited admin privileges
IP restrictions for admin accounts
Passthru of userdefined variables (useful for tours - webmaster tracking codes etc.)
Obscured (hashed) content paths
Manual selection of content to be displayed on certain sections
Creating zip files with gallery contents
Inheriting template classes into multiple sites/sections, or directly including the parsed result of one section into another
Star rating
Subtemplates for finest control over video and content groups pages layout; different subtemplates per category or content type
Visual resize & crop of face images
Improved scanners for new content
Medium-sized/full-sized image support with visual effects
Events & calendar
Different sizes for thumbnails and faceimages, per template

And on top of this we are also near the end of the development of MAS version 2.0, which is a major rewrite of all the underlying code to improve performance even more and speed up the development of new features to come.

Some of the features which will be found in 2.0 are:
- Template repository, for easier reusing (as-is or with modifications) of common templates for various sections in different sites
- Ability to assign a different gallery template per site to each content set which is shared in more sites
- The faceimage size goes with the template, so this also means different faceimage size per site
- Multiple categories per content set
- Members Favorites
- Members comments (with editor's approval)
- Menu builder
- Captions for individual videos/pictures
- Advanced video set editor, allowing easier grouping of encodes per scene, naming and uploading of scene thumb
- Video frames extraction with options to choose the best among many frames and either build a photo gallery out of them, or use them as preview thumbs for the video set
- Cached search results for optimal performance
- User interface for program settings, backup and maintenance
- Improved support for streaming flash video, integrated services for video transcoding and multi-scene flash video player.

Have a nice day!

:2 cents::thumbsup

You can't go wrong with MAS! We've been using it for a couple of years and the software itself is incredible and very easy to use. More importantly the support is second to none.

WOW, MAS shot from 0 to 14 votes pretty quickly. Guess all the MAS users woke up!

I use sitedepth and have for a few years and can't say abad thing about it, alfredo the programmer can do anything for you hes on msn everyday.

A few friends have bought carma and had to delay the opening of sites because its so dam hard to intergrate into a paysite and it takes someone with amazing knowledge of how to do this.

Sorry Anthony, missed this one.

CARMA is license on a per server basis. All servers running the actual CARMA product need to have a license.

There may be a few ways to use other servers for some parts such as storage or members pages, etc. but not the actual CARMA product. Shoot me an ICQ for some details.

*******MAS has some great new features********

We will be officially announcing this and more in the next week

All the SEXENTERTAIN STUDIO FEEDS are pre-loaded into MAS

VIVID
HUSTLER
CHERRYBOXXX
TOTAL HENTAI
EROTIC MEN
FULL ON VIDEO
SEXENTERTAIN

***Now with one click you can have all the meta data, attributes, graphics and Icons loaded into your MAS system and get your members area loaded with content in seconds.

HOW EASY IS THAT?!

Contact Oy or myself for details

We use Carma but ElevatedX is also a great product.

Looks pretty good. Thanks for the quick response and the demo

I chose Carma

carma

ds

we use a custom CMS for both our programs

I just saw this and figured I'd chime in.

I agree that there are only 3 options when it comes to systems that are robust and proven through use by A-tier cash programs and under heavy traffic and loads.

A CMS is like any other purchase. When looking at a product there will always be pros and cons and when choosing a product like this, I always tell people to evaluate based on their needs, not based on the needs of someone else or what works well for them. I tell people all the time during demo calls to go look at every system, eval all of them and see what's out there and buy the one that makes the most sense to you.

Most of our clients fall into 1 of these categories:
1) People either just starting sites or just starting to expand a cash program
2) People who have large programs and need something that can handle a ton of content and traffic as well as scale quickly and easily

3 out of 4 of our clients have owned another CMS.

The people in between are happy with what they have as it works well for them and their needs fall within the limitations of their current cms and they really have no idea what they're missing or how much better off they could be. In this case ignorance is bliss, and as the saying goes, "if it ain't broke..."

I have dealt with both John and Oystein in the past and both are good guys so I say this without taking anything away from them but part of what separates us from everyone else is that our sole focus is the cms and we're just beginning to expand and hire additional dedicated full time staff to further the development. 110% of our time, energy, thoughts and resources are going into this and this alone and it shows.

At this time we don't have multiple products, different departments or push more than 1 product or service so it's akin to going to a specialist if you have a problem. Sure, if your foot hurts you can go to any doctor but chances are you're better off going to the one who specializes in feet.

I don't want to sell my clients customizations or integrations or designs or web hosting or discounted combo deals, I want to sell them the best content management system possible at an affordable price.

A few tips for anyone who is considering buying a CMS:
-------------------------------------------------------------
1) DO NOT look at features. DO, however, look and see if the system has the features YOU NEED and if not, find out how easily they can be added.
2) Make a list of systems and request demos of each of them
3) Find out if the system will allow you to grow your business and at what cost. Will there be fees for adding new sites, can you add more servers, etc.?
4) Don't be afraid to ask questions about things and find out how the system will help your business in ways other than just automating processes for you.
5) Find out what features are planned or upcoming and whether there will be any additional cost to you to have these added when they're available.
6) Most important - don't be afraid to talk to us. We're not used car salesman, won't pressure you to buy anything and the phone call is free. Same goes for the other guys as well so call them too.


Know what you're getting but more importantly, know what you're not getting.

In regards to the comparisons between the 3 most comparable systems:
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
To clarify, there is no industry specific system that will provide more control or flexibility than Elevated X. The reason is that our design templates are entirely code-based and none of the templates are encoded, not even the portion of the templates that control the content itself. We purposely chose this in favor of any other method specifically for this reason.

Our system supports the use of multiple servers including remote content and load balanced servers by default and at no additional cost.

We also have multiple levels of caching and utilize both dynamic PHP and static HTML and are able to provide an unmatched level of performance without having to sacrifice the features required in order for a pay site owner to thrive in today's competetive market.

We have in demand features including automated tour management, limited trials, video transcoding and a FHG generator and everything our system does will easily integrate with NATS, MPA3 as well as any biller or custom affiliate software.

Cost:
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
There seems to be a lot of mention of cost in these threads. I urge anyone in the market to also consider that we offer a monthly license for just $150 and I know some of the others offer similar plans so the fact that you can't afford to drop $4k in 1 shot is no excuse not to have a high end system running your sites.

My $.02 is just try not to settle. Obviously I always want to make a sale but I don't want an unhappy customer and the most important thing is that whatever you do decide to buy is something that you'll be happy with and that it's a purchase you can feel good about.

It's kind of hard to beat The Paysite CMS. That shit is incredible.

It better be, considering it costs $30k. :2 cents:

We are very happy with elevatedx. Its a very well structured CMS that gives you a lot of control. We actually went through a few cms's before we decided to use Elevatedx. We've been using it for over a year now and they keep making it better every day.

I?ve always believed that a good CMS is an important part of my business and needs to be stable, secure, flexible and scalable. People behind the code need to understand client?s business problems and solve them with good code as well as necessary and visionary features.

That said, starting 2003 I?ve made mistakes by buying into products that were *packaged solutions* thus making me work the way they envisioned I should work instead of being flexible enough to adapt to how I wanted to work. I also made the mistake of having custom CMS written only to find myself wasting time on managing the programmers and code. And my biggest mistake was not looking close enough at support. Foreign support just did not work for me due to time zone and language barriers. In other words I?ve spend thousands of dollars wasting my time on *less-expensive* solutions. This was my real experience with *you get what you pay for*.

ElevatedX solved all of the mentioned problems for me in 2007. It?s a robust product with experienced people behind it. I am not able to focus on other aspects of my business and not worry about a huge portion of my infrastructure.

Yeah, well, it's not for the programs that make that yearly. There's other cheaper options for them that will work for them as they don't need something as powerful as The Paysite CMS. It's for the programs that have so much going on that they do 5 figures daily. The options I've seen in that CMS allows those kinds of programs with a shitload of video to multiply it and re purpose it in ways that makes them more money.

It's a CMS that makes you more money which is what really won me over when I saw it. But if a site/program doesn't have a large amount of content it probably doesn't make sense for them.

There's good options for everyone at every level in this thread. :thumbsup

Number 15 here.

Every one of the CMS's available have had their pitfalls and their high points.

From a server administration stance, my experience with Carma in late 2006 / early 2007 was horrible:

• It needed a custom old version of ffmpeg with older hard-coded command lines; OS updates and new features would cause it to break.
• The installation I inherited would arbitrate the database for every page view instead of making a static page, and lacked the ability to cache well; but that may have been a bug in the support libraries.
• Slooow and massive CPU use.

I've gotten out of an awful custom CMS and had most of the functionality required added directly into MAS. Ross has modified a few pre-existing functions for my own specific requirements, which took MONTHS, but it works 100%, and I highly doubt he's going to leave Mansion in the next year or two.

I spent less on my MAS with custom features - and support - than was spent on the old custom CMS that doesn't know it's ass from it's elbow and had absolutely no features but 'search' and 'watch'.

...and as somebody who has written different CMS platforms:

Don't go custom unless you plan on eventually hiring your own staff to care and feed it or throwing it out.

If there's a feature they have that we lack, it can be added to our system for a fraction of the cost.

Pay the $500 down and spend the rest of the $15k or $30k and get all kinds of custom features added just for you. Seems like a no brainer to me :)