Web Standards CMS

MODX was initially developed because most Content Management applications didn't allow you to control output. MODX is ready for today's web standards and tomorrow's.

By The MODX Team  |  Updated: May 7, 2014  |  2 min read
Web Standards CMS

A CMS plus a framework built for Web Workers

Web Standards CMS

Match even the wildest and most creative HTML/CSS/JS template fast. Pixel for pixel. Without having to know PHP.

We think that what comes out of a CMS should be exactly what you want. Exactly. No compromises. No worries about hacking the core code to get it to do what you want. No cumbersome upgrade paths. With MODX, that's what you get.


Probably the biggest reason MODX was started in 2004 was that it was next to impossible to build sites that supported the clear future of websites: XHTML, CSS and Javascript. The fact that you typically had to hack the core code just to create a site that supports web standards was ridiculous. Or for those that were able to output clean, semantic code required an equally insane learning curve. Honestly, we needed a tool that didn't get in the way of our needing to build sites quickly.

The question we were repeatedly frustrated by pretty much became why can't the dang template in [insert CMS here] just be plain old HTML, CSS and JS? We weren't looking to have to buy 400+ pages of treeware to learn how to mix up PHP and HTML to make a decent site.

We definitely weren't looking for something that forced a limited document hierarchy, or required learning about nodes, or systems that considered everything an article or story. More rhetorical questions surfaced. If most sites start as a list of pages in a site map, why couldn't our site building tool do the same thing. And what if we don't want three or two columns and blocks everywhere?

Then came the issue of private pages that needed a login. The ability to create protected content without having to author a user system over and over again was a common need.

Why can't we decide what our sites look like and are structured, not the tool we build them in? No restrictions. No assumptions about content.

In the end, our frustrations got the better of us.

We gave up our search and resolved to do the right thing for us and for our clients. Some systems had parts but not all. Out of necessity, we built the tool we needed and decided to share it with the world. Based on the hundreds of thousands of downloads from all over the world, apparently we weren't the only ones with the same frustrations.