Please suggest some alternative to Drupal

Question

Drupal propose completely different approach in web development (comparing with RoR like frameworks) and it is extremely good from development speed perspective. For example, it is quite easy to clone 90% of stackoverflow functionality using Drupal. But it has several big drawbacks:

• it is f''cking slow (100-400 requests per page)
• db structure very complicated, need at least 2 tables for easy content (entity) type, CCK fields very easy generate tons of new db tables
• anti-object oriented, rather aspect-oriented
• bad "view" layer implementation, no strange forward layouts and so on.

After all this items I can say I like Drupal, but I would like something same, but more elegant and more object oriented. Probably something like http://drupy.net/ - drupal emulation on the top of django.

P.S. I wrote this question not for new holy word flame, just write if you know alternative that uses something similar approach.

Answer 1

Since you tagged "ruby-on-rails" in your post, let me fill you in on some awesome drupal-style rails projects that run as fast as 1000 requests per page (or more):

1. ELGG: http://community.elgg.org/

Plus: has some great standard plugins for hooking your app up to Facebook, Twitter, payment gateways, etc. Also, it's MVC-based, for quick development.

Minus: Maybe takes a while to learn if you're not used to Ruby on Rails?

1. Community Engine: communityengine(dot)org

(I use this quite a bit!)

Plus: this is a "social-network-in-a-box" with all the basic functionality you need in a complicated web 2.0 app. It's also MVC-based, and works like a plugin for rails so you can add this to your RAILS app really quickly, and choose which of the social features you want to use. It's also REALLY FAST when you install with Ruby Enterprise as your Ruby version and also use the MOD-RAILS HTML caching server.

Minus: they lack documentation right now, but it's getting better. Also, install can be complicated.

1. CakePHP cakephp(dot)org

Plus: GREAT FRAMEWORK if you're a PHP programmer - it's easy to install, and has a lot of great plugins to get your app done fast. It's also MVC-based, which is a good PLUS for PHP programmers looking for more structure to their apps.

Minus: I'll let other users write about the "minuses" for CakePHP - it's a pretty good framework!

Good Luck!