What is Mambo CMS?

Mambo is a large and well-known open source CMS for helping you run your web site. Because it is open source it is free to download and use, and you may modify it to meet your web site's needs.  

Released through SourceForge as an Open Source software product in 2001, Mambo was originally developed in Australia by the Miro corporation. It was originally known as MOS, or Mambo Open Source. Since 2005 Mambo has been run by the Mambo Foundation, a non-profit organization set up to offer Mambo legal protection after was involved in costly legal disputes over its code in 2003. The Mambo Foundation is governed by its members, who are users of Mambo and Mambo web hosting.

Mambo CMS is used for may different types of web sites, with a focus on personal, family, and business or corporate web sites. Some of its users include:

• Corporations and ecommerce
• Nonprofit, community, religious, and educational organizations
• Intranets
• Government portals
• Personal web sites

Fantastico also makes Mambo available on shared hosting servers.

Mambo has a large following of users, sometimes called Mambers. Mambers at one time hosting a large and active online forum, though this forum is currently in transition.

Features of Mambo CMS

The core Mambo software offers numerous features that are useful to web site owners and developers, and extensions add even more functionality.

Some of the features of the Mambo core include:

• Pages cached to improve performance if site is busy
• Static pages can be indexed
• Advanced templates
• API and RSS feeds
• Printable pages
• Blogs
• Forums
• Polls and voting
• News flashes
• Calendars
• Multilingual support and translations
• Advertising support
• Multi author support by topics
• Media file upload
• Scheduling for publishing content
• Search engine friendly
• Layouts can be customized
• Archives
• Hierarchies
• WYSIWYG editors

Mambo extensions also allow for:

• Media galleries
• Shopping carts
• Customer relations tools
• More themes and templates
• Tools for managing documents

Online manuals and support for Mambo are available in English, Spanish, Dutch, Indonesian, and Italian. Translation partners also offer support in Persian, Italian, Thai, and Spanish.

Pros and cons of Mambo CMS

Mambo CMS has won many awards for best open source software, and it has a large following of users. It has a lot of online documentation, including documentation written especially for developers. Mambo CMS displays correctly in most major browsers (Firefox, IE, Netscape, and Opera).

In the past Mambo has had legal disputes over its code. The next version of Mambo CMS, which will be Mambo 5, is expected to have a rewritten code. Though its web site has a lot of information, it is not always easy to find what you are looking for.

How do I get started with Mambo web hosting?

To set up Mambo web hosting, you will need an account with a web host that meets or exceeds the minimum requirements for running Mambo CMS. These include:

• PHP 5.2 or higher
• Apache or Windows IIS web server
• MySQL database
• Linux is the preferred OS, but Windows, Mac OS, FreeBSD, Solaris, and AIX also work

Check with your version of Mambo CMS for specific version requirements.

Once you have a web server that meets these requirements, you can download and install Mambo CMS, using online support and help from your web host as necessary.

Visit Mambo's web site at mambo-foundation.org

iPage is one of the best Mambo web hosting providers we have seen.