Feature Matrix Showdown
By Shaun Walker
DotNetNuke
7/4/2006
As an Open Source project, one of the things we tend to ignore are the marketing activities which consume 50%+ of the time spent at traditional software product companies. This is largely because Open Source tends to focus more on solutions than hype, but it does lead to problems - especially when you are pitching your platform to the "decision maker" crowd ( who are more interested in objective collateral than source code ).
I thought I would take a few minutes to provide a simple feature matrix comparison of DotNetNuke versus ASP.NET 2.0 versus SharePoint Server 2003 ( SPS 2003 ) versus Microsoft Office Sharepoint Services 2007 ( MOSS 2007 ).
Why include information on so many products you ask ( and some which are not yet even released ) ? Well the reason is because we constantly get asked questions like "Why should I use DotNetNuke when we could use Microsoft 'X' ?" ( replace 'X' with whatever product the Microsoft Marketing machine is pushing at that moment ).
Obviously once you become familiar with DotNetNuke, and realize that a Web Application Framework has a very diverse set of strengths which you can leverage in your organization, your question will come full circle and more closely resemble "Why would I NOT use DotNetNuke when it delivers so much value at such a minimal cost?".
Anyways, lets get on to the feature matrix:
Features Matrix Showdown
| Feature | DotNetNukeŽ | ASP.NET 2.0 | SPS 2003 and WSS 2.0 | MOSS 2007 and WSS 3.0 | DotNetNukeŽ Benefits |
| Usability | |||||
| Portal Framework |  (Extensible) |
(Web Part Framework) |
(Proprietary) |
(Web Part Framework) |
unlimited pages per site, unlimited modules per page, ability to display module on multiple pages |
| Browser-Based Administration | |
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| Intuitive Control Panel | |
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| Inline Editing, Drag and Drop | |
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| Site Search | |
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does not depend on third party components or services such as Index Server, etc... | |
| Content Import/Export | |
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| Templates | |
site and page templates ( with content ) supported | |||
| MS Office Integration | |
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| Bundled Functionality | |||||
| Announcements | |
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| Blog | |
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| Contacts | |
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| Documents | |
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| Events | |
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| FAQs | |
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| Feedback | |
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| Discussion Forums | |
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| Photo Gallery | |
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| Html/Text Content | |
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| IFrame | |
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| Links | |
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| Media | |
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| News Feeds | |
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| Custom Reports | |
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| Directory | |
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| Store | |
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| Survey | |
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| Custom Forms/Tables | |
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| Banner Advertising | |
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| Newsletters | |
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| Event Logging | |
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| File Manager | |
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| Recycle Bin | |
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| Membership & Roles | |||||
| Plugin Membership Provider | |
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support for all Microsoft Membership Provider attributes | |
| Active Directory Authentication | |
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| Internet/Extranet Authentication | |
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| Public, Private, Verified Registration Options | |
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| Plugin Roles Provider | |
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additional support for Effective Date, Expiry Date, Avatars, Subscriptions, etc... | |
| Security Role Trimming | |
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role trimming control visibility at the Page, Module, and Folder level and also includes extensibility options for adding additional Permission types | |
| User Profile | |||||
| Plugin Profile Provider | |
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| Extensible User Profile System | |
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Profile items can be managed at run-time using an intuitive administrative interface. User interface controls generated automatically for collection of profile data. | |
| Application Extensibility | |||||
| Integrated Component Architecture | (Modules) |
(Web Parts) |
(Web Parts) |
(Web Parts) |
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| Rapid Development Model | (User Controls) |
(User Controls) |
 (Server Controls) |
(User Controls) |
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| Developer Tool Support | (All VS2005 SKUs) |
(All VS2005 SKUs) |
(VS2003 Pro) |
(VS2005 Pro) |
supports FREE Visual Web Developer Express 2005 and SQL 2005 Express |
| Code Generation Templates | |
uses integrated Visual Studio item templates | |||
| Automated Packaging | |
integrated with standard application | |||
| Efficient Distribution | |
single ZIP file | |||
| Run-time Installation | |
integrated with standard application | |||
| Designer Extensibility | |||||
| Templating Architecture | (Skins) |
(Master Pages) |
(Themes) |
(Master Pages) |
pre-compiled for maximum performance and flexibility |
| Design Tool Support | |
(VS2005) |
(VS2005) |
Supports ALL design tools ( PC and MAC ) | |
| Automated Packaging | |
integrated with standard application | |||
| Efficient Distribution | |
single ZIP file | |||
| Run-time Installation | |
integrated with standard application | |||
| Site Extensibility | |||||
| Site Virtualization | |
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supports multiple virtual sites from a single application/database based on URL | |
| Friendly URLs | |
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flexible RegExp URL Rewriting engine | ||
| Localization | |||||
| Resource File Framework | |
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| Run-time integrated editor | |
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| Scalable | |
Does not use satellite assemblies ( satellite assemblies can cause memory consumption issues in hosted environments ) | |||
| Automated Packaging | |
integrated with standard application | |||
| Efficient Distribution | |
single ZIP file | |||
| Run-time Installation | |
integrated with standard application | |||
| Security | |||||
| Medium Trust Compliant | |
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| Document Management | |||||
| Secure Document Storage | |
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supports storage on file system and in database | |
| Infrastructure | |||||
| XCOPY Deployment | |
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| No IIS Customization | |
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| Web Farm Support | |
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| Multiple Database Support | |
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| Shared Hosting Optimization | |
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| Community | |||||
| Professional Plugin Ecosystem | |
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| Professional Designer Ecosystem | |
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| Support Forums | |
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| Licensing | |||||
| License | Open Source | $$$ | $$$ | licensed under an enterprise-friendly BSD/MIT open source license | |
| Source Code | |
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| Pricing | |||||
| Price | FREE | FREE | $40,000 | (Not Released) | |
Please note that this blog was influenced by other recent blogs by Bil Simser and Richard Dudley ( whom I wish to thank for sharing their objective opinions ).
Copyright 2006