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Add to SafariWhen comparing KeystoneJS vs Calipso, the Slant community recommends KeystoneJS for most people. In the question“What is the best Node.js-based CMS?” KeystoneJS is ranked 2nd while Calipso is ranked 13th. The most important reason people chose KeystoneJS is:
Keystone comes with an auto-generated Admin UI, which makes things very easy for any task that can be completed using Keystone. In any way Keystone is used, the Admin interfaces saves a lot of time and makes any job easier.
Specs
Question Ranking
Pros
Pro Out-of-the-box Admin UI
Keystone comes with an auto-generated Admin UI, which makes things very easy for any task that can be completed using Keystone. In any way Keystone is used, the Admin interfaces saves a lot of time and makes any job easier.
Pro Keystone comes with Express already configured
Express comes out of the box already configured from Keystone or it can be treated like any other Express Middleware.
Pro Keystone has easy form processing
Using the data models defined by the developer, Keystone can validate forms automatically without any more setup. Form validation doesn't get easier than this.
Pro Many cool features
Great CMS with auto-generated admin, schemas...
Pro Easy to install and use
KeystoneJS is very easy to install and use.
Pro Easy email management features
With Keystone it is easy to set up an email management system for an application. It has template-based emails and it's also integrated with Mandrill (Mailchimp's transaction email sending service)
Pro Keystone uses MongoDB through Mongoose
Keystone allows the usage of MongoDB since it comes with Mongoose, the most popular ODM for node and Mongo, this means that anything that is built using Mongo can be built with Keystone.
Pro Numerous amounts of templating engines are supported
Keystone supports almost all templating engines out there. Although it uses Jade directly after a fresh install and it points to using it further, other template engines can be installed and used instead.
Pro Effective session management
Keystone has advanced and effective session management and authentication features. Logging in and signing up is easy and it even has password encryption out of the box.
Pro Calipso runs with MongoDB and Express in the background
Calipso uses MongoDB through Mongoose as a database and it runs on top of Express, the most popular framework for Node. Making it very simple for anyone experienced in Express and used to working with Mongo.
Pro Calipso is built using a modular approach
Calipso delivers it's functions by using a modular approach. All of the core features that you would expect from a CMS, excluding theming and forms are provided by modules.
Pro Calipso supports the use of stylus in CSS
Calipso also supports the use of stylus for stylesheets and themes. This means that customizing themes with Calipso is very easy.
Cons
Con It does not have a built-in roles system
Although registering a new user is very easy, there is not any roles system out-of-the-box. There is only a check box "Access keystone" which gives a user full administrative power. Adding different kind of users is only possible by editing the user data model.
Con Horrible documentation; Keystone5 is unfinished and the team dumped it for a whole (stripped down) new version
Team even admits to a lot of areas being undocumented. Just spent 5 months implementing Keystone5 just to have it marked for deprecation. Next version removes DB Adapters (the entire reason for us implementing it). This project is poorly managed, and extremely difficult to extend due to incomplete documentation.
Con No auto-reload and no good support for RDBMS
Does not have auto-reload in its backend.
Hard to debug.
Features found in document, absent in code.
No enough support to PostgresQL, no automatic migration
Con No default option to add pages in admin panel
Con It's hard for front-end developers with no MVC experience setting up views
Keystone follows MVC practices in managing routes, views and templates. Back-end developers with experience in working with MVC frameworks will find themselves at ease since the beginning, but developers who work on the front-end only will have a hard time finding what they are supposed to do to set up templates and such.
Con Some working knowledge of JavaScript, NPM and Databases is needed
MongoDB is required to be up and running and a Yeoman generator is used to generate the application. Although the prompt based start-up in the command line helps you a lot, it still can be hard for someone inexperienced with NPM and Yeoman.
Con Packaging externals libraries is tricky
Unless you want to import every JS.
Con Has been inactive for long
The last update on GitHub was several months ago.
Con Installation may be a little hard
Because of Calipso's modular approach, it can be a little hard to get everything ready because if some modules are missing, it can cause trouble.
