I have used a huge number of systems over the last 15 years or so, from early days playing with Corel Webmaster Suite (!) to working with Joomla and Wordpress, Impakt with Dreamweaver and simple hand coding.

ProcessWire opens up the idea of development for both the experienced developer and the newcomer by offering a system that is incredibly powerful while being unbelievably simple to use.

Data (content) is stored in field related tables in a clean and uncorrupted manner, meaning that once you use the very simple directives to retrieve the data, you are free to format it and present as you wish - there is no set formatting, no wildly complex arrays stuffed into overcrowded table rows, and assumptions as to how you wish to design your site.

Want to use Bootstrap - it works out of the box.

Want to hand code your html/css? Just get on with it and put your fields where you want.

Want to use Dreamweaver to create template files? Go ahead.

Want to use a JQuery plugin? No need to convert it into some mad CMS module, just use the plugin developers instructions and add your data.

This is a strong, carefully crafted application that the developer has grown and nurtured over many years and now is properly ready for the mass market.

The active and friendly community is incredibly helpful both to the development of the project and to any new users whatever their level of expertise.

And, of course, it is free.

I've worked with a number of CMS applications over the years, such as Joomla!, Drupal and CMS Made Simple, to name just a few. As my needs as a web designer and developer evolved, I became increasingly frustrated with these solutions, as I often felt I was working for the system, adjusting my ways to fit its needs, rather than the other way around.

Fortunately, one day, following a recommendation from a blog post, I decided to take ProcessWire for a spin. And boy, was it worth it. The beautiful, jQuery-inspired API, the flexibility of the whole system, the power that was suddenly at my disposal, the friendly and helpful community behind the system, everything was just a breath of fresh air.

This might all sound too good to be true, but, hey, that's how I feel about this system. So, I encourage you to head over to the ProcessWire website and have a look around. Download a copy and have a play with it. If you need help, you will find yourself in heaven as far as helpful communities go.

All things considered, ProcessWire is an all-round solid CMS. It is easy enough to be used by novice developers and designers, flexible enough to let you build anything you want and powerful enough to make experienced developers extremely happy.

[Edited by Panictree, March 23]

I can tell my own experience about PW. I'm a graphic designer with very basic knowledge of PHP, and i could easily understand some of the advanced features of ProcessWire API by reading the excellent documentation. By advanced, I mean things that give you complete control over the markup and complete flexibility to build your website. You can surely believe that ProcessWire API is to PHP as JQuery is to Javascript :) Besides, the support on the forums is the most useful and friendly that you can find.

I remember I was searching using google, frustrated after realizing that MODx Revo back-end is not going to be any faster soon because it's based on ExtJS and it's heavy as hell. I didn't expect too much, because previously I was trying to find a CMS that would embody my vision of a good one, but was getting no results that would satisfy my needs. Every time I was finding something I felt like the architecture is not well thought out (MODx Evo) or code is poorly documented (Joomla) or that system is bloated and require a lot of hacking to get it working the way you want and its API is not intuitive (Drupal).

I was looking, first of all, for a reasonably fast CMS with a concise, intuitive API, custom fields and a simple back-end. So I googled something like this: custom fields easy api cms. Bingo!!!

After finding PW's website, I watched a video on the main the page and liked it very much. Ryan Cramer, creator of Processwire and a seasoned web developer with more than 15 years of experience, is really good at explaining how things work. I liked personal flavor of the video, maybe because I was tired of all that standard marketing stuff that you can find on CMS websites. I was amazed by the simplicity and elegance of the back-end (see demo here). I even began to doubt that it can really provide all necessary functionality. How wrong I was!

Then I proceeded to API pages and they blew my mind, I began feeling that I found a true piece of software/art.

Then I went to Ryan's personal website and took a look at the sites he made and I must say, I loved them. Island Hideaway, Tripsite and Directory of Scholars really impressed me, especially after seeing PW's minimalictic backend. I realized that PW is a weightlifter in the body of a ballerina :)

After downloading the source from GitHub and installing it (which was very easy), I started reading through all the articles on processwire.com and toying with PW for some time. The only thing that was a little confusing is templates vs. template files ambiguity. So I regestered on PW forum, asked my question and, after I quickly recieved very thorough answer from a senior member Apeisa, my last doubts gone. PW was exactly what I was looking for! Now, after being a member of the community for several months, I must say it has very warm and welcoming atmosphere and the people are great.

If you still doubt, try it yourself. I bet you'll like it. And don't be shy to register on forums, you will find a lot of useful information there.

You may ask: Why would somebody want to make such a verbose review? :) Well, I can tell you why. I believe, that this CMS has a great potential and deserves to be known much more than it is at the moment. It hasn't been actively promoted (yet) and I hope that this review will help others find this excellent CMS.

Processwire is a platform from which you can build almost any type of website you'll need to, be it a simple website for a local business, a gallery for your artwork, a blog for random musings or a file repository - you're limited only by your imagination.

Where it excels is in giving you the freedom to rapidly create any type of structure you like in the back-end, and then allows you to easily create templates for displaying that content via the API with simple, jQuery-inspired code.

The essential thing to wrap your head around when trying out ProcessWire is that it doesn't lack functionality such as galleries or pre-defined templates, rather you can build them and any other type of page/"category" types you want by simply setting up the relevant fields and templates within a matter of minutes!

No longer need you endure a laborious process for adding new fields or removing redundant fields (or often not be able to remove them at all!) - you can set page templates up however you want as you create and choose the fields to work with a particular page type, resulting in workflows that you and your clients will find a breeze to follow and a joy to use.

To cap it off, there's a very good user permission system, the most awesome multiple image/file uploader I think I've ever used, a host of great modules and templates developed by one of the friendliest and most helpful communities I've had the pleasure of meeting and a developer that happily takes on board all comments and criticisms, often implementing new ideas and features overnight so you can go and grab the latest build when you wake up and begin playing with some pretty exciting new stuff on a regular basis!

It really is a refresing, new way of working with websites.

Just a final note - I'm not getting paid to write this review and I'm not the project author either. This is just an honest review from someone who has used a dozen CMS packages over the last seven years and has finally found a system that removes all of the barriers and allows me to simply get on with building your website. It's praise where praise is most definitely due.