REDAXO

REDAXO is an open-source content management system (CMS) written in PHP and backed by a MySQL database. It comes from the German web scene and is especially popular with agencies and freelancers who value complete freedom in shaping a site's structure. Unlike systems heavily wrapped in ready-made themes, REDAXO gives the developer a raw, flexible foundation on which to build templates themselves.

How REDAXO works

REDAXO's architecture rests on a few distinctive concepts:

• Templates and modules — the developer defines templates (page layout) and modules (content blocks with their own input and output code) that an editor assembles into coherent subpages.
• Slices — individual module instances filled with content in the panel, giving editorial flexibility without touching code.
• AddOns — extensions that add features such as media management (MediaPool), SEO-friendly URLs or forms.
• Separation of content and presentation — the data structure is independent of the visual layer, making unusual layouts easier to build.

This design leads REDAXO to be described as a CMS for developers — its strength is flexibility rather than out-of-the-box themes.

REDAXO in practice

REDAXO shines mainly in bespoke projects:

1. Corporate sites and portfolios — agencies build sites with a unique layout while fully controlling the code.
2. Sites with unusual structure — the flexible content model eases the implementation of non-standard subpage layouts.
3. Multilingual projects — built-in mechanisms simplify handling language versions.

Like other PHP-and-MySQL systems — such as WordPress — REDAXO needs standard hosting with PHP and database support, so it runs on most popular servers.