SharePoint or DotNetNuke?

Well the decision between the two products like (SharePoint and DotNetNuke) is to be done very well.

Let me tell you what each of the product offer you. What are the differences between them and which one to go for, either Microsoft's SharePoint Portal Server or DotNetNuke.

Here's an article which can help you to decide which to go for....

SP and DNN are very different beasts which offer some similar functionalities. I'm using SP as a generic term for either WSS or SPS, which is a different decision. DNN is really an easy website creation tool, while SP was designed to be an information repository and collaboration tool in a corporate environment. The best way to summarize might be "Extranet vs. Intranet". My thinking is Extranet=DNN, Intranet=SP. DNN is designed to be used and maintained by persons with little IT experience. SP is one of those things that will require having a decent IT person around.

First question would be whether or not you need tight integration with Office. If so, then hands down your only choice is SP. Another feature that DNN is lacking is a document library with version control, although one may appear down the road. SP offers full-text indexing of the documents you store in it, and so you can search inside the documents in its libraries. DNN doesn't offer this. SP stores its documents very securely in the SQL database; DNN stores them as files, which means if someone knows the right path, the site's security could be bypassed and the documents downloaded directly.

If you don't need the tight Office integration, DNN is a very valid choice for a website. A good use would be for a school's website. DNN supports multiple child portals, just as SP does, and you can distribute administration, just as with SP. The school could have its main portal, and each department or club could have its own child portal, each with their own radically different looks. True, you could pull off the school's website with SP, but it wouldn't be so flexible, and you would put in a lot more effort to make it work.

Another consideration is what type of authentication you need to use. WSS was designed to integrate with Active Directory, DNN was designed to work with anonymous users and Forms Authentication. There are ways to make DNN work with AD, and WSS work with anonymous users, but anytime you make a change as significant as authentication scheme, you introduce adminsitrative overhead. One point of using these tools is to simplyify your life, not create extra work.

Cost might also be a consideration. True, if you have Windows 2K3, then WSS is essentially free; DNN is entirely free. There are a lot of good web parts available for free and cheap for WSS, but many are very expensive. DNN can also be extended with inexpensive or free modules, and even the ones you have to pay for are still pretty cheap.

One main difference I see is the amount of different things you can do with DNN. DNN can also serve as an e-commerce platform, or host robust photo galleries (rather than the "list of photos" in SP). There are some nice calendar modules for DNN that not only list events, but allow registrations and can accept payment for them. In this case, it might seem like SP is lacking in some functionality, but SP was never designed to do these things--these are functions of a website, not a collaboration tool.

Skinning is a bazillion times easier with DNN. The DNN core team did a great job with its skinning engine, and there are lots of skins available for free or cheap. Changing the look of a single page, or entire portal is done with a simple package upload and a few mouse clicks. With enough work, you can do some really nice skinning on SP (both SPS and WSS), but it takes some work. I've done both, and DNN is by far easier and more powerful (mainly due to DNN's simplicity--features which are hidden or difficult really aren't features at all).

DNN runs very well in a shared hosting environment; SP, not so much. Although DNN only ships with SQL Server provider, if you're handy enough, you would write one for MySQL, or Vista, etc. You don't have that option with SP--it's SQL Server only.