Radian vs. Goldberg

Radiant uses radius for implementing user interface, which is actually a tag based template language. May it be a designer with basic technical knowledge or advanced rails developer, both will have to learn using radius. And in Goldberg, normal rails layouts are used for user interface of the website.

Radiant only has direct input of markup or text content that may also radius tags. In Goldberg, user may provide HTML content directly or use FCKeditor that is a web based text formatting utility that can be easily integrated in Goldberg.

Note: If radius code is used while adding content then a non technical client might not be able to edit the content easily. But in Goldberg, use of FCKeditor makes it simple to edit the content without much of technical knowledge.

Goldberg has an advanced user and role management system as compared to Radiant. With Goldberg it’s very simple to manage what kind of users can do what all things.

As you keep adding pages in Radiant it automatically maintains a hierarchy of pages, which may be used in displaying a menu. In Goldberg there is a fully featured menu editor using which pages can be positioned as required and managed efficiently.

Both Goldberg and Radiant are extensible to other applications and features. Radiant has special kind of add-ons called extensions and for adding features on a page there are behaviors.

Radiant requires less technical knowledge as compared to Goldberg and also requires less time to get it up and running. A Radiant solution may also be upgraded later to Goldberg depending on the requirement at reasonable cost. If requirements as foreseen can be satisfied by Radiant then it suggested going ahead with it.

But for more than just a static website, like when we need features like role management, content access control then it is suggested to go for Goldberg as it already provide certain advanced features which satisfy needs of more than just static websites.