These days, it seems like everyone's talking about open source content management systems. These packages -- like Joomla, Drupal, and Plone -- can be a great way to go, but they're far from your only options. For many nonprofits, strong features in areas such as online donations, event registration, and email newsletters are as important as the Web site itself -- and integration between these components can be a big issue.

If this is the case for your organization, consider a hosted, integrated platform.

With these packages, you pay a monthly fee and get access to an online tool that helps you to build and update your site. The vendor takes care of all the installation and maintenance of the software, is available to answer your questions, and often provides a lot of support and guidance to help you setup your site. In addition, the packages in this section offer nonprofit-specific functionality, such as online donations and event registration, and help you to not only manage your Web site but also your entire list of constituents.

This type of tool isn't without its downsides, however. Most notably, to take full advantage of the integrated features, you'll need to move all our data from any software you're currently using -- your donor database, email blasting tool, event registration system, etc. -- into this new package, a substantial migration process. And then you've got all your eggs in one vendor's basket; you're tied to their future and the set of features they offer. While their feature set can be very broad, they're often not as deep in any one area as a specialist tool in that area, and it's typically difficult or impossible to add in features beyond what the vendor offers.

If these don't sound like significant problems for your organization -- or you're looking to take a step in a longer-term website strategy -- then you may want to consider the hosted, integrated solutions.

So what packages are available? There are a number of them, but here’s a selection:

WildApricot (www.wildapricot.com) WildApricot has a pick-a-design-template approach to building a new, simple Web site -- but also allows you to customize your own look and feel. It's geared to support small membership organizations, with features for tracking members and other constituents, online donations, email newsletters, and event registration. Pricing runs from free to $200 a month, depending on the size of your constituent list.

Nonprofit Soapbox (www.nonprofitsoapbox.com) As a hosted version of the Joomla content management system, Nonprofit Soapbox offers considerably more functionality in designing a site that's tailored to your needs, as well as integrated constituent-management functionality. The platform is $49 to $99 a month based on a sliding scale, plus a $2500 to $3500 setup fee that includes the creation of your site, migration of your content, and training. Custom graphic designs are available at an additional cost, as are integrated donation and powerful email functionality through Nonprofit Soapbox's partner Democracy in Action.

Democracy in Action (www.nonprofitsoapbox.com) Democracy in Action is somewhat different than the other tools on this list: it offers only limited support to update text and images of websites. For complex sites, you'll probably need another content management system. It offers a strong set of integrated tools, however -- email blasting, constituent management, online payments, and activist features -- that can be robustly and flexibly integrated into any website, for a resonable price (it starts at $100 to $300 per month for up to 3000 constituents). You'll need at least a strong HTML coder, if not a programmer, to get started with it.

Kintera and Convio (www.kintera.com and www.convio.com)

It's difficult to compare Kintera and Convio without an in-depth feature-by-feature analysis. Both are sophisticated, expensive ($1000/month at a bare minimum for either package), and offer a huge array of integrated features, including website content management, email management, and more.

Other options include Z2 Neon, CitySoft, OrchidSuites, LocalVoice, Artez, and Blackbaud Net Community.

Hosted, integrated packages aren't your only options for building a website, but they're useful ones, especially for less technically savvy organizations who don’t already have a strong set of online and constituent management tools.