What CMS Do You Use?

It might be one of the oldest questions on the web (surely the topic of some long-running flame wars), but I’m curious, so I’m asking: What Content Management System do you use?

Some backstory: I’ve recently begun working at a New York-based web design and Internet marketing firm as their all-around design/development guy, and a big part of what I’m bringing to the company is expertise outside of Flash-based development (which is really common in the industry for which my company does work), and some really old-school Dreamweaver-generated table-based designs.

I’m there to push CSS, standards-based stuff, flexibility, and implement solutions that push the industry forward in terms of accessibility, usability, and efficiency. It’s an uphill climb, to be sure (can you climb downwardly?), but one that is fulfilling, and for which noticeable progress is already being made. In a way, I’m as much a consultant as a site-builder, and that suits me just fine.

Now, one thing I’ve been trying to figure out is how best to approach issues of content management for our clients, particularly new ones.

The way I see it, there are several different possibilities:

1. Having the client (or content manager) purchase and use commercial CMS software like Adobe Contribute or Dreamweaver.
   
2. Purchasing and installing a web-based CMS (something PHP-y, ideally, since I’m capable with that).
3. Using Wordpress, Drupal, or similar open-source Content Management Systems.
4. Building a custom CMS from the ground up.
5. Implementing services like the new CushyCMS, which is a totally hosted content management service that now offers a premium version for designers that allows you to create a branded CMS and bill clients monthly, if desired.
6. Award all clients a complimentary copy of HTML For Dummies upon completion of their site and change the office phone numbers.

A few of my thoughts on the above possibilities, and then I’d love love love your input and suggestions:

• I’m inclined to hate Dreamweaver and Contribute (I think they violate my religion, perhaps). And I think there’s a great deal to be said about the ability to update one’s site from anywhere with an internet connection - without having to install expensive software.
• Non-free web-based CMSes: I know they exist, but I don’t know which ones are good. Why use these rather than their free counterparts?
• I’ve used Wordpress in the (recent) past for client sites, and I like it enough, but it doesn’t seem meant to handle “real websites.” I don’t mean this as an attack on its particular technical merits (though the Digg crowd surely does), but merely as a comment on what I gather to be its “software worldview,” if I may coin a phrase with only 283 results in Google.
• I have yet to use Drupal, though I’ve been researching it, and it seems viable.
• We don’t have the capabilities in-house to develop custom Content Management Systems aside from very exceptional cases for which we can have a pretty cool Rails developer to put something together for us, so that’s pretty much out, and beyond the financial abilities of most of our clients, besides.
• And CushyCMS intrigues me, and seems really great for smaller clients, but the idea of relying on third-party hosting scares me a little. How do you tell your clients, “There’s nothing we can do about it?”

Ultimately, I’m curious to hear what you use, what makes it awesome (or makes it suck), and what you know about the different options out there for folks looking to build some seriously cool sites, and spread some seriously decent standards-compliance at the same time.

Let me know in the comments!