Mambo è un sistema di gestione di contenuti web (CMS - content manager sistem) libero, il suo codice Open Source è sviluppato con il linguaggio di programmazione PHP. Esso è un CMS dinamico ed usa il database libero MySQL  per  archiviare  i dati inseriti.

Il programma è scritto e supportato da un gruppo internazionale di volontari i quali provvedono allo sviluppo di Mambo in maniera tanto efficace da farlo apparire come una delle migliori e popolari applicazioni presenti in internet attualmente.

The Mambo CMS allows you to easily create a dynamic web site . At its most simple, it can be installed through Fantastico on any web hosting space that offers cPanel hosting and you can quickly have a web site online with a minimum of effort and almost no programming or HTML skills. 

Don't let this simplicity fool you though - Mambo is feature rich, highly extensible, and very powerful. 

Mambo is used for everything from simple, single-page web sites to portals, intranets, and complex corporate applications. 

What is a content management system?
It is simply a system for managing content. 

Wikipedia defines a content management system (CMS) as  a "system used to organize and facilitate collaborative creation of documents and other content"
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Content_management_system). 

Essentially, a CMS allows you to gather, organise, maintain and serve content. With Mambo, you gather  your content (text, images, scripts, etc) and add it to your site through a web browser interface. In other words, you logon to your Mambo site and add the content you want included in your site.  This content is then stored in your database. Mambo allows you to determine the way your content will be served to your site visitors.  Then, when a visitor comes to your site, Mambo determines which content will be served for the page the visitor has requested and delivers it. 

We use the terms "dynamic" and "database-driven" to describe the way Mambo functions. Unlike traditional static web pages where all the content is hard-coded into each page, Mambo stores the content inside the database.  The "page" does not exist until a visitor requests it. At that time, Mambo determines which content should be presented on that page and how it should be delivered. It is this use of database technology that makes Mambo such a powerful content management system.