Verified answer

Dave, as stated in other answer CMS WILL require a database. Database management can be intimidating if you are unfamiliar with it, but your host can make this easy for you. There are hosts such as GoDaddy, HostGator and others that offer an easy install option for CMS systems such as Wordpress, Joomla or Drupal which will include setting up and attaching the database. There shouldn't be a lot that you need to do for database management other than periodically going into your host's control panel and backing it up.

The second part of your question is worded in a way that begs another question. Do you have an existing template you want to install this into? Or do you want the system to have templates available? CMS systems are stand alone hosting applications and unless you are a programmer will not be inserted into other websites. You can set them up separately if you like and link to the home page (index) from text in the site or navigation bar from an existing site. CMS systems will have templates designed to work with their engine.

There are many open source CMS available but I would suggest Wordpress to anyone new to them. There is a very large support network of developers and users and questions can generally be resolved from their forum or a quick internet search and there are many addons including photo galleries.

Hi Dave

You can't have a CMS without database. I'm not sure why you're against database.

But if you want an easy solution, then you should try using wordpress. Its easy to install and you have good amount of theme options.

Meanwhile I have heard about Jekyll somewhere using which you can generate static web pages. This could be your solution if you don't want to use DB.