Which CMS Platform to Choose for your Website?
If you’re an agency that offers website design, you may be hit with a wave of website woes sooner than later. Maybe not exactly woes, but having three good platform choices in front of you!
For starters, you’ll need to know about three content managed systems, or CMS, that you have at your fingertips.
Those three CMS platforms are:
- WordPress
- Joomla
- Drupal
You will want to do research — or see that your web designer does it for you — to note the similarities and differences of the platforms, the benefits, cost, and of course, which will best suit your needs.
As part of the re-brand of pd+a, the platform that worked best for perryadvertising.com was WordPress.
Why? It’s free to download a customizable theme — the others offer free too, but being already versed with the workings of blogging using WP and its growing popularity, it made sense.
Through the development and launch of perryadvertising.com, and with several client websites in development using the WordPress Platform, the learning curve diminishes, confidence builds, creativity flourishes, and productivity increases which helps to keep the budget on track.
As with Joomla and Drupal, WordPress offers continuous updates of plug-ins that usually entail security patches and sometimes increased functionality. Plugins can be straightforward to use, and are often customizable to fit your site objectives.
If you want to surround yourself with local CMS enthusiasts, there are numerous meet-ups, like the WordPress group at: http://www.meetup.com/inlandempirewp/ and online tech support to help.
That resource, along with having a trusted, competent developer on your team is priceless.
Another priceless resource to have with today’s security issues, sophistication and persistence of those determined to rein in havoc is to establish an on-going web maintenance plan — a “guardian angel”…to help keep your beautiful new site, healthy, up and running.
Now, here are some highlights on three CMS Platforms to help you make the right decision.
As always, do diligent research, and focus on the purpose, goal and complexity of the website, the budget, timeline, and the skillset of the person or persons assigned to the website updates and upkeep, to help you choose the right platform.
WordPress –
Relatively easy to use for a very simple site, or manageable with a deeper understanding of development, to create a customized, branded site using a seemingly endless choices of free and premium (paid) customizable themes, and free and premium plug-ins, that will help you build a site designed to function just as you mapped out. There are some well-regarded plug-ins, such as WooCommerce, that can help you turn your WordPress site into an eCommerce site.
The WordPress community is exceptionally large and is quite generous with knowledge and help. Facebook has several robust WordPress groups on it. WordPress.org has two-day WordCamps happening all over the world for designers and developers, for a surprisingly low cost. It also has an extensive online support forum.
For the following overviews, I consulted with an expert web developer.
Joomla –
Joomla is a somewhat user-friendly platform that’s used for more-complex sites, including eCommerce sites. Their free and mostly premium plug-ins (which provide added functionality) are known as “extensions,” and there are many attractive customizable free and premium themes available. The learning curve for Joomla is steeper, the developer community is not as extensive as WordPress, and it may be more difficult and perhaps more expensive to find timely support for issues. There is one Joomla group at the time of this writing on Facebook that can help you with issues that crop up, but their main website has a community forum.
Drupal –
Drupal is versatile and customizable, but requires ample time to develop, which means a much bigger budget, with expert developer skills required for more complex websites. This platform includes, but is not limited to, online stores. While there don’t seem to be any Drupal groups on Facebook at this time, they have a community forum on their site to provide support.
“Google” any of these content management systems to reveal a variety of resources to help you before, during, and after the development of your site.
Now can see why three’s a crowd?
With a clear understanding of your website objectives, resources and budget in hand, you’re sure to make the correct choice.
Let us know your experience with a CMS Platform!