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Back in the 90s and early years at the turn of the millennium, building a website was a difficult tasks and left to the hardcore programmers who manually coded in HTML. Web designers were rare – remember those scrolling marquees and flashing icons? Those were the good ol days, but in the year 2011, many things have changed for the good. PHP/MySQL developed, helping expand the growth of web development. Developers built content management systems (CMS), dramatically decreasing the user’s need for coding experience. There’s no longer a need to handcraft and custom-build – just take 5 minutes to install WordPress and you got yourself a blog.
So why are there still people out there who want to create their own custom websites? Likely because they have specific needs that need to be fulfilled or something proprietary is being built, or they just have plenty of cash to afford something custom. But for the majority of those looking to build a decent-looking website, going with a CMS is the way to go. Personally, I like WordPress for simple sites and blogs and Drupal for more complex websites that require a large hierarchical structure.
Here’s why:
1) No need to reinvent the wheel. Someone has already spent thousands of hours building the backend structure, logins, administrative tools, etc to make a usable product. You don’t need to do the same.
2) Large community support. The WordPress and Drupal communities are huge with thousands of active developers and designers who will be able to help you with any questions you have. With a custom CMS, developers you hire would have to spend hours learning the code before they’re able to help you with anything.
3) WYSIWYG editors. Acronym for “What You See Is What You Get”. The mainstream CMSs like WordPress and Drupal allow you to simply type in the content into a text area, allowing you to create a full-blown page without any HTML knowledge.
4) Thousands of plugins. Need to add some functionality on your website? If your website is in HTML, it can be a miserable pain. But in WordPress and Drupal, you can just search for the plugin and module you need, download it, and with a few clicks, install it.
5) Constant security updates. With new security vulnerabilities discovered every day, with a custom CMS, you will have to constantly maintain to make sure it’s ok, unless you have a 2 or 3 page HTML website. With a mainstream CMS, you have people who will continuously update it for you!
6) Variety of themes. Don’t like the way your WordPress or Drupal website looks at the moment? No problem, just download a free theme and if you’re looking for something more, spend fraction on a premium theme than what you would with a custom web designer.
7) Easy to migrate. If you need to move to a different hosting company, moving a mainstream CMS is simple and if you need help, you can easily find someone to hire for a couple hours. A custom CMS can be a complete nightmare if you don’t have the right personnel.
So the next time you think of redesigning your website or someone mentions it to you, ask them if they can build it on WordPress, Drupal, or Joomla. I personally can’t say I know much about Joomla, but I’ve heard good things about it. Stick with a big brand CMS and make your life easier!
