First of you have to understand what a CMS is, Wikipedia says:
“A content management system (CMS) is a computer application that allows publishing, editing, modifying, organizing, deleting, and maintaining content from a central interface. Such systems of content management provide procedures to manage workflow in a collaborative environment.”
What are the benefits between them?
- A Custom built CMS is usually in house proprietary software used by the agencies that are going to organise and manage your website.
- WordPress on the other hand, is probably the worlds most used CMS / Blogging and Website management system.
- Then we have Commercial CMS Packages, often referred to as “out of the box” solutions. Though these are rarely suited to any business out of the box as the label claims.
Let’s look why you would choose one over the other.
WordPress
For anyone that is not familiar with WordPress. It started out as a great open source blogging platform, it has since evolved to an inexpensive way to create websites. Most small to medium businesses will work perfectly on a WordPress Developed site.
What are the benefits?
- User friendly dashboard for managing content.
- WordPress CMS is highly portable and compared to other solutions is relatively inexpensive to run. In other words, you are not locked into a custom product that will require ongoing support charges or monthly subscription fees.
- Because of how WordPress has evolved you can get away with building it yourself, there is literally thousands of prebuilt themes, some free and some you will need to purchase.
- Because WordPress is open source, there is a broad developer base. This allows you to hire an experienced WordPress developer to customise the look, feel and functionality of the platform.
- Apart from the thousands of themes and plugins, there is also an extensive library of extensions that add functionality to your website or blog.
What are the pitfalls?
- If building your website or blog yourself, the security of your data can be an issue. This can be circumvented by hiring a good WordPress Developer and good hosting, to address these issues.
- Because WordPress is built on a blogged CMS, it can present some design and functionality issues for non-developers. This however can be overcome with the right developer!
Custom CMS
A Custom CMS is usually developed for the purpose of creating websites. This will allow your web developer total control on the build of your Website, so customisation will be easier than just looking for a plugin that may not do exactly what you require. However, for most small to medium websites this is of little difference and is never a factor in the lifetime of that website. The other issue for small to medium business is a price point, a custom CMS is not cheap, and is not going to be a quick solution to plan and build either.
What are the benefits?
- You have the ability to have your website exactly as you require, the exact specifications to support your business needs. As it is all built to suit.
- Most Custom CMS solutions are highly flexible
- Security is usually better due to the fact it has been custom built by a group of developers. In saying this, if your development team is not well versed in the latest security standards, then you may have issues with the applications stability and security.
- Third Party application integration is all customisable.
- Advanced website features – advanced functionality and customisation can be added to the CMS.
What are the pitfalls?
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You will pay more for a website on a custom CMS
- Your business will be heavily dependent on the agency or web developer.
- Custom CMS and its code and tweaks are typically proprietary, meaning that the agency or development team own it – and are leasing it to you on a license.
- Usually a custom CMS requires a longer development process, as it is built from the ground up to suit your business requirements.
Commercial CMS, Software as a Service (SaaS) & Content Optimization System (COS) Packages.
A Commercial CMS is usually created and maintained buy a single for-profit company. Most of the larger CMS applications on the market have hundreds of dedicated developers at hand. While having hundreds of developers sounds great – be aware of the fact that with a Commercial CMS, you won’t have an entirely seamless system straight out of the box. Like the Custom CMS and even the WordPress option, Commercial CMS applications can take a lot of time to customize to your business needs.
What are the benefits?
- Commercial CMS applications can be excellent at adding advanced features to your website.
- Most Commercial CMS applications have excellent support and training on how to use the system.
- The security is usually well implemented.
- Depending on whether you choose a CMS or COS, you may be able to integrate advanced marketing and analytics system with your website with relative ease.
- Built in Third Party API integration and usually no need for extra plugins for advanced functionality.
- Usually converting an existing website from another system such as WordPress, is very easy.
What are the pitfalls?
- Setup time is usually longer than WordPress.
- Not so “Out of the Box” as you first thought, configuration, graphics, content as well as structuring the site will all need to be done.
- Monthly Subscription charges from the Commercial Supplier – these range from reasonable to ridiculous, for a small to medium business.
- In most cases you will have to use the Commercial Supplier’s recommended or approved development partners to develop and maintain your website. This is an addition cost and usually ongoing.
- Usually the commercial packages are quite involved and you or your staff will have to do training courses if you plan on maintaining the website content yourself.
So what do you need?
If you need a basic CMS that you can easily maintain, with the option of having local agencies or developers assist you when the occasion calls for it, WordPress is hard to pass up. There is a reason 25% of all websites globally depend on WordPress. Its developer base is massive, as are the plugins and themes. If you use, or decide to use, WordPress – make sure you use a professional developer to enhance the basic security on your website. Security is one of the areas that needs the most attention when developing WordPress websites. Partner with a good developer and website security won’t be an issue.
If your business needs a highly customised content management system then you should also look at the Custom and Commercial options, do your research and take into account everything that your business needs. 8 times out of 10 WordPress will do what you need, but there are times when you need more.
Take Hubspot’s COS for example, this is a brilliant system if you are involved in the inbound marketing of your website or you want to utilize inbound marketing in the future.
Other Commercial solutions like Business Catalyst from Adobe are hard to overlook. If you have staff familiar with the use of the adobe suite of products, updating through software such as Dreamweaver & Muse makes life easy.
If your still not sure where to start off, or what platform is best suited to you business or brand. Please contact one of our team at iOnline. We will be able to help you in any direction you want to go.