Which Content Management System Is Right For Me?

Content Management Systems (CMS) are nothing more than a set of files designed to assist in the creation, storage, and manipulation of website data. Web Content Management Systems (WCMS) are able to handle all types of internet files such as HTML, PHP, Flash, Java, and more.

CMS’s have evolved greatly over the last ten years. With today’s open source (free) content management systems it is possible for someone with limited knowledge of website programming to make a functioning website for their personal or business use.

In this article we will attempt to show the strengths and the weaknesses of the two most popular CMS systems that are freely available on the market today and what types of website should consider using them.

Joomla!

Joomla! has become one of the most widely used CMS systems for website designers, especially over the last three years. The Joomla project grew out of open source development of an older CMS platform known as Mambo. Joomla emerged in 2005 and has quickly become the top CMS platform and most downloaded for a variety many reasons. Below we will look at the top three reasons Joomla! has experienced such Worldwide success.

1. Out of the box functional website

Joomla is very easy to install and setup. Because of the module based nature of Joomla! and the fact that it is template driven, a website owner is literally able to setup a Joomla! installation and have a working website up in less than 30 minutes. The flexibility of Joomla is evident when one delves into customizing even the free templates that are integrated within the standard Joomla! installation. Because it is so easy to install and customize, Joomla! is a fully functional CMS that can be utilized by nearly any vertical market large or small.

Some of the most well known sites using Joomla! as their content management system today include big players such as:

• MTV Networks Quizilla (Social networking) – http://www.quizilla.com
• IHOP (Restaurant chain) – http://www.ihop.com
• Harvard University (Educational) – http://gsas.harvard.edu
• Citibank (Financial institution intranet) – Not publicly accessible
• The Green Maven (Eco-resources) – http://www.greenmaven.com
• Outdoor Photographer (Magazine) – http://www.outdoorphotographer.com
• PlayShakespeare.com (Cultural) – http://www.playshakespeare.com
• Senso Interiors (Furniture design) – http://www.sensointeriors.co.za

No matter how big or how small your website is going to be, it is wise for someone considering a CMS system to take a hard look at Joomla as your first choice. Once you begin to recognize the true power and flexibility of the Joomla! CMS platform it is very difficult to deny why it has become the top CMS platform in the world.

2. Ease of administration

Many people have very little knowledge of HTML, PHP, CSS, and other web based programming languages. This is why many website designers have begun to favor the Joomla! CMS platform. The front end administration of Joomla! is very well organized and simple to navigate. With one training call with your clients, a web designer is able to effectively show the website owner how to add, remove, and change content easily. As long as the user has some experience with Microsoft Word, they will have no problem at all using the Joomla administration panel to manage their websites.

This ease of use is what we rate the #2 best feature of the Joomla! CMS platform is for both web designers and end users.

Advanced programmers are still able to access the .PHP files directly and modify them in any way they see fit. This is why the Joomla! platform is also so popular with website designers.

3. Diverse community developed extensions

This final point should not be overlooked. There are thousands upon thousands of user developed free and commercial extensions for the Joomla! platform. Extension for Joomla! can be found for virtually any need one may have with a website. Extension range from things as small as adding Google tracking code to your site easily to as large as a complete community management system.

Joomla! extensions have been developed specifically to help many vertical markets needs such as realtors, car salesment, and most importantly e-commerce. As was uncovered in our last blog about Joomla! it’s even possible to buy an extension that integrates a WordPress blog into your Joomla! website installation.

Drawbacks To Joomla!

The biggest drawback we have found to date with Joomla is that it has not been able to truly integrate the power of other CMS systems such as Worpress into it’s existing website installation. We get around this by integrating WordPress manually into the Joomla! website, however many people find this too difficult to do on their own. For those people there is a pay extension available that integrates WordPress fairly well into Joomla!. It is not 100% complete integration, but it is good enough in most cases.

WordPress

WordPress is a system that has been around since 2001. Most people did not start actively using WordPress until 2005 with their version 1.5 release that introduced themes. In 2005 their 1.5 version was downloaded 900,000 times. In 2009 estimates put WordPress downloads well above 4 million!

WordPress has grown for a standard blogging platform into a fully functional content management system in it’s own right. Worpress.com is available to host blogs for those that want the absolute simplest method of blogging software. WordPress.org is where one can download the WordPress software that is needed to install on your host.

The top three reason for the success of WordPress include:

1. King of the blogging hill

WordPress is the undefeated, one of a kind, king of the hill blogging platform. WordPress simply has no equal when it comes to a powerful, SEO ready, scalable blogging system. With social media and social marketing becoming an ever increasing part of of every business’s marketing strategy, it is clear why WordPress has gained such a huge dominance in the marketplace for blogging software.

Because of the incredible community participation is the WordPress project, with the help of plugins and administrator customization, it’s quite possible for a website owner to create an entire site using nothing but the WordPress CMS platform for both static pages and dynamic blogging. As WordPress further develops it will surely gain even more footing over more popular CMS platforms such as Joomla! for complete website CMS .

2. diverse community developed plugins

The community has many free and pay commercial plugins that help to customize and extend the basic functionality of WordPress. Thanks to these unique plugins and other Worpress hacks, website owners are able to utilize WordPress installation as a one stop CMS for small and large website projects alike.

Some popular blogs you may not have known were powered by WordPress include:

• Anderson Cooper’s AC 360′s blog
• John Chow’s marketing blog
• Rosie Odonnell’s blog (ack….)

3. simple administration interface

Wodpress has bar none one of the most straightforward, no nonsense user interfaces of any CMS you will ever see. The WordPress administration is elegant and at the same time powerful. Without having any programming knowledge at all, a website designer’s client would likely be able to figure out how to navigate and blog using the WordPress administration panel easily.

The WordPress administration interface is one of those areas where a programmer can learn a valuable lesson. KEEP IT SIMPLE STUPID! Website owners with no knowledge of programming can very easily manipulate their way to blogging utopia using the simple administration of WordPress. There really isn’t much more to say then wonder at the simple glory of the WordPress administration interface people!

Drawbacks To WordPress

Okay so WordPress hasn’t exactly grown into a fully functional out of the box CMS platform for website development. Most website owners needing an in depth website platform will find themselves very frustrated with the limitations that WordPress has for them. The “out of the box” website is simply not there yet for WordPress.

User created hacks and plugins however greatly enhance the flexibility and scalability of WordPress as a full fledged content management system. For those not at least somewhat familiar with HTML or PHP, you may not be ready to try your hand at using WordPress as a one stop shop for your website development needs. WordPress is clearly on a path to becoming a full CMS platform and every year they are making leaps and bounds with the out of the box functionality of the WordPress platform.

There is no doubt that one day WordPress will rival Joomla!, Drupal, and other CMS platforms for dominance.

As it stands today website owners must evaluate the needs of their websites before deciding on a CMS platform to work from. At the highest level we recommend WordPress to anyone with a website that will be heavy on social media and blogging. Joomla! is often the first choice for static and dynamic scalable websites that may have special needs depending on your vertical market.

We welcome the insights and comments of others using these two powerful platforms and your thoughts on how to help others determine which platform is the right one for them.