Introduction
Building an online presence for your business is by far one of the most important tasks to do if you're starting a new venture.
As a part of this presence, your website is paramount to showcasing your products, services, content and vision and helps to present your business and ideas as the most ideal solution.
With so many choices out there for websites, it can be very daunting to decide which platform to use based on your requirements and ongoing changes going forward.
This article will compare several popular options and showcase the positives and pitfalls of each system to help you decide the best platform for your website.
All of these solutions can be used directly for any kind of project depending on your website requirements and can also be outsourced to a web designer or company to do it for you instead.
Option 1: Static HTML/Bootstrap website (manual)
The oldest way of building websites is to code them manually in HTML (HyperText Markup Language) and build out all the different elements from scratch or with a template.
HTML websites can also use other languages like CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) to theme the design and change colour schemes and add more advanced features to the code like drop-down menus and buttons.
Bootstrap another framework can also be utilised for static websites and allows one to create better templates that include features like drop-downs, animation effects, galleries and contact forms.
Advantages
The first advantage of using a static website is the fact that there is no database attached to the website which offers a few advantages shown below.
- Better performance
- Improved security as there is no username and password or database to hack
- Small file size
- Easy to move from one server to another
Disadvantages
While the advantages above are definitely good static sites are not without there problems which include the following:
- Time-consuming to make changes as the files need to be edited each time and code adjusted
- Time-consuming to add lots of content
- Difficult to have multiple people working on the site at the same time
- Not mobile-friendly out of the box
- Harder to optimize for search engines
- Harder to expand with new features
Option 2: Static HTML (using headless CMS)
The next option is virtually the same as a static website, however, this time uses an external piece of software to help build the site and make changes.
The way headless CMS platforms work is through an editor which you use to design the site which then exports all the HTML and CSS files ready to place on your server.
Some popular options for this include Hugo, bootstrap studio and many more.
Advantages
- Saves you from editing the code manually and enables a faster experience through an editor.
- Often times the website will be mobile friendly without extra configuration.
- Small and lightweight.
- Easy to upload and move from one server to another.
- Improved security as there is no username and password or database to hack.
- Generally loads fast as there are no other components.
Disadvantages
- Harder to optimize for search engines
- Harder to expand going forward to things like eCommerce, Directories, memberships and other features you may want
- Difficult to have multiple people working on the site at the same time
- Not always practical as changes you make will require you to re-upload files to the server
All up static websites are great for the performance they bring and the low maintenance involved, however, these are best suited for small websites that don’t change very often and in many cases prove unpractical for larger sites like blogs and stores.
Option 3: WordPress CMS
This next option is a very popular choice for most websites and that is the WordPress CMS. Originally made for blogging WordPress is capable of so much more with the help of plugins and 3rd Party software to expand your website.
Advantages
- Relatively easy to set up and use
- Allows for multiple users to edit parts of the site at the same time
- Thousands of options for themes and plugins to extend the website
- Can be installed on virtually all hosting companies
- Can scale to hundreds of pages or have a handful of pages depending on the size of your website
- Can be used for eCommerce
- Widely supported by developers
- Can be customized if necessary through your own plugins or themes
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO) ready
- Mobile-friendly design out of the box
- Lots of online resources and content to help you with issues or questions
- Free and open source to download and use
Disadvantages
- Highly targeted by hackers due to its popularity
- Security vulnerabilities if not configured properly or kept up-to-date
- Requires a database which can slow down the website if it is large and uses lots of resources
- Requires frequent maintenance to be kept up-to-date and optimized
- Lots of updates to install all the time, which can break your site
- Requires backup and monitoring to ensure you can rollback changes if necessary
- Can be slow on cheaper hosting providers
Option 4: Joomla CMS
Next up on the list is Joomla another popular CMS similar to WordPress in its functionality, but not intended for blogging originally.
Advantages
- Support for extensions and templates
- Free and open source to download and use
- Relatively easy to install
- Can be installed on virtually all hosting companies
- The active community of users and developers
- Can be used for eCommerce
- SEO capabilities to optimize your website
- Can be scaled to have lots of content or a few pages depending on your needs
- Relatively easy to maintain
Disadvantages
- Although less popular than WordPress updates still need to be installed regularly and backups to keep your website secure
- Slightly complex if you're new to web design concepts
- Can have compatibility issues when multiple extensions are in use
- Requires a database which can slow down the website
- Sometimes hard to find plugins that are free or available for specific requirements
- Fewer choices for extensions than WordPress
Conclusion
We hope you found this article to be helpful in choosing the appropriate CMS platform for your website and have found an approach that is most suitable for your online business or project.
