Which CMS should you be using?

Content Management Systems power some of the largest and most popular websites on the internet today. They have driven the information revolution and are making it easier to access and post content than ever before. Using a CMS for your website is the logical choice. But which CMS should you use? This is a tough and subjective question. A quick search on the internet will tell you that there is no right answer. Each Content Management System  has its pros and cons and each developer or designer has a preference. We will examine the three largest Open Source Content Managements Systems available: Joomla!, WordPress and Drupal.

If you've used any form of Content Management Systems in the past, you should have very little problem using any one of these systems. Being Open Source they all have very active communities and if you run in to a problem, chances are, someone will be able to point you in the right direction without too much digging. These communities are what is driving the development of these systems. The online collaboration of thousands of avid developers, designers and coders is what make these systems so powerful and flexible. So how do you decide which one to use?

Let's start at the beginning. Wordpress was designed to be a powerful blogging platform. With built in commenting, trackback and pinging services it was and is to this day, probably, the best blogging system available.
Drupal, on the other hand, was designed with the developer in mind. It has a very steep learning curve but is great for the avid developer - not so great for the designer or end-user.
Joomla! seems to be somewhere in the middle. Great for the designer and developer. A larger CMS aimed at covering a wide range of uses.
But that was then. Now there is little separating the systems. Joomla! has incredibly powerful blogging 'plugins' and Content Construction Kits (CCK) and application development is a breeze with components like J!Fusion and Jumi. Joomla, in fact, has a plugin that will actually install a Wordpress site in to the Joomla core! This extended functionality is, we believe, where the real power lies and will ultimately be the deciding factor in which CMS will best suit your needs.WordPress developers have created shopping cart systems and have extended WordPress beyond simple blogging. This extended functionality is, we believe, where the real power lies and will ultimately be the deciding factor in which CMS will best suit your needs,

This is where Joomla has the edge - in our opinion. With over 6,000 active plugins in the Joomla Extension Directory and many more available through license-based subscriptions, the Joomla community has covered almost every conceivable need in website development. From Social Networks to E-Commerce, to Dating Websites, to Project Management, advanced Search Engine Optimisation, Auctions... you name it, Joomla has a plugin to accommodate every need. What's more, with Joomla!s MVC framework, these plugins can be customized to suit the look and feel of your website with little effort.

In addition, Joomla! developers are making huge leaps forward in the template frameworks used in the design of Joomla websites. By using core overrides, template designers are able to create search engine friendly template designs in highly flexible layout configurations. In addition, most of these new template frameworks include support for mobile / handheld devices meaning that in addition to a website, you get a lite or mobi site too. We prefer to use Joomlart's T3 framework for our custom projects.
Furthermore, the developers of these frameworks are now using the same systems to power WordPress and Drupal themes.

Deciding on the right CMS really boils down to two aspects: functionality and design. Both of these are paramount to finding a solution that will best suit your needs. Should you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact us.