The Web Host Advisor

What are the top 3 open source content management systems?

The top three Content Management Systems open source are Drupal, Joomla and WordPress. All three are very established, have many features that make it simple and convenient to enter information and are extremely dependable.

Open Source means that they are free of charge and the source code for the software is included. This means you can modify the way the programs work. Since they are open source there are many people using these systems and developing supporting applications to enhance the basic installations.

All three of these are easy to setup on a web server. Most web hosts provide them as options to install free of charge. It’s as easy as point and click. They begin to set themselves apart when you look at ease of use and their ability to create very complex websites

WordPress

WordPress is by far the easiest to use out of the three. The interface is simpler and follows the way many people think. If you will be creating a website yourself and don’t have a lot of HTML experience then WordPress is the choice for you. Especially if your website is relatively small, less than 300 pages.

There are many predefined graphic themes available to customize the look and feel of your website. To find our more about the best small business WordPress theme click here. Updating and editing text and images is very easy. There are also many plugins or add-ons to enhance the basic functions of WordPress. To find out more about WordPress plugins click here.

Joomla

Joomla is a close second on ease of use, but is not as intuitive as WordPress. It does provide better search engine optimization options right out of the box and provides better security than WordPress. WordPress would require a plugin to equal Joomla in both these areas. It is better at creating more complex websites than WordPress, but not as well as Drupal.

There is a steep learning curve with Joomla in learning how to use the menus and how the structure and content work together. Once you’ve got it Joomla provides a very well organized environment that is able to create some fairly complex websites.

You will need to be more of a techy to create a website with Joomla, than WordPress.

Drupal

Drupal is not as user friendly as either Joomla or WordPress. It is the best out of the three options for creating different structural types of websites. It is very flexible and well built for more complex websites. If you will be having a large website that needs quite a bit of flexibility in structure than Drupal is your choice.

Most people will want to hire a consultant who is familiar with Drupal to set it up and configure it for their particular needs. There are a huge number of options in the configurations screens that can be overwhelming to the beginner.

Which CMS is best for you?

That depends on your needs, your resources and your abilities. For a relatively small website that you will be creating and maintaining WordPress is the best choice. For a very complex website that will be developed by a consultant then Drupal is the best choice. For the small business owner who loves technology, needs a complex website and is able to learn new technologies quickly, Joomla is the right choice.

To find out more about small business websites click here.

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This entry was posted on Friday, December 9th, 2011 at 4:08 pm and is filed under Website Basics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.