Websites are a must-have for businesses—the new “Open” sign is a simple “www.” But it can be difficult to know exactly what kind of website is the best—and even further, what sort of website is the best fit for your business?
We at TechArk want to share our knowledge with you, so that you can make an informed decision about your digital needs.
What is a website?
A website is a collection of pages accessible only via the internet. It’s a bit like a book, but totally and completely Reimagined. Those pages all contain text, images, and maybe even video—all of which are called “content.” Websites are typically developed on a handful of different platforms built for managing such content.
Let’s take a look at a few of the most popular Content Management Systems (CMS) available on the interwebs these days.
Open Source Websites with a goal of Informing
What is WordPress?
WordPress is a content management system available online for free. Volunteer programmers from around the world regularly develop and improve custom code for WordPress software, and there’s an existing plugin or widget for almost any feature you could need to add.
WordPress is our favorite here at TechArk due to its intuitive backend management portal. Totally user-friendly, site administrators can add, edit, or delete posts, pages, media, menus, and more. We customize WordPress websites to our clients’ taste, train them on how to use it, and then release the website into the wild west of the web. Our clients are able to update and manage content without our help, for the most part.
What is Drupal?
Drupal is another CMS available online for free. Their motto is “come for the code, stay for the community,” and they mean it. Bolstered by a worldwide community of programmers tweaking code and providing support, Drupal also offers a flexible framework open to deep customization, and a user-friendly content editor for text, images, video, and more.
What is Joomla?
Also available for free, Joomla’s content editor is known as WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) and allows the user to directly edit the layouts. Built to be user-friendly, Joomla offers simple administrative editors for content, banners, templates, media, and more.
E-Commerce Websites with a goal of Sales
What is Magento?
Also open source, Magento offers both free and paid versions so some further research may be necessary to determine whether this CMS is a good fit for your business, and if so, which version to use. Scalable and searchable, Magento is great for small businesses and is compatible with most of the third-party services needed for e-commerce to be successful.
Multiple payment methods are accepted through the software, and shipping can be set up within the site to ship to multiple addresses.
What is Shopify?
With four pricing plans to choose from, Shopify may not be free but it is versatile. Themes, apps, and plugins are available (some free, some paid) to improve the usability of your online store, and it accepts all major credit cards.
As a helpful resource, Shopify keeps up a blog full of tips and advice for managing your Shopify store and helping your customers have the best possible experience at your online website store.
Which website CMS is the best?
We can’t say definitively, because each business has unique needs and expectations. TechArk prefers WordPress, but we’ve worked with many Content Management Systems over the years, and each has pros and cons.
Of course, we’re always available to answer questions and provide support—it’s available 24/7 by simply emailing Support@GoTechArk.com.
Contact us today for a free consultation, and to learn more about which CMS may suit your needs. Every business is different, which is why every website must also be different.
WordPress, Joomla, Magento … the list goes on. Are they Friends or Foes?
