CHOOSING THE RIGHT CMS FOR YOUR WEBSITE

Transcription

1 CHOOSING THE RIGHT CMS FOR YOUR WEBSITE

2 Intro As spending on digital real estate and marketing grows, businesses must adapt their traditional models to make sure that their investment is worthwhile. Where that budget should be spent is widely debated but what s undisputed is that every business, small or large, private or public, needs a website the most important digital asset of any organisation. And the backend to that website is the content management system (CMS), the unsung hero, where digital content can be managed and edited. Whether you re a fledgling start-up or a multi-national, choosing the right CMS could save a lot of time, pain and money. So where do you start? Here s a best practice guide of six CMS tools to help facilitate your decision in choosing one that is right for your needs. Whether you re a fledgling start-up or a multi-national, choosing the right CMS could save a lot of time, pain and money.

3 WordPress As a cloud-based CMS, WordPress is one of the most popular systems available and is a reliable website builder. Its resilience and portability means it is often a hit with designers, developers and clients. Content-centric: WordPress lends Security challenges: As an well to content marketing purposes open-source CMS, WordPress is - increasingly important for small- vulnerable to security challenges, to-medium-sized businesses. which means users can modify the existing source and potentially make mistakes. Inexpensive: With free domain offering and themes, WordPress can be an easy solution to getting your Limited in scope: Above all else, WordPress is a blogging platform website live and published quickly. and this limits the complexity of the user experience design (UX). Vibrant community: One in four websites are powered by WordPress, which means there is a Plugin dependence: The more strong community to help support plugins that are installed, the more challenges that materialise. a website suffers and simple plugin updates can crash your site. Scalability: WordPress caters more to small businesses than it does to larger-scale enterprise-level web development and organisations.

4 Django CMS Django CMS is an open-source, versatile framework used by some of the world s biggest and most reputable brands and is a better fit for more demanding website development projects. Recently voted as the Best Open Source CMS, it was conceived by developers previously frustrated with the limitations of existing systems ten years ago. Front-end editing is easy-to-use and quick: Django CMS comes with an intuitive drag-and-drop interface, so it s easy to update content. Well-known social networks, including Pinterest and Disqus, a global blog comment hosting service, use Django CMS. Secure: It is built in Python - an easy-to-learn programming language - and is as secure as any web framework on-the-market. It comes with templates that help protect against security problems. Brand equity: Django CMS is used by well-known brands such as L Oréal, Ubuntu, NASA, the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) network and prestigious travel magazine, National Geographic, and the $1billion photo-sharing app, Instagram, so it comes with a powerful reputation. Complexity: The platform comes with a variety of templates and features and so the platform s true potential will need to be unlocked in conjunction with a Python developer, as well as a marketer. Requires development: In order for the Django CMS to completely replace an existing CMS, it will need some development work. Django CMS is an open-source, versatile framework used by some of the world s biggest and most reputable brands. Flexibility: Django CMS can be used to tailor to your own needs. The parts that are needed can be installed and what isn t needed can be disregarded. The system is designed to perform well, whilst models and administrative screens can be modified to your needs easily.

5 Umbraco Umbraco is an open-source cloud CMS and is used by some of the world s biggest companies, including Microsoft, Peugeot, Costa and Heinz - and more than 250,000 others. Automatic upgrades, unlimited hosting and smooth deployments, make Umbraco a powerful contender in the CMS market. Easy content management: You can be a tech novice with Umbraco, as it s fast, easy-to-use and comes with a sleek user interface design (UX). Online media management: A built-in media library means Umbraco automatically scales your photos, reduces cropping to one-click functionality and offers responsive design. Straightforward integration: Umbraco can integrate with any third-party tool, so external data and content can be leveraged effectively. Steep learning curve: The CMS has been designed with developers in mind, and with no plugins, some extra work is required to make it an effective investment. This may also mean additional monthly cost client-side. Performance: Loading times and general speed have been noted to be quite slow. The quicker a CMS, the less money will be spent in maintenance fees. Costly hosting: As Umbraco is hosted on Microsoft, it isn t supported by all hosting servers - and it s therefore more expensive.

6 Contentful An application programming interface (API) - not browser-first - intuitive, CMS-as-a-service content management developer platform, boasting a strong technical support and positive user reviews. Contentful is referred to as a headless CMS - where the frontend is stripped from the backend leaving a backend delivering content via an API. Content-centric: Contentful comes with an easy-to-use web interface, which creates an environment where non-technical, contentfocused users can operate via a simple API. Libraries and frameworks: With significant access to libraries and frameworks, uploading media from content apps, text or media, is made easy. Heavy traffic: Contentful can support tens of thousands of users simultaneously with little effort. Free for small projects only: Following basic custom upgrades, version upgrades become more challenging. Content-based API can be confusing: Although the API allows for search-based content management, this can be unusual to users used to tree-based CMS structures. Past experience important: Prior content modelling is necessary to make full use of the system. Multi-purpose & multi-site: Contentful comes into its own when integrating multiple sources of content into the CMS, such as web, mobile apps, other devices and channels.

7 Drupal Drupal is an open-source CMS software used by many of the websites and apps that we use on a daily basis: from small businesses (ethnic clothing) to large sports brands and events (2015 Canada Winter Games) to news publishing (The Boston Herald) - and everything in between. Strong brand name: More than one million websites are run on Drupal, from global Governments like Bermuda to Greenpeace and The Economist. Its reputable brand is often favoured by global corporations. Flexible: Because of its building block foundation, Drupal can be used to build any kind of website. Performance optimisation: After proper configuration, Drupal comes with a series of optimisation features that will enhance performance, including anonymous page caching and page aggregation/compression. Often incorrectly recommended: Drupal s strong brand name can precede it and it is sometimes put forward as a solution, when less complex solutions could be used instead. Internal expertise limited: Drupal developers are not always easy-tocome-by and are in demand, so projects can be passed from an external developer to developer, becoming increasingly complex and costly. Difficult to install: As with managing content modifications, installing Drupal will require technical expertise. It s a good choice for companies with experienced technical developer teams, but it s not for everyone.

8 Magnolia Magnolia is an open-source, Java-based, web CMS. As a flexible, integrationready and enterprise grade headless CMS, it can integrate existing IT and business systems for your digital transformation needs. That it boasts powerful and agile enterprise content management, as well as being available in the cloud, means it can serve as a central hub for web, mobile and Internet of Things (IoT) initiatives. Flexibility: Magnolia is built for Limited visibility of workflows: multi-channel, multi-language, Magnolia lacks an administrative multi-site digital experience dashboard displaying teams situations. Used by Airbus Group, workflow, which could be Sony, Avis Budget and Virgin America, better displayed in a graphical it is a robust and reliable CMS. representation of their status. Integration-ready: Magnolia Configuration challenges: can be connected to your choice of Arranging templates and ecommerce and digital marketing tools components can be laborious. A using custom or pre-built integrations. widget would be a welcome addition. Enterprise grade: Magnolia has Customisation challenges: the robust features needed for Adding customisation into the enterprise-scale multi-everything administrative user interface or in digital experiences. the dialogues isn t simple and the developer must know Vaadin.

9 Conclusion There is no such thing as the best CMS. Rather, businesses and entrepreneurs need to ask the question: what is the best online solution for my needs? Qualifying questions with experts or agencies, will help establish what CMS your brand and business requires. Installing a CMS is not an end in itself, but a means to an end: publishing quality digital content that excites is one challenge; grappling with the functionality is quite another. Brands should reach out to agencies and experts who can walk them through the journey, offer training and workshops, so you can focus on your core objective - to publish quality content and drive your business online growth. One thing is certain: the need for creative technologists in a world of barely-there attention spans, with consumers growing appetite for content-as-infotainment, requires a robust backend, or CMS, to support it. *We would be glad to assist you and discuss your needs at any time. We can explain how our modern and technology-agnostic approach to choosing the right CMS for your brand, can help your company prepare for digital transformation. Businesses and entrepreneurs need to ask the question: what is the best online solution for my needs? Looking to discover more about which CMS will work for your business? us today: kevin.widdop@tangent.co.uk or call