CMS Showdown: Which Website Development platform is right for your business?

Website development has evolved over the years. From being a highly intimidating, expert led activity, it has slowly transformed into a collaborative effort with key contributions from stakeholders across the organization. Thanks to the advancement in content management and web technologies, building a website can be only a few weeks exercise if you plan it well.

Today we will look at popular content management platforms and whether it fits with your business needs.

Wix

Although a relatively new entrant, Wix is catching up fast with its more established cousins. Wix positions itself as a platform for non technical users i.e. entrepreneurs, business people, etc.

It already has over 510 customizable website templates, which can help create unique websites with ease. Although it does have components and applications that function as part of the CMS, Wix is mainly a design-driven platform.

With over 110 million users, it is ideally used by people who want visually stunning websites. It is therefore preferred by, small businesses, restaurants, online stores, and artists. Its drag and drop editor, is the best customization tool in the business today. However, unlike some of its competitors,Wix lacks the flexibility, advanced customization capabilities and community support.

Drupal

Initially released in 2000, Drupal has become one of the leading content management systems in the world, providing back-end framework for at least 2.3 % of all websites worldwide.

Drupal is ideal if you need total control and flexibility, but at the same time you have to be prepared to invest in technical resources to develop and maintain it. Drupal’s security infrastructure is much more sophisticated than its competitors. Drupal websites also load faster due to its in-built caching capabilities.

Despite its popularity, Drupal is not the most user friendly of the CMS platforms out there. Moreover, it is difficult to find Drupal developers given its complexity and market share.

Drupal is used across industries, such as Nonprofit and NGOs, Healthcare, Media, Publishing, and Government. Moreover, it is also used by 71 percent of the top 100 universities of the world, thanks to its enhanced security features.

WordPress

Hands down, WordPress is the most popular CMS platforms out there. With active engaged users creating 41.7 million posts each month, it is powering 26 percent of the Web!

Being free and open-source, WordPress really depends on its large active community of web-developers to constantly keep improving the platform. With a theme for every mood and over 44,662 plug-ins to create absolutely anything, it is no surprise WordPress has become the versatile giant it has.

But WordPress also has its flaws. Websites built on WordPress tend to be attacked more by hackers due to vulnerability exposed by plugin developers. Also, WordPress was initially built as a blogging platform, so it’s not the most scalable option if you intend to create 1000s of pages on your website.

WordPress is ideal for business websites. It is the preferred CMS for most businesses because, it keeps things simple. Given its community support and large number of free plugins and themes, WordPress holds the populist choice for CMS platforms.

The Verdict

All the platforms have their pros and cons.

If you are looking for an extremely easy to use no-nonsense website development platform which will help you create a visually appealing website in a matter of days than WIX should be your pick. But bear in mind, that you are not missing any capabilities which are crucial for your business.

On the other hand, if you are looking for a highly secure site which is fast, then Drupal should be your pick. Here also bear in mind the investment and effort required to get you going.

Lastly, if you are looking an extremely user-friendly platform which is rich on functionality, high on community support and with minimal Total Cost of Ownership, then WordPress should be your choice.

Is there another CMS platform you are using, which should be part of this list, let me know in the comments section below.