Before you can begin to develop a website or redesign an existing website you need to decide what platform to use. What is a platform? It is the underlying programming language that the site will utilize. The platform you select will have an impact on the site’s functionality, development costs and ongoing maintenance. Platforms can be either open source or custom built. A platform that is open source is based on open source software. This means the source code is readily available for modification or enhancement by anyone. Examples of open source content management systems (CMS) include: WordPress, Joomla and Drupal. A custom built site is hand-coded in HTML web-programming language. To make the right choice, let’s discuss the pros and cons of each choice. Open Source Pros: • Structure of the website is pre-built and plugins are available, making it easy to add new functionality. • Easy to for the non-technical user to manage and make changes as the back-end is user friendly and in most cases it just requires you to add content. • The basic platform is free. Cons: • Need to monitor and keep abreast of new versions and security upgrades when they come out. • Since it is open source, these platforms are slightly more prone to hacking. • Requires advanced knowledge of coding to customize (php/my sql). Custom Built Pros: • Can be tailor-made to suit specific needs of user experience, layout, colors and overall personality. • More secure in general. • Can be made lean and focused, avoiding a “one-size-fits-all” approach. Cons: • Can be expensive and time consuming to build. • Additional structuring is required to make it SEO friendly. • No plugins are available – everything must be built from scratch. • Now you are ready to make the right choice! Here is a short video clip from one our recent workshops about the pros and cons of each website platform. Before you can begin to develop a website or redesign an existing website you need to decide what platform to use. What is a platform? It is the underlying programming language that the site will utilize. The platform you select will have an impact on the site’s functionality, development costs and ongoing maintenance. Platforms can be either open source or custom built. A platform that is open source is based on open source software. This means the source code is readily available for modification or enhancement by anyone. Examples of open source content management systems (CMS) include: WordPress, Joomla and Drupal. A custom built site is hand-coded in HTML web-programming language. To make the right choice, let’s discuss the pros and cons of each choice. Open Source Pros: • Structure of the website is pre-built and plugins are available, making it easy to add new functionality. • Easy to for the non-technical user to manage and make changes as the back-end is user friendly and in most cases it just requires you to add content. • The basic platform is free. Cons: • Need to monitor and keep abreast of new versions and security upgrades when they come out. • Since it is open source, these platforms are slightly more prone to hacking. • Requires advanced knowledge of coding to customize (php/my sql). Custom Built Pros: • Can be tailor-made to suit specific needs of user experience, layout, colors and overall personality. • More secure in general. • Can be made lean and focused, avoiding a “one-size-fits-all” approach. Cons: • Can be expensive and time consuming to build. • Additional structuring is required to make it SEO friendly. • No plugins are available – everything must be built from scratch. • Now you are ready to make the right choice! Here is a short video clip from one our recent workshops about the pros and cons of each website platform.