Custom website versus CMS
When you order custom websites, as mentioned before, there are a number of things to consider. The biggest benefit is that you have a totally unique website made from scratch, designed especially for you. Here are a few words about the process of creating a custom website.
First, based on your wishes, the designer draws the front page or home page for your website. If you like the design, he continues to do the rest of the job. The most exciting thing about custom made websites is that you can actually change everything you want at any time. If you want to add graphics or text, a banner or a button, you just go to the page that needs editing and make minor changes to the code and voilà! Seems very nice, but only for people who actually have knowledge of how to do that. Here come disadvantages of a custom website.
Let’s say, you ordered a website from a freelancer or a company, and after job is done, you are satisfied with the result. After awhile you see that you would like to edit, add or delete some of the content. In this case, you call the company or the freelancer who made the website and ask them to change it. Everything is fine, but the only negative thing is that you have to pay again. If you have a store online I presume that you will have a need to edit website pretty often. In this case, CMS systems like Joomla, Drupal, WordPress etc. come in handy. I will explain about one of them, that I am using, in my next article.
CMS systems are very easy to use, but have some limitations as well. I know it sounds very complicated, but don’t’ worry -you can handle it. The main disadvantage of CMS systems is that those who use them, utilize premade templates, thus limiting the creativity of the website. These templates are sometimes free. The thing about them is that they are ready to go. You just need to fill it with content. However, you are limited in design, because they are attached to the design used in the template. You cannot change a lot. For example, you see the place where you would like to add some text, add graphic, but you can’t. You have to do everything according to how the template allows you to.
Sorry, I'm misleading you... Actually, the design of the template can be changed but only by the person who how to do it. But in this case it can lead you to pay more money and probably having some errors on your website in the future, because if you want to do something that is against the rules of the template, you have to change the code and it is not always a good idea.
Let’s put everything together.
A custom made website:
Pros:
- Made exactly how you want it to be
- Cheap if up to 5-7 pages long
- Prices may vary from $100 and up
Cons:
- If you want to make some minor changes you have to hire someone and pay again. You cannot manage it by yourself without coding knowladge
Website created with help of one of CMS systems.
Pros:
- Can be used without any knowledge of the code
- You may manage the content of such a website, like articles, galleries, contact info etc.
- Template is ready to go, so you don’t have to spend time on making a design – just choosing it
- Hundreds of add-ons available for CMS such as web stores, calendars, databases, galleries etc.
Cons:
- You cannot change a lot in the design of the template used
So, here is a little bit of information about custom websites and CMS systems. I hope it all makes sense for you and you will come back to look at more of my articles. Read about Joomla system in my next article to understand the process of creating a website with the help of CMS. If something is not clear to you, please send me an email with your question and I will be glad to answer you.
Thank you for reading.
