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Chosing a Content Management System for my website

Davidla

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I am in the stages of outsourcing my website development to programmers.
I'm currently recieving bids and screening the applicants.

The website is going to be based on user-generated content (including vids, PDF's etc), with quite a few databases involved.
On the other hand, there is still going to be content managed by me.

As it is going to be commercial website - it is going to connect to a payment gateway aswell.

I read about Wordpress here in the forum, and immedietly started playing with it. I got a great impression about the content management - but I'm not sure it fits my user based needs, and the database needs.

When I posted the project for contractors - I mentioned I prefer WP as the CMS, but I also wanted to check what other suggestions they have.

So far a few programers are talking about Custome CMS's, and there is also one that suggested CKEditor for the content parts.

Anyone had any experience with any of them?

I know that some of you are real WP fans, and I'm personally very impressed with it, but given the website's features - Do you still think that manipulating WP to accomodate them is worth it?

Any other suggestions you might think of for the website's management platform?

Advice and critisim are very welcome! :smxF:
 
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Darkside

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So far a few programers are talking about Custome CMS's, and there is also one that suggested CKEditor for the content parts.


Custom CMS cost a lot of money to develop; that's why programmers and web developers will want to build one for you, because they know they'll wind up with tens of thousands of dollars in the end. I would suggest that you use Drupal because it's the CMS with the most user generated modules and it has the largest user community so you can always go to their forums to get help with any development issues you have. With Drupal; your development costs can be free or only a few hundred dollars depending on what kind of customization you want done.
 

AJ.

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What Darkside said.

A custom CMS?
Absolutely OUT of the realm of possibilities.

1st, it's going to cost a ton of money.
2nd, they will NEVER be able to make something so good as what is already out there

Use Drupal, or what I used for a while, Joomla.
I have no experience with Drupal, yet Joomla was smooth.
Tons of plugins and 'modules' to do whatever you might want (uploads, videos, shopping carts, photo galleries, etc, etc.).
Joomla also has a huge community (as I'm sure Drupal does too).

You can install Joomla yourself, and then pay programmers to customize your Joomla installation.

Keep us updated!
 
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arfa

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We use MODx.
For what we need (content management and database) it is much better than Drupal or Joomla, however I don't know if it is appropriate for your needs. We hired a developer on Odesk to make an unusual and custom site (Home - Sumac) for 1K. If you'll use ready made MODx template, it should cost you less. Since at this stage we change template related things, we use another freelance developer for ongoing changes as we need (approximately 4 hours per month).
I like this CMS. We did extensive research before we choose this one and the only real competitor was WP. We choose Modx over WP because the web-design agency owner we know said it is good for end-users, SEO and developers. As previously mentioned, custom made system will cost you fortune, and support will be problematic if the original developer leaves.
 

Bond

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I would advice against using drupal if you're new to this.
From my experience you really need to be proficient in drupal to fully take control of what it can do. The learning curve is just too steep and you'll find soon enough frustrated with it...
There are a tone of modules for drupal but you need to know how to tweak them for your own purpose.

Symfony is a php framework much like codeigniter(i use it), cake php, etc.
What it means is that your CMs would be built around this framework and it would be custom made using PHP as the programming language.
 

Jarnapal

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I have to leave my thanks for mentioning symfony and MODx. They seem to be good alternatives to drupal and Joomla which might actually be even step further.
 
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andviv

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Definitely go with an open source to get you started. No way you should go with custom unless you are doing something really really weird and have a proven concept.

Wordpress is a good tool and has lots of plugins. A great advantage is that you find lots and lots of developers for this. You also find plugins for everything (including videos and other formats for user-generated content). There are also plugins for a payments module. The blogging aspect allows you to have a section for your own content, separated from the user-generated content, if that is what you want.

Joomla and Drupal are more robust (after all, they were created as CMS from the get-go, not like WP that was a blogging platform that has been used for CMS). But usually cost is higher and you need more experienced developers (i.e. more money).

I've been recommending my customers to get started with a WP install, a few good plugins, and as little customization as needed, to test the concept and the business idea, do a quick deployment and test the market very fast and a low budget.

After the idea has been refined then you can/should jump to a more expensive, robust platform (like Joomla or Drupal) or, if needed, custom made.

If money/time is not an issue, or the idea is rock-solid then I recommend you go with joomla or drupal from the get-go.
 

andviv

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ah, forgot to say two things:

1. CKEditor is NOT a CMS, as far as I know. What is CKEditor? | CKEditor
Think of it as a plugin for pages. Very useful, but it is not a system by itself.

2. No clue about MODx, so I will pass on making comments on that one.
 

Darkside

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I would advice against using drupal if you're new to this.
From my experience you really need to be proficient in drupal to fully take control of what it can do. The learning curve is just too steep and you'll find soon enough frustrated with it...
There are a tone of modules for drupal but you need to know how to tweak them for your own purpose.

Symfony is a php framework much like codeigniter(i use it), cake php, etc.
What it means is that your CMs would be built around this framework and it would be custom made using PHP as the programming language.


I agree that Drupal is more difficult to get into if you've never used a CMS. I started off with Joomla, which is very easy to use and when I noticed that the mods I was looking for weren't available for Joomla but were for Drupal, I decided to switch. It took me a couple of days to fully figure out Drupal but now I can do everything except for create custom mods myself; I don't want to waste time learning how to do that; I'd rather pay someone else if I need a custom mod. The only customization I've done so far is tweeking a theme to suit my needs.

One last point; you can easily install Drupal, Joomla, and some other content management systems through Fantastico, which is free and is accessible through most web hosts.
 
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Davidla

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Darkside, AJ, Arfa and Bond - Thank you for your advice.

Jarnapal - I couldn't really understand what you ment..

Andviv,

..
I've been recommending my customers to get started with a WP install, a few good plugins, and as little customization as needed, to test the concept and the business idea, do a quick deployment and test the market very fast and a low budget.

After the idea has been refined then you can/should jump to a more expensive, robust platform (like Joomla or Drupal) or, if needed, custom made.

If money/time is not an issue, or the idea is rock-solid then I recommend you go with joomla or drupal from the get-go.

Thanks. This is exactly what my plan is: to get the version 1.0 of the website up and running quickly and to test the concept.

I've messed around with Joomla today - and it seems to answer my needs.
So either Joomla or WP works for me.

Custome CMS is out of the equation.
 

alankong

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I agree that Drupal is more difficult to get into if you've never used a CMS. I started off with Joomla, which is very easy to use and when I noticed that the mods I was looking for weren't available for Joomla but were for Drupal, I decided to switch. It took me a couple of days to fully figure out Drupal but now I can do everything except for create custom mods myself; I don't want to waste time learning how to do that; I'd rather pay someone else if I need a custom mod. The only customization I've done so far is tweeking a theme to suit my needs.

One last point; you can easily install Drupal, Joomla, and some other content management systems through Fantastico, which is free and is accessible through most web hosts.

thanks for the tip for Fantastico!
 

valuegiver

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I don't like drupal and joomla. Having installed and used most of the CMS software out there, I came into conclusion that modx is probably the best of all.
 
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