Top 5 most popular CMS: which one to choose?

Original author: QArea Development Company
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In recent years, the Internet has so quickly hit the public that it has not only become a significant part of human life, but also a key factor in business development. The Internet plays a significant role and provides tremendous assistance to companies in running a business and its development, provides bread for programmers, and is also an excellent means of communication for all people. But what would the Internet be without the so-called virtual information space? This space consists of millions of websites.



It doesn’t matter if you are a beginner who does not know anything about building sites, or if you are a professional and experienced, you can become part of the virtual space by creating a website. There is only one big question - how? Naturally, you can hire a team of professional designers, programmers and SEO managers who will realize your idea, or you can use the CMS (content management system) .



Of the vast mass of websites that fill the Internet, about 31% use CMS. Below is a graph showing the historical dynamics of the share of websites on the CMS, from September 1, 2011 to September 19, 2012. The graph shows a clear positive trend towards an increase in the share of sites with CMS, and all because these tools make your life easier. There are many CMS, and you can choose the most suitable for yourself, depending on the goals and specifics of your website.



Figure 1 The dynamics of the use of CMS in websites for the period from September 1, 2011 to September 19, 2012.


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There are many reasons to create your own website. It can represent your business (corporate website), serve as an online store, be a social network, information portal, gallery, blog, forum and so on. At the same time, as we have already said, there are many different CMS, each of which can be more or less useful for each type of site. It is worth mentioning that today the so-called open source CMS, that is, free. As a rule, these systems have quite powerful communities that ensure the constant development of CMS and fill them with various "features."



In this article, we intend to tell you about the advantages and disadvantages of the five most popular CMS . It is possible that this information will help you make the right decision when you want to create your own website. So...



Figure 2 Percentage of use of various CMS


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The chart shows the market shares of various CMS at the present stage. As we can see, more than half of the CMS sites use WordPress. And now you will understand why.



WordPress: Rules the Internet!


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It's hard to say something new about WordPress . This CMS originally established itself as an innovative blogging platform with high usability. But the development of the system’s functionality ensured its high popularity among other website formats. Today, the web design industry is in high demand for development services for WordPress. WordPress is used everywhere from personal blogs to e-commerce sites.



Benefits:
  • This is the most popular CMS: more than half of users prefer WordPress. Perhaps these statistics are already strong evidence in favor of the benefits of this system;
  • The widest range of plugins, themes, widgets for galleries, forums, multilingualism, various catalogs, stores and so on;
  • WYSIWYG editor will make life easier for those who have problems with HTML markup and other languages;
  • Technical experience is not required. The admin panel is much simpler than in other CMS: PHP and CSS files can be edited directly in the admin panel. For example, you can easily paste text from any text editor, unlike Drupal or Joomla;
  • WordPress is also a pretty powerful tool for developers and designers who create websites for customers.

Disadvantages:
  • The system provides a huge field for choice, so the main problem is how to use all its features correctly? This CMS will work much better if you customize the settings correctly;
  • If you are a beginner, you may encounter some problems during installation, despite the widespread belief about the easiest installation process.

The best decision:

This CMS may be the best option if you need an easily administered website. Using this system provides wide, but at the same time simple functionality. WordPress is ideal for news sites or blogs, but, as we already wrote, it is used for other types of sites.



Joomla: cute but small like your brother’s girlfriend


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Joomla is the next most popular CMS, which is used by 9% of users. This is a cross between the extensive features of developer-centric Drupal and the simplicity of WordPress, but with more features for development. Despite this, Joomla has a user-friendly interface.



Benefits:
  • Despite its simplicity compared to Drupal, Joomla is a complete development tool;
  • Support for access control protocols (OpenID, LDAP, Gmail.com);
  • The presence of a convenient admin panel with a wide range of functions: templates, styles, menu control and so on;
  • Simple installation process for inexperienced users;
  • And it’s impossible to miss the fact that this CMS is pretty beautiful.

Disadvantages:
  • The system is quite superficial and weak, despite all its universality;
  • More paid plugins and themes compared to WordPress. Be prepared to pay;
  • For inexperienced users, it might seem that Joomla has many unnecessary features, but for advanced users it is too simple.

The best choice:

Joomla is the best solution if you are looking for a CMS with advanced features and features. It provides a richer and more flexible website structure than WordPress.



You can use Joomla to create a corporate website, community or website with e-commerce features.



Drupal: Strength and Power!


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About 7% of users prefer Drupal . Developers like its all-encompassing power and developer-friendly interface, which allows you to create complex websites. And, like other cool tools, Drupal requires some technical skills that you could do without using Joomla or WordPress.



Benefits:
  • The presence of so-called hooks (hooks), which allow you to avoid almost any problems in the system;
  • CCK and VIEWS modules allow you to design arbitrary data types and their display;
  • With each new release, Drupal is getting easier to use;
  • This system is known for its Taxonomy module, which allows you to organize content into levels, attributes and categories;
  • Drupal has an active and large community;
  • A huge number of modules that will add a lot of features to the site, such as user blogs, OpenID, forums, profiles and so on, increasing functionality.

Disadvantages:
  • Due to its complexity, Drupal is definitely not suitable for an inexperienced user. In order to customize modules in Drupal, additional programming skills are needed. But you can hire a specialist for these purposes.
  • Drupal requires advanced technical equipment, otherwise there may be some performance issues. Therefore, you need to be sure that your servers will withstand the load created by such a complex system.

The best decision:
  • This is a good, but technically sophisticated tool for building highly functional, versatile and advanced sites.
  • Typically, Drupal is used for sites that require complex data organization: for forums, online stores, web blogs, corporate websites, and the community.


vBulletin: The power of the bull for your forum!


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This CMS is preferred by about 4% of users. But speaking of popularity, it is worth noting that in recent years this system has been losing its market position. vBulletin provides the user with tools for creating and administering forums and blogs.



Benefits:
  • vBulletin - an advanced and innovative solution for creating forums;
  • A wide range of plugins;
  • - Many skins and clean code;
  • Simple and nice admin panel;
  • High level of security, due to which a large number of forums have been created on this platform;
  • Many components for SEO.

Disadvantages:
  • This CMS is not free;
  • The system has a lot of options, which can be a problem for an inexperienced user;
  • If you need to import data from other electronic bulletin boards, you will need to install the modification patch separately.

The best choice:

vBulletin is an advanced tool for creating forums and publishing content. This is definitely a good solution if you decide to make a forum on your blog. vBulletin provides easy website control.



TYPO3: last but not a loser


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TYPO3 is used by 2% of websites using CMS. Demand for this system has grown significantly since the release of version 4. This is a professional and powerful tool, rich in various features and options.



Benefits:
  • The system provides a wide range of features that can be customized or expanded;
  • Ease of installation;
  • Effective management of content and graphic elements;
  • Advanced login for users and administrators;
  • You can easily add content, pages, documentation, images, even if you are an inexperienced user who does not know anything about HTML and web markup.

Disadvantages:
  • It requires good hosting because the system is large;
  • TYPO3 is pretty hard to learn;
  • There are many holes in the code that developers propose to eliminate by hashing, but in reality this does not solve the problem.

The best decision:

TYPO3 can be used to create blogs, home pages, online newspapers, educational portals, online stores, and so on.



So, we shared some important facts that you need to know in order to choose the right CMS for a successful site that you can easily manage. But advice, advice, however, do not forget about your own preferences, conclusions and experience!


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