Ten Simple Guidelines for Choosing the Perfect CMS - how does Joomla stack up?
Posted in Blog
I was mooching around the internet earlier today, as one does waiting for a 'phone call, and saw this article on choosing the perfect CMS.
Firstly, there is no perfect CMS. Which system you ultimately choose will depend upon your needs and skills. Simple sites with lots of articles requiring comments would be best served by Wordpress whilst professional ecommerce sites with news and user management would be best delivered by Joomla!
Let's have a look through the criteria and see how Joomla! fares.
1. The CMS you choose should be really good at whatever the main function of your website is.
This really comes down to making your first choice. Sometimes you will research the marketplace, CMSMatrix is very useful here, and sometimes it will be a decision made through your web design firm. whichever way you decide upon your content management system it must function as you intend to use it.
2. A CMS needs to work intuitively.
Joomla! scores very highly here. The administration section is clearly laid out, icons are warm and friendly and easy to understand.
3. The backend needs to be standardized.
Whichever Joomla! system you use you will see the same interface. It's possible to customise it with templates, but the standard one is just fine. Extensions all tend to look and function in a similar manner.
4. The backend needs to be logical and well-organized.
Joomla! is probably the best organised CMS around. It's easy to use out-of-the-box and beginners can get up to speed very quickly.
5. The right CMS shouldn’t have a ton of extra functionality you’ll never use.
OK, you've got me here. Joomla! has a load of functionality which most people will never use. Having said that, how many people use all the features of Microsoft Word? Any good web design agency will remove unwanted modules, plugins and other coding if required which has the dual benefit of making the codebase lighter and the site quicker to load.
6. The right CMS should be easy for non-geeks to use.
We often hear clients say that their least technical staff have been able to add news and pictures to the site with only minimal orientation. Wintercorns own training courses allow our clients to go from beginner to intermediate and on to expert, should they wish.
7. It needs to include a WYSIWYG editor.
Joomla! has at least 6 WYSIWYG editors. They all have good points and bad points but don't bother downloading any of them except JCE. It's simply the best and most powerful editor available.
8. The pages it creates should be fast-loading and have simple code.
Hmmmm. OK, out-of-the-box Joomla! does create pages which contain excess code (although excess depends upon your intended use of the site) but this presents no problem in 99.9% of cases. A fast server and effective caching can boost the speed and response time of a site.
9. The template engine should allow you complete creative control.
Something Joomla! excels at. It's really easy to install and change templates, even having different templates within the same site for different sections. Creating a template is a little more complex and best left to professionals.
10. The right CMS should have adequate support and documentation.
The joomla.org site has over 200,000 users and contributors and there are thousands of extensions available for almost any purpose you can imagine. The Joomla! help section has in-depth articles on all aspects of the site and for any tough questions you could always try the forum where people from around the world will help you.
So there you have it, sort of. No CMS is the best overall.
Joomla! is probably best for most of what people will want a website to do and it's extendable. Wordpress is a pretty good blog and can even make a fairly basic website. Drupal seems to have the market cornered in non-profit sites and has some nifty community features and there are many, many more covering every niche, technology and function known to man.
What do you take away from this article?
Know what you want, choose wisely and talk to people who know what they are talking about. Our number's at the top of the screen.
