Drupal, Joomla, WordPress, and DotNetNuke….Oh My!

Which content management system to use? What happens if my site is done in one content management system but my developer quits, takes up another job, or decides not to be a web developer anymore? Then, with some CMS, the developer or the company that created your site you are stuck. Why, you may ask? Well the reason is easy: Most CMSs are fundamentally complex because they are powerful;  require time to learn; and most web hosting companies only know one or two major CMS. Here at Mojoe.net  we have used all of them—at least the four major types– in some form or fashion and we have to say that while some are free to download and use they require the user to navigate risky file downloads from the internet and navigating ‘permissions’ on web server for files and databases.  Here our expertise is critical.

The two main ones that we use and support are WordPress (WP) and DotNetNuke (DNN). We have also used Joomla and Drupal for clients who have required that we use their preferred or ‘legacy’ CMS when deploying or developing their web sites.

WordPress, is a great free CMS that allows anyone to maintain their web site;  WP  includes a blog, e-commerce, videos, slideshow, or 1000s other plugins– a vast majority of them free. WordPress has been around since about 2001 and has grown into a well-supported CMS with themes, plugins, and mobile support. WordPress, can be installed with Apache or IIS Web Server and uses MySQL as the database engine. We recommend this to our clients that would like a small to medium web site that they can grow themselves. We even use the system ourselves for our own blog. We have the ability to customize our clients theme by styling each WordPress via a custom cascading style sheet (CSS); plugins; Google Analytics; tags; categories; and then submit the site to search engines.  You can find out more about WordPress by visiting: http://wordpress.org/about/,

DotNetNuke (DNN) is our premium CMS and is the one that we recommend for clients that are looking for medium to large business web sites. This CMS is based off of ASP.net which is conveniently integrated into other business applications based on Microsoft’s .NET platform. DNN can be installed in IIS and typically uses SQL Server for its database engine. DNN has a free version as well as an enterprise version. We use the enterprise version for our clients which allow for developer support as well as we can customize each web site ‘portal’ to each specific client. This CMS allows the installation of modules which can be added some for free but the majority cost to add to the system. The cost can vary depending upon the type of modules that you wished installed, modules can vary from chat systems, ecommerce, newsletters, email blasting, blogs, video, slideshow rotation, wiki, RSS feed, announcements, Google Analytic, and many more.  The great thing about Mojoe.net is that we can program our own modules, custom design your ‘skin’ (the look, feel, layout, fonts, and colors of your web site), create a custom CSS, optimize your site, add Google Analytics, and then submit the site to search engines. If you would like more information you can visit: http://www.dotnetnuke.com/

Drupal. This is a free content management system that is community supported but can be troublesome at time. This system uses PHP and can run on Apache or IIS while using MySQL as its database engine. In the last year,or so though the support and the community have grown a great deal, and the number of themes that are available run in the thousands. Drupal, is a good content management system but to integrate into other business applications without long development times and bugs can be an issue that can cost time and money. To find out more about Drupal please visit: http://drupal.org/

Joomla, this is another free content management system that is community supported and has its bugs.  This CMS can run on Apache or IIS web server and uses MySQL as its database engine. Joomla, is the most recent CMS (2005) from the 4 CMS in this post. We recommend this one the least because of its issues as well as the fact that the support base for this CMS has not grown has fast as the others. This CMS uses PHP and is primarily deployed on Linux-based OS (Operating System) but can be deployed on Windows Servers just like Drupal. To find out more about Joomla please visit: http://www.joomla.org/

Ask Questions, Questions, Questions
So in conclusion, do your homework about what CMS you would like to use, see if your web design company or web developer knows more than one CMS, check and see how difficult or easy it will be to move your site to another hosting company / provider. Find out what platform your web site is using, such as Linux or Windows? What CMS is your web developer using? Do they know more than one CMS? If so what are they?

What about Mac and Magento? – I will save this for another post all unto itself.

Web Design, Web Development, Web Graphics, Website Designer, Developer, Development, Greenville, SC, SEOIf you would like to discuss Your Logo with Mojoe.net or your website’s analytics, custom logo designs, social media, website, web application, need custom programming, or IT consultant, please do not hesitate to call us at 864-859-9848 or you can email us at dwerne@mojoe.net.