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General Discussion

Jeff Lemay
Jeff Lemay
14,268 Points

CMS Platforms

Anybody have any insight on CMS platforms like Joomla or Wordpress?

I'm trying to make a website for a relative's small business and want to have it easy to change-out hours, specials, prices, etc.

I also don't want to use a template, but rather create the html/css myself.

Thanks!

6 Answers

Andres Botero
PLUS
Andres Botero
Courses Plus Student 5,226 Points

If you need something easy and light don't go with wordpress, let alone joomla. Try, kirby, statamic, perch or similar light cms.

http://getkirby.com/ http://statamic.com/ http://grabaperch.com/

I think Kerby is nice and its a good minimalistic CMS.

I have worked with WordPress since over 3 years now and it feels bloated for general purpose use. I would suggest starting out with WordPress to get acquainted with the nuts and bolts.

You can use Kerby to create Mom & Pop websites or for personal use.

Matthew Mascioni
Matthew Mascioni
20,444 Points

WordPress is solid and has a really great developer base (and tons of people using it), but it's pretty bloated to consider using it for your project. I've made WordPress themes before, and while they're not difficult, they have a bit of a learning curve associated with them.

Kirby looks like a great option. It's really affordable, and looks like it has great support for making your own themes. You should really look into it.

Ricardo Diaz
Ricardo Diaz
30,415 Points

I personally use Perch for small projects. I build the HTML/CSS/jQuery the way I want to then just add in a line of php to it to make it become a CMS. There was a learning curve for me though but its not a bad CMS and lighter then WordPress.

David Poindexter
PLUS
David Poindexter
Courses Plus Student 1,690 Points

Gotta say, static HTML is the way to go for brochure stuff. Wordpress is the next step up, and VERY supported and flexible.

Beyond that, I don't know... never had something a client requested that couldn't be done with Wordpress themes (and child themes), plugins, and custom post types.

James Barnett
James Barnett
39,199 Points

I'm a huge believer in not taking a one-sizes fits all approach, instead having a "quiver" of solutions.

Wordpress is good for what it's designed for, a blogging engine if it's not a blog then there's probably a better tool than that.

Similarly with Joomla if it's not a large corporate website with dozens of pages, then a CMS like Joomla is probably not the right choice.

The lightweight CMSs that @Andres mentioned are all fabulous suggestions.