All that long title just to say that many people choose way overcomplicated systems to achieve tasks that could be done much easier. In web development it is best observed by looking at content management systems (CMS) that people choose. Often times it would be more than enough just to code a plain, couple page HTML & CSS site, however people decide to use something like Joomla as its back-end.
Joomla is a great platform, powering many websites, portals, and online communities. Although it seems that it has been loosing grounds to Drupal recently. However, for all the intents and purposes of this article, let’s compare using Joomla vs CMS Made Simple (CMSMS) for small to medium business site.
Small business site would normaly have a few pages such as contacts, about us, services / products. Medium business site would probably include a couple more pages such as team etc. and would have more in-depth content as well as some fancier bits and bobs such as maybe a contact form, product catalog, gallery, etc. Now that is not to say that all small or medium business sites look alike. Some tiny companies have sites that are fancier than sites for major corporations. However, once again, let’s just do it for comparison purposes.
Both: Joomla and CMS MS are quite easy to install, if you at least know how to connect to FTP and also set up a MySQL database. Both systems also come with quite nice default themes and preinstalled core modules. So where do the differences start?
Well, let’s start with templating. Some people have built entire businesses around creating templates for Joomla and there are tons of them, both: free and paid. CMSMS does not have so many pre-made themes, however do you really want to use a standard template if you want your business to stand out? Probably not and that’s where CMSMS’ convenient theme management steps in. You basically copy/paste your HTML code into CMS, replace a couple HTML tags with special CMSMS smarty tags and you have yourself a unique working template. What about Joomla? Templates are stored in files which you have to edit or create yourself — not the easiest task, especially with the tags that are way less intuitive than CMSMS’.
OK, so we have a site with a nice template. How about adding content? That’s where Joomla fails in usability for your average Joe Shmoe. In CMSMS you have a hierarchical list of pages, so basically a menu tree right away, where as in Joomla every page is a news article belonging to a section and you also have to create menus separately by hand.
Number of available modules definitely brings a big plus to Joomla. Just like with templates, you can choose from a variety of free as well as commercial modules whereas CMSMS module development has been stagnating recently. However, if you ever need to write your own module, writing one for CMSMS will be so much easier because it’s a much smaller and less complicated / confusing system.
So in the end, which system should you choose after all? Well, Joomla and similar systems will require a much steeper learning curve from you and are great for large sites that have dedicated administrators. However, if you are building a website that will be updated by a non-techy person, you should consider something simple and straight-forward as CMS Made Simple or similar.
What’s your experience? Do you agree with what has been said in this article? Let us know in the comments.