Should You Have CMS Website or Bespoke Website?

Are you thinking to launch a website for your business but not sure how & where to start from? If you have some knowledge about websites and coding then you might be tempted to go for the DIY site using various tools available. However, you might be confused between getting a CMS website or a bespoke website. Apart from looking at it from a cost-effective point of view, one also needs to look at it from a web-security point of view. Here, we will compare CMS vs bespoke and what’s best for your business website. 

What is CMS and how does CMS Website work?

If the content is king for your website and SEO is vital for the business then every website should have a Content management system (CMS). Furthermore, CMS allows the website owner to manage the website from a user-friendly point of view. There are many CMS options for websites. For example, WordPress, Drupal, Wix, and Grid, and all of these CMS systems work differently, allowing the website admin different levels of permission and control. The CMS is the entirety of the web application (database tables, admin panel, and front-end display). And, the CMS is typically judged on the functionality of its admin panel. WordPress is the most popular CMS because of its large plugin library, which exponentially increases its admin panel’s functionality.

GUI and WYSIWYG

The whole point of using CMS is to allow users access to manipulative database information, templates, and design styles. Moreover, it does not need to have whole knowledge about coding or how things work in the background. So, this is basically done through the user interface. A common example of this is Facebook, every time one uploads an image they’re interacting with their databases through a GUI. Website CMS provides a greater deal of control to you over almost all content elements of your website. One of the most user-friendly CMS elements is the WYSIWYG, or “what you see is what you get”. This text area allows you to manipulate HTML without having to know how to code. Operating like Microsoft Word, the program allows the average user to implement text layout changes without needing to understand tags or styles.

Advantages of using CMS to run a website

• Easy to understand even for non-technical people: Not all users have a similar technical level. However, the fundamental CMS elements of composing and distributing content, and somewhat further developed ones of including media are typically simple for everybody to get used to. Actually, any individual who can utilize CMS for the fundamental capacities – so you don’t need to invest a lot of time & energy in learning.
• Multiple user access: A business needs many people to run it successfully and multiple users might have inputs on the website. CMS makes it easy to manage various roles and publishing permissions for various users. So, they can manage the website in an effective manner.
• Easier to maintain site: Without CMS, even simple changes on the website can take a lot of time. With a CMS, the underlying architecture is the same so you can make maintenance changes, update the CMS software and add functionality without breaking the site. In fact, with the right CMS, it may keep itself up-to-date automatically.
• Easy to change look & functionality of website frequently: Using CMS, site design changes are easy to make. That’s because the content and design are in separate virtual boxes, so one can make design changes while keeping the site functional.

Disadvantages of CMS for running a site

• Limited Design flexibility: CMS sites use existing templates for design plus they are easy to recognize since they use standard format like 2 or 3 column design boxes. 
• Limited scope for SEO: The web pages of a CMS site are generated dynamically. This often means the URLs of the web pages contain long strings. After all, they are a combination of words, numbers, and/or symbols. Search engines have a difficult time spidering these types of pages. Not all web designers will care to edit the code to make the CMS site search engine compatible.
• Longer loading time: Since a CMS site is database driven one has to wait for the pages to be processed by the server. And, because there are hundreds of pages they may be slow to load. Mostly, this will cause you to lose visitors as most internet users have a short attention span. A site should only take a few seconds to load. Finally, a CMS site on a slow server or on a server that includes many other sites will make also take a long time to load. 

What is a bespoke website design?

When someone mentions bespoke website design, it is important to remember the functional element as well as the aesthetic elements. Hence, many different businesses need different features unique to their offerings (i.e. products and services). If you want to tailor CMS website work to your particular business goals then it might take you forever. In such cases, a bespoke website design is a better fit.

This type of development is done by expert web developers who already have a strong grasp of the PHP programming or ASP.net language and know the ins and outs of the language. This type of programming approach demands precision and expertise at its best. In addition, this approach provides greater control between the modules being programmed and thus you have a higher degree of command on the modules. Programming using this approach can lead to a greater degree of command. And, that requires coding the programming logic that was previously not present.

Advantages of bespoke website

• SEO and Social Media: SEO and social can be incorporated from the very start in bespoke web design and development projects. It enables one to use the features immediately at the time of launch. Also, one can ask the web developers to account for aspects that have a direct impact on the search results and ranking of your website.
• Provides Competitive Edge: Bespoke website solution can enhance the application of customer-centric philosophy to everyday operations of your company. If you know your customer, you’d be able to tap into their real needs. Beyond that, you’d create the experience they’d value the most and will come back for more.
• Safety and security: Bespoke website is considered to be more secure than its counterpart. If you have an agency coding for you, along with the web developers build you get ultimate control of what’s happening on your platform or how your app works. Simply put, security matters the most when clients share their data and disclose payment details.
• Low maintenance costs and efforts: Once the website is live, one need not install any updates or regular backups. If there are no changes, one can just backup the website and forget about it.

Disadvantages of Bespoke website

• Initial Costs: The up-front cost is usually the biggest disadvantage associated with custom-tailored websites. Bespoke projects often cost more than CMS solutions, due to the amount of time and effort needed to create them.
• Longer turnaround time: Since everything has to be done from scratch, because of this one has to give longer amount of time to the web developer to come up with the desired website.  

Which one is better? CMS or bespoke website

Overall the biggest advantage of using off-the-shelf CMS is in how much time it can save you in the launch phase of the project. While the biggest disadvantage comes from the limited flexibility, as well as the poor security intrinsic to some canned solutions. 

To sum it up, website builders (like Wix) are the easiest to use and fastest to get your website up and running. But you’d have to be content with the functionality and styles they provide, as you won’t be able to change much. 

CMS platforms (like WordPress) give more room for customization, but you’d have to learn some coding or hire a platform expert. As for the development time, you should be able to launch your website pretty fast compared to developing a custom CMS from scratch, but not as fast as with a builder.

Conclusion

Once you have figured out the functionality requirement of your website and need help to finalize which of the two fits your need? To overcome this challenge, TechTIQ Solutions offers professional & cost-effective consulting advice in a time-bound manner that enables businesses to better engage their customers and grow businesses in this digital era. The company has served wide spectrum of industries including banking, logistics, transportation, media, healthcare, and others.

To guide you through the process of choosing the best & cost-effective functionality for your website, our dedicated team members will be happy to guide you through the process.  Our web developers use a blended approach to development in order to ensure that your projects are flexible as possible and that costs stay within your designated budget. With this in mind, all you need to do is to drop a mail to [email protected] or visit https://techtiqsolutions.com/contact-us/ with your query, and someone from TechTIQ Solutions team will get in touch with you.