So you’re getting ready to build your first website, and you aren’t sure exactly where to start. Then suddenly, you see an advertisement for Wix, Weebly, GoDaddy, (etc.) that shows you how “simple” setting up a website is with their site builder. That sounds perfect! You sign up and create your site as easily as the advertisement made it seem. Now let’s skip six months into the future, and your business is booming. You find that you need to do some custom coding on your website to make it look a little more aesthetically pleasing, only you can’t do that. Instead, you decide to just settle and install some plugins/extensions that will do what you need them to, only you can’t do that. As a last resort, you decide to migrate your website to a different hosting provider, where you can use Joomla! or WordPress instead (since these are more customizable), only you can’t do that either. These site builders are good for just spinning up website’s, but in most situations, they are not what the client needs. I am going to tell you a few of the many reasons why these quick site builders are never the best option.

The biggest reason, in my opinion, is that site builders are not open source, whereas Joomla! and WordPress are. If you ever need to, the source code is 100% available and customizable. This gives you the option to add/edit CSS, amongst the ability to tinker with the core of the program. If you find that you need help and your hosting company is unable to help you, there are large communities out there where you can easily reach out for help. Anytime there are holes in the security and stability, they are discovered fast and patches are released quite shortly after.

Joomla! and WordPress are two of the biggest CMS’s (Content Management Systems) on the web. Joomla! Is one of the most versatile CMS’s on the market, with what seems like a never-ending train of the changes you can create. Joomla! can get a little tricky for the average user, so if you need something a bit more simplified, that’s where WordPress comes into play. It was once known for being the biggest blogging CMS on the market, however, it is so much more than that now. WordPress is also highly customizable, it just has a slightly easier user interface. With either of these products, you can create your own website from scratch, or purchase Template’s/Quickstart’s that give you a full website to work with. Most importantly, these products are portable from hosts to hosts.

Portability is incredibly important when it comes to your website. You may find a host that you like and create your website with, but come across a host you would prefer a few months down the road. Site builders that are commonly advertised are not portable. These companies have a proprietary right to their site builder, unlike open source CMS’s. As long as the host supports the CMS, you can move it from company to company as many times as you would like. If the company has proprietary rights to their site builder, you do not technically own your website that you created with them, they do. When you use open source software, you own your website, nobody else. When it comes to something you’ve worked hard on, or have put time into, or is part of your business, it is critical that you make the best choices for you and your future.

Here at CloudAccess.net we specialize in Joomla! and WordPress website hosting. Give us a call today at 231-421-7160 to find out how we can help you with all of your hosting needs!