When starting the journey of your very own Blog site, one of the first things you need to consider is which blogging platform you want to use. In the following, I will do my best to help you in this process and clarify the pros and cons of using the most popular content management systems (CMS) out there.
What is a content managent system?
Well a good way to start is to clarify what a CMS is. According to Wikipedia:
A content management system (CMS) is a computer application that supports the creation and modification of digital content. It is typically used to support multiple users working in a collaborative environment.
CMS features vary widely. Most CMSs include Web-based publishing, format management, history editing and version control, indexing, search, and retrieval. By their nature, content management systems support the separation of content and presentation.
So essentially: a system to control/create content and publish it online
How many CMS exists?
There are hundreds of CMS platforms in the market. Some cost money, some cost serious money and luckily many are free 🙂 For the average blogger and thereby 99.9 % of all use cases there are only 3 serious players, which are all open source (free):
- Drupal
- Joomla
- WordPress
Even though they all have many similarities in regards to functionality they are still quite different. Lets take a deeper look at them.
Drupal
Drupal is a web content platform that is primarily used by Governments, NGO’s, eductation institutions and large companies. The technical infrastructure might be more sophisticated than some of the other competitors, but the tradeoff is that the system is not as inituitive. Furthermore, changing appearance, adding new modules and functionality is more cumbersome, as the user needs to leave the site, look for modules and implement them afterwards.
Joomla
Joomla is also a widespread CMS system. It has one-click install, but is not as intuitive as for example WordPress. Extensions for Joomla exists, but the quantity is very low compared to WordPress and this could make it hard to fit all your needs without custom code.
WordPress
WordPress is by far the most used CMS used by bloggers all over the world. The reason?
- It is easy to install
- It is easy to use
- It has a huge community
- It has a plethora of plugins
Conclusion
Even though all 3 are great Content Management Systems, there is one taking the lead for the average blogger in almost all aspects. Drupal and Joomla has a lot of built-in funtionality, but WordPress has a HUGE community and a ton of plugins covering all thinkable situations you might encounter as a blogger – most of them are free. The learning curve of WordPress is absolutely the easiest out there. The Market share alone speaks for why you should go for WordPress. Currently it is 59.7% of all CMS (Numbers from Nov 2017). You can check out the latest numbers here
I have introduced WordPress to many non technical people, and within 5 minutes we have created a site ready for blogging and they were creating their first post. Of course this only covers the basic, but it illustrates how easy it is to work with.
If you also want to start a WordPress site within 5 minutes here are 3 easy steps:
Step 1: Start Building Your Website for your $0 at SiteRubix.com
Step 2: Create a Totally Free Account
Step 3: Start blogging (YOU Get Access to 2 Free Websites & an Entire Training Platform)
Let me know in the comments below what you think about WordPress and if you find it just as easy to use as I do
Cheers
Chris