I frequently get asked: "I need a website and CMS or I want to upgrade my website and incorporate a CMS - what is the best CMS?”

My answer is usually: “what are your requirements? and what do you actually want to do?”

I frequently get asked: "I need a website and CMS or I want to upgrade my website and incorporate a CMS - what is the best CMS?”

My answer is usually: “what are your requirements? and what do you actually want to do?”

On Twitter, you see things like: “shall I use Joomla, Drupal or Wordpress?”… how annoying is that!

There is NO universal CMS that will be everything to everyone – full stop.

When considering a new CMS implementation, industry sector, size of company, etc, doesn’t matter one bit. It really depends on what you want from a CMS – ‘your requirements’.

• Do you need workflow?
• Do you need version control?
• Do you want frontend editing capability?
• Are your user’s technophobes?
• What budget do you have?
• Will you require extra components at a later date?
• Etc, etc, etc…

Many CMS vendors will disagree, pointing to their own industry-specific "solutions." Usually this entails turning off or on various CMS modules. In my experience, when a vendor claims a strong industry expertise, it is usually because they have honed their marketing and sales to succeed in that industry sector. Vendors who target your industry may know how to speak your language, but that won't count for much after the vendors' sales person leaves, and you go into development on what will become a 2-3+ year investment.

Selecting the right CMS tool for your business means balancing a variety of different requirements as above, but as a bare minimum, be sure you understand:

• What sort of website (or websites) you intend to produce
• What are your visitors' needs
• What is your operational profile and goals

This is why Fastnet offer consultancy on various CMS platforms, as its horses for courses - what is right for one is not right for all. As specialist Joomla developers, we obviously have a slant in this direction as its open source and has a very modular framework, making it easy to change to suit a clients requirements. But that’s not to say it is the right CMS for every single implementation that we do.

Consider your requirements and get unbiased consultancy to help fit the solution to your needs…