Archive

Archive for the ‘drupal’ Category

WordPress Vs Drupal Vs Joomla – Which Open Source CMS is right for you?

August 1st, 2011 2 comments

At DzineClub we work with multiple CMS platforms to make sure that we are in touch with all the latest technologies. We have dedicated staff who work with platforms such as Magento, Joomla, Drupal and WordPress.

Our CMS of choice is WordPress (for websites) and Magento Commerce (for Online stores) and it consists of our bigger team of development. The reasons we pick WordPress  and Magento is because these platforms are easier to install, develop, deploy and improve on.

This means that as a client you get speedier development, lower total cost of ownership, Quicker updates and integrations. If you need a design refresh in a few months, you don’t have to worry about the content, it will just be a matter of putting a new skin on top.

That, a CMS that is a perfect fit today might not be the best in a few years. This was the case with Joomla a few years ago and now WordPress has taken the crown from our prespective.

Some of the things we look for in a CMS before developing are:

  • How easy it is to install
  • How easy is it to update
  • How easy will it be for the client to use
  • How easy is it to put a skin/theme on top
  • How far can we push the flexibility of the CMS
  • Can the CMS handle meta data and multiple content types (pages, posts, news, whitepapers, images, events, videos)
  • How does the CMS handle SEO straight out of the box
  • How easy is it to integrate new technology onto the platform
  • How does the CMS handle multiple editors and their roles
  • Is there a defined roadmap and will it stick around in the future
  • Is there a good development base and are there lots of users who support this platform
  • What is the security behind the CMS

Based on this, we make a recommendation for a CMS for a client.

We just came across this infograph by the guys at Devious Media on the 3 open source platforms. Our summary follows after the graphic based on the infograph.  Please note that we wont be discussing Joomla as we don’t see a definite future with Joomla.

 

 

Drupal:

  • More used by Heavy/Large Enterprise companies
  • More used by complicated companies
  • Decent Developer community
  • Good Client List

WordPress:

  • Faster Updates
  • Twice as many updates than Drupal/Joomla
  • Twice as many plugins and themes
  • Larger number of developer and user adoption (upto 10 times as much)
  • More social
  • More Cost Effective
  • Lower Total cost of ownership
  • Stronger SEO straight out of the box
  • Easier to learn to use

Summary

We recommend using WordPress for most sites and have worked with a large number of sites where we have customised WordPress to work as per business needs. Please view our list of sites we have customised for WordPress here:

http://www.dzineclub.com/blog/2011/01/wordpress-development-wordpress-design/

WordPress for Medium to Large Clients

We still recommend using WordPress for Medium to Large Clients because of the level of customisation that can be done in WordPress and how quickly it can be changed and new plugins being added. What Drupal can do for such size clients can easily be accommodated using Plugins in WordPress.

WordPress or Drupal for Heavy Enterprise Clients

For sites such as the main Government site, user payments and memberships, forums, connections to ERP platforms, WordPress is probably not the right option right now. The best solution would be to customise Drupal or use a paid CMS Platform. However if you are developing your site in 6 months or a year’s time, WordPress should be a worthy competitor.

bar

Have you got a website that you are looking at developing and are not sure which CMS is the best to use?

Flick us an email at info@dzineclub.com and we’ll recommend a solution based on our expertise.

Drupal 7 Thoughts – Example Site

January 8th, 2011 No comments

Drupal – the open source content management solution that powers roughly 1% of all the sites on the internet has just gone live with its new major release Drupal 7.  We just did a test run of the site. Here are some of the things that we noticed:

Drupal 7 Installation

The installation was a breeze and is comparable to the famous WordPress Installation now. We had no issues with the installation and everything looked great.

Drupal 7 - Installation Screen

 

Drupal 7 Admin Panel

The admin panel is very easy to navigate and is clear on how to add content (as a page or an article) on the website. The rest of the page is also very well structured. You can set up blocks from directly within Drupal which gives you more flexibility on how you want your site to look.

Drupal 7 Admin Dashboard - DzineClub Australia

Drupal 7 Themes

Adding and activating themes was very easy. There doesn’t seem to be a lot of settings to change on the themes currently but with time it should improve. For our example site, we have used the Danland Theme pictured below.

DzineClub Drupal 7 Website

Example Drupal 7 Website

We have set up an example Drupal 7 website so that you can play around with the front end.

Please click here to go to the example Drupal 7 website.

Kyplex Cloud Security Seal - Click for Verification
Ping your blog