Even for small businesses, the days when a simple website 'business card' was sufficient are long gone. The internet has become the number one information platform. Potential customers are primarily impressed by current and useful information. This applies not only to customer-oriented business models that want to showcase their product range and services. For business to business service providers, their own website is also the primary platform to demonstrate expertise and professional competence, thereby building trust and popularity.
The Agony of Choice
So, if you decide to establish an online presence, the first question is whether to go in-house or outsource, and then which technology to use. While the former can be answered quite quickly with economic arguments, the latter often leads to genuine battles of conviction. If you seek professional advice, agencies will then typically offer their preferred open source CMS systems or their in-house CMS.
Proprietary Systems
This approach should be treated with caution. While having the (sole) specialist for a system readily available is undeniably an advantage, you must be aware that escaping this dependency is not easy. Developing such a system to be future-proof requires an enormous effort. A small company can hardly, if at all, achieve the quality level of Drupal, WordPress, or Typo3. Furthermore, you enter into a dependency relationship, as transferring to another service provider will invariably incur high costs. After all, the new provider must first familiarise themselves with an unfamiliar system, for which there is often little to no documentation.
The most common open source systems in our region, as mentioned above, are WordPress, Drupal, and Typo3. Even if supporters of each claim otherwise about the others: none of the three systems is “bad”. In professional hands, excellent results can be achieved with all systems. The difference lies primarily in their fundamental orientation.
WordPress
Probably the most popular CMS at the moment, not least because it offers the simplest user interface. Originally conceived as a blogging system for everyone, you really do not need an academic degree in computer science to install it and set up a simple but attractive website. Additionally, a large number of pre-designed layouts are available. Especially for small to medium-sized websites – and e-commerce projects – WordPress is suitable due to its rapid implementation time and extensive expandability.
Typo 3
For a long time, Typo3 represented the de facto standard for enterprise-grade Content Management Systems. The focus is primarily on publishing large quantities of content, for which a wealth of tools is also provided. Complex administration within editorial workflows is excellently supported. However, the user interface is correspondingly complex. Typo3 demands the most familiarisation time from authors compared to all other systems.
Drupal
In contrast to its two competitors, Drupal itself is not a finished Content Management System, but rather a modular system or a Content Management Framework (CMF). If a layperson attempts to use it, this becomes apparent at the latest when searching for the obligatory WYSIWYG editor, which is not included in the basic distribution. This and many other functions only become available through the installation of additional modules. Drupal undoubtedly requires prior knowledge. While not suitable for corporate websites due to the higher effort involved, it is particularly well-suited for complex websites, e-commerce solutions, or community systems.
Decision Aids
If the functional scope of the website can be definitively determined in advance, and it aligns with the features of WordPress or Typo3, then these are the first choice. For simple, representative sites, WordPress shines with its straightforward user interface and a large pool of plug-ins that can be easily installed. If the website needs to be multilingual, involve multiple people in different roles – such as authors, editors, or translators – and manage larger amounts of content, WordPress also offers the more suitable range of functions. WordPress and Typo3 are very mature programmes, both originally developed for specific use cases. For portals, Drupal would be the better choice; ready-made functions are only rudimentary or non-existent and can be programmed individually. But precisely because of this, a tailored solution can be created for specific needs.
Conclusion
Be cautious with providers who claim to be able to do everything. Truly mastering even one of the three systems requires more than just learning the programming language (all three are based on PHP). The average team size of agencies in this country is simply too small to build up and maintain such a vast amount of expertise. This point should be kept in mind, with large companies, of course, being an exception. With precise planning of what your website should be capable of, and the knowledge you have just acquired, you should be able to separate the wheat from the chaff.
And which CMS is your favourite? Which do you prefer to work with?
