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What to choose: website builder vs CMS

Jul 27, 2023

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Here you are, planning to build a website, but not sure where to start. Don’t worry. You will have several options here, so let’s take a look at both of them.



How to create a website?


First, you need an idea of your future website. What do you want to promote there? Whether it would have one page or several ones? Why would users visit your website? What issue/task would it solve? Answer these questions before starting the work with the website.


To set an example, you might have an online bakery store. It will have several pages: a home page, a page with a detailed description of each product, a FAQ page, and a contacts page. Users will visit your website to buy a good-quality bakery.


After developing the main idea of your future website, you need to do a competitive analysis. Check all the competitors you can only find. Discover their pricing, design of their websites, the content used to attract customers, etc. Make notes, as you can implement some good tricks from your competitors.


The next step is to develop the prototype of your website, start thinking of the designs and blocks’ position. But let’s take a little break here; as we said before, you have two options. The first one requires coding knowledge, prototyping, and design skills. The second one offers you website creation having none of the things mentioned above. Let’s consider both of them.



Content Management System or CMS


CMS is the first option you can use to create a website. It is software that allows you to create, edit and customize content on a website. It requires some coding and design skills. If you don’t have them, you will have to hire a team of professionals to create a website or starting learning everything on your own. However, there are some advantages of these systems.



Advantages of content management systems



  1.  Developed features. There are thousands of settings that you can use to create any type of website you can only imagine.

  2.  Intuitive software. Content management systems usually have an intuitive design, so it won’t take you hours to find the needed element.

  3.  System updates. The software is constantly updated to use different plugins and the latest trends in design for your website.


Disadvantages of CMS



  1.  Experience in website creation is required. There won’t be ready-made blocks that you can drag or drop to customize your website. You will have to create everything from scratch, which is not that easy for beginners and would take some time.

  2.  Pricing. There are free pricing plans, but they do not include all the features needed for the full-fledged work of the website. It all depends on a system, but, for example, the accessible pricing plan may not include integrations with analytical systems. And the lack of them will mean that you cannot track the traffic on your website, etc.

  3.  Lots of manual work. You will need professional knowledge (or a team of experts) who will maintain the website, track all the activities, launch SEO and paid promotion, etc.


Website builders


The second option for website creation is the usage of website builders. These systems require no coding or design skills. There are also ready-made blocks and templates for any website needs. Thus, the only thing you would need to do is to customize these blocks and add your company’s unique identity, such as content, logo, color schemes, etc.



Advantages of website builders



  1.  Ready-made templates that are easy to use. This option is perfect for beginners or for someone who has a lack of time. You won’t need to search for design references, as everything is already done and sectioned for different business purposes.

  2.  Price. The pricing of website builders is often lower than the same subscription to content management systems.

  3.  Free content available. Some website builders offer content that is free to use. For example, there is a free media gallery available for Weblium users.

  4.  Technical support. No worries for people who are totally new at website creation. There is usually a fast and professional technical support team that will help to deal with possible issues.


Disadvantages of website builders



  1. Limits. The functionality is limited, especially on the free pricing plans. And it is usually impossible to make changes to the ready-made templates.

  2.  Similarity. The pack of ready-made templates is often a big one, but it is still limited. In other words, without a unique brand identity, your website would be similar to others using the same template.


To sum up


You need to do research and define the idea of your website before starting its creation. The next step is to choose the website builder or the CMS. Both types of software have advantages and disadvantages, so it all depends on your needs. Select a CMS if you have coding knowledge or a hired team of professionals and are ready to invest a sum in website maintenance instantly. If you are only starting your business or your budget is limited and don’t have coding skills, select website builders.