cms vs. coding

[moanon]

Hey guys, I would like to hear your opinions on this:
do you prefer building your websites with a cms or do you prefer coding it yourself from scratch (or with some framework)? With reasons please.
I know (or guess) that most of you are using wordpress because you can build sites fast and have much stuff like plugins and themes already written for you and you don't need that much coding skills. But I was interested how many of you don't use a cms.

Personally I prefer writing sites myself because you have more control in what you create and don't have a bunch of stuff which you don't really need in your site. That way also adding/removing/changing functionality is easier in my opinion.

So, If I may steal a minute of your time (or already did by making you read this haha) please write down if you use a cms or coding, which cms or framework or so and some reasons if possible. Also what you think is better for what purposes (like many small niche sites vs. bigger projects) would be interesting. Thanks

Sorry if my english is bad, I'm not native and if you wonder why I posted this in the Lounge, thats somehow more like a survey and I don't want people to think I just want to increase my post count with this or so, if this is the wrong section please forgive me and if you are a mod move the thread to the right section please

Cheers, Mo

 

[Conor]

Lol I like your "don't flame me" disclaimer at the end. There's your fine print, right there.

Personally, I like Wordpress. Because my coding skills are not at a level where I'd be comfortable creating sites from scratch for my clients, nor are their requirements at a level of complexity Wordpress won't cover.

 

[SocialMediaManager]

I Prefer CMS because its Cost Effective , Even a Novice can learn it and most of them have lot of plugins for almost everything
If i had budget i would have prefered hiring a coder and building from scratch

 

[masteringhub]

If you have a good budget then you can go for the coding otherwise CMS is good enough.

 

[moanon]

Thanks for your replies

Lol I like your "don't flame me" disclaimer at the end. There's your fine print, right there.

Personally, I like Wordpress. Because my coding skills are not at a level where I'd be comfortable creating sites from scratch for my clients, nor are their requirements at a level of complexity Wordpress won't cover.

haha yeah if I would make sites for clients I would propably also go with WP (yet) I guess and I don't think you will have a complexity which you can't reach with wordpress + plugins very often, what I meant is with wordpress you will always also have stuff written in there which you don't need for the page. For example wordpress (without plugins) has about 1150 files in it which have about 18MB. A site I build for myself once with a framework I'm working on has about 75 files/1,3MB where 0,8MB are images only. That doesn't really make any difference but because I also don't use a database for such small sites I think I could save some money for hosting (50GB + traffic flat) haha And if I wan't something changed or removed I simply change or remove it without having to be careful that I don't mess up my page with the next update. Also, I just like coding myself

I Prefer CMS because its Cost Effective , Even a Novice can learn it and most of them have lot of plugins for almost everything
If i had budget i would have prefered hiring a coder and building from scratch

If you have a good budget then you can go for the coding otherwise CMS is good enough.

I get that points but since I'm writing myself and don't need to hire a programmer I don't need any budget on this. Maybe cms is faster to build in some cases but I try to keep the stuff I write reuseable so whenever I'm adding new functionality I'm trying to write it in a way where I could just copy+paste it to the next page if I need it there also without changing anything (except config). So I'm building a collection of code-parts and whenever I build a new page I just use the parts I need and don't even add the other ones so the site stays small and fast.

I'm really new to IM, so maybe my thoughts on this will change but at the moment I have fun coding the pages myself so that's the way to go for me

Thanks again for your opinions

 

[edgey]

If you have a Mac, there are programs such as Rapidweaver, Flux and Freeway - all have a learning curve, but worth a look.
If you are building a PBN, these are great alternatives to wp to help lessen the footprint.

 

[lord1027]

It depends on what you need to be done, for most cases a CMS works better (cheaper/easier to use and update/etc.), but there are projects where a CMS won't do it. Personally, I prefer Wordpress.

 

[uncommonbg]

The real question here is, will you write something that Wordpress cannot do? What's the point of loosing your time and writing everything from scratch If wordpress can already provide the same functions? And basically is it worth spending so much time on writing the site from scratch.

 

[RoyMcClue]

I prefer to code my stuff by my self. For useres which have no experience a cms should be good enough.
I'm using the foundation 5 framework for my styling (mobile first) and use the FatFreeFramework for php backend programing.
On some sites i only use foundation and dont use other frameworks. Look into my journey to see what i'm making!

 

[jazzc]

Moved to the proper place.

 

[Techxan]

The real question here is, will you write something that Wordpress cannot do? What's the point of loosing your time and writing everything from scratch If wordpress can already provide the same functions? And basically is it worth spending so much time on writing the site from scratch.

The real problem is that most people think wordpress is the say all and end all of website platforms. This forum is firmly in the wordpress camp, and they are not moving.

They build bloated monsters and do seo via plugin and wonder why their site can't rank. I have looked WP sites for people on here with 10 second page loads, inline styles all over the place and code that would not validate with a crew of programmers.

When you ask about seo they say "I use Yoast" or "all in one SEO" as if I asked what plugin they are using for SEO.

But hey, if there is a plugin, then they can turn a blogging platform into membership/e-commerce site so they are good. And they will defend it to the death. Magento for e-commerce never- WP and plugins will win the day.

Constant danger of being hacked, constant need to update or get hacked, even a malfunctioning jetpack plugin can cause the site not to display and that shit is on every wp install in the world almost.

Something that wordpress cannot do? Wordpress cannot do anything, except blog and bleed. Unless you hang a module on it for some specialized function that was created as an afterthought.

 

[jazzc]

Something that wordpress cannot do? Wordpress cannot do anything, except blog and bleed. Unless you hang a module on it for some specialized function that was created as an afterthought.

WP is a very versatile platform, people simply don't know how to utilize & optimize it.

 

[Avid Learner]

The real problem is that most people think wordpress is the say all and end all of website platforms. This forum is firmly in the wordpress camp, and they are not moving.

They build bloated monsters and do seo via plugin and wonder why their site can't rank. I have looked WP sites for people on here with 10 second page loads, inline styles all over the place and code that would not validate with a crew of programmers.

When you ask about seo they say "I use Yoast" or "all in one SEO" as if I asked what plugin they are using for SEO.

But hey, if there is a plugin, then they can turn a blogging platform into membership/e-commerce site so they are good. And they will defend it to the death. Magento for e-commerce never- WP and plugins will win the day.

Constant danger of being hacked, constant need to update or get hacked, even a malfunctioning jetpack plugin can cause the site not to display and that shit is on every wp install in the world almost.

Something that wordpress cannot do? Wordpress cannot do anything, except blog and bleed. Unless you hang a module on it for some specialized function that was created as an afterthought.

Did a quick check of Magento...looks interesting, thanks. I presume you use the free open source version?

As for being a target of hacking...comes with popularity. There is some virtue of taking lesser known paths for this reason.

As a noob (with some technical skill), how practical is it to get into the weeds of the underlying system/code vs just picking a CMS (even one of the many WP alternatives) and being mindful/selective/careful on its implementation?

On resurrecting archived sites (for use in a PBN), probably best to use the CMS it was created with, even if it was WP, correct?

 

[emailextractions]

coding gives you a tailor made site. a CMS usually has a lot of shit you don't use.
the good thing about CMS is that it's useful for ppl who don't know or can't invest on getting a site built

 

[HFlame7]

CMS = usually getting a website out faster (especially if you don't know how to code).
Coding = flexibility.

Many programmers use a CMS, I prefer Drupal over Wordpress. However, when I find myself "fighting" the CMS (when it becomes difficult to do something because the CMS isn't flexible enough) I switch to custom coding.

So my advice..start with a CMS (Wordpress or Drupal). Only move to custom coding if you find one those CMS' to be making your life more difficult when trying to add custom features.

 

[pr250]

CMS = All ready made for you, many themes, many addons, and if you need something custom: many people understand the platform
Custom = Can create it exactly how you want it.

I prefer CMS for some websites, and custom for others. Eg i have used custom for a website which would have taken 1/5 the time in a CMS, and i worked with a partner on a website which i could have done in hours custom, and took weeks with drupal

 

[moanon]

Thanks again for all the opinions Interesting to hear some different views on this also. go on haha maybe this thread helps some other newbies like me to decide how to build their sites.

I think if you have enough skill you should go with coding yourself, with the right tools I don't think it would take much longer than with cms but is cleaner and easier to maintain. If not before hiring a programmer I would go with cms unless the project needs some really specific functionality

Moved to the proper place.

Thanks

 

[Techxan]

CMS = All ready made for you, many themes, many addons, and if you need something custom: many people understand the platform

You can do the same thing with HTML and Templates.

 

[redrubies]

Techxan, ++++++++++1 Excellent responses and very true. I feel the same way you do.

 

[redrubies]

Did a quick check of Magento...looks interesting, thanks. I presume you use the free open source version?

Code your site from scratch and use a shopping cart. You have more control and you'll get better placement in search results. I could not get Magento to do everything that I wanted done and scrapped it after a day.