Which CMS is best suited for which types of site?

What is a CMS?

CMS (from English Content Management System) is a platform with which the user can manage the site. In professional jargon, another name is often used - “site engine”.

The main advantage of the CMS system is that it is not necessary to know programming to edit content. The main work of the site content management system takes place in your personal account, where you can customize the functionality of a ready-made template according to your own parameters. So, without the help of a programmer, you can manage your site and order some module updates.

What is the best CMS for a website?

There are various types of websites on the market today. Therefore, before deciding which CMS to choose for the site, you need to decide on the goals of your business. Almost every platform has sufficient functionality to launch a site, but in 90% of cases, CMS is paid or does not work correctly. There is also a paid option to extend the CMS with additional plugins. First, let's talk about each engine separately.

WordPress

The most popular and free CMS, which is used to create both regular blogs and multi-page online stores. Even the most inexperienced user will easily figure out the interface of the engine to fill the site with the necessary content. One of the main advantages of the engine is a clear interface. Everyone can master the platform without even working in this direction before. And a large selection of ready-made templates will simplify the creation of the site.

At the same time, there is a main drawback of the platform - free templates usually have an outdated interface. The cost of modern options varies from $200 for a business card site without online placement, and about $700 for creating an online store. Also, open templates have a great vulnerability: even the simplest bot is able to reconnect payment methods on such sites and withdraw money.

As reported on the official CMS WordPress website, more than 40% of sites work on this engine and this figure is constantly growing. Such well-known organizations work with this CMS: The New Yorker, Samsung, Coca Cola, etc.

Pros of CMS WordPress: 

· free basic functionality of the engine;

quick to develop and no need to create a website backend from scratch;

Intuitive interface of the engine is convenient when filling;

· Using the common PHP language.

Disadvantages of CMS WordPress: 

«Heavyweight» — during operation, there is a significant network load on the server, which is due to the algorithms of the CMS;

Lack of platform technical support;

· A large number of plugins reduces engine performance;

Low reliability and protection of the platform;

limited functionality;

· Due to system updates, problems often occur.

OpenCart

A popular engine suitable for store management.All tools are designed for e-commerce. The OpenCart platform offers useful features for sales organization and order management. The free engine allows you to significantly save the budget and at the same time implement the desired functionality. But only if it is provided in the CMS itself. For example, it can be used to set product ratings, display customer reviews, and add different payment systems.

  Advantages of CMS OpenCart: 

· free platform;

work with a large number of payment systems;

Security - the system takes care of the protection of transactions, warns of hacking and data loss;

· Open source code, which allows, with the help of a developer, to expand the functionality of the system and individual settings;

· Add-ons store with access to the database of templates, extensions, plugins is built into the engine control panel;

Import to Excel.

Cons of CMS OpenCart: 

· Without editing the code, you cannot disable unnecessary platform fields. For example, you will not be able to change the "cart" or "registration" section yourself;

·     the absence of a "live" search, that is, the necessary options are not issued upon request on the site;

· Due to the large number of add-ons and plugins, conflicts may occur;

· low site loading speed;

High cost and long terms when finalizing additional functions on the site. For example, to improve the work of buyers' personal accounts, you will have to change the platform or half of the site;

Difficulties during site design updates, i.e. when the site is morally outdated, it is necessary to make a new one from scratch;

· bug with some modules after the update.

WooCommerce

If you need an online store on WordPress, then this is a free plugin for it. After installing WooCommerce, the site turns into a fully functional store. The plugin has become a powerful business tool. Also here it is possible to offer any product with any additional services to it. With WooCommerce, you can organize products into dozens of different categories. And with a new order, the administrator receives email notifications. It is believed that thanks to the WooCommerce plugin, you can create online stores on the WordPress CMS.

Pros of WooCommerce:

quick and intuitive store setup;

· You can add photos and videos to the product;

· the ability to conduct detailed analytics;

multilingual;

Many payment methods;

Suitable for small online stores (up to 100 products). If it is more - problems with cataloging and speed of work begin.

Cons of WooCommerce: 

Lack of CMS technical support;

Low speed;

· instability with high traffic;

Inflexibility of the shopping cart, for example, the checkout process cannot be replaced;

Non-variability of the catalog;

Can't handle heavy traffic;

· Western market orientation — by default, delivery methods and payment options are designed for the Western market;

High cost of advanced CMS features;

most plugins for English-language sites;

High hacking capability;

· With a large number of products on the site (more than 5 thousand), conflicts arise;

· There may be conflicts with other add-ons.

Magento

This CMS is open source, which allows you to modify the site with the help of specialists or change it according to your own needs. The platform allows you to create several online stores at once and manage them from a common center. With the help of CMS Magento it is convenient to work with prices. For example, reduce the cost of goods for a certain period or set a promotion. At the same time, CMS focuses on the foreign market. Most engine support sites are in English, and the interface can be difficult for users. Therefore, additional funds will be needed to adapt the platform to the Russian-speaking audience.

  Advantages of Magento CMS: 

·  abundance of built-in functions: visual editor in the page builder, built-in analytics system, convenient price management tools.

There is a free version of the platform;

· The personal account of the engine has great functionality: users can rate, write reviews, make wish lists.

Minuses of CMS Magento: 

slow page loading;

The engine is not well suited for the CIS market segment - the platform is originally in English, but there is a paid Russified assembly;

Most of the documentation for working with the engine is in English;

· With a large number of products on the site (more than 10 thousand), conflicts arise;

Cost of the license.

1C-Bitrix

If you need a popular engine for creating any sites, in particular Internet projects, then CMS 1C-Bitrix will be a great find. This is a platform for large businesses that are ready to allocate significant funds to support the site. CMS is a modular system with additional applications.

Advantages of 1C-Bitrix CMS: 

Marketing tools are available on the engine. So, in version 1C-Bitrix "Site Management" 15.5 useful marketing tools have appeared: trigger mailings and a business model for predicting company profits;

· There are several levels of protection against the most common attacks, and each level increases the security of the site;

system of differentiation of user rights;

· A large number of visitors, database load or errors in the program code load the platform. CMS 1C-Bitrix is ​​optimized for such loads.

Cons of 1C-Bitrix CMS: 

· For permanent use of the system, you need to purchase a license, the package of which starts from $70 to $5400;

paid annual updates;

Expensive developer services;

· has a very narrow functionality;

· difficult to work for amateurs, so the team must have a specialist or an outsourced team to fill the site;

Slow page loading;

· Programming skills are required for independent work.

Is there an alternative to ready-made CMS?

Almost always CMS is a quick and ready solution, but usually they all have a small range of features. Therefore, DIGIANTS has developed solutions that are not limited in function and complete freedom in design development. For a nice price, you can get all the necessary functionality, working with which will be much easier and more convenient.

Wide functionality

The main highlight for our users is the wide range of functionality and ready-made solutions. You can choose both ready-made functionality and add your own functions and we will calculate them. All tools come with detailed instructions for ease of use. You customize the site to your own requirements and get an original product.

Speed ​​

Slow sites are becoming less popular, so we guarantee a decent site loading speed, site speed largely affects both purchase conversions and indexing speed for SEO. Also, its placement on the hosting and domain of the client. And in order not to waste your time adding one product after another, there is an export and import function. You will also have the opportunity to offer discounts on any group of products.

Customer feedback

To communicate with a customer, online stores need an email newsletter. Using automail, you will receive an order confirmation email. We understand the need to organize communication with customers and provide you with integration with telephony. We also want to offer you a tool for customer support in an online chat, and the "Personal Account" module will provide convenient work with site users.

Entering the international market

Our system is multilingual, which allows you to work with foreign markets.

A smart assistant for searching products on the site

For high-quality navigation on the site, we provide the "Ajax Search" function.It is enough to enter the first three letters of the product and it will give out all the suitable options for this request.

The function of accepting online payments

We offer integration with various payment services in our system. As soon as the customer places an order, the system will add sales tax to the cost of the goods and save the administrator's time. In order to competently build a dialogue with the client and avoid mistakes when processing orders, DIGIANTS connects CRM to the site.

SEO optimization

We carefully studied the market, carefully analyzed the experience of interacting with SEO companies and implemented basic SEO optimization into the platform.

If you have any questions, we will be happy to answer them. You can learn more about the offer in the "Promotions" section.