Website Design in 2019: Part 1 — Platform

In 2019 there are almost an unlimited number of website design platforms. In this post when we say “platforms” we refer to the engine that allows you to build and design a new website. We also refer to them as content management systems (CMS). We get asked a lot what platform do we use or what is the best platform to use if you are going to start a new business or if you need a new website.

WordPress

Far and away the most popular and most common CMS is WordPress. WordPress accounts for about 33% of all websites on the open internet. Full disclosure — our site is a WordPress site and about 83% or our client’s sites are WP when we design them. What makes WP such an attractive CMS is the fact that it can be something for anyone. You can design a massive 250+ page site with eCommerce and highly secured databases, or you can have a simple 2–3 page site to show off pictures of your cats to friends for a couple bucks a month.

WordPress also was one of the first platforms that made website design easy for the public to access. Before WP and many of it’s followers the only way to design a website was to hire a very expensive firm to code the entire thing on a custom build. Which took months and cost a fortune, and if heaven forbid, you wanted to change anything on your site, like hours of operation, it cost hundreds of dollars and took a week. With WP it is almost as easy as posting an update to your Facebook page with a new picture of your cat.

Squarespace & Wix

In recent years two aggressively marketed companies that tend to portray themselves as “free” or very inexpensive are Squarespace and Wix. While they can be less expensive than a WP site, and are definitely less expensive than a custom coded job. You essentially get what you pay for. We use these two sites interchangeably for clients that really just need a gallery to showcase their work and have no really need for SEO. If you have a business that you need people to find you on a search engine against your competitors then these two are generally not good options. WordPress then becomes more of a recommendation due to the effectiveness of their SEO tools.

Drupal and Joomla

Both Drupal and Joomla are considered runner ups to WordPress in the similar category type. They are both considered open source CMS systems and are fairly easy to use. Wordpress typically wins out over these two due to ease of use, additional plugins that are designed specifically for WP that make editing sites that much easier. However the people who use either of these two are committed and are prepared for a fight to defend their use. Joomla is the second most used CMS on the market today at about 3% of sites out there while Drupal is around 2.2% (source).

Magento

Magento is a great web design and CMS platform. We don’t use it all that much because it is generally more for the larger eCommerce site that has a lot of SKUs and needs a lot of data backup. For about 5–10% of sites we come across Magento could be a good recommendation but we just don’t see it all that much.

Conclusion

There are pluses and minuses to every one of these systems and there are many more out there. However, the best way to decide what is right for you is to contact a professional digital marketing consultant like Prestige Marketing Advisors to help. Or if your budget calls for a new site we can design it for you with unlimited updates.