To develop using templates or content management systems?	2.3/5.0 (4 votes total) Rate: Select 1 - Terrible 2 - Poor 3 - Average 4 - Good 5 - Outstanding
Barry Goggin March 19, 2009

A common dilemma for many domain owners interested in developing is whether to use templates or content management systems (CMS). There isn’t a one size fits all answer to this and so I wanted to talk a little about the strengths and weaknesses of each and how those fit with some business models.

Definitions of templates and CMS

Templates are usually software that have a predetermined layout and design which help people deploy websites quickly.

Content management systems (CMS) are software packages that allow relatively fast website deployment but then permit content to be added with minimal knowledge of HTML or computers.

Advantages and disadvantages of templates and content management systems

Advantages of  templates

• rapid deployment of web site
• easy cloning of web sites
• minimal customization
• no design knowledge needed
• no coding knowledge needed

Disadvantages of templates

• relatively inflexible design
• no content flow control
• upgrades usually must be done per web site
• commercial templates can be costly
• upgrades may cost extra

Advantages of content management systems

• greater design flexibility
• greater control over content creation
• different functionality can be added easily
• high quality public domain software available
• with some CMS, many web sites can be run from one installation
• with some CMS, many web sites can be upgraded at once
• web sites can be cloned and deployed quickly

Disadvantages of content management systems

• installation and requirements for some can be technically demanding
• ease of use varies widely between software packages
• may have too much functionality for intended purpose

Templates and simple CMS

Templates and simple content management systems are perfect for brochure web sites or simple evergreen content. WordPress and others can handle these types of web sites very easily and still leave you room to grow if you need to in the future. If you are planning to develop mini-sites to sell, then they will work well with templates or very simple CMS installations.

More complex CMS

For mini-sites that you intend to keep for income, many people use templates or WordPress or equivalent CMS. It can work but why waste your time and money? Come time to upgrade, you now have 20, 30 or more web sites to upgrade and its even worse if you have to pay for upgrades.

Save yourself the effort and get a CMS where you can upgrade and update all the web sites at once. WordPress MU and Drupal can do this easily and can handle hundreds, if not thousands of sites. WordPress MU is what WordPress.com runs on.

WordPress Mu

If you do not wish to learn by trial and error, then  you can certainly hire someone to do this work for you. You can also use my e-book to set up WordPress MU in exactly that way if you want. It is what I use for mini-sites and if you are familiar with WordPress already, then it will not be much different once it is set up and running.

Drupal and Joomla

More complex CMS have tremendous power and you can build massive web sites on them. I mainly use Drupal and Joomla for more complex sites, WordPress Mu for mini-sites and WordPress for small standalone web sites or blogs.

Both Joomla and Drupal have quirks in naming and convention that takes time to get to know. Once you figure that part out, they are very powerful and can render almost all kinds of web sites. Better yet, they are free and both have very active communities that can help you as well as provide all kinds of extra functionality.

In case you missed my last post on mini-sites: The power of mini websites

So what are you using and how is it working for you?

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