The content management systems nowadays have garnered huge attention and importance of the companies into developing websites. Content management systems or CMS help website manager or editor manage the complete content of their website improving the overall efficiency. CMS helps users organize and publish content and also helps in maintaining the look and feel of their website. There are several CMS including both licensed and open source that comes with ready made plugins to further ease down the website content management process. This is the reason CMS has become an integral part of website or you can say they are considered as a backbone of websites. But are these CMS really helpful?
Problems with CMS
Though CMS boost the website management process and are widely deployed by companies for managing websites, in practical they create certain hiccups and limitations. Several experts and business players have discovered many concerns of using CMS and have criticized them on various grounds.
Huge License Cost = Unjustified IT Cost: Every CMS you purchase require paying huge license fees. Moreover, you require licensing for domain, users, hardware, subscribers and upgrades.
No Customization = No Creativity: If you develop websites using CMS, you are bound by its functionality with no room for personalization. On the contrary, if you develop websites by writing html codes, designing and crafting website components based on requirements is easily possible.
Minute Details Go Unattended = You’re stuck with it: When you write website codes on your own, you pay more attention to each line of code which is not possible in CMS.
Security Risks = It Isn’t Easy: CMS built websites invites more hackers since it is easy to break into the system using unethical practices like SQL injections. Moreover, the updates, fixes and patches of CMS sometimes aren’t free from security risks.
Require Updates and Plugins = A Perennial Problem: CMS requires users to update the system at regular intervals and install/uninstall plugins based on requirements.
No Knowledge of Best Practices = No Expertise: A lot of people would not agree with this but do you really know the best ways to optimize your website in terms of SEO using a CMS or do you master the art of canonicalization and navigation or W3 standards?
Besides these, you cannot ignore these too
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Difficult to integrate with other systems
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Inflexibility to accommodate designs or change templates
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Require particular hardware and software configurations
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Difficulty to markup text
Almost all the readers reading this article would have realized one or more of the above problems in their CMS. So what do we do now?
Are there any alternatives to CMS?
Yes, you can develop websites without depending on CMS and that too with required budget and customization. A lot of technologies have been around for quite a long time such as Java and PHP. As everyone knows, these technologies allow developing customized applications and portals but are highly neglected since it requires hardcore coding. However, these technologies certainly negate the flaws of CMS and offer better customization and security.
Real example of switching from CMS
A few days back, I came across a real case study where a USA-based company migrated its website from CMS to open source technology solution using Grails – a Java framework. The company made a big decision of moving its website from CMS to open source technology, looking at the fact that the company was a major player in the telecommunication sector and had millions of customers using its service on daily basis.
The basic objective behind switching from CMS for this particular company was to
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Reduce the recurring licensing cost
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Remove the redundancies of legacy components of the CMS
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Provide better scope of customizations
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Render ease of maintenance and control of the website
I won’t go much into detail but If you are a technical guy and interested in reading the full case study, here’s the Link
How hardcoded technology solutions are better than CMS?
Looking at the above case, it is obvious that technology solutions and opensource platforms like Java, PHP, Ruby offer better flexibilities and ease of development compared to licensed CMS. Companies adopt such technology over CMS due to following reasons:
No Licensing Fee: Mangers working with big enterprises knows the advantage of using open source technologies is that unlike CMS, they do not require any licensing fees. It helps them keep their project expenses low allowing them to invest in developing important solutions.
Licensing cost always eats up a big chunk of your money while you are running an online business, and as a businessman you would always prefer to choose solutions and technologies that in a way cuts down such irrecoverable expenses.
Better Customization: I believe that technology solutions have an upper hand in terms of offering customized solutions. A developer can use any combination of technologies and tools to develop efficient and smart solutions.
Every customer has different requirements and these technologies can help to a great extent rather than playing on a plain CMS ground.
It’s like if you can get the similar solution at the same cost why not opt for it and reduced your expenses.
About Author: Boni Satani is a passionate Java engineer who loves to write and tweet (@bonirulzz). He is associated with Cygnet Infotech which offers Java Development Services. Get in touch with him for any help or consultation.
