Joomla or wordpress

[flatsix3.6]

I am considering having a new website designed (cms), and as a non techie person which is the easiest option for a newbie to be adding content and keeping the site up to date.

Or are there other options out there.

[Stevanos]

Wordpress is light years ahead of Joomla, also a lot more SEO friendly.

It depends on what the main purpose of your site is really.

[FlossyThePig]

There is another option, PC Pro recommends Drupal.

http://websitesetup.org/cms-comparison-wordpress-v...

[Hoofy]

Non-techie? Definitely Wordpress.

[keith333]

Wordpress is much more user friendly that Joomla, you can be up and running in minutes with it :-)

[Bikerjon]

Wordpress is good but I'm not convinced it's always the right choice for a non-techie. I have some slightly technical customers who find Wordpress hard work. Something like Weebly is quite a bit easier IMO, but it really depends on how important SEO is and how often you need to make edits/add content.

[Hoofy]

Ah, well, if you're really non-technical and don't mind putting up with a not-very-CMS then Weebly or Wix are alternative options!

WP is good for getting new pages up quickly in an established format. From dabbling, Weebly and Wix make it too easy to cock up a format so that elements that are standard throughout a site appear to move slightly as you go from page to page.

[RobDickinson]

If you're non technical don't go near joomla.

[morrisk1]

Definitely go WP.

Easy to setup and maintain. Just spend some time at the start choosing/buying the right template.

[RobDickinson]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

Dreamweaver is a wysywig web dev tool. It can work but if all you want to do is put up the odd blog post its a bit overkill for the non techno.

WP or blogspot etc.

[ZesPak]

I think there's two things to consider here:

1. Setup
2. Maintenance

I agree with the above, Joomla can be cumbersome to set up (although in most cases it isn't), but once it is, it can be maintained by complete non-techies.

[cornet]

Irrespective of what CMS they choose to use there are a number of other important things to consider.

CMS updates

All open source CMS software generally has regular updates that fix bugs and security issues. These updates should be a applied frequently and should only be applied after a full backup has been taken (see the next section on backups). Wordpress does offer the ability to update through the admin interface but this can go wrong occasionally (due to incompatible plugins or permissions issues) so whoever is applying the updates needs to know how to fix this issues when the arise.


Backups

Backups should be regularly taken. The regularity depends on how often the site changes. If you're running comments on the site you should be taking them daily at a minimum. Also the backups should be stored away from the hosting provider and also the restore process MUST be tested regularly.


Make sure you own the site

By "own the site" I mean. Make sure whoever creates the site can't hold you to ransom. As an absolute minimum they should give you full access to the backups (code and database).
The story generally goes something like this:

• Bob gets site created by WebDev Ltd
• WebDev Ltd supply the hosting as part of the deal
• All goes well for a period of time. WebDev Ltd do regular updates/backups etc...
• Bob needs some work doing on the site and WebDev Ltd are non-responsive
• Because WebDev Ltd are un-responsive Bob can't get his site off them

I'm seriously considering setting up a company in the new year to help solve this problem for people although I'm happy to do chat to anyone who wants help with avoiding this. I'm getting sick of seeing small businesses & individuals getting screwed over like this

[Hoofy]

Good advice. Seen that a lot over the years.

[Stevanos]

RobDickinson said:

Dreamweaver is a wysywig web dev tool. It can work but if all you want to do is put up the odd blog post its a bit overkill for the non techno.

WP or blogspot etc.

I did not even know Dreamweaver was a thing any more, when I have mentioned it in recent years in proximity to devs they have sneered at me. I guess it is OK for building fairly static sorts of sites, but Wordpress is a huge platform and I believe it is the largest open source community in the world now.

[RobDickinson]

As a techie I have put together a bunch of WP sites without touching a line of code, pick a theme, add some plugins, it self manages and upgrades.

But TBH best go for a hosted blog service

[flatsix3.6]

My existing web site (static) was built by a web deisgner using Umbraco, does anyone have any thoughts on there CMS package and is it easy when it's built for me to keep it updated with text and photos.

Is it SEO freindly.

Thanks.