Why Should I Use A Custom CMS?
If you ask 10 website designers, developers or SEO experts which CMS (Content Management System) to use, you might get as many as 10 answers. And none of those answers may include a custom CMS platform.
Why don’t they recommend a custom CMS platform if it’s so good?
The simple answer? Because they don’t have a custom CMS and usually recommend the CMS they have the most experience with.
There are several CMS platforms to use. Each are based on different languages and even the type of server you have, but for the sake of this post, I’m going to just talk about the most commonly recommended CMS platforms, those using PHP.
There are more than 70 CMS platforms that use PHP, not including custom CMS platforms.
Why not just use WordPress as my CMS?
WordPress is the most recommended CMS platform. It’s estimated that 20% of all websites are built on WordPress. Sounds great right? Decision made! If it’s the most popular, then it must be the best!
Hold on. Why is it used more than all the others? WordPress is free. That one factor alone makes it very popular. It’s easy to learn how to use, so it is appealing to many people. Those are the two top reasons for using WordPress.
But what about security? Hackers are out there doing damage to thousands of websites every day. That’s the world we live in today and it’s something you have to consider when choosing a CMS.
Their goal is to do as much damage as possible with the least amount of effort. They want to infect or hack as many websites as possible with one program.
Since WordPress is the most popular CMS, it’s also a high-value target for hackers and script kiddies.
What about using Joomla as my CMS?
Again, more than 50 million websites use the Joomla CMS platform. Well, actually it says it’s been downloaded that many times on their website.
But let’s assume that more than 1 million websites are running on the Joomla CMS platform. That should be a very conservative number.
That means it has the same security problem as WordPress. It’s a high-value target for hackers because they can attack that many websites with one script, bot, or program.
What about other CMS Platforms?
As i wrote above, there are way too many CMS platforms to include in just one blog post. But you can visit this Wikipedia page to see a large list.
Don’t these CMS platforms have security features?
Of course they do. There are a ton of WordPress plugins and Joomla modules that help you secure their CMS. But determined hackers work just as hard getting around them as the plugin and module programmers do to stop them.
Let’s compare it to advice given about your home and burglars who break into homes. Police advise you that the best way to keep burglars from breaking into your house is to make your house a less attractive target for the burglars.
They advise you to have lights at all entrances, to install an alarm system and put a sign in the yard or on windows to tell people you have an alarm and/or a watch dog. They tell you to lock your doors and windows.
If a burglar cruises the neighborhood, they look for the homes that don’t have those things because it’s easier.
Hackers cruise the neighborhoods too. They use bots that scan the web for websites that are the most vulnerable. But unlike burglars, putting a sign on your website that says something like hacker-safe or hacker-proof is an invitation, not a deterrent.
They write a program to hack a popular CMS, to target a particular vulnerability in that CMS. Then scan the web for that CMS and that vulnerability. The more popular the CMS, the more it becomes a popular target.
How does a Custom CMS make me more secure?
As stated above; by being less of a target. Dedicated hackers will eventually find a way in if they are targeting a particular website. But even script-kiddies can download a program that looks for vulnerabilities in popular CMS platforms.
No one is out there writing these programs to scan for vulnerabilities in a custom CMS system that used for maybe 1000 websites when they can target CMS platforms that millions of websites use.
A custom CMS platform should also have security features. That goes without saying. The combination of security features and the fact that your website is a low-value target makes choosing a custom CMS platform a better option.
Security isn’t the only reason to choose a Custom CMS
The ability to create custom elements in the CMS is also important. The programmers of the custom CMS can easily program in whatever features you want that address the specific needs of your company.
Yes, there are a lot of plugins and modules to help you customize popular CMS platforms, but those are designed for a mass audience, not to your specific requirements.
AO Design Offers You a Custom CMS Platform
We will customize our proprietary custom CMS platform to create an absolute unique website with all the features on your wishlist included.
We also build custom databases and custom mobile apps for your business.
AO Design helps businesses with websites that work for them. Contact us for more information or for a personalized quote.
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