How To Choose The Right CMS For A Web Design Project

Platform is critical.

If you choose the wrong Content Management System (CMS) for a web design project, you could add hours of development time to the project.  And that might be the best possible outcome.  This kind of mistake could kill a web design project, causing stakeholders on both sides a lot of grief.

We asked our Crazy Egg Design Experts how they avoid those problems by choosing the right CMS for a web design project.

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The primary criteria are: is it easy for content editors to use (especially if they don’t know HTML), and is it easy for developers update the theme? WordPress typically wins on both counts. I’ve found that WordPress is the easiest for non-developer content creators to get the hang of, and I’ve been able to easily theme it for tons of different kinds of sites and content.
~Lara Swanson, DYN

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The agency I run called SimpleFlame focuses 100% around the Adobe Business Catalyst CMS platform. There are many reasons why we chose this particular CMS to use for all of our projects. Here are five highlights:

1. CMS is easy for end-user to manage content – Content is what matters most on a website. It compels, convinces, converts, sells, and generates income with the right strategy. A website is only as good as its content. And if it is difficult to manage content, you won’t have online success.
2. CMS Allows for design freedom – Designers don’t want to be told to design inside boxes or areas. If your CMS of choice prohibits artistic license or freedom, then you can’t deliver experiences your clients demand out of your creative services.
3. CMS has API and allows for 3rd party integrations – Clients come to us with unique demands for business logic frequently. In order to provide viable solutions, integrations between the CMS and other applications is required. Having a robust API that can be used to connect systems together is a powerful tool.
4. CMS has integrated e-commerce capability – The need to sell products online is important. Although there are many e-commerce packages available, having a CMS that can be managed easily and effectively is key. Having the ability to add an online store at a reasonable cost is a great asset.
5. CMS platform can help reduce cost of development – If your CMS of choice provides a variety of modules, plugins, etc – it can lower the cost of development and make you a very competitive alternative in the marketplace.

SimpleFlame chose Adobe Business Catalyst for all the reasons above. Their philosophy is 5+ systems in one which include: CMS, E-commerce, Customer Database, Built-in Email Marketing, and Reporting/Analytics. It is a hosted application and we don’t have to worry about backwards compatibility and networking as it is backed by a very successful company of developers and engineers taking care of the tedious tasks for us.

The best advise I can provide while choosing a CMS is to understand your client’s business objectives and make sure you provide the right tools to make them successful.
~ Cesar Keller, Simple Flame

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Criteria I consider is how user-friendly the CMS is – how easy can the client update the content themselves. I also consider how easy it is to install and whether they have a helpful user community.
~ Stephanie Hamilton, Stephanie Hamilton Design

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Some people seem to only use one, I regularly use a bunch of them including WordPress, ExpressionEngine, DotNetNuke, Joomla, Magento, and more. So I keep an open mind when choosing a CMS for a project. I usually ask myself some form of the following questions:

• How many pages will the site have?
• Who is going to manage it when it launches?
• How complex is the design and layout?
• Do I need to give granular control to certain pages?
• Does it need any role-based security?
• Is there a custom app or apps that it needs to work with?

And then narrow the field based on the answers to those questions.
~ Brian Schwartz, Spoke

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It’s very simple for us, we design with WordPress almost 100% of the time. It is search engine friendly, easy for most clients to understand and easy for us to supply support for whether we’re using in-house technical resources or outsourcing for special development.
~ Sue Spencer, Spencer Web Design, Inc.

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What about you?  How do you choose a content management system for a web design project?  What CMS are you partial to?