What CMS Should I Use?

When it comes to selecting a content management system, Squid Group will always choose the platform with your businesses' needs in mind. Our company mainly uses SilverStripe for a list of reasons which includes its ability to manage small and large sites, MVC type structure and flexibility for developers. 

It’s also a New Zealand owned company and we like supporting local New Zealand businesses doing great things. 

What else is available? 

There’s a whole ocean of varying CMS platforms out there and finding the best fit for your business can be very overwhelming. So we’ve collected and compared the different options for you. 

Beginner CMS 

Both SquareSpace and Wix are basic and easy to use platforms that are best suited to beginners. They’re very easy to navigate for people who have never seen the back end of a website and can make website creation feel stress free. However in saying this, they do lack elements such as customisation and functionality. This makes them both more suited to blogs and personal websites rather than businesses. 

Wix

Wix has become well known over the years and this is due to its range of free templates available. Taking a closer look into Wix it becomes quite clear that absolutely no technical skills are required to operate this CMS. It’s super user friendly and offers suggestions to help.

Wix’s integratable app feature makes it very versatile. However it should be noted that Wix is not intended for big projects and does not support a feature that would allow you to divide your website into two sections. Another issue that users frequently face is the lack of live support and the long wait between responses. 

On top of this, there are five main negatives to selecting wix as your businesses CMS. 

1. Templates are not interchangeable 
2. Free plan forces Wix branding
3. Tracking and Analytics require a paid plan
4. Your site isn’t transferrable 
5. Premium plans are single-site only 

SquareSpace

The usability of SquareSpace is worth mentioning as the new version now allows for live inline editing. This means no switching back and forth from the site manager and preview mode. But once again just like Wix, this CMS is not suitable for larger websites that would require a menu with multi-level management options. 

SquareSpace is also known to have received poor score ratings by Google’s Page Speed Tool, which could result in an unenjoyable experience by the users of your website. 

However, SquareSpace is our preferred option when discussing beginner websites as its just a nicer system.

eCommerce Specific CMS

If you’re an eCommerce business with a primary goal of driving sales then Shopify is probably the right CMS for your needs. With Shopify, you can build a responsive website that integrates with your CRM and inventory management software. 

Shopify showcases your products to potential customers you’re trying to reach. Among the many advantages of Shopify websites are the thousands of apps available on its App Store. You don’t need to integrate with third party payment providers and Shopify has built-in analytics for reliable reporting. 

The downfalls of Shopify aren't too long and the main complaints include that Shopify enforces its own transaction fee… which is quite high... the website content doesn’t automatically reformat when you switch themes and the apps can add up quickly as you add extra features to your store. Nevertheless we like Shopify and it is very user friendly for beginners and the experienced. 

CMS With Flexibility 

There is no denying that WordPress is one of the best CMS platforms with its incredible reputation for being the most popular CMS platform and for running a third of websites globally. It’s another platform that requires hardly any skills to use and makes the back end of websites relatively easy to navigate, but its not as easy as some CMS’s. Advantages include its aggressive online marketing, frequent upgrades, easy transition from one design to another, suitability for ecommerce and easy backlinking. 

Disadvantages with this platform are few and far in between. But for people with lack of web experience and marketing they may find the web design, development and maintenance could become quite challenging.  

Have You Heard Of SilverStripe?

“When you combine SilverStripe open source software with high performing Agile teams amazing digital projects are possible.” -SilverStripe

SilverStripe is a New Zealand owned open source platform with a large community of people out there constantly working on improving it for both editors and for website visitors. Companies such as 2degrees, Skinny and Westpac have used this system for their websites as well as the New Zealand Government when conducting the 2018 census. 

It has a modular layout designed with the user in mind… yes they thought about you when building it. SilverStripe websites make it easy to upload and manage content in the back end. To build and modify your site you will require a developer withSilverStripe expertise which we offer here at Squid Group. 

SilverStripe is our preferred CMS to build websites as we find clients get the best results from it, however we will always choose the best platform for your business with your digital needs in mind. 

Making a Decision

Although we prefer to work with SilverStripe our Squid are flexible and are happy to discuss alternate options and come up with solutions for your digital needs. Whether you need help with digital services or creative services we have you covered. So come have a chat with us today and let's achieve your goals.

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