“The Big Three” in Website Building

Designers, programmers, end-users ~ what’s your favorite web platform? WordPress? Joomla? Drupal?

This topic may make some of your eyes glaze over, but for those of you interested in the new, ever-changing, made-easier and more-manageable world of website building (as opposed to the old, more static world of straight html, java script, etc.), I found this nifty chart back in July, and thought it might be useful/interesting for the visual learners out there who haven’t yet stumbled upon it. (That was quite the long opening sentence, eh?  Sorry if I lost you…)

If you’ve read this far, you probably already know that it’s pretty much an absolute must that any modern website be prepared in a CMS platform. (CMS = Content Management System… which provides user access to the content of your site, in human terms, instead of learning the dreaded code yourself or going back to your programmer for every word change.) The question is, which one?

Personally, I’m a huge fan of WordPress (yup, it’s not just for blogging), but Joomla and Drupal are respected giants in the field.

As a designer, not a programmer (see “Why I Don’t Paint Trucks, etc…”), I can maneuver my way nicely around WordPress. For seriously heavy-duty customization all 3 are viable options though, so I often leave the “which one” decision to my gifted web programming partners.

If you (as designer, programmer, or user) use these platforms, we’d love to hear about your experience… thumbs up, thumbs down, and maybe a little bit of why. For the rest of you, maybe this chart (courtesy Devious Media) will spur movement on that new or upgraded website you’ve been putting off.