Is your CMS too complex for you? It is best to find out before a non-issue turns into a complete mess. This happens too often when businesses try to make an off-the-shelf CMS perform unique and complex business processes. The last thing your company can afford is having your CMS not run efficiently and affordably, with slowdowns and service interruptions.
Your content management system, or CMS, is the machinery that drives your website. While simple business models can get by with a standard solution, a more sophisticated business model will have to be tailored to handle traffic from your users efficiently.
The Sign Of Too Many Cooks In The Kitchen
Standard platforms such as WordPress or Drupal struggle to handle high traffic enterprise sites. While these platforms may work adequately in ideal circumstances, when demand grows the performance of your website may suffer significantly. Your CMS is too complex when it slows down at times of peak demand or, even worse, has service interruptions. The excessive complexity is likely to stem from having too many third-party dependencies.
Off-the-shelf CMS platforms provide a wide variety of tools, but most will not be beneficial. Improving your site with add-ons may sound simple, but when different third-party developers add functionality, conflicts may also arise. Modules and plugins add functionality, but can rapidly become what the tech industry refers to as “a giant ball of mud”, which is not what you want.
Piling On The Plugins – What Could Possibly Go Wrong?
Plugins and modules are excellent for converting general-purpose platforms to specific use cases. However, they carry all of the legacy capabilities for the platform.
One of the most important questions is: will the platform scale and perform as popularity increases? Or will increasing traffic cause the performance to drop disastrously? Commercial websites that require unique functionality and performance benefit from adopting a custom platform as soon as it is feasible. It is best to take care of the functionality of your site in the early stages instead of scrambling to transfer a busy website to a tailored platform. A commercial CMS simply cannot provide what a custom CMS can.
5 Reasons To Choose A Custom CMS
Stable Architecture – Your architecture will be more stable with a custom CMS as there is no concern about third-party components conflicting with each other and slowing the platform. In fact, you will have no dependence on third party developers and the unwanted surprises that can arise from the software they publish.
Security – You will keep a tighter grip on security. Commercial CMS solutions are more vulnerable to attacks from hackers. Losing customer information could cause your company to be in serious legal trouble while losing consumer trust.
Better Performance – A custom CMS only carries working parts, designed to integrate as one system. A custom solution is geared for only you and will work better than a platform that is generically designed for thousands of people.
Control – You will have complete control of your platform. There is no need to wait for updates that could be needed for your site to function properly.
Ease Of Maintenance – Your maintenance will be easier with a custom CMS. By having a simpler code and being fully integrated, you will not have to rely on any third party developers.
The time is now to avoid your enterprise CMS platform from turning into a big ball of mud. Take the time to understand the true differences between off-the-shelf templates and a custom CMS. Talk to experts and review case studies, so you can feel confident that your CMS won’t become too complex shortly after its implementation.
