In a rather strange comment made on one of my posts here on Moray Web Solutions I was questioned on my status as a web designer due to my use of WordPress for our website. I ignored the comment as it appeared to be an uncalled for dig from someone who wanted to remain anonymous, however I realised that I could maybe explain my (and hundreds of other web designers!) reasons for selecting such a platform.
Why Not Make Your Own?
This is a really simple question to answer! Is there any point in re-inventing the wheel? Especially when that wheel was jointly designed, tested and developed by a worldwide team of experienced and credible developers?
Part of a web designer/developers responsibility to their client is ensuring that any solution developed is built using a scalable, secure and suitable platform. I have in the past developed custom content management systems for clients who have specific needs that cannot initially be addressed using existing open source software, but to be honest there is little need for the majority of businesses out there. There are a number of valid reasons why a solutions provider such as me would rely on a 3rd party open source platform.
Security
Due to the way that open source development works there are thousands of developers working away constantly to fine tune and improve the security of the product. Literally every minute of the day a developer somewhere in the world will be contributing to improving something to do with the software. No single web developer or design agency could afford that many hours of continual testing and development and stay afloat. They would never achieve the same results in anywhere near the same timeframe, even if they stopped all client development projects for a few months (which is impossible!).
By using open source solutions where suitable such as WordPress, Drupal and Silverstripe we are in turn providing that constant security testing and development without having to employ a team of dedicated developers full time. This keeps our, and more importantly our customers costs down without compromising on quality.
Updates & Improvements
Much as with security that massive team of developers are constantly making changes and improvements to the software in areas such as feature availability, performance enhancements, search engine optimisation not to mention the constant development and updating of useful plugins to add specific functionality. All of these would take more hours than any design agency could afford to commit to a project and would carry a huge overhead for their business.
With all this going on in the background it affords us the time to create unique, custom solutions to meet our client’s needs whilst keeping the project affordable and reducing overall development time. It also enables us to keep our clients sites updated with a minimum of fuss, and in some cases with no additional cost.
What I Use and Why
I am constantly looking out for new and existing open source projects that will allow me to provide fantastic, scalable and secure solutions for my clients. To date I have worked with many different applications to test their suitability for various different projects. I do have a ‘preferred’ toolbox that I will look to in the first instance as they address the needs of the majority of businesses/clients that have a need for website or service.
For content management or blogging solutions I look to WordPress, Drupal and Silverstripe. I have selected these as they have a particularly active developer community. This means that not only are there constant core improvements keeping my solutions efficient and secure, but also there is an impressive selection of plugins available that can assist in reducing development time and subsequently client costs. Common sense I am sure you will agree!
For e-commerce solutions I have selected just one solution, and for very good reasons! Magento is one of the fastest growing and most flexible open source e-commerce solutions available. I have been following the development of Magento from a very early stage, always impressed with the rate of development, the range of features and the attitude of the developer community involved. It is now an award winning application that no developer or studio could ever match with a custom built application – not by a long shot!
All of these solutions can be completely customised in look and function, one of the reasons why they were selected in the first place! This customisation involves the same skills and techniques required to build either a static style website, or for that matter a custom CMS solution. For this reason you cannot say that someone is not a web designer because they choose to use an existing CMS product. The truth is in fact the opposite. A high school student could knock together a simple website or CMS although it would lack the security and functionality of any of the above solutions. In many cases it takes a developer with far more experience and technical understanding to fully customise and expand on an open source application in a secure and efficient way!
In Summary
I built the Moray Web Solutions on WordPress as it is well recognised within the worldwide design/development community as being extremely well suited to portfolio style websites – plus I wanted to use a blog as an important part of the site. WordPress fitted the bill perfectly. The theme has been developed from the ground up by myself (and continues to evolve where time permits) and as such it is a unique site that serves the needs of the client (me!).
Ironically I do actually have two custom CMS systems in development as I type this, both of which are being built using the open source PHP framework CodeIgniter. These are for in-house projects that require specialist functionality that cannot be found in the existing open source applications available. Again, as a professional designer/developer I am building a solution on the most suitable platform.
Any web designer or developer worth their salt will recognise the huge benefits of using open source platforms to build client solutions. I have written this in attempt to answer my anonymous commenter’s question, and to explain to the rest of the non-design community the advantages that these applications can bring.
As always I am interested in hearing your opinions on this and any matter discussed here in my blog, so feel free to comment below! It would be nice though if you could leave a real name and email address so that I can at least respond in a personal way…
Some excellent points well made! Too often we see sites that, in terms of content and usability DON’T serve the clients well, or for that matter reflect well on the person who designed them!
And usually this IS the result of someone more interested in playing with technique (i.e. showing off how smart they THINK they are) rather than meeting the needs of their customers.
Using the RIGHT tools for the job rather than the flashiest is clearly the mark of a true professional.
Good post. I read your original post up on SBF and it’s good to see that you have taken the negative comment and turned it into some great content!
I too have built custom CMS sites and reverted back to tried and tested software because I know it’s being constantly worked on and updated. I see absolutely nothing wrong with using open source products if they are right for the job, as you said, Why re-invent the wheel?
Open source allows costs to be kept down which can only be a good thing for the clients? Imagine if every job needed it’s own hand-coded system – no one would be able to afford a website!
We have had clients request a site be built on WordPress so if they have no problem with it, why should we argue with them? Tell them no, that they have to go with a bespoke system!?
Great Article.
Open source software has so many benefits, I mean anything that allows you to give your client a quality product whilst keep costs down for them has to get the thumbs up.
Bearing in mind as well that the open source software have huge numbers of people working behind the software updating, plugging security holes etc. How many custom CMS’s will get that attention after they have been done.
As with the other comments, why give yourself the stress of building and all singing and dancing custom CMS when a WP install will do the job.
Learning to use the right tool for the right job can be a skill in itself and one that any decent web designer should be able to do with ease.
Good stuff!!
There’s a reason Microsoft are currently quivering underneath their desks at the moment; the Open Source Revolution is just around the corner.
Unless you are offering your client some amazing functionality, ease of use, or purpose geared towards productivity or profits, then developing a CMS or any system from scratch is an absolute waste of time and money – for the CLIENT.
Why on earth would anyone in their right mind pay a developer to create a functioning CMS system when there are literally at least 10 very popular, very feature-orientated systems already out there on the Open Source market?
Security-wise, Open Source has proven its worthiness time and time again over its closed-source counterpart. I’m not even going to comment on the difference between having hundreds (if not thousands) of developers coding and bug-tracking, compared to having one web-developer (and maybe in some cases three or four) doing that immense amount of work.
In essence, what I’m trying to say is that by using something like WordPress as a basis for your websites, you’re saving your clients time and money. You’re giving them fantastic value by not having to charge them for “from the ground up” development.
And lastly; why reinvent the wheel anyway?
Thats a really good blog, I don’t know much about using different platforms, design or coding but understand pretty much what you were saying!
That is some inspirational stuff. Never knew that opinions could be this varied. Thanks for all the helpful information here.