If you are running a business, chances are that you are closely involved in customer interactions and actively working on customer retention and new customer acquisition. In a technology-driven environment, it makes sense, therefore, to invest in a high-quality website that will showcase your wares to the world and entice more people to take your services or buy your products.
Now, you can either use the services of a good open source Content Management System (CMS) such as WordPress, Joomla or Drupal, or you can avail of the expertise of a good website development services company to custom build a CMS for you. The former is a good option if you are running a small business and have no plans to expand. However, if you want a powerful website that helps you in growing your business, you should definitely go for a custom CMS.
The advantages of getting a custom CMS are many; we have summarized the main ones for you:
- Custom functionality: The main advantage of a custom CMS is the degree of flexibility it gives you as a business owner to tailor the website to your specific requirements. This functionality is limited in an open source CMS as the existing code has to be rewritten and plug-ins need to be used to get the CMS to work for you. Moreover, even if an open source CMS meets your requirement, the overall template is usually quite inflexible and you might end up with many features and functions that you don’t need, making the website clumsy and difficult to navigate.
- Custom Design: With a custom CMS, you can specify the design elements that you think will add enhanced value to your website. When it comes to web design and development through a custom CMS, the sky is the limit!
- Security: Since a custom CMS is designed from the ground up, it is far more secure than an open source CMS, which by its very definition can be tampered by anyone, and therefore, more vulnerable to hacking. For an e-commerce website, especially, a custom CMS is more advisable than an open source one.
- Enhanced Integration: A custom CMS allows you to integrate or connect your website with applications such as CRM, ERP, and other custom back office systems.
- Support: A good website designer will provide you support and maintenance to ensure greater speed, visibility and optimization.
