Making Your First Website: Which Platform?

In today’s digital age, people build websites for a variety of different reasons. Whether you are planning to build a website for a hobby such as blogging, as an attempt to earn some extra money online, or if you’re creating a website for a new business that you have launched, the big question is which platform do you use? With so many different web design and Content Management System (CMS) platforms out there, choosing the right one can be a tricky decision to make. We’ve listed the most common CMS platforms used by many web designers and individuals to help you choose which one is best for you.

Making Your First Website

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WordPress

WordPress is arguably the most popular CMS platform out there, and is recommended and used regularly by many web developers and designers. Originally started as a blogging platform, WordPress is ideal whether you’re thinking of starting a personal blog or want to set up a fully-fledged business site with an e-commerce store. There are a range of different plugins which you can use to make your site fully interactive, and a range of free themes which you can choose from and customise to design your website in the way that you’d like it to look. Responsive themes are also available, meaning that your site will look great on any device’s browser. If you’d like to build a website and get started with WordPress, check out these top tips to build a website using WordPress.

Joomla

Another popular CMS system used by many web designers and developers is Joomla, which unlike WordPress offers users the option to completely customise their site. Whereas WordPress sites all have some factors which make them look alike no matter which theme is used, Joomla sites have the ability to look absolutely nothing like each other. Joomla is a great choice of CMS platform if you are planning to set up a site for an online business with an e-commerce store rather than a simple blog, although it will work well for any type of website.

Drupal

If you are concerned about the security of your website, Drupal is arguably the CMS platform with the best levels of security out there. Like WordPress, you don’t have to be a professional web developer to successfully use Drupal, is it is optimised for easy use by those who don’t have any knowledge of HTML or code. With an extensive support network for its users, Drupal is also an excellent choice of CMS platform for those new to building websites. It is flexible enough to create a simple blog or a professional business website design with all the bells and whistles, so there really is no limit as to what you can do with Drupal, as it’s able to accommodate anyone’s needs.

Which CMS platform would you recommend for those starting out creating their own website? If you have a website, which platform do you use, and why? We’d love to hear your reasons for choosing your CMS platform in the comments below.