Every modern organization – be it a business, nonprofit, trade group, etc. – needs a website. Being online really isn’t an option anymore. Yet there are options when it comes to building and maintaining a website. The two most common are the content management system (CMS) and professional web development services.
Both are legitimate options worthy of consideration. However, the dividing line between the two is cost. You pay absolutely nothing for most CMS platforms. With a CMS, your only expense is the cost of your own time. As far as professional web development services go, costs vary from one firm to the next. Some charge as little as a few hundred dollars for a decent website while others can run you thousands of dollars.
The most important thing to remember is the fundamental truth that you get what you pay for. This is not meant to be a criticism, however. There are plenty of justifiable reasons for saving money by going the CMS route. But there are also legitimate reasons to pay for professional web development services.
Front End vs. Back End
Web development service providers, like Salt Lake City’s Webtek Digital Marketing, divide web development into two categories: front end and back end. The two categories denote the specific parts of a website. Their differences are easy enough to understand.
Front end applies to everything website visitors see and interact with. It is what appears on their screens when they bring up a site. Therefore, front end development is mostly about the user interface (UI) and user experience (UX). The goal is to make the UI both attractive and functional so that it leads to a good UX.
Back end applies to everything on a website that visitors don’t see. It is what goes on under the hood, so to speak. Back-end web development generally involves hard coding, scripting, and other things CMS users do not have to think about. You could say that back-end web development is more technical than front end.
Using a CMS
The beauty of using a CMS is that you do not have to know anything about coding or scripting. All the back-end stuff is taken care of by the platform publisher. So let’s say you were to choose WordPress, which just happens to be the most popular CMS in the world. WordPress developers take care of all the back-end stuff – and even some of the front and stuff, too!
Anyone who can use a word processor can use a typical CMS. Not only that, but the recent trend among CMS platforms has also been toward drag-and-drop development. So it is easier than ever before to publish a website with a CMS.
There Are Drawbacks
Using a CMS means being able to publish and maintain your own website without having the cost of professional web development services to worry about. But there are drawbacks. Chief among them is the fact that you do not get customization with a CMS. You get a pre-packaged platform and a template. You need to fit your brand and messaging into what your CMS offers you.
Paid web development services give you access to all the customizations you want. But you can also get help with SEO, content creation, digital marketing, and more. Of course, you pay for the additional services. But you get a lot for your money.
Both the CMS and paid web development services options are valid choices. Organizations need to decide for themselves how much they want to spend on web development and what they hope to get for their money.