PHP Framework Or CMS – What’s Best For Website Development?

When it comes to developing a business website, everyone wants to make the best decision. They wish to create a website that not only looks trendy but also is functionally correct. It must have the potential to attract visitors and stay in the tough competition. Some businesses might find it beneficial to outsource the creation of a website to a company to make sure they are using professionals and services that are of high quality. Companies could be located through searching for either something similar to outsourced IT services Lincoln or outsourced website builders in your local area. However, if you have also decided to create your business website, you need to make an important decision whether you to create your website using PHP framework or a CMS – Content Management System. Both the CMS and Frameworks are the choice of modern businesses that fulfill web development requirements. Both these options have got their own advantages and offer equal benefits to the businesses.

 

What is CMS?

CMS or Content Management System, as its name indicates, has an ability to manage the content of your website. With CMS, you can develop, access and modify content dynamically on your website. Before you could access any functions, you need to build your website to create a login. CMS allows you to run your ecommerce store, add new products, change the text of a particular product, manage inventory, change prices and perform different functions from the back-end. You can make changes to your website yourself without relying on your developers. The most popular CMS options are WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, etc.

 

What Are Frameworks?

Frameworks, on the other hand, are software skeleton that comprises of user-written, custom code with a predefined set of rules. Developers can develop modules and app using core library functions, written in PHP programming language. The framework allows developers to develop customized websites, which can be designed and maintained by the team of IT experts. Those who are technically skilled can only use frameworks while non-technical users would get lost in the programming language and website functions. Popular PHP frameworks include CodeIgniter, Laravel, and Zend Framework.

 

How To Choose Between The Two?

It is difficult to make a choice between the two for the business and decide which one of them has the ability to meet their web development needs. It is important that before making any final decision, businesses need to understand about both CMS and PHP frameworks and how they can create the difference to the website development. Finding distinguishing features between the two will be necessary if you want to make a profitable decision for creating an outstanding website with great online presence.

Distinguishable Features Of CMS and PHP Frameworks

There are four important functions – Security, Flexibility, User Experience and Upgrades. All these functions are managed differently in both CMS and PHP frameworks.

 

Security

Nowadays, security of your website or web applications is a major concern. Your website or application is always at risk of being attacked by the hackers as they can destroy the functionality of your website or completely change the way it looks. So, these attacks can decrease the value of the business website. When it comes to choosing between CMS and PHP frameworks for website development, frameworks are the much better option between the two. Most of the CMSs are open source and the code is open to everyone. Though several communities of developer are working on developing the plug-in, modules for CMS, but still these codes are vulnerable. In order to prevent your CMS website from any threat, you need to install a reliable plug-in from trusted sources.

On the other hand, websites developed using PHP frameworks are more secure than CMS as they use custom code that is difficult to infringe the security. Most of the PHP frameworks are suitable for corporate website development as these have inbuilt functions for protecting against common vulnerabilities like SQL Injection, Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) & Cross Site Request Forgery (CSRF).

 

Flexibility

Flexibility of a platform is a major concern in the website development and you need to have a platform that can easily integrate with third-party applications. You need your website to have features and functionalities that can be easily integrated into other apps. You also expect your website to connect with other apps or perform different operations that are independent of each other. In all these cases, you need a platform with great flexibility such that it lets you customize your website in a way you need it to be. CMS websites have different functions in an app, but these apps are not very flexible. This is because these apps are pre-made and their creativity is sometimes limited; hence, require a lot of custom development. Frameworks contain various library functions that can be easily customized depending upon the requirement of the business. So, when it comes to flexibility, you should prefer PHP frameworks.

 

User-Experience

When it comes to user experience, CMS wins the race as most CMS are built with website manager in mind. It is simple to manage website content in CMS. You can change the information on the website as you want. Moreover, all the themes in CMS are highly responsive such that any module or plug-in placed on the website will also function on a mobile device.

In frameworks, the developer needs to specifically use the library functions and third party tools to develop interfaces that are user-friendly. It is because PHP frameworks don’t have a default standard user interface. CSS Frameworks can be used with PHP frameworks to create a website with finest user-experience.

 

Upgrades

Getting your business website updated with the latest functions and code is important as these upgrades will help your website security. CMS has updates every month and your website should be updated with the latest upgrades as these are available. If you will not update your website, it will not at all affect its functionality. Instead, your website will not be as secure or user-friendly as it should be. Frameworks, on the other hand, are not frequently updated with new features. These updates can be once in 6 months. Even without updates, these will be still secure and functional.

Now you might have gained a pretty good idea about how both CMS and Frameworks deal with Security, Flexibility, Upgrades and User Experience. Depending upon your business type and its requirements, you have to decide the best technology for your business.

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