Blog vs CMS, which one to choose?
Blogs and Content Management Systems (CMS) are two popular platforms for creating a website. Both platforms have their own strengths and weaknesses. Therefore it is often hard to decide on which platform is more suitable for your website.
When I decided to start webspear.com, I was torn between Blogs and CMS. I like the features of both platforms! But I can only choose one. Finally after carefully considering a number of factors, I decided to go with a blog based website.
So which platform is right for your website?
In order to understand the main differences between Blogs and CMS one has to look at why they were created in the first place.
1. Blogs were created, so that a single person can quickly add content to his/her website. In a blog newly added content is shown above old content. The content is displayed in reverse chronological order.
2. A CMS on the other hand deals with the creation, organization, management, and distribution of information, by multiple users who have no or little technical knowledge.
Please Note: When I was evaluating these platforms I was using Wordpress as my blogging software and Joomla as my CMS software.
The following are some of the key factors that I considered during my selection process.
1. Simplicity and Ease of Use
Both blogs and CMS are intended for non-technical people. But out of the two blogs are far easier to setup and maintain. CMS software like Joomla, requires relatively more effort to setup.
2. Available Features
Blogs are simple because they provide fewer features compared with a CMS. Many consider blogs as a specific type of CMS. CMS are relatively complex and they provide a wide range of features.
3. Number of Authors
A blog is usually authored by a person and in some cases by a few. Blogs are primarily driven by a single person. A CMS on the other hand is designed to be managed by multiple users, all contributing to the content. Therefore, blogs are better suited for a website with few authors while CMS is a good choice for a website with many authors.
4. Tone of Voice
As you saw in the previous point, blogs are generally driven by a person. Therefore the information on a blog is usually presented as a person’s own views and opinions. The tone of the voice is very informal. If you do not want to present information from a personal point of view, but would like to present information with a formal voice, a CMS based website might be a good solution.
5. How is Information Structured
A blog shows content in reverse chronological order (recently added content is shown on the top of the page). This is a key feature of a blog. But not everyone wants this type of structure for their websites. But in a CMS you can present your information in different structure and formats.
6. Customization of Look and Feel
A CMS system provides better control over customizing your website. You can precisely configure the look and feel of your website by configuring templates. Blog templates on the other hand are less customizable.
7. Levels of Security
Since CMS are intended to be used by many users, they provide better security and control on who can do what. Compared with CMS, blogs provides fewer levels of security.
8. Community Building
Blogs are great tools for community building. Bloggers interact more with other bloggers. Blogs provide better features for community building (ex. comments, track backs etc).
Conclusion
All of the above points show the fundamental differences between blogs and CMS. But, depending on the type of blogging or CMS software you use, these points may not always hold true.
Which platform do you use for your website? What is the main reason for choosing that platform? Please share it with us.
It depends on the client and ultimately the goals that they want to achieve with the site. It also depends on how technical they are. The less technical they are the more likely I will use WordPress or even Blogger to help them with their site. If they want to create a community site with profiles and other larger features I use Joomla or Drupal with the understanding that they are going to have to learn to manage the site.