What is the best website platform?

38 replies
  • WEB DESIGN
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I am wondering what you all think is the easiest website platform that can be accessed through a user name/password (software doesn't live on your computer). I have clients that want to be able to make changes themselves to their websites later on. (Point-of-reference: Joomla and Drupal are not the easiest). Has to be cheap or free, and you can put a decent shopping cart on it. No steep learning curve.
#platform #website
  • Profile picture of the author addaminsane
    the flexibility that wordpress has recently introduced is ridiculous, you can do so many things with it. (this is coming from a long time joomla enthusiast)

    Sites such as themeforest.net show expamples of amazing ways you can code a template. This site has created a means for normal people to make money off of making truely amazing work. They don't need a business, they just create a bad ace product and it sells like wildfire.

    You can use custom post types that have special fields making it very easy for the lay person to correctly present a certain type of content.

    You can create a "white label" backend dumbed down for the user.

    Elliott condon has a great new "advanced custom fields" plugin, that i think is currently one of the most powerful up and coming wordpress plugins ever made for creating custom post types and page templates with super easy administration ability.
    If you simply google elliot condon and look at this plugin, you'll understand what im talking about.

    Im particularly excited about using it to create ratings / reviews / rankings type pages for affiliate sites, but the point is that it adds fields in the post type so you can very easily add content and create items associated with other fields etc.
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    • Profile picture of the author Spongey
      Thanks for that. I will check it out.
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      • Profile picture of the author StudioArtha
        Spongey,

        Speaking as a new recruit to WordPress, I second the idea: you can do marvelous things with WP. And prior to that, I always thought you had to hand code everything.

        I remember seeing a theme on Elegant Themes site (no, I am not an affiliate) that was called eStore, or something like that. Right out of the box it did everything right to payment! Shopping cart and all.

        While I did not get into the detail of it, and to be fair you have to do some tinkering to get these elegant themes to really fly. But you could have this thing up and running in one day!

        Joe-Bob says "Check it out!"
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    • Profile picture of the author brendabree
      Banned
      [DELETED]
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      • Profile picture of the author Daave
        I think Wordpress should be recommended for the newcomers as it is really easy and can be understood by all without much efforts.
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    • Profile picture of the author thehawk06
      I found this post via search and I have to say, joomla has improved alot recently as well, but this is really true, its hard to beat wordpress when it comes to ease of use and ease of management + scalability for the average webmaster.

      For super advanced websites with social networking abilities though as a platform i recommend drupal hands down.
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  • Profile picture of the author Adeptris
    I would also go with WordPress, and ditch "a client" that wanted "free or cheap" as this would reflect on what you can deliver within a cheap or free budget.

    There are loads of good paid and free plugins for WordPress, the research, testing, load testing and tweeking of these will take a bit of time, I cannot see how you could scratch the surface in "1 day" it would take that in research.

    Lastly your time is money is that time going to be "free or cheap"?
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  • Profile picture of the author Siddiq
    addaminsane@ Well I was looking for this info too, Thanks
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  • Profile picture of the author haymanpl
    You get what you pay for in my opinion and the thesis theme for wordpress is the best Content Management System on Offer. Its a premium version of the standard wordpress framework which you can customize or simply add a premium skin/theme.
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    • Profile picture of the author Evan-M
      Originally Posted by haymanpl View Post

      You get what you pay for in my opinion and the thesis theme for wordpress is the best Content Management System on Offer. Its a premium version of the standard wordpress framework which you can customize or simply add a premium skin/theme.

      I've written full review of Thesis and another post on thesis seo settings

      What does thesis allow that cannot be done in the same amount of time as a default WordPress install? I find thesis very limiting , especially when it comes to layout.
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      • Profile picture of the author rosarionet
        Few suggestions

        osCommerce is absolutely free under the GNU General Public License and caters very well to most people's needs. Unsurprisingly, considering how easy it is to set up and run, it's extremely popular, powering over 228,700 online stores. Such popularity does come with a significant downside however- it makes it harder for you to differentiate your store from the thousands of others out there. If you want to stand out from the crowd, you're going to need to use some of the 5,800 add-ons available, some of which cost money.

        Not only does OpenCart look great, it's extremely scalable. You can create an unlimited number of categories, sell an unlimited number of products, accept multiple currencies, use multiple languages, and choose from over 20 payment and 8 shipping methods. It's user-friendly and search-engine-friendly too, so will help your prominence in Google. Customers can even review and rate the items you sell. It's not as popular as osCommerce, so help and guidance is not so freely available, but it's a darn sight better looking.

        The best thing about Zeuscart is its user interface, which is rich, attractive, user-friendly and generally less boring than most of the open-source UIs that I have to look at on a daily basis. Designed with small and medium businesses in mind, users can make the most of SEO friendly URLs, gift cards, discounts, email templates and tier-pricing, which makes it possible to decrease prices for bulk orders.
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  • Profile picture of the author EconomicalDomains
    I would also recommend Wordpress for a CMS. Basically any webmaster knows how to use it these days, and if not, it is very easy to learn.
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  • Profile picture of the author Flugelbinders
    wordpress is the ideal fit for what you and your base will need down the road. Very user friendly and easy to teach via phone/chat.
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  • Profile picture of the author jt808
    I am going with Wordpress also. It is by far the most supported and the most flexible.
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    • Profile picture of the author Joewriter
      For me the best Option for the website is wordpress, it is 100% user friendly and you dont have to know too much HTML to get around. Am happy to always make great sites from wordpress.
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      • Profile picture of the author alswinpitar
        ASP.net is the best platform for website build and develop any website project with design and its coding. ASP.net the C# is the best web development language and it always the best website platform.
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  • Profile picture of the author yash1
    Hi,
    As i know i think HTML, java script and u can also use c# as a base for website platform.........
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  • Profile picture of the author jleavitt13
    Thanks for the tips and recommendations all. I myself have always been a huge fan of wordpress. It does have the best user-end functionality and I think it also has the best longevity as compared to other CMS's they update very frequently.
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  • Profile picture of the author conceptsti
    Wordpress would be the easiest and have the smallest learning curve.
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  • Profile picture of the author RenuC
    Use of Wordpress is universal. Several other options for building a good website are Joomla, Zen Cart and VirtueMart. They are all user friendly and easy to use.
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  • Profile picture of the author candres79
    WORDPRESS is hands down the way to go, not to mention there are a ton of plug-ins that will make your life so much easier
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  • Profile picture of the author rauff
    i am working with wordpress its looks good for me
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  • Profile picture of the author rnsinformatic
    I got my answer, I will use wordpress as you all are agree with website platform.
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  • Profile picture of the author cherryberry
    I would suggest you to go for wordpress. It is user friendly and at present everyone is familiar with it and those who are not, can easily learn it.
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  • Profile picture of the author arillera
    I suggest you use Wordpress too it's easy to learn and use, but mainly has a big community following that is always adding to the plugins, so you can add a lot of functionality to your site that would usually cost you lots of $$ to hire a programmer for. I've been putting all my clients on it for years and they love it.
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    Antonio Rillera
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  • Profile picture of the author ngseosept
    I will suggest Drupal, but I read your content, so aside from drupal, wordpress is a best choice also
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  • Profile picture of the author WilliamBLee
    I am using word press and I definitely go with word press.
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  • Profile picture of the author jmlwebdesign01
    I want to build a Website with an out of the box tool to be SEO friendly, easy to build pages, able to build an email list, and with contact forms.I appreciate the suggestions. Do any of these come with software to build a Website? If so, which is best?
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  • Profile picture of the author inazuman
    I am using word press and I definitely go with word press. So, for me the best Option for the website is wordpress, it is 100% user friendly and you dont have to know too much HTML to get around. Am happy to always make great sites from wordpress.
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    • Profile picture of the author prechathan
      Originally Posted by inazuman View Post

      I am using word press and I definitely go with word press. So, for me the best Option for the website is wordpress, it is 100% user friendly and you dont have to know too much HTML to get around. Am happy to always make great sites from wordpress.
      thanks for feedback. been updating my site's code.
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  • Profile picture of the author copilu0
    This depends on your website content.The most complete platform for me is Wordpress but if you want something like a shopping cart I recommend Magento.
    Joomla and Drupal are also very good but I really prefer Wordpress
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  • Profile picture of the author paulwro
    Wordpress is easy to use and learn. SEO friendly.
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    • Profile picture of the author WebSouthSols
      I use all sorts of platforms but Wordpress is by far the easiest to use and the most end user friendly CMS. If using WordPress I suggest using a framework like Genesis and just build child themes on top of it. This way when major changes for WP come out it doesn't effect the overall apperance of the site.
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  • Profile picture of the author bantayso
    I Love PHP.
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  • Profile picture of the author YemTv
    i suggest you WP.easy to learn and use.
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  • Profile picture of the author katepeter
    WordPress is easy to use . i think it can be understood by every one as well newbie ..!!
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  • Profile picture of the author PromoDirect
    Wordpress is the best platform - it is easy and there are tons of plugins available already to make things easier for you.
    One of my best is Dynamic Widget!

    What is your fav Wordpress plugin?
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  • Profile picture of the author msu
    Another point in favor of using WordPress is that you could also create, or modify, a custom admin theme for the backend.
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  • Profile picture of the author billpullman
    i personally would go with WordPress,

    also i would like too mention something in regard to what
    Adeptris Warrior Member wrote: ditch "a client" that wanted "free or cheap"

    i say allow the customers too get it for free the more free the better
    now once he is all done with everything you may put up a fee and charge
    most clientelle will not leave and just pay

    the point is allow all to come
    allow all to conquer
    once everythings done you can start charging and you will certainly remain with most of the people that were there from the free days
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