Web Hosting Reviews

You need to learn more about different hosting providers before deciding on a service and one of the best ways to start is reading reviews.  There are numerous review sites online but you should be very selective on where you read them.  Some reviews are written by unbiased web hosting experts, some come from affiliates and some of the more unscrupulous hosts have been caught tooting their own horn.  You can get the best insight from a good mix of expert and consumer reviews as opposed to those that are hyping up companies like they can do no wrong.

When going over these hosting reviews, it is advisable to read them carefully and never put too much into one person’s opinion.  For instance, one customer may have had a terrible experience with a particular host while another may state that they are delighted with the service.  Everyone is picky in their own way and pleasing every single customer is simply not impossible.  Because of this, you shouldn’t get too alarmed when running across a few negative reviews.  You should however, start to get a little cautious once the number of negative comments begins to multiply.

Leverage Available Search Tools

Another good way to find a quality CMS hosting solution is to utilize your preferred search engine.  Google and Yahoo are both great tools that will help you move beyond reviews and delve further into the world of content management systems.  With the right search, you will run across sites and communities that can not only help you find a hosting service, but also a CMS that suits your needs.  Although the popular free systems get a lot of the spotlight, there is a lot more out there besides the open-source variety.  Content management is prevalent in many areas and a search engine can put you on the path to a wealth of relative information.

Chat with Prospective Providers

When looking for somewhere to host your CMS, it is never a bad idea to do a little conversing with the hosting provider.  After all, you will need to know what, if any scripts they have available as well as those they support.  There may be limitations that prevent you from running the CMS that delivers the most benefits.  Aside from making sure the host meets all the system requirements, you must also make sure they are able to provide you with a reliable service.  Content management can be a real drag on a server that is slow or constantly going down.

]]> http://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/2009/05/22/how-to-find-a-host-for-your-cms/feed/ 0 http://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/2009/04/22/is-wordpress-really-a-cms/ http://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/2009/04/22/is-wordpress-really-a-cms/#comments Wed, 22 Apr 2009 20:17:23 +0000 CommunicateBetter http://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/?p=299 Blogging is still soaring in the Web 2.0 era and WordPress is easily the most popular engine on the market.  This multipurpose blogging software is used for everything from personal diaries to business applications, helping many achieve online notoriety and even more bring in consistent revenue.  Although WordPress is generally referred to as a weblog publishing tool, some are calling it a CMS.  Do you agree?  We don’t.  And this article will explain why.

In order to determine whether WordPress is a CMS or not, you should first become acquainted with the three main types of content management systems, as outlined below.

Open-source Systems – Software packages like Drupal and Joomla that are becoming more popular for small to medium sized ventures.

Enterprise Systems - Proprietary solutions like Microsoft Content Server.  This type of CMS is geared towards corporate users that require powerful business applications and frequent database interaction.

Home Grown Systems – These systems are developed in-house by webmasters who have specific requirements for content management.

When comparing the WordPress platform to the software in these classifications, it falls short as merely an over-hyped content delivery system.  Though it has a tremendous following and a number of benefits, WordPress doesn’t have what it takes to be called a real CMS.   In fact, it lacks several of the necessary protocols the average CMS provides as standard.  This includes update features, security tools, user permissions and more complex content management functionality.  When considering the all the capabilities it is missing, calling WordPress a CMS may be like unfairly moving it up in weight class.

Should WordPress be a CMS?

Perhaps the real issue should be whether or not WordPress needs to be more like a genuine CMS.  While this software gives you a lot, there are limitations and thus disadvantages.  Ask a fan of Mambo or PHP-Nuke and they will probably tell you that WordPress is highly inferior.

Despite the shortcomings, it still is a very efficient tool and rightly embraced by millions of users around the world.  It can also be a nice alternative to some of the more complex and intimidating content management systems.  For the most part, the user community is happy with the functionality and would probably prefer to keep things as they are.  After all, turning the platform into a true CMS would tamper with a relatively clean code and possibly cause the software to lose some of its natural appeal.  Besides, simplicity and ease of use are two of WordPress’ biggest advantages.

Conclusion

There is no denying the capabilities of WordPress.  The overwhelming enthusiasm the community shares for this platform is certainly warranted.   It is very cost effective and makes and ideal tool for small to medium sized operations and can even move up to a larger scale as well.   Be that as it may, tagging WordPress as a content management system is not inherantly accurate.   In order to earn that title, the software would require a major overhaul which would in turn, cause it to lose so much of the qualities that has made it so popular.

What is Fantastico?

Fantastico is an extremely useful application that usually comes free in web hosting accounts powered by the cPanel control panel.  Designed to run on Unix-like platforms, its purpose is to facilitate the simple installation of a wide range of popular scripts.  These add-on programs are totally free and can literally be installed in a matter of minutes.  The Fantastico advantage is all in the software and below are some of the categories you will find.

Blogs

The blog represents one of the very first social networking platforms and Fantastico gives you a wonderful variety to choose from.  Both Nucleus and b2Evolution are included but the most notable of all has to be WordPress.  Easily the most popular blogging application available, WordPress is widely supported by a large community and can be enhanced through a number of themes and templates.  If you’re looking to delve into the Blogosphere, Fantastico has you covered.

Content Management

Content management systems provide webmasters with a more effective way to build and administer their websites.  Even though most web hosting accounts come integrated site builders, these utilities fail in comparison to the power of a CMS.   This type of software is ideal for running medium to large sized websites and has the ability to assign varying levels of administrative access and permissions.  Some of today’s most popular community-based sites are running on content management systems.  The CMS lineup you will find in Fantastico includes Drupal, Mambo, Tiki Wiki, XOOPS and Joomla among several others.

Customer Relations

Establishing trusting relationships with customers is vital to the success of any business.  Fantastico betters the chance of keeping your customer base happy with applications like Help Center Live, osTicket, PHP Support Tickets, Support Services Manager and more.  These programs give you the ability to create the ultimate support center where your customers can get assistance through support tickets, FAQs, video tutorials and downloadable documentation.  Even if you can’t be around to answer the phone 24/7, such resources can assure that your customers are still able to get the help they need, when they need it.

E-commerce Tools

Fantastico has a little something for everyone, including those who desire to sell products and services online.  You can set up a web-based storefront in no time with popular open-source programs such as Cube Cart, osCommerce and Zen Cart.  Shopping cart software can get pretty expensive but these highly functional applications won’t cost you a thing with Fantastico.

These are just a few of numerous scripts that come bundled with Fantastico.  Other programs include discussion boards, photo galleries, project management tools and website builders.  Fantastico contorts to the novice, allowing those with little to no technical skills to instantly enhance their web presence. One could say that cPanel is a trendsetter as more control panels are being developed with application installers that mimic the abilities of Fantastico.

Mambo

While there has only been a slight change in the project name, most of Mambo’s development team abandoned the system in 2005 to create Joomla.  Every since then, the system has struggled in terms of popularity as a large portion of the Mambo user community followed the developers in favor of Joomla.  Be that as it may, Mambo remains a solid choice and continues to improve.

Advantages - Mambo is a stable, lightweight system that puts out exceptional performance on a busy website.  Despite losing the original development team, the project has good management and positive hope for future development.  Even as an open-source system, Mambo can be easily integrated with non-GPL systems and commercial extensions.

Disadvantages - The biggest drawback to Mambo is that it lacks new extensions.  This goes back to 2005 as most of the developers who wrote extensions for the system shifted over to Joomla.  Another disadvantage is that Mambo has a smaller user community than Joomla, meaning you might have to search long and hard to get quality support.

Mambo works best for small to medium sized businesses as well as webmasters that do not require lots of upgrades and extensions.  To put it simple, this system performs better on a basic website that contains minimal interactive features.

Joomla

As we mentioned above, Joomla 1.0 is very similar to Mambo.  In fact, there are a number of extensions that support both systems.  Although the first generation still has a large user base, that will all change soon as the Joomla development team is slated to halt support for the product this coming July.  Joomla 1.5 offers many improvements over the previous version and is largely supported by the development team and user community.

Advantages – Joomla 1.5 is supported by a wide variety of extensions and the number is growing faster than any CMS that forked off from Mambo.  The system also supports many of the older extensions with the aid of the legacy mode plugin.  The rapidly expanding community ensures that you can get decent support and answers in Joomla forums.

Disadvantages – Joomla 1.5 is a bit heavier than the previous version and thus might run slower depending on the server.  This could make it real frustrating to keep your site fresh with the  necessary updates.  Additionally, the Joomla team has taken an official stance where the GPL states that commercial extensions are not to interact with the system’s API, basically ruling out any developers who do not want their extensions licensed under the GPL.  On the other hand, many developers have chosen to ignore this rule.  As it stands now, it seems as if this is one rule that will never be strictly enforced.

Joomla is best suited for small to medium sized businesses with the need to create a content-rich site and access a variety of third-party extensions.

If you’re looking for a winner, Joomla is most likely to be supported into the future but Mambo will probably require fewer upgrades as versions aren’t released as frequently.

For the most part, every content management system is designed to produce the same results.  What mainly sets them apart is ease of use and features.  One product might lack some of the basic features but make up for them with add-on support.  A system that doesn’t have a WYSIWYG editor, for example, may offer support for an add-on module such as TinyMCE.   A product that has a complex interface could be enhanced by modifying the menu system or customizing layout templates.  When it comes to the open-source CMS, it isn’t so much about native features as it is flexibility.  You can access the overall flexibility of a system by viewing it from these angles:

Default Capabilities: The default capabilities of a CMS basically entail what is included with the installation, and determine if you can perform essential tasks without any problems.  When assessing the flexibility of any system, it is important to look for one that offers an acceptable level of basic functionality and provides the structure for creating a dynamic website.

Add-on Support: Most systems support add-on modules so it is up to you to find out what capabilities they possess.  Aside from features, consider how easy they will be to incorporate into the existing system as well.

Templates: Templates are a major part of any CMS as they allow you to modify the look and feel of your content.  If you are proficient with coding, you may want to find a product that lets you write your own templates.  In this case, you would need a system that supports the languages you are familiar with.

SEO: Many content management systems offer search engine appeal right out of the box.  However, not every product does.  Visibility is crucial for a large site so it is best to find a product that enables the easy creation of web pages and appeases the search engines.

Product Recommendations

The open-source CMS market is huge and there are a variety of products available.  Two of the most widely used systems on the market are Drupal and Mambo.  Drupal is a robust system with quality design and clean code.  It comes loaded with exceptional default capabilities as well as templates and layouts that are easily to manipulate.  Drupal is one of the most comprehensive systems available and the preferred choice for many businesses.

Mambo is easy to install and enables the simple management of content-rich sites.  The system includes a number of default features that provide support for multiple authors with little training required.  Both systems are SEO-friendly and support various add-ons for enhanced functionality.  Keep in mind that each product requires that you have a basic understanding of HTML and PHP.

More commonly known as a CMS, a content management system is a type of software used to create, edit and manage content on a website.  These robust systems enable processes and workflows to be streamlined and typically involve the organization, categorization and structuring of information.  This technology allows you to store content as entire documents or configurable components, all while maintaining the links in between, making the CMS is great tool for search engine optimization.  Most systems enable the complete control of a website from working with scripting languages and building pages to managing files and actual programs.

Years ago, most web hosting companies only granted their clients with access to areas that permitted them to upload content to the server.  Rarely did they provide a means for controlling management and the structuring of data.  Even corporate users were limited as the tools provided didn’t allow them to monitor what changes had been made to their sites and who made the alterations.  With a CMS, users are fully equipped with tools that offer extensive control over the management functions of their website and all of its content.

Due to mass popularity, web hosting customers with a large amount of content now have various options for implementing content management systems.  With the development of open-source solutions, providers are offering these programs for next to nothing as a part of their monthly hosting plans.  Some of the options you will commonly find are Joomla, Drupal, PHP-Nuke, Mambo and Xoops to name a few.  Here are some other choices on the market:

OpenCMS

Hence the name, OpenCMS is an open source content management freely available to developers and users.  This software is preferred by many small to medium sized businesses as it enables them to create highly customized sites with interactive functionality.  OpenCMS supports a number of web-based programing languages including PHP, XML, Java, JSP and several others.

Microsoft Content Management Server

The Microsoft CMS is more suited for larger enterprises.  This system offers transparent content management and integration along with data transformation and syndication, all of which seamlessly combine various information and business processes.  The Microsoft solution is more advanced than most open-source packages as it has the ability to present information based on the customer’s needs.  The major difference between the Content Management Server and other systems is that it is a Microsoft commercial product, and therefore more expensive.

Regardless of what your requirements are, there is sure to be a CMS out there for you.  These programs go far beyond the basic tools offered by a provider and have the power to transform your site into an interactive, user-friendly platform.  As nearly every host is offering some type of system, it’s safe to say that the CMS is a driving force in the web hosting industry.

Far from the Average

Both Joomla and Drupal are robust systems, meaning they are geared for complex applications and steep requirements.  For this reason, anyone with a small business or site would get more benefit out of a system such as CMS Made Simple or Website Baker.   What sets Joomla and Drupal apart from these small, simple systems is that they offer a greater level of flexibility but are also more complicated.  Both will grant you with extensive administrative capabilities including authoring, editing and the ability to grant privileges to others.  Anyone with a bit of knowledge of web-based programming languages can get by with a little training.

Joomla

While there are a few similarities, the differences set these two systems apart by far.  Joomla is perhaps most known for its plethora of templates and ability to handle complex layouts.  The software lets you arrange content in various locations, capable of creating a number of different looks from a single layout.  However, because the HTML generated isn’t always the cleanest, this freedom could make your content difficult to management.  Joomla designed pages also tend to load slower as the system makes a number of requests to the server.  Additionally, one of the biggest complaints from the user community is that it isn’t as search engine friendly as other systems.

Despite the drawbacks, Joomla works well and is responsible for some of the best sites on the internet.  With an active community, improvements are constantly being made along with numerous add-ons that increase the program’s value.  Many of these modules are templates which give you more options for enhancing the presentation of your site.

Drupal

The programming functionality of Drupal enables it to handle the complex layout issues you would encounter with Joomla.  Unlike like its competitor, the code generates clean and the pages load very quickly.  Additionally, Drupal is one of the most search engine friendly systems right out of the box.  This software goes beyond the average portal as it is extremely flexible and can be customized to suite your needs.  At the same time, its flexibility is heavily tied with technical jargon and complex coding that can leave the beginner stomped.  Apart from being more challenging, Drupal is an elegant system capable of doing much for your website.  Learning how to master this CMS is worth the frustration.

The downside to Joomla and Drupal are one in the same – coding.  Anyone without basic knowledge of CSS and HTML cold have a very hard time.  Because PHP programming and the MySQL database play a major role, learning about these technologies wouldn’t hurt either.

If you can walk the steep learning curve, you will have the power to build several feature-rich sites that appeal to your visitors.

Mambo – More than a dance

Mambo is a fully loaded CMS that allows you to create and administer powerful web-based applications and websites.  The software is very comprehensive and can be an invaluable development tool for beginners and veterans alike.  There are many things you can do with the Mambo CMS.  A recent survey conducted on the Mambo homepage revealed that its most common use is to create blogs and personal sites.  This is no surprise as blogs have exploded to become one of the fastest growing phenomenons on the web.  Other common uses include portals, online communities and e-commerce sites.

One of Mambo’s greatest attributes is that it doesn’t require you to have any knowledge of HTML coding to build or manage your site.  This software provides a user-friendly interface, offering a simple point-and-click feature that makes it simple enough for the most inexperienced webmaster to comprehend.  Instead of freehand coding your pages, Mambo does it automatically.  All you have to do is configure and manage your content from the intuitive Administrative Panel.  Despite its simplicity, Mambo is very capable and loaded with useful features.  You can instantly change the appearance of your site with a number of built-in templates, manage databases and even implement polls and surveys.  With this powerful system, you site can be as simple or sophisticated as you wish.

Another attribute to Mambo is the exceptional support that comes along with it.  This product is supported by a large group of developers who are constantly making upgrades to improve the software.  There is also an extensive community of users who offer self-help resources throughout the web.  Furthermore, if you are hosting your website with a provider that offers Mambo, they probably have a few articles or tutorials in their support section.

Due to is popularity, many web hosts now offer Mambo via control panel programs such as cPanel or Plesk.  Because its open-source software, you can also download this CMS from a number of popular download sites.  After downloading, all you have to do is make a few simple configurations and upload it to whatever server you have access to.  Keep in mind that your site must have the PHP language enabled and access to a MySQL database.  With a program such as Fantastico, installing Mambo is as easy as creating a directory, login credentials and clicking the installation tab.

As an open-source CMS, you have the freedom to use Mambo however you desire.  This means that you have access to the code and can apply modifications that suite your site best.  With this type of flexibility, there is virtually no limit to the success you can achieve on the web.

Choosing a CMS for Your Website

Choosing a CMS can be easy or difficult which all depends on the requirements of your website.  If your requirements are relatively simple then any major software should be able to get the job done.  For instance, if you are trying to determine if a particular application supports a specific operating system or XHTML then your search should be fairly easy.  There are many systems that support virtually any platform and allow you to create custom templates that are XHTML compliant.  On the other hand, if your site requires something more demanding, you may have to purchase a commercial solution or search long and hard for an open-source solution that meets those requirements.

There are other factors that also need to be taken into consideration, many of which are universal.  For example, regardless of what your plans are, you want a CMS that is secure and SEO-friendly.  An SEO friendly system will convert your pages into optimized URLs for the search engines like Google or Yahoo, thus increasing your chance of receiving higher rankings.

The more important factor to consider is security, something that often gets overshadowed in the midst of a system’s features.  Because most content management systems are open-source, they tend to be less secure than commercial products.  This is due in large part to the fact that anyone can gain access to them, even hackers.  These systems have a reputation for being exploited and have lead some to target vulnerable websites and compromise sensitive data.  One of the most common exploits is called an SQL injection, an attack that is fairly easy to execute on an open-source CMS.

Recommendations

To make your search a little easier, we have listed some of the most widely used content management systems.  These programs are largely supported by developers and users and capable of producing excellent results.

• Joomla
• Drupal
• Mambo
• PHP-Nuke
• Xoops

While a CMS is very useful, they are not suited for everyone.  You should only use such a system if your content requires frequent updates or if you run a large site that is heavy with content.  If your website is small then using a CMS would not serve many benefits.  In fact, it could make your job as a webmaster more complex in certain situations.