Blogs vs. CMS
September 19, 2007
Preamble:
I’ve mentioned several times in the past 2 years, that web designers should learn how to use/edit at least one blog or CMS. Some popular choices:
- WordPress – a blog.
- Drupal – a CMS.
- Mambo – a CMS
.. And there are many, many more.
Why should web designers be concerned?
I won’t go into all the details here, but in a nutshell, a lot of web sites can use the features/functionality provided by blogs or CMS packages. Why reinvent the wheel?
That said, what is the difference between a blog and a CMS?
Blogs vs. CMS
First, let me start by defining a blog:
A blog is a web-based software that allows users to create web pages through a web interface – you enter text into an HTML form and that text is placed into pages.
… The pages that you add to a blog, are date ordered and (are typically) stored in an SQL database .. like MySQL for example.
From the popular WordPress site:
A blog is a frequently updated, personal website featuring diary-type commentary and links to articles on other Web sites. Blogs range from the personal to the political, and can focus on one narrow subject or a whole range of subjects.
Blogs have been created with several languages: PHP, Perl, Python etc. WordPress for example, is written in PHP.
… Actually, PHP is probably the most commonly used language for building blog and CMS software.
So what is a CMS?
In a nutshell: a CMS does everything a blog does … and a whole lot more.
Blogs are typically designed for one or two people to use. Whereas a CMS is designed to handle communities.
Blogs = few contributors/writers
CMS = many contributors/writers.
CMS software will have a lot more capability in terms of what kind of activities you can do with it:
- User polling.
- Built in blogs.
- Built in Forums.
- Configurable, precise control over what users can do.
.. And much more.
All this extra functionality comes with a cost: CMS software is more complex to learn and use. I have also found that CMS softwares tends to run slower than their nimble cousins – blogs.
Blurred lines between blogs and CMS’
These days, you are seeing many blogging tools being slowly transformed into what I would call ‘mini CMS’.
… This is blurring the lines between the two types of software.
WordPress for example (a popular blog software,) has a plug-in capability where programmers can build modules that enhance WordPress’ capabilities. Over time, a lot of really interesting plug-ins have been created and now WordPress is no longer a simple blog.
Choosing between a blog or CMS
Choosing between a blog and a CMS can be a painful experience – as it was for me. But in the end, you have to approach it by figuring out what you really need to do on your website … and then look at your options in the blog and CMS world.
In my case, I narrowed it down to Drupal (a CMS) and a blog, WordPress. After having installed and configured both (to get a feel,) I went with WordPress because it was fast and it met my needs.
Thanks for reading,
Stefan Mischook
www.killersites.com
