Choosing the right web platform for your business

Read time: 3 minutes

September 16, 2014

Choosing the right platform is a critical first step in planning your company’s website. Your site is home base for all your online marketing efforts. So, it’s important to choose a platform that has the functionality you need as your site grows.

To get started, ask yourself what your goals are for your site. Some important considerations should include:

Who will be visiting your website and what kind of information will they need? How will they navigate through the site?
Will you be selling products through your website? Do you have existing e-commerce capabilities or will you need to introduce these?
Who in your organization will be responsible for monitoring and updating the website? Are they tech savvy or do they require a more user-friendly interface?

Understanding how you want your website to work for your business will help you understand how simple or complex a platform you need. While it’s a good idea to work with a web developer to help you build the site, it’s also important to have an idea of the type of platform you would like to use.

There are several leaders in website platform development. You may already be familiar with some of them, but it’s valuable to look at the different options. So here’s a brief overview of the key players to start your process.

	Wordpress	Joomla	Drupal	Weebly	GoDaddy
Ease of use	Intuitive, user-friendly	Complex, but user-friendly with practice	Developer-friendly	Intuitive, user-friendly	Intuitive, user-friendly
Pros	Allows quick and easy content updates Large user community increases support and plugin options Large, growing library of visual themes	Mid-level between Wordpress and Drupal—intuitive user interface with more power than Wordpress	Can easily be customized for website needs	Drag and drop editing ability	Drag and drop editing ability Existing library of visual themes Can save backup versions to restore site if needed
Cons	Limited ability to modify security settings. (plug in required) Not optimized for larger sites/high traffic (possible, but requires professional help to set up) Limited customization beyond library themes	Mid-level between Wordpress and Drupal—not as user friendly as Wordpress, not as customizable as Drupal	Complex—requires developer	Limited library of visual themes Limited customization	Limited customization Limited in ability to change themes post-build
E‑commerce Functionality	Basic through plug ins (variety of options)	Basic through plug ins (variety of options)	Customizable to specific needs through developer support	Via integration with Paypal or Stripe	Basic proprietary e-commerce included
Best used for	Frequent basic content updates Blogs Basic e-commerce	Article heavy, content heavy Basic e-commerce	Complex content, navigation and/or e-commerce sites	Basic content Basic blogging Basic e-commerce	Basic content updates Basic e-commerce
Example Site	Van Huesen	The Guggenheim Museum	The Economist	Sustainable Solutions Georgia	Rickety Rack Clothing

There are a lot of different ways to make a web platform work for your company and it all starts with understanding platform capabilities in the context of your business goals.

Since there’s no one-size-fits-all platform (which is a good thing!), this chart serves to help break down some of the initial, core considerations in choosing the right platform for you. It’s always helpful to invest in support from a web development firm or a consultant to help you find the right solution for you.

Think you might need a bit more help figuring out the right fit for your site? Comment below!