The great battle of CMS vs Custom Development breakdown here.

How do you make up your mind about building a website, on whether to go for: 

    a) A custom website development, build from ground up

b) Use an existing CMS, such as wordpress/woocommerce, Joomla, etc.

We will list down a few pros and cons we usually give to our clients which could help you with your decision making as well. Points to consider:

1. How unique is your business/website idea?

    The best way we recommend to go about this is to think of the following question. What is the core product of your business idea? 

    If your core business is selling a unique product or service and a website serves as a medium to simplify the acquisition process for your customers, then going for CMS would be a better idea. There is a chance that everything you need your online presence to show or do, can be done using popular Content Management Systems. This allows you to put focus on improving your core product or service. 

            But what if the core of your business is the system itself(example, developing a website to find private tutors online, based on experience, location and etc). In this case, starting from zero would be the best idea for multiple reasons:

1. There is a high chance that an Existing CMS might not be able to accomplish what you want your website to be able to do. All existing CMS systems come with limitations in terms of functionality
2. It might not suit the future plans of your business. Every project starts with a minimum viable product and grows into something outstanding overtime. If what you need to accomplish can be done with CMS, but you have major features to be added in future, choosing a CMS can hit a roadblock.    

2. Pricing

    When looking into the cost quoted by the developer, don’t only think about the current cost, but also how this cost will affect the future. Yes CMS based websites are cheaper to develop and get off the ground, but once you hit the roadblock and can’t move forward, then you will have to go for a custom website development and double all your costs. Think not only about today but also the future before you decide on which option to choose

We really hope this clarifies some aspects of choosing between CMS vs Custom Website Development.