What do the New Yorker newspaper, the BBC news company, the software giant Sony, the popular singer Beyoncé, the prestigious Howard University, the White House and IKEA have in common? Well, everyone has an official open source website. Indeed, in recent years, it is nothing less than a revolution. More and more websites all over the world – both large and small – operate on an open source basis and the trend is only expanding.
The differences between open source and closed source represent to some extent two completely different working methods, which also indicate the business concept of the service provider. In our case, whoever will build the site for you. The difference between these approaches is important not only at the stage of setting up the site, but also later when you want to upgrade and improve it.
What is a closed source website?
A website built with closed code uses a code that only the programmers of the company that created the website can access.
What is an open source website?
The site is built in open source, uses code that is available to everyone, anyone can download and use it.
Why is code so important for your website?
When a website is built on open source, many programmers and developers are familiar with the system and the code and know how to work with it, so the customer is free to choose a programmer who will make changes to it at low costs. What’s more, the extensions are on the World Wide Web and don’t need to be built from scratch (like the Android app store). Unlike a closed code website, which requires development from scratch and unique to the client (and its cost accordingly).
Open source advantages:
1. Cost – an open source system is a free system. Although a private customer will find it difficult to do the work alone and must contact a website construction company, the cost of setting up the website does not require the developer company to do the work from scratch. Therefore, open source websites are available at attractive prices.
2. Constant development – programmers from all over the world are constantly working on developing and upgrading the open source system. Therefore, the system is more reliable, more up-to-date, more relevant and effective respectively.
3. Technological extensions and plugins – one of the great advantages of open source lies in the rich plugin system that accompanies it. These are technological plugins that are developed by programmers from all over the world and are available for free or at a low cost. These plugins make it possible to expand the website and enjoy a modular website that grows together with the business.
4. The absence of shackles – an open source system eliminates the “shackles” of the client to the developer company and allows him to make changes and upgrades on the site also with the help of other professional factors. Also, the network is loaded with guides (including videos) that help operate the system independently.
The open source revolution
As you can understand, a site built with closed code places severe limitations on the client, and until 2004 most of the advanced sites that used a content management system were closed source sites. Since 2004, many open source platforms have been developed in which the user can do as he wishes and modify their source code and even re-release it. Systems such as WordPress, Joomla and Drupal currently offer a variety of network applications and applications whose cost in a closed source system may reach thousands of shekels.
Why Joomla?
First and foremost, the selection of plugins available for the Joomla system is huge, over 9000 to be exact. Among the most popular supplements we can name
Virtual store, forums, photo gallery with permissions, newsletter, event calendars filtered by days of the week, automatic backup components, support for multiple languages and more. Beyond that, Joomla has a supportive community that continues to develop and improve the system and its plugins. This is in contrast to other open source systems or closed source systems, where the number of plugins is limited and their functionality is limited.
The designs that can be embedded within Joomla are known for their high aesthetics, and together with the excellent support for galleries, constitute a perfect solution for image sites, portals and dedicated sales sites for professionals. It doesn’t matter if it is a website for architects, interior designers, photographers, or hair stylists, each of them can create a unique design suitable for the type of occupation and the atmosphere they want to convey.
In addition to these, the latest interface of Joomla has become very friendly and has replaced the old and less convenient interface.
Read more about Joomla website building
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JOOMLA finds itself year after year in the list of the best content management systems (CMS), thanks to its wide variety of plugins and the devout community that continues to develop it continuously and consistently (an open source system has no right to exist without updates from the community). At the beginning of 2014, the system crossed the threshold of 50 million downloads and the hand is still tilted. Among the famous global sites that use Joomla are the auction giant Ebay, the furniture company IKEA, Burns the Noble, Pizza Hut, Howard University and more.
Now it is clear why building a website using Joomla in our company, puts our customers in the prestigious club together with the largest and most advanced websites on the net.
Why WordPress?
WordPress is an open source system that is also suitable for customers who are not technological people. It earned its name as a perfect platform for setting up blogs but today offers much more than that. Since WordPress was launched in 2003, it has broken into other areas such as virtual stores, image sites, portals, business sites, magazines and more. Yes, yes, they were all her sons.
The magic secret of WordPress lies mainly in the fact that it provides the user with a simple and easy-to-use content management system. Without knowing how to read a single line of code, WordPress site owners can design amazing content pages. They have at their disposal an attractive Drag & Drop interface alongside a variety of shortcodes for combining elements such as tables, tabs, designed lists, buttons, images, galleries and more.
WordPress is available with thousands of different templates, some of which are free and some of which are very expensive premium templates. The system is regularly updated thanks to the cooperation between tens of thousands of programmers scattered in every corner of the globe. Alongside this, WordPress offers a wide and impressive range of plugins in different styles that upgrade the website and make it easier to adapt it specifically to the requirement
and the customer.
testimonies
Leading brands from all over the world have long chosen WordPress as their operating system. Among the prominent names
For example, the New Yorker, Sony, Beyoncé, Time magazine, BBC America and more can be mentioned. This is without a doubt
One of the popular open source systems on the web. Among the top ten million websites in the world, 2.3 million of them were developed with WordPress. With such unequivocal data, it is impossible to argue.
Read more about building websites in WordPress
Which system do you prefer, Joomla or WordPress?
WordPress is an open source system that was initially established for blogs but over time became a platform for small image sites as well. Similar to Joomla, WordPress websites can also install plugins that upgrade the system. However, since Joomla is pre-designed for medium and large sites, and since it is designed to receive large extensions, all Joomla extensions are arranged in one place. It is easier to find the extension on the global website and each extension has a Demo attached (which allows you to see and test its performance).
Since WordPress excels in the ease of content management, and Joomla excels in extensions, therefore when choosing the code system behind the website, it is recommended to consult with the website builder or programmer to decide what is suitable for the website according to the type of business, the goals of the website, the characterization of the website, etc.