--- title: CMS or HTML? - isla Studio url: https://isla-stud.io/es/ratgeber/cms-oder-html-welches-homepage-modell-brauche-ich/ date: 2015-07-02 --- # CMS or HTML? First of all, most customers want to maintain their website themselves - or at least have it maintained by their employees. The tasks involved then include things such as page editing, menu editing, page creation, updating photo galleries and SEO maintenance. If this works smoothly, that's great. If the customer has the determination, time and know-how to do all this, they can really exploit the potential of a CMS. But in the vast majority of cases (I'm speaking from experience here), very few customers really take full advantage of a CMS. Even if they regularly make a few changes here and there, they barely scratch the surface of the possibilities. With such limited use, it becomes difficult to justify the development and server costs. Many customers are enthusiastic at the beginning, but after a short time their feelings become mixed and the initial enthusiasm fades. This is usually because you are too busy with the “real work”, i.e. the actual core business. Especially after you realize that the fancy pages require a little more effort than a WYSIWYG text editing program, and if you're only going to make a few small changes to the pages here and there anyway, why have a CMS under the hood at all? Justified question. CMS or HTML? I would advise anyone who is not using their CMS website to its full potential to switch to an HTML website. I would do the same for someone who can't get to grips with their CMS backend and seeks professional help for every change anyway. HTML website Static HTML pages are fast, secure and very flexible in terms of design. Despite its static nature, an HTML website can be very extensive and CMS functionalities can be added later if required. This homepage model allows you to start small - with a focus on design, speed and security. Who is an HTML website suitable for? if you only make changes every one or two weeks if you do not want to deal with a CMS if you want to redesign your site frequently and inexpensively if you would not use a CMS to its full extent if you don't want to deal with constant updates and the associated problems (e.g. plugin and design compatibility) if you have the confidence to make changes directly in the HTML code (with support at the beginning, of course) if you do not want to operate a store system, blog or other dynamic system (e.g. a forum or a page with a member area or similar) and your website only comprises 3-5 individual pages. Advantages All changes and updates can be carried out by me ( 😉 ), for example, as part of a maintenance contract. Much faster than a CMS - even without caching or CDN costs. More secure than a CMS, because attack surfaces such as databases and server scripts are eliminated Inexpensive redesign or revision of individual pages or the entire website Disadvantages Not suitable for extremely extensive websites with many individual pages Not suitable for complex sites: eCommerce (web stores), eLearning, blogs and forum websites. Written in pure HTML (or also with PHP parts) and therefore requires programming knowledge if the content maintenance is not done by a professional. CMS (e.g. WordPress) Content management systems (CMS) have become the ultimate in website development. Flexibility, scope and the ability to manage professional company websites with thousands of individual pages, as well as the ease of use, make them so popular. An ideal solution for large sites with special requirements such as eCommerce, eLearning or other interactive functionalities that require a database. CMS sites come with an extensive repertoire of extensions (“plugins”), which can be used to expand the site functionalities relatively easily. Even very complex functions can be added at relatively low cost. Who is a CMS suitable for? if you update many pages/posts frequently (every one to two days or weekly) if you have experienced employees who can handle a CMS if you have sufficient budget to realize the redesign of the CMS template if necessary if you manage a user pool that interacts with each other on your website if you need user administration, authorization and access control if you need to monitor page and post creation, approvals and version control if you need a simple RSS feed implementation if you want to achieve multilingualism easily and clearly if CMS functionalities are more important to you than frequent design changes if you need database automation if you have very large parts catalogs, documentation archives that are frequently updated, reference material or learning and training material, e.g. for eLearning websites If you want to run an online store and/or a blog Advantages High-quality, robust architecture Wide range of plugins and extensions Easy to change content and pages - even without programming knowledge Massively scalable Complex functionalities can be retrofitted at relatively low cost Disadvantages Requires training It can sometimes be difficult to achieve the desired page look without programming knowledge or at least basic knowledge of how to use page builders, the WordPress Gutenberg editor and similar tools. Requires sustained staff commitment to exploit the full potential Higher setup, server/hosting and design development costs Frequent security updates and associated maintenance work and possibly costs