It is hard deciding whether to use an existing CMS or build your own. There are many ups and downs for both options, but if you decide to build your own CMS, first make sure you have made your homework and looked out all your options before actually starting to build it. Some websites want to offer their customers the best quality and sometimes an existing CMS will restrict them from doing lots of things and prevent them from making small and simple changes. If you too are having this kind of problems and are sure that building your own CMS is definitely the solution, think again. You may end up making a very big mistake. Let’s start with the benefits of building your own CMS:
Pros:
1- If you have a specific idea of what you want to build, you will be able to have just that. You won’t have to use a lot of plugins in order to achieve the things you want to change.
2- Since you will build your own CMS, you will already know every detail about it and how everything works. This way you won’t have to worry about keeping up with the updates of an existing CMS.
3- You can basically do anything with your self-build CMS without having to worry about licensing and copyright restrictions.
4- If your CMS turns out to be very successful, you might one day be able to sell it and make a lot of profit. But the chances of that happing are very low so don’t keep your hopes high.
Cons:
1- It takes a lot of time.
First of all, it takes a lot of time to build even a very simple CMS. And if you need to change anything and add any features, you will have to build it yourself, which takes even more time.
If you use an existing CMS you are one click way from installing any plugins but if you choose otherwise, any installation you will need to make will take a lot more of time.
2- It is not secure.
Self-written CMS are more likely to get hacked compared to existing ones and in order to prevent that you will have to hire people that specifically look over the code and keep the website safe which means you will have to pay extra money just for security reasons. What happens if your site does get hacked? You will lose credibility and become less trustworthy in the eyes of your customers.
3- It costs a lot.
Maybe in the beginning you will think that you won’t really have to pay a fortune to build your own CMS, but with time you will soon realize that it will cost you a lot to keep it safe and up to date, especially if your company is not that big. Moreover, you will have training costs in order to train your employees on working with your new self-build CMS.
4- It needs constant updating.
With the technology evolving all the time, you need to update your own CMS constantly in order to keep up with the latest technology which takes a lot of time and money on its own.
So now that you have read the most important pros and cons of building your own CMS, it will be easier for you to choose. If you still think that there is no CMS out there that best fits your needs, look more carefully. There are plenty of existing CMS that can meet your needs. You just have to research a bit more before deciding to build your own.
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