Note: This essay is a part of my web program introductory course. It will most likely be removed after I receive my grade.

Content Management Systems

When identifying Content Management Systems (CMS), there are several that jump out when considering their popularity including: WordPress which sits at around 18 million users, Adobe Dreamweaver at 2.7 million users, and Joomla! which encompasses approximately 2.5 million users. When comparing CMS with more straightforward methods of web design (i.e. sitebuilders), there are a number of differences and few similarities associated between the two.

One of these similarities includes the ease of access. Both CMS and sitebuilders can be found online, many of which are free for users, although there are plenty of CMS sites that can charge huge amounts of money to use their content. Page designs can also be quite similar between CMS and sitebuilders and have a lot of the same tools that are used when creating content to be published.

The major differences, however, far outweigh the similarities. Among these, the biggest difference involves security. Typically a CMS can be set up so that an administrator manages the website and then relies on authors to provide content. Authors then must receive permission to edit/add content or are limited to only certain pages that can be changed. CMS can also allow an administrator to see all content that is to be put on the site and can act as a filter to syphon off material they may otherwise not want published. This is done by having a development area that authors can use to create content at which point it is then submitted to a final publishing area that the administrator has access to. Overall, CMS is a much better method of web design as it helps prevent confusion from authors submitting material and also prevents authors from submitting the exact same material twice.

As stated above, both CMS and sitebuilders can be found online for free, however, another major difference is that CMS also can have exorbitant prices. This is mostly due to the security features that come with these sites and the management of content which enables much more professionally crafted and organized web pages.