If you run a website design company or if you are a web design freelancer, there is a lot that you can gain from open source website and content management platforms. Developing a website using PHP, HTML or any other website coding platform can take long with a lot of repetitive work. You will also need to  brave sort out many bugs before your website is right for use. Open source content management systems have done all the dirty job of website design for you so that you are left spending most of your time doing your core business – designing websites to top professional looks. There are different open-source website platforms. However, they all work in a general way.

How they Work

Content management website systems are designed as a plug in model that allows for functionality (modules) and designs (themes) to be added onto the core system. The system allows you to put plug-ins called modules to enhance various website functionality including a shopping cart, blog, photo gallery, calendar of events, poll, contact page or a searching module. The modules allow the developer to choose what to include in their website and what not to include. By having people develop the plug ins separately and having them either free or on sale means that a lot of the repetitive coding is avoided. For web design, the content management websites have design framework called themes. With the themes, you can identify one that looks close to the idea you have for a particular website. You can then further customize the theme to your exact preference. The themes and modules are available on the internet either free or at an affordable rate to enable cheap website design development.

Options

There are two types of website content management systems for web design available in the market. The enterprise content management systems are propriety software and you will need to by the system software from the owning company. The company also develops the themes and modules and sees them either in package form or as separate products. On the other hand, open source content management systems are community driven applications. Different people contribute to the end product. The themes are also designed by different people I the community. Developers also make modules to allow for easy plug ins. The open source options are more commonly used in website design and development. The open source leading content management software include Drupal, Joomla, WordPress and Safari.

How to Select Ideal Platform

When selecting the ideal content management platform to your for your web design, there are various factors that you will need to keep in mind. If you go for open source, get the solution with a large number of contributors and members. Get a platform that can handle the scope of work that you are setting up in your website design.

Advantages of using the Open Source Option

There are various advantage of using open source as opposed to enterprise. Open source is free of charge. There is also a community of people who can help you for free in case you get stuck at some point. The platforms also have the web design being done by designers and the modules being done by the coders and therefore correct skill set matching.