Ghost is the latest blogging system to hit the web – as early as August 2013. Its aim is to reduce the complexity of blogging and focus on one thing: publishing.WordPress has been the closest platform to this ideal for a long time,...
Ghost is the latest blogging system to hit the web – as early as August 2013. Its aim is to reduce the complexity of blogging and focus on one thing: publishing.WordPress has been the closest platform to this ideal for a long time, but the developer of Ghost, John O’Nolan, decided it was time to go to the next level. John worked as Deputy Head of the WordPress UI Group, so he has first had experience in building these types of platforms.Matt Mullenweg, Co-Founder of WordPress, is quoted as saying on O’Nolan’s blog, “66% of [Users] said they use WordPress as a CMS and not as a blog.” Does that mean WordPress less useful for “pure” blogging these days? And So what about the other CMS (content management systems) like Joomla and Drupal?Over time, each of these has grown to have their own core strengths and weaknesses. Let’s review these and then see how Ghost compares.WordPresshttps://wordpress.orgStatistically, WordPress is the most successful CMS/blogging platform available. According to w3techs.com WordPress consumes about 56% of the CMS market. That means over half of the websites that use a CMS are using WordPress. What’s even more crazy, is that WordPress at its core is a blogging platform. Since it’s so widely used with such a large community, pretty much anything has become feasible with WordPress. And, it’s easy to do. FeaturesPublishing made easy – WordPress puts content ahead of pretty much everything else. Organizing posts and pages is more limited than Joomla or Drupal, and can sometimes be a pain, but when you’ve worked with WordPress for a while the workflow makes sense.Lightweight code – It’s fast because the code is written to keep the core small. This makes it easier for servers to deliver it to your browser.Commenting system – A unique characteristic of blogs is the ability to comment on posts. Not as surprising anymore, but when WordPress came out, commenting was one of the phenomena that pushed WordPress into overdrive.Tons of uploadable themes & pluginsSimple to use and flexible to change – It’s extremely easy to develop for WordPress. There is so much documentation, user feedback, and coding experts, that you can always get what you need.Comparison NotesBuilt for: Bloggers, small-medium websites. Large websites used to steer clear of it but, over time, websites like MSNBC TV, Variety, and Getty Images have adapted to using it.Usability: EasyScalability: Pretty good. It’s possible to take a small website and make it large with WordPress. You just may need some extra plugins to do it. It also helps to plan well in advance for that.Extensions: Astounding selection. There are 24,897 plugins for WordPress at the time of this post. Many have become standard downloads for avid WordPress site developers.Support: Excellent. You can get the answers to most of your questions in a matter of minutes or hours depending on complexity. In my experience, there’s always an answer.Core coding: Lightweight and strong. The core coding is built for simplicity and quick delivery. WordPress has one of the shortest update frequencies of all the major platforms.Design: Elegant. WordPress is a designer’s dream. It’s very flexible and easy to develop around. There are thousands of WordPress design professionals.User administration: Decent. Managing users is okay. You will likely need a plugin or a different platform like Joomla if you have tons of different users for a Social Network for example.Community: Excellent. You won’t find a more available community. Lots of people love WordPress, develop plugins and themes for it and contribute ideas to it.Performance: Great. It’s not perfect, but it’s damned close. Set it up properly and you will have great page load speeds and responsiveness.WordPress ConclusionWhen anyone I know wants to make a website, I assume it will probably be Wo
