Choosing a Software Platform for Your Web Solution
Decisions, Decisions... Which Software Package Is Right for Your Site?
Choosing a software platform for your website that best suits your needs can be a difficult and confusing process if you don’t know where to begin. While there are tons of options available to you, your best bet is to always start by asking yourself, “What do you need it to do?” What will be the main function of your website? Is the main goal to sell, generate leads, present information, manage content, accomplish a task, or support work flow? Once you establish your primary function we can then begin to narrow down the perfect site building platform for your business.
Our Blayzer team will provide you with the three most common website building software; content management systems, ecommerce, and custom solutions.
Content Management Systems (CMS) Platforms
Content Managed websites make it easy to keep your website up-to-date with the latest information about your business. Changes to content can be made through a user-friendly interface that requires no development experience. Some features of a CMS includes inline content editing & administration, on the fly image editing, built in content search, dynamic navigation menus, search engine friendly features, etc. Examples of CMS platforms include:
Over 23% of the top 10 million websites are powered by WordPress. WordPress includes many features that make it the top choice among content management systems. WordPress is customizable, easy to manage, SEO-friendly, and open-source (It’s Free!).
Drupal is like a higher-end version of WordPress. It is a favorite among developers, mainly due to its flexibility. Drupal is open-source, customizable, scalable (great for growing over time), and developer-friendly, which makes modification a breeze.
Joomla is an open-source content management system that can be a good fit for complex website solutions in need of strong organization components. Joomla is often used to build, organize, manage and publish content for websites, blogs, Intranets and mobile applications. Joomla offers simple setup, customizable extensions, and advanced user management.
Ecommerce Platforms
Blayzer’s ecommerce shopping carts are designed to help make life simple for both merchants and customers. You’re not limited to a fixed set of features. Rather, we deliver exactly what you need for your business. Shrink-wrapped, closed-source, and hosted solutions can’t match the level of customization that’s possible with Magento or Open Cart. Blayzer’s ecommerce offers users ease of use, customizability, and flexibility.
For companies in need of an extraordinarily powerful, all-in-one omnichannel ecommerce platform, we highly recommend BigCommerce. As a SaaS model solution, BigCommerce isn’t the first option you’d expect to hear from a shop like Blayzer with a strong open-source backbone. That should tell you something about just how powerful this solution is – and how confident we are in our ability to customize it to reach your full ecommerce potential. Check it out!
Some businesses have just a small handful of products to sell and only need to add a small amount of ecommerce functionality to a primarily information-based website. In these cases, we recommend a simple solution such as Woo Commerce for WordPress. Woo Commerce is a plug-in that extends a basic WordPress site’s functions to include a small ecommerce feature.
OpenCart is a highly flexible and customizable open-source ecommerce platform. Getting started is easy: we install your design or use an already-made template, add your products, and you’re ready to start accepting orders. OpenCart provides order management and multiple payment gateways already built in, and Blayzer provides support and software updates. We can also do amazing things in OpenCart like custom product configurators, multistore environments, and much more. Some cool features of OpenCart include: documentation, open-source, unlimited categories & products, templatable, shipping weight calculation, printable invoices, and much more.
Magento, now owned by Adobe, is currently considered to be the web’s most popular open-source ecommerce platform, meeting the needs of large, medium, and small business catalog solutions. Magento offers an extensive feature list, broad customization potential, and affordable pricing compared to many other solutions of this power and scale – the community version is FREE! With Magento’s flexible structure, almost any logic or feature is customizable. If you can dream it, Blayzer can build it with Magento.
Custom Solutions
Sometimes cool technology just isn’t enough, but never fear — Blayzer is here to help. When you’re in need of an interactive website that’s both engaging and informative, our team of specialized developers can create whatever your heart desires. Some features you get with choosing custom solutions include superior strategic planning, long-lasting technology, and expert programming. Don’t forget about our benefits! Blayzer will provide:
- Meet your users’ direct needs
- Increase traffic and engagement on your website
- Drive brand awareness and recognition
- Grow your online presence and reputation
- Generate leads and revenue
- Stay on time and on budget
