There Are Two Types Of Website
1. Content Management Systems (CMS)
There are two types of CMS - open source and private.
An Open Source CMS like Joomla, Drupal, Wordpress are free. They have a large user-base of developers who find any problems, holes and other security issues and report them back to the development team who periodically release patches or maintenance releases. If your supplier provides you with an Open Source CMS there should be no charge for the CMS itself but there will be a charge to apply any patches or maintenance releases as and when they become available. We recommend you join the mailing list for the CMS so that you receive notification of updates and can check to ensure you’re running the latest version. It is possible to move an Open Source CMS to another supplier but it will require the full co-operation of the existing supplier.
A Private CMS has been developed in-house by the supplier and therefore has no external development user-base and could be riddled with holes and security issues that have gone undetected. You cannot move a Private CMS because it is owned by the supplier so you are locked-in for life unless you choose to start again with a new supplier.
All CMS websites are ‘dynamic’ and have a database which holds all the structure and content of the site. When you hear of a site being “hacked” it’s the database that has been breached. There is no database with a hand-coded or ‘static’ website making them infinitely more secure. If your CMS supplier goes out of business your website will be lost and you will have to start again. If your hand-coded website supplier goes out of business another supplier can access your site using a web browser and rebuild your site in a matter of hours.
When you add or change content on a CMS website you are working “live” on the database. Changes are instantaneous as too are errors. Databases and their files MUST be backed up every night to ensure safe copies of the site can be restored quickly in the event of a problem.
Financially you will pay twice for a website built within any CMS. You will pay an annual fee for the rental of the CMS and then you will need to pay either the clerk or a third party to maintain and update the CMS site.
2. Hand-Coded
This is the traditional way to build a website. Unlike a CMS, you own the site and you can move it to another supplier very easily. Hand-coded sites are not bound by the constraints imposed by a CMS and they can look exactly the way you want - you have the final say in the design, layout and colour scheme of the site.
There are no downsides to a static, hand-coded site as long as your supplier is known to be reliable and the service affordable.