Hope this post will help you in making your decision ....

I am a “Business Architect and Consultant” provides consultation to clients to turn their idea into a real web solution. Often I work with clients to understand their business model and then propose them the right solution looking to their business perspective. The key things I notice while working with them is that they are determined with their idea but when it comes to technology they always need an expert to make better suggestions. Off-course, its needed as they are not from technical backgrounds and they get different opinion from different people.

So, I just wanted to comprise a high level comparison between technologies and their usage for your business.

If we talk about web technologies, then we have three terms:

• Core technology
• Frameworks
• Open sources

Core Technology: Core technology means the core language that uses scripts in its purest form say for e.g. Core PHP. Only the language experts have the skills to develop code in core technology. There are no shortcuts to the code and writing custom code make the solution developed through core technology less error prone and more secure. It is always easy to hack the sites being built through frameworks and open sources as coding structure is well known to everyone; however core structures are developer specific and can only be better understand by another expert developer so are more secure.

Frameworks: Frameworks have set of functionalities available in form of libraries. The developers have just to integrate that library and do not have to write code again and again. The library structures are well know to everyone. The solutions developed using frameworks can easily be read by another developer. Frameworks are basically used to save developer’s time. Most of the frameworks are MVC (Model View Controller) based and separate logics from views. The major disadvantage is that they are limited with libraries and cannot be used for large applications that requires several custom functionalities. There are several frameworks available like Codeigniter, Laravel, Cake PHP, Symphony etc which have their own advantages and disadvantages that makes them not a good choice for a diverse solution. And, also as code is openly available so the sites can be hacked easily.

Open Source CMS: Open source Content Management Systems are the solutions that are available to users for free. Open source CMS’s are specific to languages. There are several available for PHP like Wordpress, Joomla, Magento, Shopify etc. Open sources are generally case specific and allows you to develop specific type of projects by customizing the functionalities they provide. Apart from that, to add new features a separate extension/plugin is to be integrated. If the required plugin is not available then a custom code is to be developed which itself is a biggest task and will not be fully retained if version is updated; leading to a biggest disadvantage. Also, Open source CMS are most unsecure as anyone can have access to code and destroy the site.

Thus, every technology has its own advantage and disadvantage. Choosing a right technology is very important so that solution can work well and as needed. The key deciding factors are:

• The size of the project i.e. a small business site or mid to high level complex solution.
• The needed features or we can say business model
• Security concerns
• Timing and budget

Hope this comparison will be helpful. If you do have more questions, please feel free to connect with us.