Why we chose a modern open source CMS

WordPress has had more time in the market with its origins as a blogging platform; however, this time has led to legacy code issues concerning the customisation of its plugin system. When updating WordPress, there are often times when developers will need to access the framework code, which has many versions making it sometimes challenging to build extensions that work across the codebase, presenting scalability issues over time. October CMS plugins are bound to project IDs which are universal across all environments the site operates, including local, staging and production, meaning when an update is made, all versions of the website auto-update, making deployment of code streamlined.

As the October CMS is built on the Laravel framework, the only file accessible directly is the index.php in the root directory, meaning any suspicious activity can be stopped before internal directories are compromised. Additionally, all plugins go through an approval process to verify their quality and security.

 On the other hand, WordPress allows any PHP file to be run, creating vulnerabilities from a security perspective. This, coupled with no plugin approvals and the presence of insecure plugins, presented a risk to our team, which we were not as confident in minimising as opposed to the high level of security for October.  

When it comes to actual CMS features, the following items are a good summary of why we use the October CMS over WordPress:

• Zimple’s difference is our custom designs that allow greater flexibility when creating user experiences aligned to business objectives. On the other hand, WordPress is driven through themes that, although modifiable, do not allow the high level of execution to be reached that our business expects.

• October is built on Laravel allowing greater flexibility should our team be required to drop down a layer of code for more complex integrations at the enterprise level.

• October pages are built with reusable components that allow new pages to be created, knowing the website will not break.

• The October CMS allows faster load speeds which are important for search engine optimisation.

• The October CMS presents a superior user interface presenting better stakeholder outcomes when updating the website.

In summary, the October CMS provides the versatility to design and develop custom feature-rich websites in a manageable and maintainable way for all stakeholder's needs.