What to Choose? WordPress, Joomla or Others?

Hi,

I am about to develop my very own real estate portal where buyers/sellers/investors can setup their accounts and can post/inquire about their desired properties. It's basically a real estate buying and selling portal.

The thing bothering me is to choose the CMS platform. As I am not a developer myself that's why I am willing to go for a CMS based portal (WordPress, Joomla or any other).

So here's my question:

Which platform will be more effective, easy to use and good for my real estate portal by following measures:

1. Security: What level of security can I expect from CMS you suggest?
2. Management: How effectively can I manage things like Members, Buying/Selling Properties and etc. (Remember, I am not a developer so it should be easy---just reminding)?
3. Drawbacks: What are "going" to be the drawbacks if I choose any CMS you have in mind?

Please help me out so that I can come up with something for my site.

Thanks,

 

I've seen quite a few real estate websites use Joomla. Since you're not coming from a background in web development, this would be ideal. Very easy to setup and manage.

As for security, there isn't a single CMS that is totally secure - all the major ones have had serious holes at one time or another. Even with the latest version you could still have a plugin/extension installed that has a vulnerability in it somewhere.

Your biggest drawback will be your lack of coding ability. PHP is easy to learn, and the time you've invested in learning it is always worth it. It's a skill that pays. Most of the popular CMS's (ModX, Joomla, Wordpress) will do what you want, but there will be little quirks with each - if you want everything to be completely to your taste, a little coding will be necessary.

 

I agree. Go for Joomla. You can also outsource some modifications you need for cheap

 

IMHO, Wordpress is the most simple CMS to use. I tried Drupal, Joomla and Wordpress out with the primary factor being simplicity and Wordpress won hands down!

There are a number of real estate themes you can buy for wordpress but I haven't personally used them and wouldn't know if the features would match what you want to do.

In saying that, if you are not a developer, it is unlikely you will be able to achieve what you are trying to achieve without hiring a developer to setup the site for you. But if they set it up properly, the management side should be simple no matter which CMS you use.

 

@Deacalion
Thanks mate. I appreciate your response. You are right about CMS and security issue. My friend who is a developer told me once about the security level of Joomla & WP; and now I am sure to consider this if I am going for any CMS stuff.

But still mate, the reason I am going for CMS is to save time of developing a whole portal in PHP (as it is pretty time consuming to start from scratch) and also to manage things myself in future. Still if I opt to go for PHP development, I would be relying more on developer which I can not afford at the moment because I need things managed under my supervision. Hope you get the point...

@zhoom
You are right mate, WP is very user-friendly and simple with lots of plug-ins but still security issue is making me worried. For my site development, I am going to get help from my friend who is a developer.

Looking forward for more help...

 

Well I guess security is always an issue...But there are some ways to improve this. Here is a great article about wordpress security..
http://www.problogdesign.com/wordpress/11-best-ways-to-improve-wordpress-security/

Also, try to find a host that secures your hosting. I use web hosting pad and they gave it to me for free.

 

To me, its wordpress

 

I think Wordpress is your best option. If you're not going to create your own site manually, there are a ton of great real estate themes/templates out there that can quickly be applied, and that look and function great. Wordpress also has an amazing list of plugins available to assist you in almost any added feature you would like on your site. Good luck and feel free to message me if you get stuck, we deal with WP on a daily basis.

 

Thanks @CIKMarketing, I'll make sure to catch up with you once I go for WordPress. But what about security level, I mean can WordPress be a perfect platform to make my data/site content secure? Can I make a backup instantly for WordPress site/portal?

Thanks

 

Yes, it's secure. I'd assume you'll still create the site using FTP and you'll need to have WP on your local server and FTP. It should all be backed up on your actual WP account and in your FTP server, plus you can easily backup the files onto your hard-drive.

We've never had any security issues using WordPress, and I would assume your site will be safe as well.

 

Wordpress is the best option

 

Why not give XOOPS a shot. I've heard good things about it and it is one of the most popular CMS out there today.

 

XOOPS... That's a new one for me...

Can you show me any live examples/sites running with this CMS. And I would love to hear about any feedback about security level of XOOPS.

Thanks for the suggestions though.

 

Wordpress hands down I have all of my sites on it and have never been hacked plus you have 1000's of themes to choose from and most are very customizable. here are instructions I got a long time ago that have never failed me.