CMSimple vs. Website Baker

Head-to-Head Comparision

CMSimple

First, let’s take a look at CMSimple. Overall, the interface is intuitive and easy to navigate. I like the ability to log in on any page by simply adding &login to the end of the URL. After doing this, the page is automatically brought up in a WYSIWYG editor, making changes to the website almost instant. Additionally, the CMS is available for free to anyone interested.

On the negative side of things, I find the way that CMSimple deals with page hierarchy quite odd. When publishing pages, h1s become a top-level page, h2s become secondary, and once more with h3s. After a while, it is clear why they would use this structure to their site, and it does allow for speedy page structuring, but it does take a bit of getting used to for individuals used to working in standard HTML.

Website Baker

From the first time I launched Website Baker in the control panel (once I got there) I immediately was pleased with the interface. It is laid out very cleanly and intuitively (more so than CMSimple, in my opinion), and makes it very simple to find what you are looking for.

There's nothing really negative to say about Website Baker. It is a refreshing change after battling CMSimple for a few hours.

Managing Installations

Let’s go over installing each content management system. CMSimple is fairly easy to install. Simply Download the ZIPfile onto your local machine, unzip it, and FTP all the folders and files to your webserver. As instructed, place the files into the 'html' files directory. This may be called htmldoc or something similar. Some ISPs may require you to use a a 'cgi' files directory, but that’s “simple” to get to.

As for Website Baker, there are a few things to look out for. First, change permissions for files and directories (chmod.) Here’s a helpful hint. Once the permissions are altered, refresh the install page to reflect the changes. It’s also extremely important to know your MySQL username and password. You’ll also need to create a new MySQL database or understand how to reuse an established database with a new prefix (include the “_” for prefix; for example “_wb”). Once installation is completed, remove the install directory (for security reasons) and you are ready to check out the admin area of the site. If you want to install in your root directory, it’s a good idea to move all the files and folders from inside the wb directory to the new location prior to installing Website Baker.

The biggest difference in the process is where the files and folders reside, so it’ very important to be organized inside your directories.

Which One is the Better Fit

After working with the two CMS platforms, I would have to choose Website Baker. Website Baker is available as an easy, one-click install on our web hosting, reseller hosting and dedicated server hosting plans with Softaculous. VPS Hosting customers subscribing to cPanel and Softaculous will experience the same simple install of Website Baker.

Additionally, every A2 Hosting account provides webmasters with the resources necessary to install a custom copy of Website Baker. Current versions of PHP, MySQL and Apache are listed as the server requirements to run this auction software solution. A2 Hosting currently supports PHP 5.2.9 and MySQL 5.1.x and Apache 2.2. Select A2 Hosting as your Website Baker web hosting provider.

My Final Thoughts

In a perfect world, I like for things to go smoothly and CMSimple, in my personal opinion, is NOT simple. Website Baker, on the other hand, creates an interface and installation process that is incredibly user-friendly. It also isn’t painful to map out in your HTML. Either way, Happy Coding!