One of my students recently asked, “What's the difference between a CMS (content management system), blog, website and a website builder?“.
Great question and it's no wonder that folks new to online business get confused with those terms that are so liberally thrown out, yet often with very little distinction.
OK, so here are the basic definitions as per Wikipedia:
- Content Management System (CMS) is a computer application used to create, edit, manage, search and publish various kinds of digital media and electronic text.
- Blog – (a contraction of the term weblog) is a type of website, usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in reverse-chronological order. “Blog” can also be used as a verb, meaning to maintain or add content to a blog.
- Website (or “web site”) – a collection of related web pages, images, videos or other digital assets that are hosted on one web server, usually accessible via the Internet.
- Website Builder – On-line proprietary tools provided by web hosting companies which cater to people who wish to build and publish their website without learning the technical aspects of web page production…
Note: Wikipedia distinguishes between online and offline website builders, refering to Adobe Dreamweaver as an example of the latter. For the purposes of this article however, we will deal only with online products and services.
So, to summarize…
- A website is a collection of pages.
- A blog is a website with pages and posts that runs on a content management system.
- A website builder also runs on a content management system.
Still confused?
OK, drop content management system out of the picture, and just know that it runs in the background to store, manage and publish your content.
Therefore, the primary difference between blogs and websites, is that a blog displays blog posts in reverse chronological order, i.e. latest post is shown at the top of the page – whereas on a website, pages are displayed according to how the webmaster chooses to set up his or her navigation through the site.
That said, you can create pages on a blog platform and choose to have them shown in any order you choose – just as you would do with a ‘static' website.
The other BIG difference between a website and a blog is that a blog allows interaction with your visitors, in the form of blog post commenting. You can choose to allow or disallow comments on individual posts and pages. In terms of developing an audience, that interactivity is another huge advantage to blogging over static websites.
That should leave us to distinguish between blogging and using a website builder.
How to Choose between Blogging and a Website Builder
If you are trying to decide whether you should set up your own blog or use a website builder, the primary considerations are ease-of-use and cost.
If you want to save some money and are willing to arrange your own hosting, install your own blog (takes no more than 2 minutes), source a good-looking theme, install some plugins and your autoresponder forms – go the do-it-yourself route.
If you get stuck along the way there are tremendous resources available (like this site) to help you get ‘unstuck' and many services that you can hire to help you what you might find more difficult, i.e. design.
However, if you don't mind paying a little extra and want a solution that includes hosting, blog and template installation, and many more tools all accessible from one interface, go with a website builder.
Take a good look at the site builder's feature list. Some include an autoresponder service as part of the package, while others others have datafeed integration but no autoresponder service. In some cases you may be surprised to find that adding that third-party service works out cheaper and you end up with even more bells and whistles than if you went with the more full-featured site builder.
Nice article. Website builder is the best option if you are looking for great features to add to your website. I am using Sitesonic website builder for my website. I am very happy with the services.
Thanks Rosalind Gardner for this valuable post.
But can you guide me because I am very confused that whether a blog with a niche is more better for a good revenue or an ordinary general purpose and daily updates website is good??? please guide me..
Sure thing, thanks I really appreciate this post – I think people will find it useful! 🙂
If Blog and CMS are 2 diferent things then why we call WordPress as CMS?
I use a very high-end CMS application to run my primary website. After more money and work than I would like to admit, I have a great looking site (in my humble opinion). But the truth is that I could have created a site that is just as functional with a nearly free blog application. In fact, in terms of search engine optimization, a blog might be far superior.
Just goes to show, you don’t necessarily need a great deal of money to get good web exposure or to have a dynamic and successful site.
Dave
I agree on this…you have to spend money to have a great service…that’s the reality of life :)…
Hi Ros,
In your latest newsletter, you mentioned that you will be doing a webinar with Bruce from BizZites. Could it be possible for you to record it and have it posted on this blog? I am from the other side of the world (Singapore) and didn’t want to miss work (again!) just to attend to another BizZites related webinar.
Many thanks
petom
He petom,
We will be recording the interview and I’ll let everyone know when it’s available. Thanks for bringing the subject up!
Cheers,
Ros
I always enjoy reading Rosalind Gardner. Interesting article, but most of what is said is pretty obvious to someone who has experience developing web sites.
I agree. But it is those little tidbits that we overlooked prior or just completely forgot about over time that are the real jewels and make a difference!
Hi Canuck,
The article is ‘obviously’ intended to answer a NEW webmaster’s question… 🙂
Cheers,
Ros
I appreciate your blunt comments and assessment. For me the most important aspect is direct customer contact. I forgo the mass marketing and automated money generators to talk with my customers and help them attain their goals. We use our blogs and Web sites (vs CMS and Website builders) to react to requests as well as open dialogues.
ABnCParty,
Ah yes, the true beauty of blogging. 🙂
Cheers,
Ros
Am I old fashioned or what!
Nah, just a really smart business woman. 🙂
Hi Sleepless,
There are many good WYSIWYG website builders. My site was built using XSitePro, a very good website builder both for beginners and advanced users.
If you are looking for speed, check out the Quick website tab on the left menu panel.
Hope that you catch up on your forty winks soon.
Regards
Eric
Hey I was wondering, have you ever used Vodien before? They are a singapore web hosting firm and seem to offer good rates. Anybody with a review o
I guess that was pretty much it in a nutshell. I would be interested in some recommendations of who to use as site builders. I know there are thousands of options out there, but where to start? Also yeah, it might be easy to create your own for free, but what (if any) are the benefits and drawbacks of each method?
thanks, info was great, but I could have used more answers.
Hi Sleepless,
There’s a link to the website builders that I recommend within the article above.
Hope that helps!
Cheers,
Ros
Good round up, its really difficult to explain to a beginner what the difference is, but this makes it clear.
Ken
Rosalind Gardner,
You wrote “The other BIG difference between a website and a blog is that a blog allows interaction with your visitors, in the form of blog post commenting.”
Not strictly true since nowadays many webpages are starting to allow visitors to post comments. I have a lot of such webpages.
Hello “DP”
Perhaps you coudl give us an example of one of those pages?
Thanks,
Ros
Rosalind Gardner,
Please have a look at http://www.infohq.us/accountancy-career/accounting-dictionary.php and observe “Comments” below the article for visitors to comment and the webmaster to reply to comments and/or to add additional info.
Hi,
I took a look and that’s a fair amount of javascripting on a .php page to make that work. Don’t know that I’d want to code that into each page when that’s all included within a WordPress blog – and the option is there to turn comments off or on with one simple click. Just my take.
Ros
Hi Ros
That’s a great article- Thanks.
I am using SBI for my English site (I also have a wordpress blog in Hebrew). SBI offers the content 2 option which is a great tool for interaction with other readers on the website.
With SBI you get a website, a blog and a sense of community
Sharon
While technically blogs are websites and websites can be blogs what is most important is what someone wants to do with their online presence. A static website can be sufficient if made search engine friendly etc but a blog can also offer powerful tools as well. Of course with a blog there is an expectation that it will be updated on some regular basis, unless the blogger states otherwise. Another benefit of having a blog is that they are very search engine friendly and with plugins like the All In One SEO Pack, blogs are extremely customizable.
Your post will help the many newbies out there. It’s hard to believe there are so many people that still don’t know about blogs websites etc.
Even thought I work as a web designer, I never had the chance to study about CMS system. I was developing them, but I never knew about this terminology.
This post is extremely valuable for me. Thanks for the whole explanation.
Best regards,
Criza
Really practical advice. There are so many start-up options for online marketing today and it is a matter of personal choice. Thanks for pointing out the main characteristics!
Hi Michael,
Happy to hear you appreciate it. It was high time I explained it… 🙂
Cheers,
Ros