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Abanoub Hanna
Abanoub Hanna

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How I Choose CMS or SSG For A Website

CMS and SSG are great. But when to choose which?

First of all, CMS stands for Content Management System such as WordPress and Joomla. SSG stands for Static Site Generator.

CMS has more functionality than SSG. So use SSG to build information website like UPVCEG. But if you want to have dynamic functionalities like comments and search use CMS like WordPress like value in brief website.

The main feature of CMS is being dynamic and editable by the users. And The main feature of SSG is being static and just show information without interaction or being editable at all.

But there is workarounds for searching SSG websites, for example tailwindcss website using algolia search.

If a company reached out to me to create a website, I put all the features they want. If the website is achievable using SSG, I'll do it. If not, I'll just use a CMS.

Why I prefer SSG over CMS ?

Static Site Generators (SSG) such as HUGO have too many merits to count. Here are some.

  1. speed and efficient.
  2. use less CPU and time.
  3. super lightweight.
  4. highly secure, because you can not edit it on the fly.
  5. highly reliable, and can not be DoS-ed easily.
  6. Cost effective; need a low end hosting provider.
  7. Get the job done. It satisfies the business needs.

That's how I choose a system to build a website at hand. Almost every time I choose SSG, likely Hugo.

Top comments (1)

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camilocaquimbo profile image
Camilo Caquimbo Tabares

Excellent reasoning 👏