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Ryan Hellerud
3,635 PointsPros and cons of Wordpress versus framework like foundation?
Im going into business as a small time web developer for local businesses and wondering if i should use wordpress or zurb foundation? my html/css skills are getting better and i have worked with foundation and wordpress both minimally. What are some thoughts and points to consider here?
4 Answers
James Gill
Courses Plus Student 34,936 PointsWordPress is a blogging platform (and/or CMS, depending on your intention); Foundation is a front-end framework for styling and layout. Two different (but complementary) things.
So, you'd build a CMS using WordPress, and style the layout and look-and-feel with Foundation. Foundation (like the very similar Bootstrap) is basically a set of predefined CSS styles.
Aimee Ault
29,193 PointsYou could use both. It's hard to make a comparison against the two since they both offer somewhat different things. Wordpress is a content management system (so, it handles a lot of backend things for you like organizing all of your site data in a database and making sure all those things get loaded on each page), whereas Foundation is more of an HTML/CSS/JS framework, which only affects the front-end visual and UI parts of the site, not really any of the dynamic parts. There's no reason you couldn't use Foundation with it though--they've even made a starter Wordpress theme to help you out :)
Kevin Korte
28,149 PointsI agree with Aimee, Foundation and Wordpress server two completely different functions, so it isn't fair to compare the two. To echo Aimee, you can use Foundation with Wordpress.
It's kind of like saying, "I want to build a house, what tool should I use, a hammer or saw"? The answer is you might need both. But they serve different purposes.
I'm excited you're going into business for yourself! Have fun with that :)
Ryan Hellerud
3,635 Pointsthanks for the 2 enlightening replays, both make sense. So wordpress is only necessary if I need a back end database otherwise I really dont need to bother with wordpress, right?
I am targeting local small businesses and offering to get a site up for them for a fair price. And still figuring out the best and most effective way to do this. Thank you.
Kevin Korte
28,149 PointsSo wordpress is only necessary if I need a back end database otherwise I really dont need to bother with wordpress, right?
Short answer: yes.
However, many websites, even tiny websites, can benefit from a CMS like Wordpress. I'm not sure I'd build a website without a CMS at this point anymore.
If you don't what the full blown feature (and weight) of a CMS, you could check out something like Jekyll
Even if you're targeting small business, you and your client can benefit from a CMS, whether it be Wordpress or not. By building them a website with a CMS, you can now give them the options to change out pictures on the site, or add new ones, change or edit text, phone numbers or address if they move, etc. They can do a lot of things without having to hire you or someone else to do it. That's an attractive bonus to sell to your clients.
The other beauty is if you do something like Wordpress as a CMS for their small site, later down the road, if you're no longer in the area, building small websites, or whatever else, they can hire another Wordpress devloper (which there are a lot of generally) and that person should be able to generate a new theme for the client. And since the content is separated from the design, nothing has to be recreted or re-edited. All of these are great bonuses to sell yourself to your client.
Just two cents to think about.