I built a website for my family's coffee shop. It's one html page, that includes the drink menu, a style sheet, and some images. You can view it at test.shaneasel.com
I need a CMS so my mom is able to go in and adjust what is displayed on the menu. I was thinking WordPress but I'm not sure if that's the right option. Don't you need to pay to use custom themes?
Hey friend!
Wordpress is definitely the popular choice. I think you might need to pay for extra features on wordpress.com, but wordpress.org is where they give away the software to be run on your own server (DigitalOcean, for example).
The thing to know about Wordpress is that there is one thing most people do not account for. I'll note that this is true of anything like Wordpress, but WP is a key topic here. Most people want to just set it and forget it. Generally you can do this for a few years with WP, but eventually if left to it's own devices something will go wrong. It does need regular maintenance. That means keeping the server software, WP itself, as well as any plugins or themes up to date with recent code. The updates often address vulnerabilities that are later used to take over websites, if not taken care of.
I suppose, in the way of maintenance required, it's a bit like owning a car. Wordpress.com would be like taking public transportation, self hosting the software from Wordpress.org would be like buying your own car. One is maintained for you, and the other is only going to run for so long if the maintenance is not done. Wordpress, in this use case, could be replaced by any other software that you can self host.
So with that said, what you need to decide is whether you want to manage a platform yourself or have someone manage it for you. That's the really important decision. If you're willing to do the maintenance, we have a one-click image that prepares a Linux server with Wordpress for you. You can find a guide for that here:
If having someone else manage the backend sounds better to you, wordpress.com is definitely a choice. There are others though. A friend of mine uses this a lot:
https://www.shopify.com/
Yet another friend of mine prefers this:
https://www.squarespace.com/
Hope that offers some good advice! We'd love to have you at DigitalOcean if you're willing to try your hand at managing one here :)
Jarland
