It’s important to know what you’re working with before you choose a tech stack. There are different tech stacks for different purposes; all with varying degrees of difficulty. Some have been around since the 90’s and some are still in the early stages of development. Use this article as a guide to help you choose the tech stack that you need for your website.
WordPress
(Automattic, WooCommerce, Divi)
📜 The King of Content
Overview
WordPress has been (and certainly will be for a long time) the King of Content Management Systems (CMS). It’s designed to help you publish content online, keep up with newsletters, and organize your content so that you can keep everything in one place. Think of Microsoft Office for the Internet and it comes with an Online Store.
It’s free. It comes with tons of free integrations (called “plug-ins”), regular updates, and an Admin Dashboard where you can manage anything. You can sell products online with a plug-in called WooCommerce, protect your blog with anti-spam like Akismet, and embed forms from your Customer Relationship Manager (CRM) to help you convert your traffic into subscribers.
You can use templates to build websites, create a blog, create an audience of subscribers, and convert those subscribers to customers for your business.
WordPress is the go-to platform for startups who want to start a blog or an e-commerce site.
Advantages
- Easy to get started
- You don’t have to know how to write code
- Great for startups
- Online sales / online store available
Disadvantages
- The more plug-ins you add, the slower it gets
When to use it
Use WordPress if you’re just getting started with an online store or a blogsite. There are lots of competitors out there but every time another CMS comes up with a new feature, WordPress is either already on it or it’s in development.
CRM Page Builder
(HighLevel, ClickFunnels, LeadPages)
🧑🏽💼 The Sales Agent
Overview
A CRM Page Builder typically uses HTML to build a website or a “Sales Funnel”. The result is a blazing-fast website with landing pages that you can use to capture contact information and convert leads to customers. These systems are built with your customer in mind. You have pretty much anything that you can think of at your disposal, but there are times when you will need to pay for a specific integration or you may need to use a third-party app to get the results you’re looking for.
If you need leads, you need a CRM Page Builder. You’ll never have to follow up with a cold lead ever again.
Advantages
- Automations
- Your online forms are already integrated with your system
- You can integrate Instant Forms on platforms like Facebook and Google
- It’s so easy to learn, a 5th-Grader could do it
- Manage all of your e-mails and text messaging in one place
Disadvantages
- It’s not free
- Typical monthly expenses are around $99 per month (It’s $59 with DMH)
When to use it
Use a CRM Page Builder when you need leads or you need to make sales and you already have a content strategy or a large social media following.
Jamstack
(Yext, Next.js, Gatsby)
🔥 The Speed Demon
Overview
Jamstack (previously styled as “JAMStack”) stands for JavaScript (JS), API and Markup. In a nutshell, it’s a JS engine that uses a newer technology called JSX and Markup to produce a static site. It’s fast!
There are pre-built Jamstack platforms like Yext and some CRM Page Builders implement Jamstack, but it differs from HTML in that it’s completely static and uses no JavaScript on the front-end, which makes it the fastest option available.
Advantages
- One word: Speed
- A faster loading speed means more traffic
- More traffic means more sales
- Easy to use
Disadvantages
- Lacks functionality
- There aren’t many no-code options
- Yext is an example of a no-code Jamstack platform
- Relatively new technology
When to use it
Use Jamstack when you need a website to load faster than you can say “Sold!”.
Node.js
(React, Vue, Angular)
🦾 The App Giant
Overview
Node.js was released in 2009 and it started to gain mainstream popularity around 2015. Before Node.js, web apps were typically build with PHP (the engine behind WordPress) and JavaScript. It wasn’t until Facebook adopted React.js that you started to see web apps online.
Rememeber when Facebook used to have to refresh the page every time you clicked a link?
The goal of Node.js and other JS-driven stacks are to eliminate the need for the website to refresh. Instead, the website refreshes in the background and the user sees a more streamlined flow of loaders and animations rather than losing the page entirely every time they click a button or a link. Essentially, it’s designed to place everything on the front-end. That’s great if you need a web app or a mobile app (or even a video game), but it doesn’t do well if you need your website to load quickly.
You have to wait for it to load, but when it does, you never have to wait for the browser to refresh the page again.
Advantages
- Web Apps
- It’s smooth
- No more page refreshing between routes
- You can convert it into a mobile app
Disadvantages
- Slow initial loading speed
- Slow loading speed directly impacts conversion rates
When to use it
Use Node.js when you need a web app or a mobile app.
Conclusion
Thanks for reading! If you are interested in starting your own website, contact a sales agent via our online appointment scheduler and we’ll respond within the next 24 hours!