Looking for a good CMS ro create a site for financing company (no WP or Joomla)

Wordpress is free, and you can definitely buy a premium template for under $100.

Well someone is going to have to learn something. Websites don't publish themselves and you don't have much of a budget to hire someone to do it for you..so that doesn't leave you many options.

Learn it, or raise some more money and hire a professional.

 

For a low budget project like this, WordPress CMS is the way to go. You can always buy templates or search for free templates, but you will most likely want to modify any template that you get. My suggestion is to install WordPress and find a theme that is similar to what you are looking for and then look at the raw PHP pages to see how a WordPress theme is structured. It is very similar to an html master page (split into three sections: header, page content, and footer) with the main difference being that the page content is served through WordPress via PHP.

Another way to go would be to design a HTML based theme exactly how you want it to look and then hire someone to convert it to a WordPress theme. I would be happy to give you a fair quote within your budget for converting the HTML theme to WordPress (check out 706design.net)

 

Well, if the problem with your colleagues is the post form of wordpress, you can build lot easier forms in it, or from the 250 you can buy a good design for the site, and even design the admin interface to something more easier (is it possible?). If they want to be lazy and want customized cms, they have to pay for it, or else learn a little about free systems.

 

we're about to make up our mind, still not sure about WP, the best part of my co-workers would like to go for a custom CMS.

 

That's not going to happen with $250, and I'd be scared of anyone that says that they can build one for that price.

 

If you are going to pay someone to code a site to use with a custom CMS (that you will also pay for), why not save money and pay someone to code a site for a free CMS (like WordPress)? What benefits do your co-workers see in using a Custom CMS over WordPress?

 

And even if you do have someone build a CMS for you, you still have to learn how to use it, and so do your employees.
Just because you have something custom coded doesn't get you off of the hook from having to learn something.

 

I concur. I have clients ranging from 14 years old to 70 years old, no one has an issue messing with wordpress. In fact, I find it harder to do a few high level things in word or excel then I do WP. Shirley you folks have a secretary lol..

Nigel

 

Thanks all who participated in this discussion. Even though you strongly recommended to use WP we decided to go for site2you.com (turnkey CMS) as the site we're interested in was created by this company. We found their site builder very easy to use and basically the template we chosen doesn't require much customization from our end. Plus, it fits our budget. The template with the installation cost $220 so we're all set. The widgets have been already implemented to a template, we do not need to do any extra installations, their video tutorials are quite clear and finally everyone agreed.
You might say it's a custom CMS but it serves our needs so does it really matter?

 

Try this CMS http://templatecms.webdevart.ru/ (languages: Russian, English, Italy, Ukrainian)

 

What's wrong with WP or Joomla??? My dog could manage those...

in my opinion this fishy thread looks like smart ad for the "turnkey CMS" nothing personal, this is just how it looks :/

 

Yep, exactly what I was thinking too!

 

Nothing is wrong with these 2 systems. Many people are using them & it's fine. We have found a different solution, that's it.
Our partners have their site developed from a scratch & do think this is the right way to do business. Are they also wrong not to choose WP or Joomla?
It's the matter of personal likes/dislikes

 

I actually just popped in to see what all the fuss was about. And what a bunch of hoo-hah this is.

I just have to ask the one question. If LisaJones was on a limited budget, how much of that budget included the money for managed hosting? Which is exactly what they got into now. Their hosting, if I read correctly, is going to run them $600 a year. Hmmm.

But wait. Now she comes back after all this. Happy with what they purchased -- and lo and behold she has a new signature! And who is she advertising in that signature? Why it is Site2You of course. Hmmm.

Gotta love them guys at Site2You and their table-based templates too.

In all fairness, there is nothing wrong with this company. It fills a need I suppose. They get your domain, install the software, provide the hosting and offer some decent looking templates to choose from. That is all good.

But when somebody comes in here and thinly disguises the fact that she was going with these guys from the get-go and/or has been working for them all along, and tries to hoodwink us -- that is just plain wrong.

So I say -- Pooh Pooh on You.