Hi everyone or anyone,

I am currently using coffeecup visual site design and I'm wondering, for someone like me who is new at making sites, which is easier, coffeecup or wordpress? What advantages are there to either?

I seriously don't know if I should continue investing in more programs with coffeecup when I had such a hard time building the little that I've done, I find coffeecup hard unless your more advanced or am I missing something. I've noticed a lot more programs now compared to when I bought the program. It is more user friendly now?

Please let me know why I would keep investing in coffeecup products instead of free wordpress?

Greatly appreciated
Brenda

www.glennda.ca (using coffeecup)

Hi Glenda, I hate to spoilt the bubbles but a basic understanding of how html and the web works is truly required to be able to apple any 'design skills' into a webpage. Having said that, I do digress that it is a skill that anyone of anyage is able to master and the fact that you've managed to create a website + domain, its a good start.

Still, a designer's 'feel' of how to make a web layout work cannot be underestimated. Where it used to take hours of coding and countless tests for a great website, there are tools now which makes it a lot easier. Tools lke CoffeeCup softwares and Wordpress.

So which one is easier?

Honestly, there's no right or wrong answer here. If based on Glennda.ca as a guide, then I'll say that CoffeeCup's software is much easier, allows so much more control, and provides greater cosmetic options. A 1 or 2 page website suffices for your requirements and I definitely believe that HTML+Images is the way to go.

Do note that Wordpress is a content management system, whereby you'll really need it if you're looking to be managing tons of information over the years, and it suits blogs, ezines, newssites and such.

I'll be glad to provide further info if you may wish so. Fell free~

Hiya Brenda,

What version of the software are you using? It doesn't sound like you've updated it in a while, and since you've already purchased the Visual Site Designer, you may as well say that cost wise CoffeeCup VSD vs. Wordpress are now equal because updates are always free for CC software once you have purchased something.

If you haven't updated it in a long time, I would suggest you do so and see if that helps matters at all. As Mar already said, there is no right or wrong answer here, the 2 systems are just 2 different ways of setting up websites.

I can say from experience of working with Wordpress for a few months now that although it may "look" easier, unless you have some experience in Content Management Systems or Blog systems already, it won't be all that much easier than VSD and it's most definitely not as versatile as building your own site and doing exactly what you want to it. Since you already have some idea of what can be done with VSD I'll give you some ideas of what Wordpress is/does.

Wordpress is a theme based system that has modules built in to a small degree and where you can download a ton of plugins from others that have built them for it. Plugins include things like Calendars (reg. & interactive), Music Players, Video Players, and a ton of things I can't even think of that you wouldn't even think to put on a site, but they are pretty cool indeed. They aren't all totally plug & play, some need some extensive setups, and some just go as soon as you install them.

The themes are changable, but not very editable as in you can't just move anything where you want it, it is pretty much setup as it will be and all you can really do is change the colors, some images & styling of text, some have layout choices and some don't. You're pretty locked into their setup for the most part. I will say though that there are some pretty cool themes built out there for it.

All in all Wordpress is a pretty cool setup. I've been playing with one for the blog setup of my business site in my signature, and also messing with one on my personal site which I don't have all setup yet that I'm creating as the main site system rather than just a blog system. It does allow you to create new pages/tabs, setup drop down menus if the theme has it built in, and in this case make the Wordpress the actual site rather than just a blog. The learning curve on how to do this is not real easy, and only because I've worked with other Content Management Systems (CMS) am I able to find my way around it easier than some would.

One of the main downfalls to CMS's is that you are almost always subject to "their" updates and flaws. If you update it and it crashes, either you best know how to go back (meaning you hopefully remembered to back it all up first on your server), or you will need to always wait on support from them to help you get back online. If a plugin updates and all of a sudden doesn't work anymore, that's too bad, you can very seldom go back to an earlier version and now you're out a plugin and need to find something else to take it's place. I myself don't like always being reliant on everyone else's schedules of updates & mishaps.

Personally, I would stay with VSD or even learn HTML & CSS rather than doing Wordpress if you have any inklings of learning site building. There's no learning of site building with Wordpress, and you will need some HTML knowledge at the very least as well as some CSS if you want to customize things further than the theme editors allow. There's no learning help within the system that shows you what to put in the HTML areas or in the CSS areas. May as well learn it first and go with the more versatile setups like HTML Editor & VSD where you can create exactly what you want.

I disagree, but only a little. VSD by far is the easier of the two "philosophies" to web development. VSD allows for complete control over your document without having to know any code. It's nearly impossible to use wordpress without learning something about coding. As Jo Ann said if your site goes down (and odds are good that at some point it will), then you will have to know code.

Awesome, thank you so much everyone. I think I'm leaning towards staying with Coffeecup. However, I've love to learn more about how to use it. I personally find it hard to use and a little boring. I'll make sure I'm updated and maybe start learning other programs here. Just using VSD right now. Maybe I should look at the themes here. It has been a while since I've been on the main site here so I'll look around and check things out a little more.

You've all been very helpful, thank you. Now I'm going to check out yours sites and maybe I can ask specific questions.

Thank you again
Brenda

you're quite welcome and ask away if you have more questions, we've all been where you are and had to start somewhere so you've already got it moving. Staying with VSD for now is probably a good idea, but playing with the other stuff is always a fun way to learn new things too so have a good time with it all