The Juice Behind Your Website

Drupal vs. Joomla
Comparing the top content management systems, from easy to expert

posterous.com
If you need: A blog.

Good for: Cool-kid novices and techie creative types. You don't even have to register. Send your text, photo, video or link in an e-mail to post@posterous.com and, like magic, your blog is created and updated for you.

Bad for: Anyone who likes bells and whistles. Unless you're a coding whiz, you're stuck with something basic.

Famous user: Guy Kawasaki's holykaw.alltop.com

Price: Free.

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WordPress
If you need: A blog, homepage, some videos and photos.

Good for: Graphic designers, game makers and other creatives who want a kick-ass site that's easy to use. More plug-ins than you can count and an endless supply of premium and free themes. The most features for the least work.

Bad for: Anyone who likes to build from scratch. Not as easy to customize as more powerful systems.

Famous user: Tech Crunch, techcrunch.com

Price: Free--but you need someone to design it. Pros start at $1,000; ready-made themes at $20, plus installation.

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typepad
If you need: A blog, homepage, some videos and photos.

Good for: Journalists, bloggers and others who don't want to bother with too many gizmos. Works well if you need a few static pages and don't mind keeping things utilitarian.

Bad for: The coding illiterate. You'll need it to integrate Moveable Type (TypePad's more powerful version) into an existing site. Fewer in-house and third-party themes than WordPress.

Famous user:The Los Angeles Times, latimes.com/news/blogs

Price: $8.95 per month for one to three blogs.

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drupal
If you need: A blog, home-page, videos, photos, e-commerce, ad server and community features.

Good for: Someone who needs customized content and isn't afraid to learn how to use it. Drupal can do just about anything. And if it can't, a huge user community is ready to swap tips to help your geek along.

Bad for: Layman, forget about it. This thing is hard to use.

Famous user:The New York Observer, observer.com

Price: Free--but. It's open source, meaning that an army of developers works on plug-ins for this thing gratis. So unless you're a coding ninja, you won't know how to install them.

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joomla
If you need: A blog, home-page, videos, photos, e-commerce, ad server and community features.

Good for: Businesses that need more customization than what WordPress offers. The learning curve is less than Drupal's, but just a little less.

Bad for: Anyone looking for real customization. Its user/developer community isn't as substantial as Drupal's or WordPress's, making some essential plug-ins harder to find.

Famous user: IHOP, at ihop.com

Price: Free--but. Like Drupal, Joomla is probably too complex to develop, design and maintain yourself.

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vignette
If you need: The kitchen sink, plus.

Good for: Big businesses that need a major, fully customizable website--think managing reservations on a hotel site or paying bills online.

Bad for: Anyone on a budget. And talk about complex.

Famous user: Hyatt, hyatt.com

Price: Upward of $250,000. Will that be cash or credit?

This article was originally published in the June 2010 print edition of Entrepreneur with the headline: The Juice Behind Your Website.