Subscribe to this feed October 8, 2007

TYPO3 and Wordpress

I just installed my first Wordpress site this weekend because a friend needed my help with launching "a quick and easy starter web page/site" to help with her business. Admittedly (and I'm almost ashamed to admit it), this was my first Wordpress install. And now I'm proud to say that it won't be my last. After helping her get her entire site up and running (from domain name registration to handoff) in UNDER AND HOUR (without ever using Wordpress before), I was simply amazed at the approach that the Wordpress community takes towards simplicity and ease of use.

Initially, I had thought of TYPO3, particularly since I've been developing sites exclusively with TYPO3 for the past five years. But for a simple page/site? I had run into this issue many times in the past with other friends and family who wanted the same, and in each case, the problem was that offering them a TYPO3 solution was often much more than they needed - essentially for the same reason you don't exactly need a Ferrari to drop the kids off at school! Not that TYPO3 isn't capable of handling a simple page. It's just that TYPO3 was designed to be the most comprehensive solution imaginable, capable of serving small sites and large enterprises alike. Yet the truth is: sometimes the grand vision of extensibility and configurability can interpreted by some as being "overdeveloped" - especially when all you want is a blog or a simple site.

According to Google Trends, Wordpress (after starting in 2003) quickly surpassed TYPO3 in overall popularity: http://www.google.com/trends?q=wordpress%2C+typo3. I suspect this is due to the specialization that Wordpress offers as a blogging platform. And I'm also guessing that many are choosing Wordpress for its quick and dirty ability to "get the job done" with respect to simple site development. But would also anticipate that Wordpress will start to encounter many of the challenges that TYPO3 currently faces the more that Wordpress diversifies its plugin base, as noted by Michael Keukert, here: http://www.technozid.de/2005/05/20/wordpress-and-typo3/.

TYPO3 is a broad-based CMS framework that wants to become specialized. Wordpress is a specialized CMS framework that wants to become more broad-based. In this sense, TYPO3 and Wordpress are moving toward one another. Each have their strengths. And each have their challenges. Yet both can and should learn from one another. Perhaps some form of partnership is in order?

With respect to TYPO3 (since this has been my primary area of investment), I do hope that TYPO3 will draw significant insights from the many factors that (I suspect) have contributed to Wordpress' explosive growth:

  1. their apparent overwhelming and sustained commitment toward the enduser as layperson (not necessarily as developer);
  2. their "attitude" towards simplicity and user-friendliness;
  3. their focus on rapid deployment of the core software;
  4. an extremely lightweight codebase (1MB zip file);
  5. a high-degree of specialization of their core product (i.e., blogging platform);
  6. a low-to-minimal learning curve for the end user;

As the TYPO3 core team works diligently to refine the TYPO3 architecture with the long-awaited v5.0 release (http://typo3.org/teams/50-development/), many of the above goals are already on their radar. And I believe that a commitment to these core principles will uniquely position TYPO3 to again set the next CMS standard.

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