Webvanta for Joomla! Users

Webvanta empowers your front-end code with back-end capabilities

Joomla! is a widely used open-source content management system. It is best suited for community sites and mid-size publishing sites. The system is designed to allow the administrator to place modules on pages, and then customize those modules, without dealing directly with any HTML or CSS code.

Joomla! Is Best When

Webvanta Is Best When

You want to build the site by choosing from Jooma! modules and configuring them through GUI interfaces You want to build the site with your own HTML, CSS, and JavaScript and configure it directly in the code
 
Your site is community-focused, and site members will provide most of the content Your site is publishing focused, with community comments
 
You are prepared to manage the hosting of the site You like the simplicity of a hosted service
 
You want full access to all the software running on your server, and you're willing to keep it all updated and secure You'd prefer to have professional programmers keep everything updated and secure
 
You get a thrill from the text message on your phone at 1 am telling you that your server is down You like the idea of someone else being responsible for keeping the server running
 
You enjoy setting up backups and recovery plans, and making sure they run properly, indefinitely. You'd like the peace of mind that comes from knowing that everything is properly backed up, on- and off-site

Joomla! is used for the same sorts of sites as Webvanta. It's most appropriate for people who want to avoid coding details and are willing to accept some loss of flexibility; it tends to be frustrating for designers who are comfortable building in HTML, CSS, and JS and want full control.

We created Webvanta to deliver the power of Joomla! and Drupal, while at the same time eliminating most of the pain and complexity.

If you're comfortable with front-end code, Webvanta makes it easy to you quickly build sites that fulfill your vision:

  • You can have a prototype site live on the web in less than an hour. Creating custom database structures is just a matter of filing in a form that describes the information on your site.
  • You can use the same tools you use today to create designs in HTML and CSS. Then deploy that code on Webvanta and easily integrate the CMS and database capabilities. There's no rigid theme system whose structure you need to adapt to: Webvanta fits into your code, not the other way around.
  • With Webvanta, you can build sophisticated, database-driven sites on your own, slashing thousands of dollars from the cost of setting up a site and eliminating the loss of control that comes with depending on others to change things on the back end.
  • Webvanta is a hosted, managed service. You'll never again have to worry about security patches, backups, site monitoring, or system administration. You create the content and design for your site, and we deliver it, with a reliable, flexible back-end system that you can customize easily through our web-based control panel.

Getting the Best Value from Open Source

Webvanta is built on a foundation of open-source software: Ruby on Rails, Linux, MySQL, Nginx, Blueprint CSS, jQuery, and dozens of smaller packages.

Webvanta's system builds upon these open-source tools to give you a fully integrated, supported environment that abstracts away all the complexity of those technologies. Read more about our technology stack.

When working with an open-source content management system, such as Wordpress or Drupal, designers can benefit from a large community and thousands of extensions.

This cornocopia of choice has its drawbacks, however:

  • When the core software gets updated, compatibility with existing extensions is sometimes compromised.
  • There's often no support available for extensions, and you're on your own to make sure all the pieces work together.
  • You're on your own to keep up with security patches, make sure your database is frequently backed up, and keep everything running 24/7.

Read more about how Webvanta compares with open-source content management systems.