Solutions

You want to publish your own website? Here are some good ways to start:

Webspace

To publish a website, you need a webserver. That is basically a computer connected to the internet that is running continuously serving website data to the world. You could theoretically run this webserver yourself. But it is much more common to rent some so-called “webspace” on the webserver of somebody else, possibly a professional service provider. There is no need to worry about your website in the hands of a company. They only provide the webspace where you will upload your data including all the technical details necessary. But you can take your contents down and to another provider whenever you please, without loosing anything. There are lot of these “webhosting” providers offering different tiers. To find the right option, you might ask:

  • How much space do I need? This is measured in megabytes or gigabytes and exactly matches the size of your website data on your local computer. Chances are high that the smallest option is enough for you.
  • How much website traffic do I need? This means: How much data will be sent from your webspace to the visitors? Anytime some one accesses some content from your website, this amount of data is added to the website traffic. This is often measured per month. Again, chances are high the smallest option is enough for you. Congratulations if you expect more visitors traffic!
  • Do I need any additional technologies? To run content management systems, you might need some extra stuff running on the server. A most common example: If you want to run WordPress (see below), you will need the scripting interpreter PHP and a MySQL database to store your website contents.
  • Do I need customer support? More expensive options might include support by chat, e-mail or telephone. That might be convenient im some cases, but most problems should be solvable without.
    In most cases you will end up with a pretty low tier that will cost you 2-6 Euro a month. Signing a contract and all communication with the webhosting provider will happen through their website and e-mail in largely automated ways. Here are some links to well-known providers.

Website

Plain HTML+CSS

Website content in its most basic form is a folder of text files coded in HTML and CSS, possibly referencing some media files, images etc. You can write these files with any code editor. This way you have maximum control over your website. It will load super fast, will stay persistent for the foreseeable future and you will not rely on any software, service or company. On the other hand there are two downsides to coding your website yourself: First, you need to learn HTML and CSS. The basics are not that hard and there is a plethora of free learning resources online. Second, you will only be able to update your website content by editing your code.

WordPress

WordPress is a “content management system” for websites. And it is by far the most popular, claiming that 40% of all websites are run with WordPress. It is freely available and open-source, thousands of contributors maintain and improve the code since its first release in 2003. To use WordPress, you need the scripting interpreter PHP and a MySQL database on your webserver. Then you upload the WordPress code files and start the setup process, which initialises the database tables. You can pick from many different website designs called “themes”. Once ready, you can log-in by password and edit the content, without touching code at all.

At first WordPress was primarily focussed on weblogs, but myriads of plugins and themes made it grow into many different directions. In recent years WordPress evolved even more with the “block-based editor” and “full-site editing” into a much a more powerful system. Setting up a standard website is easy and fast.
But you need to be aware of two downsides to using WordPress: First, its success made it an attractive target for hacking. If you do not maintain your WordPress website and install updates regularly, you will fall victim to hackers, spammers and other mischief. Second, your content will be deeply intertwined with the inner structures of WordPress. There are many options and some things are easy to do in WordPress, but others are very hard or impossible. You can export your content, but you will not be able to import it into another CMS without any damage.
https://wordpress.org

Knot

We see a huge desire for another CMS that is easy to setup and maintain. That is why we created Knot. It is running on PHP and all data is saved in text files without the need of a database. At the moment Knot is in an early phase of development and not ready for usage. But we are looking for contributors! Please drop a mail if you are interested in joining the team. Knot is not only a website CMS, but also has an integrated feed reader and other cool functionality.