You want your website to look as competent and professional as your company is, your company's carefully crafted brand shining forth on every page. When choosing between an open source and custom CMS, there are definite differences in terms of front-end site design.

As we mentioned in Part 1 of Choosing a CMS, there are numerous user-generated add-ons readily available with open source CMS.

Every kind of CMS is customizable, though all are customizable to a different extent.

Open Source CMS are typically completely customizable, provided you're willing to roll up your sleeves and code it yourself. If you're not up to the challenge of coding from scratch, there are also a number of pre-existing plugins that you can slot in when and where you need them. You'll again be climbing into the back-end and configuring and troubleshooting on your own - and after all the work you put in, the plugins may not actually do what you want them to do!

The two most important considerations to make when choosing a CMS are the complexity of your website and the extent of your technical knowledge. Do you have a small website with a few pages or an extensive site with many pages showcasing a variety of media and functions?