Last week, we took a look into open-source website design software, perfect for any budding web designer or for those on a budget. Following on from this, we’re going to highlight some of the finest in open-source website design applications.
Building extended functionality into any website, such as a Content Management System, Discussion Forums or Blog software is traditionally an expensive and cumbersome process. Unfortunately, this mainly due to high license fees or just simply in fact a web designers unfamiliarity with development languages such as PHP/MySQL, ASP or Javascript.
As a result, many web designers these days turn to the open-source community, which has emerged during the past decade and output a number of phenomenal free web applications, some of which we’ve pointed out just below.
WordPress.org – News & Blog Software
For the unlucky few who are not familiar with WordPress, it’s simply the best News & Blogging web application around, complete with a dynamic plugins platform and RSS/XML feeds.
phpBB – Forum Discussion Software
Although vBulletin and IP Board are both fantastic applications, they’re high license prices make them unsuitable for web development beginners. phpBB aims to bridge this gap and does so effectively, featuring everything you’d expect in professional forum software.
Magento – eCommerce Software
http://www.magentocommerce.com/
Magento is fast-becoming regarded as the greatest e-commerce platform available.
Over on our E-Commerce Web Design Blog, we regularly publish updates on how to tweak and use Magento effectively, including the latest news on the software.
JW Player – Flash Video Player
http://www.longtailvideo.com/players/jw-flv-player/
LongTail Video’s JW Player is the perfect application for video streaming and optimisation needs. JW Player can be extended with plugins such as Video Subtitles, Google Analytics integration and skinned from the ground up, all for free in an easy-to-use fashion.
Further Reading
For more on WordPress in particular, make sure to check out both of our WordPress Plugins for Web Designers Blog Posts (Part 1 – Part 2). Alternatively, watch our latest web design video blog on Firebug for Mozilla Firefox.
