Open source, template driven website builder UI that produces a WordPress site?

  • I’m a programmer at a domain registrar and web hosting company. In the past year or so we have branched into custom web design for individuals and small businesses. Currently all our solutions are WordPress-based.

    We find that we have a small but vocal group of clients that are not ready for custom web design, and are not prepared to learn WordPress themselves either. Currently these clients are using our legacy templated website builder solution based on a classic ASP framework that we purchased and customized. While the platform is a complete dead-end, it does have several good features, including sub-page support, galleries, contact forms, product catalogs, and Paypal integration. It is also easier for a non-technical user than WordPress — better at holding their hand with wizard interfaces and big buttons, etc.

    Some within the company are suggesting what essentially amounts to an updated version of the same solution, based on Plesk’s SiteBuilder platform. I believe this will simply lead to another dead-end a few years from now. What I would really love to adopt instead is an open source, template driven website builder UI that produces a working WordPress site. (Note that it can be commercial and paid, as long as we have access to the source to customize/maintain it.) My thinking is that the future of the WordPress platform is bright and stable, and any clients that build small templated sites on it will be able to easily upgrade them as their needs grow in the future. In addition, should they later require custom development, we will be in a position to leverage our WordPress know-how, including any plugins and themes that we have customized, to get their job done faster and cheaper.

    I’m surprised that after five minutes of Googling, I haven’t found something that matches my description. Maybe I’m using the wrong search terms. I would have thought that such a huge and mature platform as WordPress would already have spawned something like this. Does anyone have any suggestions?

    Another way to put it is that we want to offer a service competitive with GoDaddy’s WebSite Tonight, but that produces a working WordPress site.

    If nothing like this exists, I would love to help build it, but I doubt our management team would allocate the time ?? Maybe as a side project.

Viewing 7 replies - 1 through 7 (of 7 total)

  • This CMS will not fit the bill. You are describing an online build your site solution.

    Did you find anything ? I would be very much interested as well .

    Hi mymarketingfile,

    From what I could understand from your post is that you want to provide a hosting service so that non coders would be able to design a WP template and page layout. There are all ready products which exist. I personally do not hosting services when the client or WP developer can purchase the plugin.

    For instance, Blogger is a hosted solution, however the client does not get the value of having the app on their server. The trade off, in the long run, is not for the client but instead in favor for Blogger.

    RonDsy Thanks for the info .

    Could you please guide me toward those existing solutions ? I wan unable to find any on my own ( which is really odd ??

    Hi mymarketingfile,

    I am an editor at talking manuals and the staff has standardized on using Ether Content Builder for most of the page layout. The plugin is maintained and with regular updates. The author is developing a WP template engine for non coders. These are both premium plugins.

    See plugin review at: https://talkingmanuals.com/content-builder-review

    There will be other products that will be reviewed in the future.

    Regards,

    Ron

    RonDsy … You are great . Thank you .

    I don’t won’t to violate any forum rules … what is the correct way of getting a hold of you outside this venue ?

    Contact Us at talking manuals ?? Please add Ron to the note.

Viewing 7 replies - 1 through 7 (of 7 total)
  • The topic ‘Open source, template driven website builder UI that produces a WordPress site?’ is closed to new replies.