My forum is separate from my web page. Maybe I need to talk to someone at OurChurch.com about the possibility of having this new innovation.

Mitchell

Thanks for writing. The reason you don’t see a price here is because the blog is meant to inform folks about the value of a CMS and let them explore options. Costs can vary from free to under $1000 to tens of thousands of dollars for commercial software. But don’t let that scare you. If you check my post under the subheading “CMS Installed and Customized for You,” you’ll notice a link underlined in red (”OurChurch.Com’s Custom CMS Express for Churches”). It takes you to the information that OurChurch.Com provides about our own affordable Custom CMS Express. From there you can look in the menu for our price sheet. You should always take hosting costs into account as they are priced separately.

In Item 9, Affordability, I stated: “But today there are CMS programs available to the community at large. Mambo, Drupal and Xoops are just some of the free possibilities you can explore if your web hosting includes cPanel with Fantastico.” I’m essentially saying that if you feel comfortable installing a CMS on your own, then you can do so with a few mouse clicks and check it out for yourself. These programs have very active forum communities and offer lots of free support… but they won’t do everything for you. It’s a much more hands-on approach. That’s why we offer a paid service for people who need more assistance.

OurChurch.Com clients who have Bronze, Silver, Gold or Platinum hosting have cPanel installed. For everyone else, one of the minimum requirements is an available database. Ask your web host if you have questions about what is available with your hosting plan.

If you are exploring the possibilities of using a CMS and you want to know more about our paid services, there’s an easy way to get more information. Simply request a free consultation. Go to http://ourchurch.com/design/ and look for a link in the menu for a “Free Consultation.” Complete the form and we’ll contact you personally.

I hope this information is helpful to you!
Pam

That must have been quite an experience! Thanks for the warning but I do want to reassure our readers that, thanks to diligent monitoring by the open source community, such events are rare. That is why we recommend software that was developed by an active community, and why we sign up to receive email updates from them whenever a threat is reported.

I’m not sure that a CMS is any less secure than any other software, such as a phpBB forum, but you do have to stay alert and not procrastinate about updates.

OurChurch.Com’s servers are backed up daily, but it is still important for people who use a CMS, forum, guestbook or any other program that uses a database to back up their sites regularly and retain copies of their files “just in case.”

Thanks for writing!
Pam

Some of the programmers release updates and security fixes in a more timely manner.

Be sure to back up!