Hi and this is my 1st post here!
I am currently getting quotes to build a fairly simple restaurant directory / offers booking website. I have had various companies offer bespoke, joomla, drupal and wordpress solutions.
I Have a budget of 20k so should I be looking at something in say phpcake or joomla?
I would rather have something clean and elegant also my requirements spec is good.
What are all your thoughts? A joomla mishmash that works or a custom but more expensive phpcake?
It really depends what do you want to achieve. If the Joomla and Joomla's components are enough - go ahead with them. If not, try to modify them and if this is not working as well, then probably is better to use some framework to build that site from scratch.
Really depends from the requirements.
There is a collection of Joomla templates that could be hacked together to work but I just have a gut feel that a bespoke site would be a better long term option. I am not sure what I am expecting from Stack Overflow, I guess I am looking for some comfort and direction..
Drupal will offer you more flexibility and a better administrative experience than Joomla. WordPress is the least flexible, but the most elegant administrative interface. If you see this site growing in ways that are difficult to foresee, I would definitely go with either Drupal or a custom CMS built on a framework like CakePHP (or Django, CodeIgniter, etc). I've seen people invest a lot in a Joomla site only to jump ship because it couldn't grow with their needs, and it is relatively awkward to use.
One advantage of using an existing CMS is that it may be easier to replace your developer if necessary, since a lot of people are familiar with, or could easily become familiar with WordPress, Drupal, or Joomla. If your developer is working from scratch, you may end up with a poorly documented codebase that would be difficult for someone else to jump into.
I don't totally agree with Nik's comment regarding security. If you (or the developer) stay on top of upgrades for the CMS you choose (and the installed modules), that is probably the most secure option, since security experts are regularly testing and fixing holes in these systems. The danger is in using something like Drupal (or Joomla or WordPress) but failing to install security updates -- then you have a system with known and published vulnerabilities.