Contao Web Hosting Comparison UK

Contao Web Hosting - What's Behind It?

Contao is a classic, modular Content Management System (CMS) that is used to generate dynamic websites. Its various applications range from a small blog to a complete e-commerce system with thousands of products and customers, integrated payment systems, and more.

Contao provides a universal graphical interface for web browsers, allowing users to make all settings easily. It includes special features for SEO and user-friendliness such as dynamically generated URLs, custom page titles, and an automatic sitemap for link analysis. Users can also integrate code for analytics tools like Google Analytics or Piwik directly into the source code without needing technical programming knowledge.

Contao offers a wide range of plugins and extensions that are managed centrally through a package manager. One unique feature is its ability to resolve dependencies between packages, ensuring maximum stability with simple operation.

How Did Contao Originate and Evolve?

Contao started in 2006 as a CMS project named TYPOLight under an open-source license. In 2010, it was renamed Contao with version 2.9 due to its similarity in name to the also popular CMS Typo3.

Many users initially mistook it for a reduced version of Typo3 for smaller websites. The name Contao is derived from the combination of the first three letters of CONtent and the Vietnamese word tao, meaning create, shape, or form. A significant version update occurred in 2013 with the transition from 2.X to 3.06, introducing features like an audio/video media player, rotating log files, full-text search in the source code, and a graphical version comparison tool. Since 2014, Contao has utilized Composer for package management, offering both paid and free extensions.

Contao Version 4, released in 2015, brought numerous improvements and new features, making the Content Management System even more powerful and user-friendly:

• Symfony Framework: Contao 4 is based on the modern Symfony PHP framework, providing a solid foundation for stable and scalable web applications. This makes it easier to integrate Contao into existing Symfony projects and allows developers to access an extensive ecosystem of Symfony components.
• Composer Integration: Contao 4 integrates the Composer dependency manager, making dependency and extension management much easier. This allows developers to easily add or update additional packages, ensuring their projects are always up to date.
• More Flexible Templating Engine: With the introduction of the Twig templating engine in Contao 4, developers can create more powerful and flexible templates while improving the readability and maintainability of their code. Improved User Interface: Contao 4 offers a redesigned and modernized backend user interface, making working with the CMS even more enjoyable and intuitive.
• Increased Security: Contao 4 implements additional security measures such as the "Contao Manager Password" and improved password hashing algorithms to further enhance application security.
• Responsive Images: Contao 4 supports automatic generation of responsive images to optimize loading times and user experience on various devices.

Overall, Contao 4 stands out for its modern architecture, flexibility, extensibility, and user-friendliness, making it an attractive choice for web developers and content managers.

Contao 5.0 was released on 18.08.2022, offering many improvements and new features. The main goal of this version was to clean up the code by removing outdated functions and reducing compatibility layers. This resulted in the removal of about 70,000 lines of legacy code, making the system lighter and faster.

New Features and Improvements for Users:

• Standardization of user guidance for child elements: Improved editing of elements and new "Child Elements" icon.
• Pages and files move under "Contents": Links to the page structure and file management are now located in the "Contents" menu group.
• No more saving of faulty forms: Faulty forms are no longer saved, not even partially.
• Unsaved elements: New, unsaved elements are visible in the backend and displayed in gray.
• New element "Unfiltered HTML": Insertion of script tags or inline SVG code without requiring approval of all elements in the security settings.
• Content elements are now based on Twig templates: Improved design possibilities for content elements.

Adjustments for developers:

• Utilization of Symfony 6's Security component.
• Security voter for DCA operations intended to replace existing checkPermission() callbacks.
• Models now return real PHP types based on the database field definition.
• Country codes are now in uppercase.

The adjustments to the Contao Manager include the integration of database selection and the creation of an admin account during installation. The Contao Install Tool has been removed, and SQL dumps of themes can now be imported directly in the backend.

Using Contao 5.0 is optional, as the current Contao LTS version 4.13 will continue to receive updates until February 2025. However, transitioning to Contao 5.0 should be unproblematic for most users and developers, as the changes have been logically and user-friendly designed.

What are the costs associated with using Contao?

The Contao CMS itself is released under the open-source GNU LPGL license and can therefore be installed, used, modified, and extended free of charge.

However, one-time costs can arise, among other things, through the use of appropriate extensions and plug-ins or designs and templates. Ongoing expenses mainly come from web hosting and the domain under which the website is accessible. Both can often be booked together as a complete package, offered either as web space, managed hosting, or as its own virtual or dedicated server. Numerous operators also offer systems and web hosting tailored to the operation of Contao, where the base version of the software is already pre-installed and only needs to be adapted by the user for specific purposes. Dedicated Root Servers and unmanaged VPS Hosting have the disadvantage that administration lies solely with the customer. Therefore, they are only suitable for individuals with very extensive IT knowledge, including the corresponding knowledge of server security and the necessary time.

What are the specific advantages and disadvantages of Contao?

Advantages:

• Clean, well-structured graphical interface
• Basics can be quickly learned even by beginners
• Support for multimedia including audio, video, and integrated animations
• CMS provides extensive support and simplification for SEO
• GNU LPGL Open Source license allows for free customization
• High security and stability
• Package management for preventing misconfigurations
• Automatic updating of the CMS and extensions
• Large community with over 10,000 members
• Built-in support for mobile devices

Disadvantages:

• Multi-stage workflow is not supported
• Setting up complex approval processes requires a very high effort
• Focus on information rather than interaction, for example in forums
• Small team with few core developers
• Only supports MySQL as the database
• Templates from the publisher are chargeable

What requirements does Contao have for web hosting?

The basic installation of Contao requires only relatively low resources and can run even on small systems with low performance.

However, the actual load depends on various factors, including the plugins used, the size of the database, storage usage, traffic, multimedia usage, and the number of visits. For high flexibility, it is recommended to opt for web hosting where only the storage space is limited, not the performance, bandwidth, or data volume. Since Contao websites typically do not allow user uploads, all variable factors are outsourced in this way. Alternatives include managed hosting or servers where system optimization is done by the provider. Contao requires a Apache or NGINX or IIS web server, PHP, and a MySQL or MariaDB database as its technical foundation.

Detailed information on the technical requirements for the latest version can be found directly from the developer at: https://docs.contao.org/manual/de/installation/systemvoraussetzungen/

Are there CMS with similar capabilities to Contao?

Contao is one of the most popular CMS due to its intuitive interface, but in terms of features, it is comparable to similar projects.

Among the most popular alternatives is Joomla, which, like Contao, supports a wide range of plugins and extensions. However, newcomers often require a significantly longer familiarization period with the interface.

Another popular alternative is Drupal, which caters to both newcomers and professional experts, offering an extensive API interface for service integration and external access. However, a drawback of Drupal is its heavy database usage, leading to high load on separate DB servers.

Typo3 is particularly popular in the German market and is therefore well supported in German-speaking forums. Special advantages include multilingualism and high flexibility, making it interesting for all areas of use from private homepages to international NGOs and global businesses.

As an alternative to Contao, WordPress is also a good option, suitable for both beginners and experienced web developers. WordPress stands out for its user-friendliness and a vast selection of plugins and themes, allowing the creation of unique and appealing websites. However, a disadvantage of WordPress compared to Contao is its susceptibility to security issues due to its high popularity and the multitude of plugins that may not always be up to date. Additionally, when it comes to extensive websites with a lot of content, WordPress may lag behind Contao in terms of performance.