WordPress, Drupal and CatchCMS are three candidates for a business website hosted on your own server. Teams familiar with WordPress themes and plugins can start by testing their existing combination. Projects with complex content structures and multilingual configuration can evaluate Drupal. Teams managing product information, multiple sites or bilingual websites, with PHP maintenance already assigned, can test CatchCMS. Make the final choice after an installation, content editing, backup restoration and update exercise.
This guide focuses on deployment prerequisites and ongoing technical handover. Use the enterprise website CMS selection guide for basic concepts and page requirements, then ask the person who will maintain the site to complete this checklist.
1. Establish who will maintain your server
Buying a server and controlling the cloud account still requires a named technical owner. Confirm four responsibilities before procurement: installing and adjusting the runtime; managing domains, HTTPS, the database and file permissions; backing up and restoring the site; and testing system, theme and extension updates. An internal developer or a retained service provider can take these responsibilities. Put the contact details and service scope in the handover agreement.
Give the maintainer the dependency list and deployment instructions for the selected release. Check hosting permissions, database versions, required extensions, disk space and backup storage. Shared hosting, server panels and cloud servers impose different constraints. The actual installation result and available access determine whether that person can take over.
2. What to validate in each candidate
| Candidate | Team conditions to validate | Practical deployment task |
|---|---|---|
| WordPress | Familiar themes, plugins and maintainers | Inventory the theme and required plugins; install and check compatibility on the target host |
| Drupal | Ability to maintain Composer dependencies and configure content structures and languages | Check the selected release's environment; configure content types and language modules; rehearse an update |
| CatchCMS | Ability to maintain a PHP application and Blade themes, with structured products, languages or sites to manage | Check the delivery package and deployment rules; test the real models, theme and accounts |
WordPress currently recommends PHP 8.3 or higher, MariaDB 10.11 or higher or MySQL 8.0 or higher, and HTTPS. See the official requirements. Check the compatibility range of each theme and plugin as well. Test bilingual products, forms and attachments using the extensions selected for the project. For a business feature comparison, see WordPress and CatchCMS.
For Drupal, verify PHP, the database, extensions, Composer and hosting conditions against the selected release. See the official system requirements. Its native multilingual capabilities include Language, Content Translation, Interface Translation and Configuration Translation modules, which require enabling and configuration. See the official multilingual module guide. Ask your own team to create and edit sample records to evaluate the maintenance of complex content structures.
The current CatchCMS code requires PHP ^8.3 and declares ext-pdo and ext-zip. Check the delivery package for the complete dependencies; the default database connection is configured for MySQL. Implemented capabilities include multiple sites, multilingual content, dynamic fields and MCP operations governed by admin authorization. Validate the project's language content configuration and models and dynamic fields. The theme reads and displays the data.
3. Verify a working customer website after installation
Record the application version, dependency lock files, hosting environment and deployment date. Configure the domain, HTTPS, database, email and required directory permissions. CatchCMS specifies /public as the document root in its installation configuration. Its admin SPA, Blade frontend and themes use one application, which can be deployed with the supplied build artifacts. Project technical staff handle theme creation, modification and page integration.
- Open the home page, product list, product detail, language entry and contact page on the actual domain. Check response status, images and attachments.
- Use an everyday editor account to change a product parameter. Read the saved value back and inspect the public page. For multiple sites, check every domain and account scope.
- Submit an enquiry clearly labelled as a test. Verify the admin record, expected email and follow-up owner. Store configuration values and secrets securely for authorized staff.
- Check titles, descriptions, canonical URLs, language links and applicable structured data. Read the text, product parameters and forms on a phone.
4. Demonstrate that backups can be restored
Specify what is backed up: source code and dependency lock files, themes, the database, uploaded attachments, and securely stored configuration and secrets. Use corresponding backup points for the database and files. Record storage, retention and retrieval responsibility. WordPress documents backing up both the database and files. Drupal's Composer core update procedure also requires preparing file and database backups.
Restore once into a separate test environment. Before restoration, verify the separate database, attachment directory and test email settings. After restoration, recheck connection targets and test recipients, and limit access to the acceptance team. Then verify product counts, bilingual text, images, attachments, accounts and enquiry records, and test editing and public access. Record the backup time, restoration start and completion times, exceptions and resolution. These are measurements for your project. Agree on acceptable recovery points and recovery duration during procurement.
If an incident occurs after launch, preserve enquiries and other business data added since the backup. The maintainer should define how to reconcile and merge them. Switching a CatchCMS theme version covers template assets; system and content recovery require separate arrangements. Confirm the delivery scope for full-site backups, automatic updates and managed operations in writing.
5. Rehearse an update to verify the maintenance plan
Apply an actual available update in the test environment. Record the old version and original values, create a recoverable backup, then update and repeat the checks in section 3. The WordPress update instructions cover updates and backup checks; also test the project's selected theme and plugins. For Drupal, follow the official Composer procedure for core dependencies, database updates, caches and status checks, then inspect pages as an anonymous visitor.
For CatchCMS, check the delivery release instructions alongside project customizations. Technical staff should record changes to the system, dependencies and theme separately. Rehearse a rollback and verify how content and enquiries will be preserved. Assign named owners to four tasks: monitoring updates, testing, approving production changes and handling incidents. Record response times and included maintenance hours from the service agreement.
6. Compare all three using the same business materials
Fictional acceptance example: an equipment company has 30 products in Chinese and English. Marketing staff enter content, and a retained provider handles technical maintenance. The count organizes the test; performance findings require their own measurements. Select three products with different parameters and one manual, then perform the same tasks in each candidate:
- Configure model numbers, parameters, images and document links, and enter both languages. Ask marketing staff to change a parameter independently and verify both language versions.
- On a phone, navigate from the product list to its detail and enquiry entry. Check the attachment version and language, then verify a test enquiry and its notification.
- Ask the provider to back up and restore the site into a separate environment. Check the three products, images, manual and test enquiry.
- Rehearse an available update and a rollback. Record duration, exceptions, required access and people involved.
Treat task duration and failure causes as your team's measured results. List payments, orders, subscriptions, communities or CRM integrations as separate requirements. Request complete workflow demonstrations and confirm development, data and maintenance responsibilities for each.
7. Define handover, licensing and ongoing services
Collect the domain and hosting management arrangements, code and theme versions, database and attachment backups, restoration procedure and update contact. Confirm that the company or appointed maintainer can retrieve authorized deliverables and manage secrets under the agreed rules. Confirm multiple sites, client delivery, deployment counts, update entitlements and support separately in writing. For CatchCMS, use current pricing and source-code licensing together with the terms agreed by both parties.
Budget annually for hosting, backup storage, email, third-party extensions, translation and maintenance work. Enter actual quotations in the source-code and SaaS cost checklist. When changing providers, the handover scope should also cover backup retrieval, account transfer and incident ownership.
8. Copy this acceptance record before choosing
Use these columns for every record: Requirement | Candidate and version | Owner | Actual URL or backup location | Operation date | Result and evidence | Outstanding work | Deadline. Create entries for configuration, editing, restoration, updates and handover. Record secrets and backup locations containing personal data through an authorized secure channel.
Prioritize the solution whose essential tasks have passed, whose maintainer can operate it independently and whose support scope is clear. Use project enquiries to submit your hosting environment, product samples, languages, site count and maintenance arrangements, and request confirmation of CatchCMS deployment and delivery against this checklist.