Website Options Comparison

Last Updated September 2025

Following are some pros and cons of the web content solutions used most for websites in the College of Fine Arts. To read more about all options see Ways to Get a Website.

On this page:

• • University Blogs Service (UBS)
  • UT Drupal Kit – Managed
  • UT Drupal Kit – Custom
  • Pantheon Web Hosting for Custom Buile Websites

University Blogs Service (UBS)

Summary: Features are more limited but colors and fonts in the style layer are customizable. The College of Fine Arts web team provides stewardship for CSUs using UT themed public facing UBS websites in the college.

Pros

• Free
• Web browser interface for editing and creating content.
• Students, faculty and staff can create their own sites, including for student organizations.
• Limited theming and styling is available.
  • The COFA web team typically starts with the University-branded theme, that looks like an official UT site. Example: https://sites.utexas.edu/gaming/
  • We can add some minimal style, particularly for color and fonts, to try to brand the site to match our CSUs. Example: https://sites.utexas.edu/bands/
• Features:
  • News/blog type: https://sites.utexas.edu/theatredance-blog
  • Carousel slideshow: https://sites.utexas.edu/longhornband/
  • Hero video or image: https://sites.utexas.edu/gaming/
  • Embed video from Youtube or Vimeo: https://sites.utexas.edu/clavis/projects/permanent-seminar-in-latin-american-art/
  • Audio file embeds: https://sites.utexas.edu/atthearchives/2023/12/20/retelling-histories-in-tejano-corridos/
  • Responsive grid layout that can also act as faculty or staff profile layout: https://sites.utexas.edu/ut-live-design-showcase/showcase-presenters/
  • Social Media links and social share capabilities
  • Customizable footer
  • Additional features should be possible:
    • Qualtrics forms
    • Google Maps
    • possibly others
• Sandbox test site available for experimenting
• Google Analytics, if enabled.
• Adhering to all university accessibility, security and privacy requirements is largely built into the site as long as content creation guidelines are followed, such as adding alternate text. More complex and edge case features also require a little extra know how to make them accessible, which the web team can assist with.

Cons

• Restriction on the domain name path. The site must use the root URL pattern: https://sites.utexas.edu/[unique-identifier].
  • However, it is possible to create a redirect with the web team’s assistance.  Example: https://thecollections.utexas.edu
• Limited event list capabilities. The web team can use RSS feeds for events from the parent or department website, https://sites.utexas.edu/cofacareers. There may be capability to use Google calendar and ical.
• Limited theme style options.
• No additional content types, only News/Blog.
• No simple way to include hide reveal/accordion or tab layouts  for content creation.

UT Drupal Kit – Managed

Summary: Feature are limited but rich, with Events, News, Profiles and hero content. The style layer is not customizable. The College of Fine Arts web team provides stewardship for UTDK websites in the college.

Examples: https://utmesoamerica.org/ and https://operations.finearts.utexas.edu/

Pros

• Web browser interface for editing and creating content.
• University-branded theme that looks like the main UT website
• Features
  • News content type
  • Events content type
  • Profile/Directory content type
  • Large hero images
  • Carousel slideshow
  • Embed video and audio from multiple sources
  • Multiple responsive grid layouts with fields that you can plug your content into
  • Hide reveal / accordion and tab layouts  for content creation
  • Social Media links
  • Editable footer
• Sandbox test site for experimenting in.
• Google Analytics enabled by campus ET Web team
• Adhering to all university accessibility, security and privacy requirements is largely built into the site as long as content creation guidelines are followed, such as adding alternate text.

Cons

• Cost of website hosting, which depends on how many hits the website receives per month. (For many sites it is only around $300 a year.)
• Only one non-customizable theme, unless you contract with ET, see the UT Drupal Kit – Custom option below.
• Features and functionality limited to those noted above as pros, unless you contract with ET, see the UT Drupal Kit – Custom option below.

UT Drupal Kit – Custom

Summary: The Enterprise Technology Consulting Services team can provide some customization, such as style edits or additional functionality to the UT Drupal Kit for a fee. The availability of this service varies.

Examples: https://cml.music.utexas.edu/ and https://dbp.theatredance.utexas.edu/

Pros

• All of the above plus whatever custom features you pay for.

Cons

• All of the above, unless you have paid for changes to the service.

Pantheon Web Hosting for Custom Websites

Examples: https://rrk.finearts.utexas.edu/ and https://landmarks.utexas.edu/

Pros

• For building custom (contracted) Drupal or WordPress websites.
• The UT Drupal Kit distributions is available for contractors to customize.

Cons

• Cost of contractors and website hosting, which depends on how many hits the website receives per month. (For many sites it is only around $300 a year)
• Cannot be used for any other type of website, only Drupal or WordPress.
• An additional maintenance agreement is highly recommended.
• Must have code developer skills to be able to program a website.
• Responsible for adhering to all university accessibility, security and privacy policies and requirements.