Platform

Three ways to build the venue site are on the table, priced in the Estimate: a standalone Squarespace site, a second site served by the main site's application, or a section of mowp.org. The two custom options run on the main MOWP website's stack: Payload CMS inside a Next.js application, with content in Postgres, on infrastructure MOWP already has.

What the custom options reuse

• The parts already exist. The block library, the forms with submissions captured in the CMS, the SEO and structured-data layer, the consent banner and the design system are all part of the main site build now in development. A venue site is assembled from them rather than started from nothing.
• One CMS to learn. MOWP's content team is already going to be working in Payload every day. A second system means a second login, a second set of habits and a second thing to remember how to do once a year.
• The look carries over. The design system's theming means the venue site can have its own identity without being designed from scratch, and without looking unrelated to MOWP if it stays MOWP-branded.
• Search markup is part of the framework. Metadata, structured data and sitemaps are ours to control rather than whatever a template emits, and the emitters are part of the same build.

No lock-in

The stack is open source with no license fees. Content lives in a Postgres database MOWP controls and can export. This matters more here than on the main site, because a venue business that grows may eventually want purpose-built venue management software, and the content should be able to move.

For what it costs to run, see Hosting & Running Costs.