I have been a newbie and have seen newbies asking this questions that what script they should use for their particular website. When there are more then one option with the webmaster it is quite a good situation but then it puts them into confusion most of the times that which way should they go. I also have same doubts whenever I start my planning for a new website.

So I made small list of things that I watch out for whenever choosing the ready made script or whenever making a new one myself or by some programmer. (In most cases myself)

• Security – So it keeps your site running.
• Extensibility – So you can add new things to it with newer fixes and plugins or modules.
• Structure from SEO point of view – Like printer friendly pages, archive pages, SEO friendly URL’s, layout of the content that the spiders will see on your site.
• Coding if the script is opensource and if you are a programmer who would want to add or edit some fucntions.
• Design – So humans can also find it more appealing and may visit it more then once.
• Language – Mostly nowadays it is in php but still if it is in other language then you should decide what kind of server specs you have with you and will this script work in that environment flawlessly.
• Price – If it is paid script or a free one. What are you getting for the money that you are spending on it.
• Uniqueness – This point always inspires me to code my own and I just forget all the previous advantages a script is giving me and start coding my own. But if you are not a coder then you can leave this one out. Or get one coded exclusively for your site.
• Maintenance – If you have experience then you can surely tackle this one by extending its functionality or by sparing your time. If you can come up with your own idea to do the repeated maintenance automatically then this can be made easier.
• Administration – Which could be the part of maintenance.

After I do this much I mostly find the good one out of the bunch of scripts.