Since the beginning of CMS “Open Source” software applications, the tides have turned on how a website development project is approached. Before Open Source code that would handle the back-end approach to a website, users had to rely on developers and web masters to build and add content for their site. This sometimes required full time staff to work on the site around the clock. Open Source applications created a library of code that would handle all of a website editing needs by using a simple tool called a “What You See Is What Your Get”, or WYSIWYG editor. It would save content edited into a database on the server which would in turn be “called for” by the website when a page is opened. This content was not hard coded into a file like it was previous to CMS functionality.
o when we talk about using Joomla!, Drupal and WordPress, we must approach these 3 applications as tools that all basically do the same thing. Manage Content! They each have a database that stores the content needed for display. The difference is only in what we don’t really see as an “end-user”.
The difference is only in ease of use and potential scalability. This means your choice as to what you use should only be based on what you are able to handle. Some folks stay with WordPress because it is known to be simple to install and customize directly from the “Dashboard” or Control Panel. Joomla! and Drupal on the other-hand needs a little more knowledge with regards to using the Control Panel (built into your WebNet Hosting account) to customize and install the product itself.
Someone with experience in web development would probably agree that the power of Joomla! is far superior to WordPress with regards to what can be accomplished in the end.
Here are a few things to consider before choosing your CMS:
- How much knowledge do you have with regards to development?
- How much expansion do you expect to have to do?
- How much custom coding do you expect to perform?
- What “theme” or “look n feel” is desired, and is it available?
- How many different levels of user groups do you expect?
The most popular CMS’s since the time of their launch have been WordPress, Joomla! And Drupal. How have these three CMS’s performed over the years and what is their popularity is something that we will have a look in this article. The war WordPress vs Joomla vs Drupal is still on and we are here to find out which CMS tops the list of being the most popular.
WordPress vs Joomla vs Drupal – Google Trends
Based on Google Insight, here is how the three popular CMS compare to each other on popularity and future forecast. WordPress is the clear winner here, It has been one of the favorite CMS of Developers, Designers, Business Owners from its start and it still continues to be so.
WordPress vs Joomla vs Drupal – Global Monthly Search
Diving more into comparing WordPress vs Joomla Vs Drupal, we look at how many people search for these CMS’s online. Again, WordPress beats both Joomla! and Drupal by taking the first place with almost 30million searches globally.
I came across this very interesting inforgraphic by Devious Media while trying to find more about comparing these cms’s. I would be more than happy to share this infographic with you.
So Which CMS to Choose?
Let’s look at the 3 CMS Applications and discuss what each one seems to be better for. If you are a beginner and this is your first website project on your own, the consensus is that WordPress is the way for you to go. If you have some experience with CMS or web development, then you would find Joomla! has the ability to do more of what you want with greater flow. Drupal falls slightly outside both of these categories because it is not easy to install or use if you are a beginner and requires more programming knowledge than Joomla! or WordPress.
Why Choose WordPress: WordPress is ideal for Blog Sites. WordPress was first CMS designed specifically for blogging. It has a simple page layout unless customized. The 3 basic parts of the page are the Header, The Footer and the Main Body where the Blog would go. It has a built in Navigational System that automatically generates new links as new pages are created. So if you are a writer wanting to share your stories, WordPress on a WebNet Hosting account is for you.
Why Choose Joomla!: So you have a business and you want to set up an online storefront. Joomla! might be the best application to serve your needs. It runs many components that are created independent from the CMS application, thus they are more capable of handling specific tasks. The installation is a bit more challenging than WordPress perhaps, but the final results will not let you down. You can easily scale your site with a Joomla! engine which can run many different components at the same time on the same page of your site.
Why Choose Drupal: Choosing between Drupal and Joomla! can be a difficult decision for businesses that need a large scale site. Both are easily scalable with some knowledge and a clear plan. These would work well within a company where you have a competent staff person to take chargeof the site and its maintenance.
Joomla! and Drupal functionality allows for many more Components/Plug Ins to be installed on the site. These applications are often built for specific tasks and can be free or purchased from third-party companies. Many of them are fully supported and can be maintained by the company that they were acquired from. This can be handy if your site needs specific hi-end and sensitive content. There are literally thousands and thousands of different add-ons for all of the CMS’s, but I have noticed a much bigger community with Joomla!. Joomla! is also internationally recognized as being the most secure in its class.
There are many other metrics apart from these that you can use to compare these CMS’s against each other. Each of them have many pro’s and cons and some people decide to choose one over the other based on cost, flexibility, effectiveness of use, availabilty of themes, modules, plugins and various other reason.However, whichever CMS you decide to use for your project here is how they rank on popularity
Winner – WordPress
2nd Position: Joomla!
3rd Position: Drupal
The Infographic and other information provided in these illustrations below reflect a summary not necessarily true to your needs or ability. It is only for informational value and should be treated as such. For example Joomla! is now running Version 3.0 beta which is several builds since the versions listed in these illustrations. Although I would tend to agree that WordPress is a more widely used platform, it might not be the one for you. Please enjoy the following illustrations as general information for consideration only.
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Boney
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OK, so let’s let this go by the way of the dodo bird and stop comparing WordPress to something else that is defined as a CMS. WordPress is NOT in the same class as Joomla or Drupal and to make a comparison to these systems is like comparing a VW bug to a Ferrari! By definition WordPress could be considered a CMS and therefor by definition Joomla and Drupal should be classified as a WCMS (web content management system). So in your comparison if you really want to compare WordPress to these other platforms then you also have to include some other parameters. Such as User access control, nested category control, asset management, file management, contact management, user management, syndication and newsfeed management, portability to other uses.
See how WordPress answers some of these questions and you will rethink the idea that it can somehow win against these other two (True) examples of a CMS!
Actually, all three chug tons of resources on the hardware that they sit on. Just because something is popular doesn’t make it the best. Under heavy load, all three of the popular CMS products fail to perform. You can install plugins and do various optimizations (I’ve done them all and nothing works), but at the end of the day, they just don’t scale without significant personnel babysitting the software. So, you have to ask, do you want to babysit software or get work done and move onto the next project? If it is the former, go ahead and use these products, otherwise, find other software that actually works under load.
It’s unfair to compare them in google trends, since “wordpress” search can be for wordpress.org (the software/docs) or wordpress.com (online platform for blogs). You know that there are people who can search “wordpress” daily in google only to go to the login page.
One important factor the infographic fails to mention is the community aspect. I have no experience with the other two communities but i find it hard to imagine a more helpful, tolerant, and open community than the Drupal community. This is huge and affects developers, designers , as well as end users. Nevertheless the Drupal Association must continue to strive to improve .?
can i develop ecom site with help of wordpress mobile4me, my developer suggest joomla.. really confused
by the way its nice article
I am new to Drupal, I have tried to use Joomla and have developed some sites in WordPress. Drupal is one of the most helpfull tools I have ever used. I have been reading opinions about the different cms’s out there. I have difficulty believing that anyone would use any of the other two once they have mastered Drupal.
Mr.Boney, can I do migration of our website’s content from PHP language to CMS? I’m a rookie SEO and I was trying to edit our website’s content but I found it very hard to do some changes. I was thinking if I can switch our coded website to a CMS without changing the website’s name. I would appreciate for your quick response. Thanks.
Dave — You can absolutely switch your site to a CMS. You ll have to recode the pages into the CMS. Most the CMS are based on the Php language so it should be an easy transition for you.
Well, I am shocked. WordPress is the winner?! OMG… It has enough power to be a blog. But I’ve never seen an online shop or some other serious project based on it. It is a “CMS” for some sites with just bla-bla-bla and no serious functions. Sure it will be the most popular with newbies. And since when number of facebook fans and tweets has become a criterion you can evaluate a CMS with? Here I can see only 2 CMS – Joomla and Drupal. In terms of ease of use, scalability and flexibility Drupal is the winner. I dealt with Joomla for quite a time, but then switched completely to Drupal because of two things – ease of installation and further use and community factor. Drupal has the most active and helpful community among the two. And one more thing – Drupal easily can be adapted to almost any server configurtaion. Joomla is much more demanding here.
My opinion: WordPress is the winner only if you plain to build easy websites. I’m working on both Drupal and WordPress and I guess that for large and particular projects I’d rely on Drupal.
A classic case of apples and oranges?
Drupal and Joomla may be comparable, but WordPress doesn’t belong with them at all. It’s a designed as a blogging platform that also happens to work for simple websites.
In addition to what was mentioned in the article, you may also want to take a peek at a more recent entrant called MODX. It’s probably most comparable to Joomla, with Drupal continuing its role as *the* heavy-weight CMS.
For a company website that doesn’t require the weight of Drupal, MODX and Joomla both look good. If I had to make a qualitative judgement, I’d say MODX benefits from a far more sensible and well thought out design both in terms of UX and software architecture.
That said, Joomla recently released a new version of their software I’ve only looked briefly at so far, but from my experience with the previous versions of Joomla it is imho a bit of a mess that someone with a modicum of programming experience should probably notice. Joomla is popular because of its huge repository of templates and plugins, but it’s clearly targeted at and best suited for semi-skilled webmasters and non-technical people, not programmers.
For me wordpress continues to lead in this “war”, it is much easier to use, and for some larger projects wordpress is quite ok.
You guys screaming about how WordPress is just for blogging, you just don’t know how easy is to do whatever you want with WordPress. I’ve seen fine and heavly customized WordPress sites that could be just like a Drupal one. I believe Drupal might be the champion of this battle, but WordPress can really be a heavy-weight, reliable CMS platform.
I really liked the article and itemized list of features between the bunch. I feel that WordPress has it’s place for blogging and some lite site work. When I have to move away from the platform is when I really want to drop different modules on pages and have a more unique look per page rather than a standard look across all of them. Every app excels in different areas. Thanks again!
I’ve worked with all 3 of these platforms, and they are all three good in their own respect.
Drupal is certainly more customizable and powerful, but if you don’t have time to master the platform and just want to get a site up and going, WordPress is the way to go.
If you want to ride first class, go with WordPress, if you want to fly the plane, go with Drupal.