Drupal vs Joomla! vs WordPress

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Drupal

10.8K
3.8K
+ 1
359
Joomla!

1.5K
333
+ 1
37
WordPress

95.9K
38.4K
+ 1
2.1K

Drupal vs Joomla! vs WordPress: What are the differences?

Introduction

In the realm of Content Management Systems (CMS), Drupal, Joomla!, and WordPress are three major players. While all three platforms are popular and have their own unique features, there are key differences that set them apart from each other.

  1. Customization Options: Drupal offers a high level of customization and flexibility, making it ideal for complex websites with specific requirements. Joomla! also provides a good amount of customization but is more user-friendly for those with less technical expertise. On the other hand, WordPress is known for its ease of use and simplicity, making it suitable for beginners but with fewer customization options compared to Drupal.

  2. Community Support: Drupal has a strong developer community which results in frequent updates and a plethora of modules and themes available for users. Joomla! also has a supportive community but may not be as extensive as Drupal. WordPress boasts the largest community among the three, which translates to a vast number of plugins and themes, making it easy to find support and resources.

  3. Security Features: Drupal is renowned for its robust security features and is often the go-to choice for websites that prioritize security. Joomla! also takes security seriously and has a dedicated Security Strike Team that releases patches and updates regularly. WordPress, while actively combating security threats, is often considered more vulnerable due to its popularity and large number of third-party plugins.

  4. Scalability: Drupal is known for handling large amounts of data and traffic efficiently, making it a preferred choice for enterprise-level websites. Joomla! is also scalable but may not perform as well as Drupal in handling high volumes of traffic. WordPress, while suitable for small to medium-sized websites, may face performance issues when dealing with a large number of concurrent users.

  5. Learning Curve: Drupal has a steep learning curve, requiring users to have a solid understanding of web development concepts. Joomla! is more user-friendly and easier to grasp for beginners, but still may require some technical knowledge. WordPress, with its intuitive interface and extensive documentation, is the most user-friendly of the three and can be quickly picked up by individuals with little to no technical background.

  6. Cost Considerations: Drupal is typically more costly to set up and maintain due to the expertise required for customization and development. Joomla! falls in the mid-range in terms of costs, while WordPress is generally the most cost-effective option for individuals or small businesses looking to establish an online presence without breaking the bank.

In Summary, the choice between Drupal, Joomla!, and WordPress largely depends on the specific needs and preferences of the website owner, with considerations such as customization options, community support, security features, scalability, learning curve, and cost playing pivotal roles in the decision-making process.

Decisions about Drupal, Joomla!, and WordPress
Kamaldeep Singh

I usually take a slightly different tack because the technical level of people I usually am dealing with is lower. I tend to be pitching to decision makers and not tech people. A bit of my standard answer is below.

Wix and Squarespace are proprietary systems meant for unsophisticated users who want to build their own websites quickly and easily. While they are good for that specific use case, they do not offer any way to move beyond that if your needs arise. Since they are proprietary closed systems if you need something more advanced at some point your only option is to start over.

WordPress is an Open Source CMS that allows much more freedom. It is not quite as simple to setup and create a new site but if you are talking to me then you are not looking to build it yourself so that is really a non-issue. The main benefit of WordPress is freedom. You can host it on virtually any decent web hosting service and since it uses PHP and MySQL you can have virtually any developer take over a project without problem.

I believe in open source because of that freedom. It is good for me as a developer and it is good for my clients. If something were to happen to me or my company you would have no problem finding another qualified WordPress developer to take over the site in a totally seamless fashion. There would be no need to start from scratch.

Additionally the extensible nature of WordPress means that no matter what your future needs, WordPress can handle it. Adding things like e-commerce and custom quoting systems are just two examples of advanced solution's that I have added to WordPress sites years after they were first built.

WordPress is used by tiny one person businesses all the way up to major websites like the NY Times and I think it is right for this project as well.

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Xander Groesbeek
Founder at Rate My Meeting · | 5 upvotes · 217.7K views

So many choices for CMSs these days. So then what do you choose if speed, security and customization are key? Headless for one. Consuming your own APIs for content is absolute key. It makes designing pages in the front-end a breeze. Leaving Ghost and Cockpit. If I then looked at the footprint and impact on server load, Cockpit definitely wins that battle.

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10 Years ago I have started to check more about the online sphere and I have decided to make a website. There were a few CMS available at that time like WordPress or Joomla that you can use to have your website. At that point, I have decided to use WordPress as it was the easiest and I am glad I have made a good decision. Now WordPress is the most used CMS. Later I have created also a site about WordPress: https://www.wpdoze.com

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Pros of Drupal
Pros of Joomla!
Pros of WordPress
  • 75
    Stable, highly functional cms
  • 60
    Great community
  • 44
    Easy cms to make websites
  • 43
    Highly customizable
  • 22
    Digital customer experience delivery platform
  • 17
    Really powerful
  • 16
    Customizable
  • 11
    Flexible
  • 10
    Good tool for prototyping
  • 9
    Enterprise proven over many years when others failed
  • 8
    Headless adds even more power/flexibility
  • 8
    Open source
  • 7
    Each version becomes more intuitive for clients to use
  • 7
    Well documented
  • 6
    Lego blocks methodology
  • 4
    Caching and performance
  • 3
    Powerful
  • 3
    Built on Symfony
  • 3
    Can build anything
  • 2
    Views
  • 1
    API-based CMS
  • 17
    Powerful extension architecture
  • 6
    Powerfull CMS
  • 5
    Mid-Hight End level CMS
  • 4
    Highly customizable
  • 2
    Vast repository of free and paid extensions
  • 2
    Extensions & Templates
  • 1
    Multilingual in the core
  • 415
    Customizable
  • 366
    Easy to manage
  • 354
    Plugins & themes
  • 258
    Non-tech colleagues can update website content
  • 247
    Really powerful
  • 145
    Rapid website development
  • 78
    Best documentation
  • 51
    Codex
  • 44
    Product feature set
  • 35
    Custom/internal social network
  • 18
    Open source
  • 8
    Great for all types of websites
  • 7
    Huge install and user base
  • 5
    Perfect example of user collaboration
  • 5
    Open Source Community
  • 5
    Most websites make use of it
  • 5
    It's simple and easy to use by any novice
  • 5
    Best
  • 5
    I like it like I like a kick in the groin
  • 4
    Community
  • 4
    API-based CMS
  • 3
    Easy To use
  • 2
    <a href="https://secure.wphackedhel">Easy Beginner</a>

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Cons of Drupal
Cons of Joomla!
Cons of WordPress
  • 1
    Steep learning curve
  • 1
    DJango
  • 1
    Depleting dev community
  • 13
    Hard to keep up-to-date if you customize things
  • 13
    Plugins are of mixed quality
  • 10
    Not best backend UI
  • 2
    Complex Organization
  • 1
    Do not cover all the basics in the core
  • 1
    Great Security

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What is Drupal?

Drupal is an open source content management platform powering millions of websites and applications. It’s built, used, and supported by an active and diverse community of people around the world.

What is Joomla!?

Joomla is a simple and powerful web server application and it requires a server with PHP and either MySQL, PostgreSQL, or SQL Server to run it.

What is WordPress?

The core software is built by hundreds of community volunteers, and when you’re ready for more there are thousands of plugins and themes available to transform your site into almost anything you can imagine. Over 60 million people have chosen WordPress to power the place on the web they call “home” — we’d love you to join the family.

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What are some alternatives to Drupal, Joomla!, and WordPress?
Django
Django is a high-level Python Web framework that encourages rapid development and clean, pragmatic design.
ProcessWire
ProcessWire is an open source content management system (CMS) and web application framework aimed at the needs of designers, developers and their clients. ProcessWire gives you more control over your fields, templates and markup than other platforms, and provides a powerful template system that works the way you do
Typo3
It is a free and open-source Web content management system written in PHP. It can run on several web servers, such as Apache or IIS, on top of many operating systems, among them Linux, Microsoft Windows, FreeBSD, macOS and OS/2.
Laravel
It is a web application framework with expressive, elegant syntax. It attempts to take the pain out of development by easing common tasks used in the majority of web projects, such as authentication, routing, sessions, and caching.
AEM
It is a web-based client-server system for building, managing and deploying commercial websites and related services. It combines a number of infrastructure-level and application-level functions into a single integrated package.
See all alternatives