WordPress vs. Joomla vs. Drupal: CMS Comparison

A Content Management System (CMS) is one of the basic building blocks of any website. This is why selecting the right one is necessary to make your platform successful. Whatever profession that you choose for your online business has a strong connection with your CMS.

From being an entrepreneur or developer to successfully operating as a business owner or an enterprise, almost every individual thinks before choosing a CMS.  This is because it has a direct impact on the customization, SEO, performance, security, user-friendliness, and most importantly revenue of your website. Currently, almost every business owner in the digital market prefers the three most recognized CMS platforms — WordPress, Joomla, and Drupal. 

To help readers, we have prepared a detailed blog comparing the three platforms in terms of multiple features. Let us dive deeper into the article and understand which content management system can be the right choice.

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WordPress vs. Joomla vs. Drupal

Overview Of the Three Platforms

Before we start comparing the three platforms in terms of their different features, let us go through their brief introduction. Knowing the primary details about these content management systems can help make the right choice.

WordPress

Starting with WordPress, this platform makes the most popular CMS all over the world. According to the stats in the table, it is the powerhouse for approximately half of the websites globally available. People are mostly fond of this platform as it does not require coding and offers a user-friendly interface.

Besides being popular among professionals of all niches, WordPress has an extensive library. It makes a promising platform for different industries by offering over 10,000 themes and more than 60,000 WordPress plugins.  Individuals looking to develop websites for blogs, e-commerce stores, or any other business can always consider this CMS.

Joomla

Talking about Joomla brings a middle-ground opinion from users.  It can be defined as a platform that is more flexible than WordPress and less complex than Drupal.  Experts define it as an advanced-level content management system that supports a variety of industry niches.

Joomla also offers high-quality user control features through which website owners can easily design their online ventures. It is mostly preferred by people looking to develop business directories and membership sites. Also, professionals looking to create a website for e-learning can prefer this CMS.

Drupal

As compared to the other two content management systems, Drupal has a lower market share and usage percentage of all websites. This platform is more like a developer-focused CMS that supports advanced-level website content strategy. It offers professional-grade user permissions and customization features that help to optimize the overall website performance.

Unlike other platforms in the race, it is more dedicated to the development of large-scale projects. Professionals looking to create websites for high-security issues or government facilities prefer this CMS. Moreover, it is considered by major enterprises looking to represent their network.

Ease of Use: Which CMS is Best for Beginners?

WordPress is one of the easiest content management systems all over the web. When ease of use is considered, this platform tops the list for its simple interface and beginner-friendly setup. It offers easy customization with the help of different plugins and themes.

Individuals can use its drag-and-drop builders to customize their websites. The best feature of this CMS is its no-coding management. It makes a great choice for non-technical users as they can easily build a website without looking for difficult lines of code. 

As compared to WordPress, Joomla offers better customization features. However, its requirement of technical knowledge fails to impress many users. In comparison to the previous CMS, it has a highly complex admin panel. For this reason, many people find it difficult to use and avoid using it for their startups. Those who use Joomla require enough time and effort to set up its extensions.

Drupal is a difficult content management system with the steepest learning curve among all platforms.  Individuals looking to build their websites through this system must hire professional developers. It is why experts consider it a developer-focused CMS. One must know multiple programming languages like HTML, CSS, and PHP to use it.

Customization & Flexibility

WordPress owns an extensive library of plugins and themes in comparison to any other CMS platform. For this reason, it has a wide range of customization features when it comes to personalizing a website. Professionals using this CMS can easily enhance the layouts and improve the features of their online ventures without using a code. 

Moving forward to Joomla, the range of plugins and themes is smaller as compared to WordPress. However, it is a helpful platform due to its built-in flexibility for developing complex-level websites. In terms of customization,  Joomla requires a few lines of code to make the required changes.

Drupal, being a developer-oriented CMS, requires complete coding to make a change. The websites created through this platform can be easily customized.  Although it has fewer modules and themes in comparison to the other two, Drupal is preferred by many developers globally. It makes sure website owners can have complete control over the functionality and performance of their ventures. 

Security: Which CMS is the Safest?

While WordPress has been the most preferable CMS till now, it often drops out of the list when it comes to security. Due to its extensive use of third-party plugins, it is considered highly vulnerable. Fortunately, users can try to install different security plugins like Sucuri and Wordfence to protect their data.

Joomla offers mid-level security to its projects. However, website owners must go through manual setup to keep their ventures secure and protected.

Drupal is considered the winner of this comparison as it is the safest content management system on the list. This is why it makes a great choice for enterprise and government websites. Also, it follows strict coding standards and owns an extensive range of robust security modules.

SEO & Performance

WordPress is the most preferable CMS platform for SEO. It consists of a vast variety of powerful plugins like Rank Math and Yoast SEO Moreover, It lets users easily optimize their websites for popular search engines by supporting features like image optimization, fast-loading themes, and schema markup.

Joomla consists of built-in SEO features through which websites can be easily optimized for popular search engines. Unfortunately, it does not have any advanced SEO plugins.

Drupal comes with advanced-level technical SEO features. Websites created through the CMS offer faster performance. However, website owners must manually set up their platforms to optimize them for search engines. 

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Pricing: Which CMS is More Cost-Effective?

WordPress is preferred by almost all entrepreneurs for its high level of cost-effectiveness. The extensive range of free plugins and themes makes it the most budget-friendly CMS on the list. Professionals can easily set up their basic websites by making a minimal investment. Later on, premium features can be added for better performance.

Joomla is seen as a slightly expensive CMS. It comes with paid extensions when looking to access advanced features.  Fortunately, it mostly cuts the cost of installing different third-party tools due to its built-in functionalities.

Drupal is a highly expensive CMS as it offers extravagant features for developing enterprise-level projects.  Websites created through this CMS require custom development to introduce different features.  Most government officials consider it an ideal choice to build their ventures on a dedicated budget.

Community Support: Where Can You Get Help?

Comparing the community and support options of these CMS platforms can inform users where to get help.

WordPress consists of the largest community and support system as it offers countless forums, official documentation, and YouTube tutorials. Users can easily look for a developer or a support article if they get stuck anywhere.

As compared to WordPress, Joomla consists of a smaller support community but it has everything in a structured manner. Therefore, website owners can easily find authentic documentation and support forums.

Although Drupal consists of the smallest support community, each of its professionals can be trusted for being highly trained developers.  It makes the finest choice for large organizations as it comes with enterprise-level paid support.

eCommerce Capabilities: Which CMS is Best for Online Stores?

WordPress is the best choice for creating small and medium-sized online stores. It offers the WooCommerce platform, which makes it easy to build e-commerce solutions. This CMS offers a variety of free plugins, one-click installations, and drag-and-drop builders.

Joomla is a great choice for retailers looking to create medium-sized E-stores.  It offers the virtual Mart platform, where businesses can manually configure their storefronts.  Although it has a smaller collection of plugins as compared to WooCommerce, business owners find it helpful.

Drupal also offers its own e-commerce platform, Drupal Commerce. This highly scalable CMS for online storefronts requires custom development. Large organizations looking to start an e-commerce business can consider it the best solution for their particular needs.

Multi-Language Support: Which CMS Handles Multiple Languages Better?

Businesses looking to target global audiences must focus on multilingual support. Let us have a look at the three CMS platforms and their performance in multiple languages.

Not failing to impress users once again, WordPress offers multilingual capabilities with the help of two popular plugins known as WPML and Poly Lang. This makes it easier for non-technical users to set up their websites in multiple languages.

Moving forward to Joomla, this CMS platform offers multilingual support as a built-in feature. This way it is considered a more powerful CMS than WordPress in this case. Unfortunately, it is difficult to set up which makes it a complex platform.

Drupal has the most efficient multilingual support, which makes it the finest choice for large-scale businesses. Government websites, enterprises, and organizations looking to set up their websites in multiple languages can benefit from the CMS.

Performance & Speed Optimization: Which CMS is Faster?

Websites created through WordPress can sometimes perform slowly if too much of plugins overload them. However, users can benefit from caching plugins like WP Rocket to boost performance. Also, server-side optimization can help to enhance the speed of a website.

As compared to WordPress, Joomla performs better in speed tests. This is because this CMS supports a lighter code base. Unfortunately, it fails to even over WordPress due to its lack of high-level optimization tools.

Drupal wins this comparison as it is the fastest CMS by default. This is because this platform is already optimized for scalability and performance. Professionals consider it the best choice for high-traffic websites.

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Final Thoughts: Which CMS Should You Choose?

The takeaway from this blog explains that selecting the right CMS is not just about its global recognition. Professionals must select A platform that is ideal in terms of usability, security, customization, scalability, and long-term growth.

You can invest in WordPress if you are looking to develop a beginner-friendly website using countless plugins and themes. It is an ideal choice for business professionals who are looking to set up their blog websites, e-commerce stores, startups, and small businesses.

Go for Joomla if you are looking to build a multilingual website by using a flexible and powerful CMS. It is an ideal choice with better user management. Professionals looking to develop business portals or different membership websites can make the most of their content through this platform.

Finally, choose Drupal if you are looking to develop an enterprise-level website that offers high-level security and outstanding performance. This CMS is best for building complex websites That are particularly built for government organizations and large enterprises.

If you are still unsure about choosing the right CMS, feel free to discuss your questions in the comments below. Readers are also requested to leave reviews about each of the three CMS platforms to help others make the right decision.

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