Sunday 22 May 2016

CMS Comparison - Joomla Vs. WordPress Vs. Drupal



Are you thinking of building a website and you are at a crossroads as to which of the Content Management System (CMS) to use? What if you don’t know how to write a single line of code and you still want the website built by yourself? There are 3 powerful Content Management Systems that we want to compare. These are Joomla, Wordpress and Drupal. These three CMS are the goliaths of them all.
These ones have great features that make them the best available system for building websites. Some of these features are that:
  •    They are both free to use as a result of the fact that they are all open-source.
  •   They easy to use although one of them can be easier than the others.
  • They have wonderful plug-ins that can expand their features to make their functionalities better.


After considering all that I said above, it is good to note that making a choice here is not going to be an easy one. As a matter of necessity then, let’s review these CMSs to help in the decision making and see which one will be ideal for you. Let’s start with WordPress.


WordPress

 This CMS started as a blogging platform for beginner bloggers. But today, WordPress has gained so much popularity that it has become the most popular CMS in the world. At present, it is estimated that over 60 million blogs and websites are built on WordPress. This goes on to say that WordPress has really become the household name among bloggers and web designers. In Nigeria alone, more than 60% of blogs are build on WordPress and the number is increasing on a daily basis.WordPress has the following features that make its popularity rise astronomically like that. 

Why should you use WordPress?



  1. Easy installation process: Installing WordPress does not require the services of a professional web designer at a very exorbitant fee. The process of installing it is very simple if they can be followed according to instruction. In addition to that, a lot of web-hosting companies offer to install it free of charge as part of the hosting process. What this means is that you can have your blog running in a couple of minutes. In fact, you can start blogging in 10 minutes with WordPress.
  2. Additional plug-ins: This CMS has a lot of plug-ins to extend its functions. If what you need is not on the template that you have, you can easily add more plug-ins to suit you. This, combined with its easy process of installation, makes it an ideal platform for beginners.
  3. More support from other users: As I earlier said, there are over 60 million users of WordPress in the world. Whenever you are stuck during the process of using it, there are tons of users who are ready to put you through. This is in addition to a lot of blogs, websites and discussion forums that are build by users to help other users master the art of using this great platform effectively to handle whatever it is you want to get done.
  4. More themes: There are lot of WordPress themes that you can choose from. There are free themes as well as premium themes and these themes are designed to give you the opportunity to make your choice from the available options. If you search for WordPress themes on Google, the search results will surprise you.  You can download the free themes or buy premium themes depending on your budget and choice. You can maximize the functions of any theme by adding more plug-ins, editing it or completely change some part of its CSS to get the desired result making this content management system really ideal for beginners.

Disadvantages of WordPress

Despite the good features and advantages of this CMS, it is believed by users and expert website designers that it has the following shortcomings:
  1. Some people argue that it uses an API that has outdated functions.
  2. It is also believed in some quarters that it is for beginners and not for experts. A user even compares it with "a toy in the hands of kids".
  3. There is also a concern expressed by some people that it is ideal for blogs and websites with moderate traffic. These set of users believe that it cannot handle large traffic effectively.
Now that we have reviewed this popular CMS, we now want to consider another one, Joomla.


Joomla

This is another powerful CMS that is used by millions of websites around the world. This one can run on several servers without entertaining any fears. Ideal for ecommerce sites, Joomla is gradually, but steadily, finding its way into the hearts of millions more because it also has some appealing features and advantages too.

What are the advantages of using Joomla?

  1. Joomla is a content management system with the following features and advantages which make it the choice of millions of users. These are:
  2. It makes social networking easy: Of all the CMSs under review, this is the only one that makes it very easy to explore the business opportunities offered by social networking sites.Creating social network with Joomla is the easiest, which is perhaps one of the strongest selling point of the CMS.
  3. It is the best for eCommerce sites: While it is also possible to build an eCommerce sites wits the others, none of them does it better than Joomla It is faster, easier and more convenient to create a eCommerce with it. So, if online store is what you want to build, just go for Joomla.
  4. Easy to use: Although it is not as easy as WordPress because it requires some basic knowledge of coding, it is still easier to use than Drupal. It also has help portal to assist those who have one or two problems while trying to use it. This might be a little more expensive than that of WordPress, but it is still better than having none at all.
  5. Joomla combines some of the strong points of other content management systems and add its own features. No wonder then that is gradually becoming the trusted content manager for eCommerce users and builders. Strong and easy to use. What else do you want?

Disadvantages of Joomla  

  1. Some users and clients complain that it is a little difficult to handle. This is due to the fact that it requires some basic knowledge of coding.  
  2. Its online support is not as much as that of WordPress which can make it a little bit difficult for beginners to use.It is not as easy as WordPress in terms of installation. 
With this review of Joomla, we have been able to see what it has to offer. Should we call it a day? No. That will be doing injustice to Drupal. 


Drupal

  1. This is the third content management system that we will be considering in this post. Drupal is the second most popular and the most powerful of all the three under discussion.
  2. Drupal is not as easy as the other two as it requires technical knowledge of coding. As a matter of fact, you should be a little bit grounded in web design if you want to get the best out of this CMS. Let's consider the advantages of Drupal.

Advantages of Drupal



  1. It is very powerful: As noted earlier, this is the most powerful among the three in terms of what it has to offer. Technically, none of the other two can match the power of this giant CMS
  2. Speed: This one of the advantages of Drupal. It loads faster that either WordPress or Joomla. This fast execution time is a big bonus as speed of execution is one of those things that people want. Who wants a website that will take an hour to load?
  3. Customizable: With tons of themes, plug-ins and the rest, you can customize Drupal to maximize its power of you have the technical knowledge to do so. With the right programming skills, you can rule the world with this amazing tool. 

Disadvantages of Drupal

  1. With this power comes with price. You must have the basic knowledge of PHP and HTML to tap the abundance of flexibility and power packed into this CMS.
  2. Expensive to maintain: If you are running Drupal without any programming knowledge, you have to be ready to request the services of experts to help you find out bugs and fix them. Of course, that is not free. Incurring this extra cost makes it to be more expensive that the rest.
 The comparison of WordPress, Joomla and Drupal are summarized in the diagram below that I copied from another blog
 Looking at the chart above and the little review of the 3 most powerful Content Management Systems around, you should be able to decide on which one of them to use.
We hope that this post help. If it does, kindly let us know in the comment box below. You can also help us to share it as your personal contribution to this blog.




   

 

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