With too many CMSs in the field it is difficult to choose one which would work best for us. Each has its own advantages and disadvantages leaving the developer in confusion. There are many aspects that need to be looked into when developing a website and being able to use the features of just one CMS doesn’t seem to be enough. However, we can’t use more than one for a website. Therefore, we need to analyze the needs of our website and then match the features and choose one which best suits all the needs. Having thousands of themes and plugins doesn’t make a CMS better in any way.
All you need to look at is the flexibility and user-friendliness. Besides being helping tools, these are sometimes the reason for the failure of websites when chosen for the wrong types of sites. Read on to know which will be the best for you before settling down with one. Before getting into the details, it would be better to know a little about each CMS so that you know what to expect from them.
WordPress:
Otherwise known as WP, it was a famous blogging platform, but not anymore. It’s been ages since it started branching out into providing web development tools. Famous for its plugins and themes, it is widely considered as the easiest tool to work with.
Joomla:
While WordPress impresses the new developers, Joomla is for both developers and end users. It has good templates and extensions to your site building experience enjoyable but as there aren’t many developers, you won’t find it flexible.
Drupal:
Being the oldest of the three, Drupal has a strong support community. Getting tech support is no more a daunting task when you’re with Drupal. You can get help easily from the active community easily.
Let’s scale these CMSs based on different aspects which need to be considered before choosing one for your website.
Flexibility
Flexibility is the basic feature that has to be considered before deciding to choose a CMS. The most flexible of the three is Drupal. You can customize the modules and other tools as you want and there are thousands of modules that can help you. All you need to do is spend some time researching on the modules available and choose what you need. Joomla is the least flexible on the list. It might be due to the lack of enough developers working on it. And WordPress comes in between the two, scoring 50%.
Plugins/Extension
There are plenty of plugins with both Drupal and WordPress, pushing Joomla to the second position. When it comes to plugins, you can’t vote for WordPress or Drupal because both have an equally impressive portfolio of plugins rich in both quantity and quality. You will have to take care not to install too many which might clutter your site. Joomla doesn’t have as many plugins as the other two have, the reason of which is apparent – lack of developers. However, it won’t fail you as it has a decent set of plugins you will need to optimize your website.
SEO (Search engine optimization)
SEO is in the nucleus of WordPress. Therefore, you needn’t worry about the options available to optimize your website when you’re with WordPress. You just have to use a bit of discernment while choosing options as it is infested with faulty SEO plugins due to the vast community of developers. Drupal scores a little lower than WordPress in helping you with SEO. Joomla scores the lowest of the three with poor SEO-friendly features.
Developer-Friendliness
When it comes to developer-friendliness, WordPress is the darling. It is something which helps you gain without any pain. Developing a website using WordPress is a piece of cake. Drupal is also developer-friendly but not as good as WordPress. However, it is also loved by a lot of developers and it is interestingly challenging to learn web development using Drupal. As in other aspects, Joomla scores the lowest.
Support
If you’re with WordPress, you have a big community supporting you. The same is true with Drupal as it is the oldest of the three. It is backed by a large network of developers and none of your doubts about web development will go unanswered. However, Joomla doesn’t have a strong tech support and so you will have to value whatever the few developers available have to say.
List out the needs and features of your website and compare them against the features of these CMSs. It will help you find the CMS that will work best for you.