WordPress vs Joomla – Which CMS you should choose?

The step of choosing a Content Management System (CMS) is crucial as it can potentially have immeasurable kickbacks for the website. Although there are many CMSs available, all with their exclusive pros & cons list and their followers, very few rule the market right now.

Today we will see two such platforms side by side – WordPress and Joomla. Technically, neither WordPress now Joomla are stand-alone software pieces for website setup. They require a web server to function on.

We will hit the nail on the head of a more preferable option by seeing the similarities and the differences between them.

• Both the platforms are well known for their ease-of-use.
• Both the platforms provide users with an extensive customization opportunity.
• Both platforms enjoy vast community support.
• Both are used widely for developing modern, dynamically used websites.

The most striking fact that differentiates these platforms from one another is an elemental one and may not be relevant today in the most updated versions of these. WordPress was originally designed for blog-fashioned platforms. Joomla was originally designed for portal-like websites.

Joomla is more adaptable for developers who can handle technicalities of web development – including servers, hosts, domains, etc. Compared to Joomla, WordPress is user-friendly with a straightforward approach for beginners.

Almost all the widely used hosts these days provide automatic installation of WordPress on the server, while this facility is usually not available for Joomla. A few hosts that do provide automatic installation for Joomla do that without allowing much-customized processes.

Let’s dive deeper into the discussion of which CMS takes away the crown.

1. Search engine optimization

SEO capabilities usually depend on how you handle code and content on your website. But for someone who doesn’t have much knowledge about Search Engine Optimization techniques and also, would not want to invest much time in knowing about these, both WordPress and Joomla serve various plugins and extensions respectively.

So we will compare the SEO capabilities from the perspective of plugins and extensions only.

WordPress has Yoast SEO. Yoast SEO plugin is kind of a star on its own. Yoast provides SEO score for various areas, For scoring, it uses the traffic light system of red, yellow, and green colors. The plugin gives precise analysis on how to improve the Yoast Score in each and every area it accesses. Additionally, it provides users with a readability rate score.

The Joomla extension that comes closest to the Yoast SEO plugin for WordPress is Easy Frontend SEO (EFSEO). It facilitates the users to carry out the tasks in an almost similar fashion as Yoast. It lets edit the content on the front-end directly and also lets the extension generate data without any input from users.

As efficient as EFSEO is, it is, however, not a replacement for Yoast.

2. Security

We will measure the aspect of security from two frames – Directly out of the box and after taking measures.

WordPress is hugely popular and hence, it often becomes the target of various types of attackers. It serves as an easy target since users can install third-party themes and plugins.

WordPress doesn’t enable SSL connection for the dashboard or Two-Factor Authentication by default. For these to employ, you are going to need to edit the core files. Also, most of the critical and advanced security features in WordPress are enabled by Plugins.

Contrary to WordPress, Joomla provides both the options by default. Additionally, it provides many other extensions for security.

It is clear that Joomla takes over WordPress if we talk about their defaultations. But, WordPress provides a lot of plugins that more or less compensate. And, you can always opt for custom plugin development from any renowned companies.

3. Customization potential

Till now, you are well versed with the potentials of WordPress plugins and Joomla extensions. Both have an extensive collection catering to all kinds of use-cases. However, the range of plugins provided by WordPress far exceeds that of Joomla extensions. WordPress tops the list because of the sheer number of plugins. Also, they cover all kinds of functionalities, and they are simply more efficient.

If we talk about the customization capabilities of the two CMSs, we would approach this by comparing WordPress themes and Joomla templates. The case of themes vs templates is no different than plugins vs extensions. WordPress themes are easier to work with, are high quality, highly adaptable, and the support is incredible.

4. Content management and potential

WordPress, as well as Joomla, are two of the most complex and robust CMSs out there. Though the intent of WordPress was to be a blog-type website, today it is used everywhere for more complicated websites.

On the contrary, Joomla is known for its complicated working. Not to worry as it provides good and precise documentation.

Hence, it is obvious that Joomla’s complex system backs the platform’s flexibility. The website built using Joomla can amount to anything it was intended to.  

Hence, in these criteria, both WordPress and Joomla stand together, side by side. However, WordPress gives ease of use that Joomla simply cannot. People find it easier to create posts, pages, customize the look n feel of the website on WordPress than that on Joomla.

Conclusion

After balancing both the top platforms on every criterion possible, it would be unfair to crown one as being better. WordPress takes away the cake in terms of ease of use and customization, Joomla stands above in terms of robustness and flexibility.

Where in WordPress you heavily rely on Plugins because WordPress comes extremely simple out of the box, Joomla, by default provides you a platform that stands as the most efficient on its own without the use of extensions.

If you are still not able to decide which platform to choose, we would suggest you follow the footprints. Every year, the results of the CMS market share are calculated. And, they do not change much over time.

As you can see, WordPress is a leading CMS and Joomla is in the second position. Hence, if you are reading this article and confused between WordPress and Joomla, you have reached among the top two choices.

WordPress is a more preferred choice for many reasons other than the ones listed above and Joomla is useful for a specific set of requirements. So in the end, the choice completely depends on your preferences.

Guest article written by: Shradha Makhija, an enthusiastic tech geek with a goal of making people more aware of various technologies. Content Writer at DRC Systems – a leading IT company in Gandhinagar, and at Build a Bazaar – a premium eCommerce platform of India.