CMS Comparison: Joomla vs WordPress vs Drupal in 2021

Alyssa WalkerByAlyssa Walker Hours Updated

What is Drupal?

Drupal is an open-source web development platform for creating an online content management system and user communities. Drupal CMS can be set up from a simple blog to a content portal used by large corporations.

Drupal can power any high traffic sites on the web and can be adapted to virtually any visual design. It also allows you to edit root files using a variety of plugins. You can make a significant change to the CMS.

In this tutorial, you will learn

What is WordPress?

WordPress is the world’s most popular open source and free to use CMS. It started as just blogging platform, but now it has added feature significantly over the years. Today it is emerging as the complete content management software. To work on WordPress, you need to install it on a web server.

What is Joomla?

Joomla is another popular CMS which allows you to build a website and various types of business-oriented online application. It runs smoothly on the most web serves without any issues because it is easy to use and highly extensive free to use CMS tool.

Drupal Vs. WordPress Vs. Joomla

Parameters WordPress Joomla Drupal
Release Date Released in 2003 Released in 2005 Released in 2001
Developer Matt Mullenweg Forked from Mambo. Dries Buytaert
Skill Level to learn this application Easy Moderate Advanced
Number of Downloads > 140 million >30 million >15 million
Minimum Memory requires to run this application 60 MB 256 MB 32MB
Multilingual capabilities Not straight out of the box. Yes Yes
The average frequency of Updates 42 Days 36 Days 51 Days
Plugin Availability 54,226 7905 38238
Number of Experts in Security Team 25 Experts 13 Experts 40 Experts
Best Used for It is used for developing informative Websites or eCommerce stores. Use for building Online Forums, Extensive Product Catalogues. Enterprise Level
Systems, Intranet
Applications.
Installation Time 5 Minutes 10 Minutes 10 Minutes
Level of Security Good OK Very Good
Free themes 2000+ 900+ 1800+
DBMS support MYSQL MySQL, SQLServer,
SQLAzure,
PostgreSQL, SQLite		 MySQL, PostgreSQL, SQLite
Available free plugins 27000 7000 24000
Market share 58.8% 7.1% 4.7%
Level of skills Needed Technical Expertise not needed. Need a bit of technical expertise Needs a high level of technical knowledge.
Companies using eBay, LinkedIn, MIT, Foursquare. Timble, Workwave, Construct, Digital. Tesla Motors, Viber, Mint, Nokia.
Ranking of CMS WordPress Ranks 1st Joomla ranks 2nd in the most popular CMS in the World. Drupal ranks 3rd in most popular CMS in the world.
Security Moderate Low High
Scalability High Low Moderate
Performance Handles lower traffic well. However, it needs a better hosting plan for higher traffic. Needs tweaking to avoid quick resource consumption Loads more quickly with faster response times.
SEO Excellent for SEO Basic SEO Good SEO
E-Commerce Yes, with woocommerce plugin. Virtuemart for managing products and content. Yes
GitHub stars 12.4 k 3.21k Not available
Best features
  • Customizable
  • Easy to manage
  • Plugins & WordPress premium themes
  • Stable, highly
  • Great community
  • Easy CMS to make websites
  • Powerful extension architecture
  • Powerful CMS
  • Mid-Hight End level CMS
Design Widget areas Positions Regions
Extensions Plugins& Widgets Components, Modules & plugins Modules & Blocks
Salaries The average salary for any professional WordPress Developer is $61,225 per year in the United States The average salary for professional Joomla Developer is approximately $76,903 per The average salary for any professional Drupal Developer is $96,067 per year in the United States.

Advantages of using WordPress

Stack Overflow Questions WordPress vs. Joomla vs. Drupal

Here, are Pros/Advantages for using WordPress

  • You can design complex pages with no coding skills using Page Builder plugins.
  • WordPress is, by far, the most comfortable system for beginners to pick up.
  • Largest community helps you to find the right themes and plugins.
  • This blogspot software offers great plugin architecture.
  • Lots of great professional developers.
  • Fast development cycle. Improvements every year.
  • The option of WordPress hosting or self-hosting
  • Ability to create beautiful webpages for multiple functions, including advanced SEO
  • Offers backward Compatibility
  • WordPress is in active development, and its patches are released regularly.
  • WordPress Plugins comes with excellent unofficial support other than the main help document.
  • WordPress offers a simple addition of posts or pages on the site.
  • Minimal install interface and fast installation process.
  • Hosts offer WordPress installation using cPanel with very few clicks.

Disadvantages of using WordPress

Here, are Cons/Disadvantages for using WordPress

  • As it used 3rd party plugins which may not be updated, more than 50,000 WordPress websites are hacked every year.
  • Few plugins might not work when the platform is updated.
  • Relatively weak core code. However, it is getting better every year.
  • Lack of built-in flexibility for more significant, sophisticated sites
  • WP core requires a frequent update which may break your existing plugins.

Advantages of Using Joomla

Here, are Pros/Advantages for using Joomla.

  • Joomla offers very easy to use admin panel to manage large amounts of information.
  • Joomla is suitable for websites when you need more content management.
  • It allows you to preview of the configuration before installation starts.
  • In Joomla, most host offers installation using cPanel requiring no technical knowledge.
  • It offers a perfect balance between ease of use and complexity of functionality.
  • It is suited for a multi-user environment. Think of university sites.
  • Powerful, user-friendly admin interface

Disadvantages of using Joomla

Here, are Cons/Disadvantages for using Joomla:

  • Built-in performance is very sluggish/clunky.
  • Weak logging.
  • Most of the available useful plugins are paid.
  • Unlike other CMS, it is not developer-oriented.
  • Limited marketplace for extensions compared to Drupal and WordPress.
  • Offers very less customizable options for features and functionality.
  • Plugins not always play well together, so you need coding knowledge to fix.

Advantages of Using Drupal

Google Trends WordPress vs. Joomla vs. Drupal

Here, are Pros/Advantages for using Drupal:

  • Webpage creation like Panels, Views, and Web forms are made simple and highly secured
  • Drupal offers modules with attractive options for customizations.
  • A website developed using Drupal CMS is more secure as compared to other CMS.
  • This blogspot software offers easy to understand and clean core code.
  • Some excellent developers are available for hire.
  • Helps you to manage complex, multi-domain management
  • A ton of built-in site management options.
  • Access to thousands of modules and themes
  • The ability to customize every aspect of your experience

Disadvantages of Using Drupal

Here, are Cons/Disadvantages for using Joomla:

  • The platform is quite complicated to learn as compared to WordPress or Joomla.
  • Requires a hosting service and domain name as it doesn’t offer to hosted service like WordPress and Joomla.
  • The setup process is very time-consuming and lengthy if you’re using a lot of modules.
  • You should have basic knowledge of HTML and other web coding languages.
  • Extension updates are not always compatible with the backend.

How to Choose the Right CMS?

Here, are three platforms used in different situation which clear when to use which CMS.

1. WordPress is an ideal option for CMS that’s simple and quick to install. WordPress is an excellent CMS for beginners and is fast to set up, easy to customize with available in millions of different templates.

2. Joomla is the best option for people who want to create a social network or eCommerce store. Best to use by someone who understands PHP language but simple enough for anyone to use.

3. Drupal is the most powerful system but only suited to experienced internet users and programmers.

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