Courtney Robertson

Which Content Management System is right for you?

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WordPress vs. Drupal vs. Joomla

WordPress

Drupal

Joomla

Pros
  • Easy to use
  • Great for blogging
  • Many developers and skilled service providers
  • Routine updates
  • Many existing themes (designs)
  • Many free custom plugins (features)
  • Developer friendly
  • Fair amount of plugins (features)
  • Highly customizable options
  • Strong community support
  • Well-established community of developers and users
  • Highly customizable architecture

Cons
  • Still requires some minor programming knowledge to customize
  • Best templates are built off “framework templates” and require design knowledge
  • Plugins can conflict with updates to platform
  • Plugin developers may abandon their free tools
  • Not designer friendly
  • Requires programming knowledge
  • More clicks or steps to publish updates
  • Not as user-friendly for updates
  • Less free themes or plugins

Tips:

  • Get a webhost that is Linux/Apache hosting with PHP5. These platforms run best on Linux/Apache, not Windows.
  • Many hosts, such as Hostgator, offer cPanel with Fantastico.  This makes installing these platforms much easier.
  • Do not use WordPress.com.  Put your own site, even if WordPress operated, on your own servers.  This helps drive traffic at your own domain name, and is much more customizable.  Your options on WordPress.com are limited, and they can remove content based upon their Terms of Service.

Possible Alternative:

While not personally a huge fan of Squarespace, it does have a growing community of users.  The main benefit offered is that Squarespace hosts your site, maintains updates, and allows site owners to easily customize the look of your own site.  The downside is still less plugin (features) support without knowing programming knowledge.  Again, as they maintain the content, please review their Terms of Service.