Joomla vs. Drupal

[LD]

I know very little about both Joomla and Drupal. I've looked through both apps sites briefly and will look further into it when time allows, but thought I'd ask a few questions here. Drupal was suggested as an app to look into for future use but I've come across a recent thread here discussing Joomla - but it was more about Joomla vs. Wordpress.

So I'd like to ask, what are your experiences with Joomla and or Drupal (good and not so good) and would you recommend either for developer/hosting use and/or where a client wants to update and manage some content on their own? Do client users need tutorials beyond what the Joomla and Drupal sites offer for instructional use?

I thank you in advance for your input.

[Easy Anderson]

Well, both of them got left in the dust with wordpress came along and a lot of smart developers moved over to wordpress and pretty much abandoned both Joomla and Drupal. We used to build site in both, but can't in good faith put a client into either one. Not if they really want to make any money.

I actually did a blog post on why we don't either anymore if you are interested in further details over at 21to21.com. Just search for Joomla.

The long and short of it is that they just did not keep pace with Wordpress which is why WP has more users than the other two combined.

So take your pick, either one is not your best choice for and open source CMS.

Cheers,
Andrew Easy Anderson

[LD]

Well, both of them got left in the dust with wordpress came along and a lot of smart developers moved over to wordpress and pretty much abandoned both Joomla and Drupal.

I appreciate your points @Easy Anderson. Again, not knowing much about either I am looking for this sort of input. You see, I originally decided to ask the question because an associate of mine (project manager in a large telecom company up here) said their developers use Drupal for at least parts of their enterprise solution site. So I started looking around to see if it was something for the average developer and perhaps the "somewhat technically inclinded" client.

[JohnMauldin]

I agree with the response about Wordpress vs. Joomla and Drupal. I own hundreds of sites and started on using raw .html and for many years it served a function. I my quest for a way to spend less time managing my sites and focusing more on money making, I looked at all the platformes and only after extensive research, decided on wordpress and I will never go back. Honestly, if you cannot take advantage of what wordpress provides, you need to find another line of work.

I converted all of my sites to wordpress. I think that upon careful examination, you will too. When you compare wordpress vs Joomla and Drupal, there is no comparison. The number of themes (layout and design of the site) that are entirely free number in the thousands. The number of plugins that add a universe of versatility to the website range in the tens of thousands and most are open source, or free. Setting up the site on any cpanel host solution is so simple and effortless vs. any other method, again, no comparison. I have literally chosen a theme, installed wordpress and had a live site in minutes. And maintaining the site is so simple. There's no umbilical cord to the developer. I can post new content from anywhere in the world, even from my cell phone. And making it mobile friendly is as complicated as uploading and installing a plugin, creating two or three pages and minutes later, DONE. What I like most about wordpress is that, by comparison to conventional websites, is that search engines often index new posts in hours vs. any other solution. What is not to like? Admittedly, there are a dizzying number of new themes, plugins, training programs being introduced daily. Much of this information is already available for free or at low cost. To ferret through the hodge-podge of information, I am in the process of setting up a very low cost membership site that will truly be a wealth of information for ".... all things wordpress". Right now while the membership is selling for only $1. for the first month and only $7. for a regular monthly membership, thereafter, you should go now to: wp-admin.info

[jhannawin]

Well, both of them got left in the dust with wordpress came along and a lot of smart developers moved over to wordpress and pretty much abandoned both Joomla and Drupal.

I'd say that was true for certain types of site, not all. Wordpress has certainly hammered the competition for the smaller, SME sites and of course blogs, but I don't see many larger organisations using it, whereas I do see that with Joomla and Drupal. So LD, if you are looking for something to work with larger clients on, then one of those two might be more appropriate.

Personally, I've only seen Joomla up close and found it to be 'software written by software engineers, for software engineers'. What I mean is that it was very busy and very confusing for end users to use.

Now I have an axe to grind here because we do a hosted CMS for developers (so note vested interest in everything said from here ).

We are constantly told 'why bother, there's Joomla, Drupal, Wordpress, Plune etc'. Well as I said, if you are trying to get to work with larger more tech savvy clients, then you will experience that they behave slightly differently and it's not just a question of which software. They are after customisation, on going support, SLAs, encryption, integration with internal business systems. As a front end developer, you become responsible for all of that. Just popping Joomla/Drupal/Wordpress on a shared server somewhere and making it look nice won't cut it. You will need some serious technical back up.

So maybe you have to look more deeply into what you want the CMS to do for your business, and then make a more informed decision.

Hope that helps a bit.

[LD]

So maybe you have to look more deeply into what you want the CMS to do for your business, and then make a more informed decision.

Hope that helps a bit.

Yep, it does. Excellent posts with "food for thought" - both sides or, really, all three sides.

[bizcomweb]

There are so many CMS platforms on the market. Choosing a system that works best depends on your needs. wordpress makes it easy for non-technical people to manage simple websites. However, I would not consider it for business because its functionality is too limited. Joomla seems easier for end users than Drupal or Dot Net Nuke but both have issues. SharePoint is another option. It's powerful, cheap and extremely extensible.

We use several and choose a platform based on our customers specific needs and experience.

[Clarrie]

Personally, I've only seen Joomla up close and found it to be 'software written by software engineers, for software engineers'. What I mean is that it was very busy and very confusing for end users to use.

Actually, I find it one of the more user friendly, which is one of the main reasons we use it for most of our sites.

Looked at Drupal a few years ago now; thought it good but reckoned our clients, who are mostly not tech savvy would find it very confusing. Most of our clients find Joomla pretty easy to use.

We tend to build custom templates for Joomla - although there are zillions of good templates out there, just find customising them to suit a client takes longer than building from scratch, and you end up with a much lighter weight template that you can easily maintain going forward.

We do use Wordpress for blogs , but really don't find is as comprehensive a framework as Joomla, so Joomla would be my first choice for something more than a blogging platform. And of course if you need a blog as well you can run Wordpress in parallel or even use the Wordpress for Joomla component that integrates a Wordpress installation into Joomla. Sounds a bit bizarre, but works pretty well!

[Doc]

And of course if you need a blog as well you can run Wordpress in parallel or even use the Wordpress for Joomla component that integrates a Wordpress installation into Joomla. Sounds a bit bizarre, but works pretty well!

Interesting. I'm not familiar with wordpress for Joomla... will have to look into that. Thanks, Clarrie!

[andymontgomery]

I started using Wordpress a few months ago mainly because I was attracted by the simple installation and thriving forum of support. The initial installation took me around 10 minutes which was basically a local setup on my computer for playing around with designs and functionality on my local server setup. This again has been explained clearly and easy for novices to understand. Uploading to your domain space is also relatively simple by installing wordpress first then uploading your customised files into a folder - all of 30 seconds!

The help pages on Wordpress are well-written and easy to follow. Wordpress has the ability to visually look like a regular website - contrary to the comments above that it is simply blogging software. With a little understanding of how to make your own templates - you can quite easily design your own site and integrate wordpress code to make it function like a truly powerful content management system instead of creating more html and CSS.

First step is to setup your security plugins and database backup plugins!

I used the 7 day trial at Lyndas.com to watch absolutely everything about wordpress, this was enough for me to get started and get a free kickoff - don't tell Lynda! There was a guy there who was excellent at showing how easy it was to customise. This also let me see what software he was using for editing - as I've just started using a mac - which is what he was using.

As an SEO geek I was surprised how fast pages were popping up in Google. One of the plug-ins called All in One SEO Pack is absolutely brilliant and allows you to add a page title, description, meta tags, title attribute and pings all the search engines and inform them of a new page - all in one go!

Adsensers can also take advantage and concentrate on writing content instead of pasting in their code everywhere and creating / editing new pages.

I can't comment on the use of other CMS systems but I was put off by the documentation in Joomla and the setup procedure - which makes me think - what is the rest of the interface / editing like?