Once you choose to do your website using a content management system (CMS), the next question is which one. Picking one of them can be a challenging job because everything has its own pros and cons.
Joomla and WordPress are the most commonly used free CMSs and these two can be used for building most types of websites. If you don’t know which one to choose this small guide on WordPress vs Joomla may help you make an informed decision.
While you choose one between two, you don’t have to worry about making the wrong choice. You can always transfer your website from one CMS to another. It is not a difficult process if you have the technical expertise.
Community
WordPress is the most popular and fastest growing CMS in the world. More than 60 million websites use it today and 500+ websites are being created daily by WordPress. It possesses more than one half of the total CMS market.
The community around the WordPress is so strong that you can find solutions for any issues from forums and other information websites immediately. Famous publishers like Forbes, New York Observer, USA Today, Fortune and TechCrunch and CNN, Sony, and TED use WordPress CMS for their website.
When it comes to Joomla, it also got a huge support and community. It is the second most popular CMS in the world behind WordPress. Harvard University, Linux, and The Hill are some of the most popular institutions using Joomla CMS for their website.
Types of Websites
Actually, both WordPress and Joomla are almost alternative to each other and what you can create with one can be created using the other. However, the features of each platform make them a little bit good for different uses.
While WordPress is great for blogs, small to medium businesses and publishers, Joomla is good for social networking websites and large e-commerce websites.
Now let’s dive into a comparison between the two and find out the strengths and weaknesses of each.
- Ease of Use
WordPress is the most user-friendly CMS and it doesn’t need any technical knowledge to build a website using this platform. This is best for beginners.
In WordPress, it is easier to install and activate themes and plugins whereas it is quite a difficult to do so in the Joomla.
The interface of the Joomla’s dashboard is a little daunting than that of WordPress. Users have so many options there which make it difficult for the beginners but this also gives more control for the users.
We can also have a WordPress website online in less than 5 minutes. With the one-click installation feature provided by most WordPress hosting companies, it takes lesser time to have your website online than making a tea.
Conclusion: When it comes to the easiness to use, WordPress is the best. It is easy to use and manage and the best option for people with less technical knowledge.
- Support
Both CMS are open-source projects and therefore there is no dedicated support. Users find solutions from the information websites, YouTube, forums, and
Both CMSs have an active community which makes it easier for you to get solutions for any problems.
However, WordPress community is bigger than that of Joomla because WordPress is the most popular and most used CMS. The solutions for most of your issues might already be answered on various forums on websites on the web and you can find instant solutions.
If you choose to host your WordPress website on the wordpress.com and chose a paid plan, you can get support from Automatic, the team that manages WordPress.
Conclusion: There is no dedicated support for both CMS but you can get solutions for most of your issues on the web. Since WordPress is more popular than Joomla, getting solutions for WordPress would be easier.
- Resources (Themes and Add-ons)
While we use templates for changing the appearance of the website and extensions to add extra functionalities in Joomla, we use themes and plugins respectively in the WordPress. Although the names are different they do the same thing.
Both WordPress and Joomla users got thousands of free and paid resources to change the appearance of their website and add extra functionalities.
Nevertheless, the quantity of the free and paid themes and plugins is far more than that of Joomla. Therefore, it is would be easier to find the perfect theme and add-on to the WordPress.
Conclusion: When we consider the number of themes and add-ons and the difficulty to use them, WordPress is the best.
- Customizability
Joomla is complex and more customizable than WordPress. People with a little technical knowledge can evolve their websites into anything they want.
WordPress restricts the users from customizing the websites to an extent. It might be good sometimes but when you want to make some advanced tweaks to the website, you can’t do that ion WordPress.
However, developers can make changes in the theme files and customize WordPress websites any way they want. This requires highly advanced skills and experience in the web development.
You should also remember that WordPress got more themes and plugins than Joomla has. However, the customizability of these themes (templates as it is called in Joomla) and add-ons is more on Joomla.
Conclusion: Joomla offers much more control over the customization which is great it build the website the way we want.
- SEO
WordPress website can optimize for the search engines using Yoast plugin. It is easy to use and anyone can learn to manage it in a couple of minutes. The counterpart of Yoast in Joomla is Easy Frontend SEO extension. This can do all the things Yoast can do.
Here WordPress and Joomla are in a tie.
Conclusion: It is easier to do SEO for WordPress website using Yoast plugin. However, the same things can be done in the Joomla also but the tool not that much handy.
- Localization (Multiple Languages):
Both Joomla and WordPress are available in all most common languages and allow building websites in different languages.
- Joomla vs WordPress Security
The security of the WordPress and Joomla are almost similar. Both CMSs take a serious approach towards security issues and fix them immediately.
Nevertheless, WordPress is often targeted by the hackers since it is the most popular CMS. Additionally, it got tens of thousands of plugins and themes and some of them might be without proper safety measures which make WordPress more vulnerable.
Conclusion: Joomla and WordPress take similar security measures but WordPress websites are hacked more often.
Final Words
You have seen that both platforms have their own merits. One platform might be better in something than the other but that doesn’t mean the latter is very poor. The difference is very substantial.
WordPress is great for publishers, corporates, institutes, and blogs. Moreover, it is easier to manage which make it great for people without technical knowledge.
Joomla offers more customization and therefore, it would be great for personalized websites. It is also easy for E-commerce and social networking websites.
You can add e-commerce facility using the WooCommerce plugin and social networking facility using BuddyPress to a WordPress website. However, you can build better e-commerce and social networking websites using Joomla.
