There are some important reasons why someone might decide on one open source CMS instead of another. Many designers, developers, and administrators have their favorite content management system, which most likely includes one of the three most popular types of CMS. These are WordPress, Joomla and Drupal. The advantages and drawbacks of each will be explored here so you can make a better decision about which one is ideal for you.
WordPress is an open source CMS that has been around since 2003. People use it to get their thoughts out on the web quickly and easily. In fact, it’s so easy to use, that even the least computer savvy people can quickly get the hang of using it. Once you get started using this open source content management system, there are no modifications required. For bloggers or people sharing thoughts in a chronological order, WordPress is ideal. However, this CMS is not developer-friendly and the upgrades that are continually released occasionally bring more bugs than fixes. The quick setup and ease-of-use should be weighed with these disadvantages.
The catchy name Joomla means “all together” in Swahili (Urdu), and based on how powerful and all-inclusive this open source CMS is, it certainly lives up to its name. When compared to WordPress, Joomla may not be as user-friendly, but all types of clients—designers, developers, and administrators—can get behind this content management system. It’s also not as powerful as Drupal, but if you need help creating your website using Joomla, there is a great customer service community that you can utilize. Over the past three years, this CMS has been improving and expanding, meaning it certainly has a great future in store.
Drupal provides everything a developer could ever want and then some, with more tags and functions than either WordPress or Joomla. For people who live in code, getting lost in the development of beautiful, highly-functional websites is a dream that can come true with this content management system. However, as a designer, using Drupal may more difficult because of all the code requirements to make it really amazing. The themes, until recently, were a huge drawback because developers rather than designers were building them. Finally, because of the power behind this open source CMS, it may cost more to run a Drupal website than one based on WordPress or Joomla. Ultimately, the choice is yours, but this breakdown should make your selection easier.