Is your company on the lookout for an al­ter­na­tive to the ever-present WordPress? If this giant doesn’t check all the necessary boxes, there are two great open-source CMS to choose from, Drupal or Joomla. We take a look at how they stack up, and which one is better po­si­tioned to fulfill your needs.

Drupal vs. Joomla features at a glance

Drupal Joomla
Great scal­a­bil­i­ty for large, complex projects Suitable for large companies and complex projects
Many in­ter­faces for ex­ten­sions and ad­di­tion­al modules Easily ex­tend­able through large library of plugins, templates, modules and add-ons
Flexible mul­ti­lin­gual creation of in­di­vid­ual data struc­tures for a wide range of content types, e.g., through WYSIWYG Mul­ti­lin­gual in­te­gra­tion
Easy and quick content editing through “Quick Edit” Practical user man­age­ment and access rights
SEO and Re­spon­sive Design for all devices SEO ex­ten­sions and functions
Fewer security vul­ner­a­bil­i­ties than WordPress Rel­a­tive­ly high security through SSL and 2FA

Why not just use WordPress?

WordPress is among the most popular options when it comes to creating a website. However, security gaps due to a reliance on third-party plugins leave some searching for al­ter­na­tives. Luckily, CMS com­par­isons show the range of WordPress al­ter­na­tives on offer. Drupal and Joomla are two standout choices.

From a sta­tis­ti­cal per­spec­tive, they don’t come close to WordPress. While WordPress accounts for around 65% of the CMS market share and is the basis for 43% of all websites, Joomla makes up 3% of the market share. Drupal follows with just 2%. WordPress has earnt this position at the top of the pile through an easy-to-use and intuitive interface. It also boasts a large choice of WordPress plugins, themes and templates.

Anyone looking to create unique websites with complex page struc­tures or larger web projects won’t regret using Drupal or Joomla. However, there is a steeper learning curve and more training involved. They also require a rudi­men­ta­ry un­der­stand­ing of website creation.

What are the pros and cons of Drupal or Joomla?

It’s good to know where they both stand compared to the market leader. But to show the strengths of Drupal and Joomla, we have to go into detail.

Drupal

Drupal was first released in 2000 as an open-source CMS, making it older than WordPress. Large companies needing to implement complex projects preferred using Drupal in the “Drupal vs. WordPress” com­par­i­son.

Drupal has also proven to be a content hub, thanks to diverse content types. And as a CMS, it offers in­di­vid­ual data struc­tures for articles, news, products, product groups, events, or blogs. Its mul­ti­lin­gual operation, 47,000 modules, practical in­ter­faces, versatile themes and templates allow flexible con­fig­u­ra­tions and offer a variety of ex­ten­sions. Content editing is also easy to use, with quick edits and input fields for content types.

Anyone looking to create a Drupal website gets to profit from a focus on re­spon­sive design because Drupal websites are com­pat­i­ble with all devices. It also offers the bonus of gen­er­at­ing more traffic through SEO-optimized websites.

In addition, functions such as the block system and views module enable you to manage content as blocks as well as create and configure content lists. Due to its per­for­mance, in­di­vid­ual ex­ten­si­bil­i­ty, rel­a­tive­ly high security and pro­fes­sion­al community, Drupal is very popular. Some of its largest clients include multi­na­tion­al companies such as Tesla, Twitter and eBay.

Pros of using Drupal Cons of using Drupal
Free open-source CMS with many features, themes and plugins Rel­a­tive­ly long training period and learning curve for con­fig­u­ra­tion
Flexible creation of in­di­vid­ual, also complex websites and data struc­tures after training Extensive updates from old version to new
Many ad­di­tion­al modules, in­ter­faces for ex­ten­sions and re­spon­sive design for all end devices Security vul­ner­a­bil­i­ties due to add-on modules similar to WordPress
Es­pe­cial­ly suitable for large projects/websites with a lot of traffic
Easy content editing through “Quick Edit”
Mul­ti­lin­gual operation, HTML5, Twig template engine and PHP 5.4+
CMI (Con­fig­u­ra­tion System) for direct code export of con­fig­u­ra­tions
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Joomla

In 2006, the popular CMS was released as “Joomla!”. The current version is Joomla 4.2 (as of August 2022). In­de­pen­dent of the re­spec­tive operating system, the object-based CMS written in PHP can be used to set up simple websites according to the MVC (Model View Con­troller) concept. Al­ter­na­tive­ly, it can aid with the im­ple­men­ta­tion of large, complex projects with many par­tic­i­pants.

Adding necessary functions is easy thanks to a large library of around 8,000 ex­ten­sions, plugins, modules and com­po­nents. It also works with databases such as MySQL, Microsoft SQL as well as Post­greSQL.

Anyone looking to create a Joomla website will find that Joomla dis­tin­guish­es between “Articles” and “Cat­e­gories”. It is therefore necessary to create cat­e­gories for content types, which requires training and con­fig­u­ra­tion. The list of options in the ad­min­is­tra­tor screens of the user interface also takes some getting used to. Practical tools are also available in the form of ex­ten­sions such as the page builder.

With around 200,000 users, Joomla offers a large community, helpful tutorials and good support. When it comes to the question “WordPress vs. Joomla”, busi­ness­es working on large projects and scalable e-commerce websites often chose Joomla, due to the level of flex­i­bil­i­ty and in­di­vid­u­al­iza­tion they enjoy.

Pros of Joomla Cons of Joomla
User-friendly through different content types, simple backend, WYSIWYG editor and MVC structure Longer training phase for operation and handling of ex­ten­sions, options and modules
Many helpful plugins for ex­ten­sions Possible security gaps through add-ons
Useful user ad­min­is­tra­tion and control A large number of options and input require longer ex­pla­na­tion and con­fig­u­ra­tion
In­te­grat­ed mul­ti­lin­gual support
Man­age­ment and use of multiple templates
Large community and good support
Practical SEO functions
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Answering your questions on Drupal vs. Joomla

Which system is best suited to beginners?

Both Drupal and Joomla CMS tools allow you to create websites and online projects without in-depth pro­gram­ming knowledge. Although both systems require a longer learning and training phase than WordPress due to their more complex structure and less intuitive user in­ter­faces. Drupal and Joomla offer many features for bespoke web projects and are suitable for mul­ti­lin­gual, complex e-commerce sites. This means you should have some basic knowledge of web de­vel­op­ment or allow time to get familiar with it.

Which CMS offers the best ex­ten­sions?

When it comes to the number of ex­ten­sions, Drupal leads the way with ap­prox­i­mate­ly 47,000 modules and ex­ten­sions. Joomla offers about 8,000 ex­ten­sions and ad­di­tion­al modules for greater func­tion­al­i­ty. Both CMS have large com­mu­ni­ties of de­vel­op­ers. This means you can choose from high-quality ex­ten­sions, using download numbers and reviews to assess their ef­fec­tive­ness.

Which safety features do Drupal and Joomla offer?

Whether you’re using Drupal or Joomla, you are already more secure than if you were using WordPress. The CMS giant’s large user base and the number of third-party plugins available lead to more gaps in security. Ad­di­tion­al modules and ex­ten­sions are also available on Drupal and Joomla through third parties and a community of de­vel­op­ers. This means that gaps still arise through the unclean code contained in them. However, the prob­a­bil­i­ty of this happening is lower than with WordPress, partly because both systems also have 2-factor au­then­ti­ca­tion and SSL en­cryp­tion for website creation.

Which CMS offers the best templates?

Pre-made design templates or bespoke themes and templates. Whatever your needs, you can create a dis­tinc­tive website tailored to your needs thanks to a wide selection of free Drupal themes and Joomla templates. Drupal has around 3,000 themes to fit your needs and Joomla offers around 1,000 free templates. Joomla enables you to use multiple templates on the same site, so you can give your online store and landing page different designs. The backend can also be cus­tomized using special templates.

What do the SEO functions look like?

Numerous plugins and modules as well as options for meta de­scrip­tions, meta titles and keywords on Drupal and Joomla ensure that your website is SEO friendly. Joomla also offers a URL optimizer for an extra boost in the rankings. Drupal’s “Mobile First” principle enables op­ti­miza­tion for all devices through re­spon­sive design.

Which CMS offers better support?

WordPress has a wide-reaching community that Drupal and Joomla cannot match. However, they are con­sid­ered very popular CMS options among pro­fes­sion­al pro­gram­mers and de­vel­op­ers. They are also used by large multi­na­tion­al companies and uni­ver­si­ties for their web projects. As a result, it isn’t hard to find reliable solutions in the community or through tutorials and support boards. Despite its rel­a­tive­ly low market share, Drupal is well es­tab­lished and guar­an­tees support through a community of de­vel­op­ers totaling around 45,000. Joomla has a member’s forum and two Facebook groups with around 30,000 members.

What’s our summary? Drupal or Joomla are great WordPress al­ter­na­tives

Whichever CMS you choose, Drupal and Joomla offer healthy com­pe­ti­tion and viable al­ter­na­tives to WordPress. The number of ex­ten­sions and size of the community doesn’t come close to those of the market leader. However, when it comes to complex websites mapping extensive business processes and handling a lot of traffic, you are usually better off with Drupal or Joomla. Based on this Drupal Joomla com­par­i­son and others, they have also proven to be more than capable when it comes to custom website design, making them es­pe­cial­ly suitable for medium and large companies.

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