Drupal vs. WordPress

If you were to base things purely on user figures, then the battle between Drupal and WordPress would appear to be a David and Goliath encounter. While the weblog software WordPress is in pole position among content man­age­ment systems with a massive market share of 64.9%, Drupal is way back in third place with a market share of 2.3% (source: W3Techs - date: 01.06.2021). We’ll take a closer look at these two systems, helping you to decide which of these CMSs is most suited to your needs.

The world's most popular content man­age­ment system has a cor­re­spond­ing­ly large community of designers and de­vel­op­ers. This means that you can find many (mostly free) themes and plugins with which you can adapt the web project to suit your needs. WordPress is easy to install and use.

Because content and design are separated, as is typical for CMSs, even beginners will find their way around the WordPress dashboard. In par­tic­u­lar, users who want to set up their own blog will benefit from the quick and simple use of the software. But WordPress can also be useful to implement larger, pro­fes­sion­al projects.

WordPress is a good choice because…

• It has been around since 2003
• It provides access to some 58,000 plugins free of charge
• It offers more than 8,000 themes for free
• Some 41.5 % of all websites worldwide use it

Drupal is even older than the market leader and, just like WordPress, follows the open source concept. The unique selling point of Drupal is the focus on social features. The software makes it easy to create small social networks, but it is not limited to that. As with other CMSs, a wide variety of website projects can be easily im­ple­ment­ed.

To do so, you use modules and themes. With these, the original Drupal in­stal­la­tion can be adapted – similar to WordPress. In addition, with Drupal you set the content elements yourself. So you dif­fer­en­ti­ate between, for example, creating products or blog posts which sim­pli­fies the work immensely.

Drupal is a good choice because…

• It has been around since 2000
• It offers access to some 47,000 modules
• It offers more than 3,000 themes
• Some 2.3 % of all websites use it

Choosing the right CMS depends on various factors. Depending on your needs, you can work out which system is right for you. The Wordpress Drupal com­par­i­son focuses on four main criteria for making a decision:

• How easy is the CMS to use?
• How well protected is the software against attacks?
• Which extension options does the CMS offer?
• Which web projects can be realized using the system?

The results in overview

Even web hosting beginners should be aware of the im­por­tance of user friend­li­ness as a factor for CMSs. Thanks to its 5-minute in­stal­la­tion and intuitive backend, WordPress has the upper hand here. This system, which was developed as a software for blogging, enables a quick, un­com­pli­cat­ed in­te­gra­tion of plugins and so makes it easy for users to create their own WordPress site. Orig­i­nal­ly developed as a blog software, the system allows plugins to be quickly and easily in­te­grat­ed and can be upgraded to a full-fledged content man­age­ment system.

In­ex­pe­ri­enced users can quickly and com­fort­ably install updates with the click of a button. As a result, this software is very popular among hobbyists and semi­pro­fes­sion­al website operators. But the ad­min­is­tra­tion of content optimized for multiple languages and a multi-domain system is less straight­for­ward with WordPress. It’s possible to achieve these functions through plugins, but these then quickly begin to affect the intuitive service that makes WordPress so popular in the first place.

The open source project Drupal takes an entirely different approach. This CMS offers a stream­lined basic in­stal­la­tion, but its modular structure enables users to build diverse online projects with complex page struc­tures. Since the ad­di­tion­al modules have to be installed manually af­ter­wards, the con­fig­u­ra­tion of the system is designed to be much more extensive than WordPress. The modular design puts further strain on update man­age­ment as well, because many modules are dependent on one another and some don’t offer backwards com­pat­i­bil­i­ty.

Though creating a website with Drupal is a bit more difficult, website operators who work on Drupal or employ pro­fes­sion­als to do so profit from a CMS with a very diverse range of uses. This content man­age­ment system is proud to be the building block for numerous corporate websites and the online presences of public in­sti­tu­tions.

Fre­quent­ly used software solutions are popular targets for hacker attacks. In the case of WordPress, cyber criminals re­peat­ed­ly discover security gaps in the system. The large number of plugins created by the developer community is a weak point – es­pe­cial­ly if a website operator fails to install the latest version of an extension.

However, this does not mean WordPress is less secure than other CMSs. Even with Drupal there are security gaps in the expansion modules. However, since Drupal is not that popular, cyber criminals prefer to focus on WordPress.

Both content man­age­ment systems rely on a narrow basic in­stal­la­tion that can be cus­tomized with optional ex­ten­sions. While WordPress was primarily developed as software for creating and managing blog articles, Drupal focuses on community ap­pli­ca­tions and social pub­lish­ing. Various multi-user functions are available in the basic version. WordPress only supports rudi­men­ta­ry settings for user roles and rights. Cor­re­spond­ing functions can, however, be retro­fit­ted with plugins.

Both systems can be adapted through ex­ten­sions. For example, plugins/modules that turn a simple website into an eCommerce solution are very popular. Other en­hance­ments help improve the website's per­for­mance in various ways. Both on Drupal and WordPress, SEO plugins, which you can use to boost your website to stand out to search engines, are in high demand.

Very few website operators are happy to settle for a site exactly as it comes upon ac­ti­vat­ing it. As a result, content man­age­ment systems consider cus­tomiza­tion a crucial factor. While plugins and modules allow users to add new functions to their CMS site, themes are used to change the design of a website. Provided you have the required pro­gram­ming knowledge, it’s also possible to design your own WordPress or Drupal theme from scratch.

But beginners es­pe­cial­ly ap­pre­ci­ate pre­designed themes available for download. The selection of free themes available becomes an important factor when it comes to choosing the right CMS for your own website. WordPress leads the way as far as design ideas and ex­ten­sions are concerned, ben­e­fit­ting from its huge community of users and de­vel­op­ers. These con­trib­u­tors mean that there are around 8,000 themes available for download. But Drupal isn’t far behind, with roughly 3,000 themes to choose from.

WordPress proves popular with bloggers and other private users because of its quick in­stal­la­tion and high user-friend­li­ness. With an extensive range of freely available design templates, WordPress appeals to users who value so­phis­ti­cat­ed aes­thet­ics, but who do not have the necessary pro­gram­ming knowledge for their themes. If you wish to put content online on a simple website without too much effort, WordPress is an intuitive software solution that can be installed within a few minutes and offers easy backend use.

WordPress is es­pe­cial­ly suitable for:

• Beginners to web design
• Web designers who manage multiple landing pages
• eCommerce companies (without pro­fes­sion­al support)
• Hobby bloggers

Drupal is a secure and versatile CMS for companies and public in­sti­tu­tions. Users of the CMS should have some knowledge of web de­vel­op­ment. This powerful system can also be used to implement in­di­vid­ual website projects with a complex page structure.

Drupal is perfect for:

• Larger companies
• Mul­ti­lin­gual websites
• Social networks
• Pro­fes­sion­al web designers

You set up a project with Drupal, but would prefer to enjoy the ad­van­tages of WordPress instead? Or are you dis­sat­is­fied with WordPress and wish to work with Drupal? Switching from WordPress or Drupal or the reverse is a challenge but not im­pos­si­ble. Follow our step-by-step in­struc­tions to make the process as simple as possible.

Firstly, make sure you’ve installed Drupal. This ensures that the migration is as simple as possible. If you’re still searching for a suitable hosting option, try Drupal Hosting from IONOS. This hosting package is perfectly adapted to the CMS and you can start designing your website straight away.

Once you’ve installed Drupal, you can begin with the export and import:

1. Adapt the Drupal website: Choose a very similar design to your WordPress site to ensure that all the content from your old website can find a space on Drupal.
2. Export in XML format: Download all data (for example your texts) in XML format. In the WordPress dashboard, this option can be found in the “Tools” category.
3. Install the migration tool: The WordPress Migrate module is available for Drupal and enables data to be imported from WordPress. (Depending on which modules are already included in your Drupal in­stal­la­tion, you may need to install ad­di­tion­al modules.)
4. Import data: Once the module is installed, you can start the import via the “Migration” option in the admin area. The module will show you various options to include only the data you wish to migrate to Drupal.

Once the import is complete, your content should be visible on the new Drupal website. For more in­for­ma­tion on switching from WordPress to Drupal, take a look at these detailed in­struc­tions from devradius.

Switching from Drupal to the most popular CMS, requires you to sign up for a WordPress website. Haven’t got one yet. Hosting for WordPress from IONOS makes the process quick and easy. The server is fully prepared for CMS and WordPress is ready to use in a few clicks.

Once you’ve finished your WordPress in­stal­la­tion, you can start migrating from Drupal:

1. Prepare WordPress: Adapt your new WordPress website to match the design of your previous Drupal site so that all of your content can be more easily trans­ferred.
2. Install the plugin: Install the FG Drupal to WordPress plugin. Install and activate the extension from the WordPress dashboard.
3. Determine the Drupal pa­ra­me­ters: Now, log into the web server on which Drupal is installed using an FTP client. The settings.php file is located in the “… / site / default” directory. From here, you can view the required database in­for­ma­tion.
4. Launch the plugin: The option to import from Drupal can be found in the WordPress dashboard via the import tools (after the plugin has been installed). Start the plugin and enter the data. Now, select which data should be trans­ferred from your old website.

Once you’ve pressed the start button, the plugin loads all the selected data into your WordPress website. The plugin is free, but its range of functions are limited. Although all content can be moved, the migration of meta-in­for­ma­tion (such as user roles) is only included in the premium version.

Find in­for­ma­tion to migrate Drupal to WordPress in the guide by Themeisle.