Drupal, WordPress or Joomla- Which one to choose?

Drupal is the preferred choice of software developers for CMS or content management system. Other CMS such as Joomla and WordPress have also established themselves as major players in open source CMS market. All three CMS offer incredible flexibility to the developers which make development and designing of websites extremely easy. These CMS have been designed and developed in such a manner so that developers who do not have strong programming skills can use them. WordPress is a good option for new programmers while Joomla is the best for designing e-commerce websites. PHP programmers use these CMS extensively since they are easily compatible with all PHP frameworks. Wide range of themes and plugins are also available for these CMS. However, it is WordPress and Drupal which lead the way when it comes to number of plugins and free themes.

WordPress Vs Joomla Vs Drupal- The Fight continues

With augment of technology, varieties of CMS or content management systems have been designed that is helping in developing websites. Among the pool of open sources for content management systems, WordPress, Joomla and Drupal has gained popularity of the users. However, it is a tough fight between the three as all of them are offering a wide and exquisite range of services that can help in developing the best website, as you require. Knowing about the three content management systems would prove beneficial for you as you can select the right one accordingly.

Knowing about the popularity

Various research firms have done surveys about the three open sources of CMS and have derived the results, which are mentioned below.

Programming base: During the research program, it was found that all the three CMS works on PHP.

Extensions and Plug-ins: WordPress is offering the maximum number of extensions and Plug-ins (21210) where Drupal takes the second place (11018). Joomla secured the third place by offering 9922+ plug-ins and extensions.

Alleviate of use: For using WordPress, high technical knowledge is not required. The setup is easy and convenient for users as content can be easily taken from MS Word and Notepads. Joomla is comparatively more complex to use than WordPress. It requires proper understanding of the process and terminology before using it to create a webpage. Drupal is termed as the most complex to use. It requires a lot of technical expertise out of all the CMSs. Although it is complex to use, it gives the best and the most advanced level of websites.

Search Stats: On search engines, it was found that WordPress is one of the most sorted after CMS for creating website with 37,200,000 searches. Drupal again bagged the second place by getting 13,600,000 searches. Joomla got just 612000 search requests. Google was the main source of getting information about the searches.

Popularity: On taking the research on a higher note, it was found that some of the best and most viewed sites are based on Joomla and WordPress. However, Drupal was not backed out as the most advanced level of websites was based on them. WordPress is preferred the most by the users to create websites closely followed by Joomla and Drupal.

Purpose of using the three: WordPress is an ideal CMS for building simple yet attractive websites. As it is easy to manage and handle, users prefer to take use of WordPress. People interested in having more content along with flexibility of having support from different social networking sites take use of Joomla. Drupal can be taken into use by those who prefer to have more versatile and advanced sites with level of flexibility.

Additional Information for CMS’s

Before taking use of any of the three CMSs, avail all the information related to them so that you can design the websites accordingly. Knowing about the preference of your client will be useful as you can easily make the selection from WordPress, Joomla or Drupal in a hassle free manner.

PHP frameworks and CMS

PHP has gradually gained a lot of approvalparticularly amidst open source developers.  WordPress and Drupal offer numerous plugins which can be easily integrated if you are developing a website using PHP. One of the main reasons for the ever growing popularity is that PHP can be easily scaled according to needs of programs and applications. It is also more reliable as compared to other application software. PHP has opened a number of opportunities for software developers. By using PHP software, the programmers can design more creative and theme based Webpages.

Cake PHP compatibility with CMS

Cake PHP offers the best options when it comes to dynamic web development applications. This frame work inculcates some of the most advanced features which makeprogramming very easy for the software designers and developers. Cake PHP is developed with the same principles which are used in Ruby on Rails. These features make it even more flexible and customizable for the developers. Cake PHP also allows the users to build the web applications more quickly as compared to other frameworks. With features like code generation and rapid prototypes, the programmers do not have to write the code for every page. It also allows easy setup of the database.

Requirement analysis

Before opting from any of these three widely used CMS, one must analyze the requirements. Whether it is WordPress, Joomla or Drupal, all three are easily compatible with PHP and its major frameworks. Integration of third party applications and development of mobile applications also becomes very easy with these CMS. Developers use code igniter since it is one of the easiest frameworks to implement in web applications. CODEIGNITER is primarily used for developing shard accounts. This framework is easy to use and offers simple solutions to the developers. This is why it is used for the development of small web applications. The developers who are new to the PHP environment use this framework.

About the Author:

Vaishnavi Agrawal loves pursuing excellence through writing and have a passion for technology. She has successfully managed and run personal technology magazines and websites. She currently writes for intellipaat.com, a global training company that provides e-learning and professional certification training.

The courses offered by Intellipaat address the unique needs of working professionals. She is based out of Bangalore and has an experience of 5 years in the field of content writing and blogging. Her work has been published on various sites related to Hadoop, Big Data, Business Intelligence, Project Management, Cloud Computing, IT, SAP, Project Management and more.