Do you want to build an impressive online business and strengthen your digital footprint in the e-commerce market? Time to use a powerful CMS!
But what is a CMS? And which one would be best for your business website?
In this article, we will cover all about CMS solutions and compare the most popular platforms such as WordPress, Joomla, Drupal and Wix.
What do you need to start an online business?
Your website is the online representation of your brand. How you design, maintain and display your business pages has a huge impact on the success of your online presence.
You can always take the easy route and hire a web developer to build the website for you, but that can easily cost you a fortune and it may never look and work the way you envisioned.
With the right tools, creating and managing an online project can be easy. In this sense, the CMS is one of the most important tools at your disposal. The type of business you have, how you want to present your website, and the functionality you need on your site are all variables to consider when selecting a CMS.
What is CMS?
A content management system (CMS) is software that helps you create and manage your website, without the need for advanced technical or coding skills. It can help throughout your journey, from designs to the most complex functionalities of your site
HTML, JavaScript and CSS are the most commonly used programming languages for creating web pages. If you want to build your website from scratch (without a CMS), you’ll need to have some experience with these languages and probably write a lot of code.
WordPress vs another CMS
Although WordPress is the most popular CMS platform in the world, Joomla, Drupal and Wix are other good examples of widely used open source content management systems.
Naturally, there are similarities and differences between the four platforms. Here’s how they stack up against each other:
WordPress vs. Joomla
WordPress started as a free blogging platform. But due to its open source status and huge popularity, the tool has been adding a lot of features and tools over the years to reach its current status.
Joomla is a very extensive content management system that is both powerful and easy to use. The platform allows you to build websites and a variety of business-oriented online applications.
Ease of use
Although Joomla’s interface is easy to use, it still has a steeper learning curve than WordPress. In comparison, WP is ready to use out of the box and its interface is quite intuitive and simple. It’s a close race between the two, but WordPress still takes the points.
Personalization
Although both CMS can help you in developing various types of websites, WordPress has many more plugins (over 50,000 plugins and 11,000 themes) than Joomla. Joomla is not to be overlooked as it has over 8,000 plugins and 1,000 themes. In addition to this, WP offers a unique customizer – your site where you want to modify the inputs and outputs of your site theme.
security
When it comes to security, both WordPress and Joomla have pretty robust architectures. That’s why the overall protection of your site depends on the security plugins and safeguards you apply on top of your CMS.
Due to its popularity, WordPress is most frequently targeted by hackers. However, if you consider the difference in market share, Joomla websites are breached more often on average.
seo
Joomla takes the lead in this category as it allows you to enter metadata without an additional plugin. The app also includes some other tools that make it easier for search engines to find your content.
However, when it comes to plugins, WordPress has all the tools you will need to improve the SEO of your content. Many of the plugins are available for free, but even the premium ones are usually worth the investment.
support
Although Joomla has many learning resources such as tutorials, video guides and message boards, it pales in comparison to its opponent.
WordPress has one of the largest communities that can help with any problem. WP also receives regular updates and a large number of developers around the world produce new plugins and themes daily.
WordPress vs. Drupal
Although Drupal came out before WordPress, it has a much smaller market share. The CMS is known for building a diverse range of websites, with notable clients including Tesla, the Emmy Awards and the Australian Government.
Drupal is known for its ability to handle high-traffic websites and its ability to adapt to any visual design.
Ease of use
Drupal is best suited for developers or people with basic knowledge of web development. Regardless, it can do a wonderful job of helping any user create a stunning website.
WordPress is mainly aimed at beginners and those who want to design a project with the least effort. In this regard, WP is much easier to use and easier to learn than Drupal.
Personalization
Drupal is a strong competitor in terms of plugins (modules). Over 40,000 plugins and 2,000 themes are available from official sources, almost as many as WordPress and more than most other industry rivals.
While both platforms help you create different types of content, Drupal offers more flexible options than WordPress. For example, a single installation of a single WP site includes five basic user functions. In comparison, Drupal includes an access control mechanism that allows you to create new roles with specific permissions.
security
One of the reasons why companies and government entities adopt Drupal is its effective web security capabilities. App developers are even more active and focused than WordPress contributors when it comes to security patches and improvements.
Also, websites built by Drupal are among the least vulnerable to hacking, a stark contrast to WP’s alarming cybersecurity status.
seo
Drupal, similar to Joomla, has some useful built-in tools to improve your website’s SEO. Customizable meta tags, caching mechanisms, and SEO friendly URLs are great examples of these functionalities. As mentioned, you will need plugins to do this in WordPress.
support
The Drupal community today easily exceeds one million members, with a significant percentage of them regularly contributing various resources. Considering Drupal’s small market share, that’s pretty impressive. Even so, WordPress remains unmatched in terms of the external help you can get with the app.
WordPress vs. Wix
Wix has come a long way since it started, becoming one of the strongest WordPress competitors. Not only is it a powerful website builder, but it also offers an open source architecture that makes it flexible to improvements. Here is a much more detailed one Wix vs WordPress Comparison published by ScalaHosting if you want to learn more about the pros and cons of these two platforms.
Ease of use
Wix is an easy-to-use site builder with a very intuitive drag-and-drop interface. As a result, their typical target audience consists of beginners and those who want to easily create a website from scratch.
Although the WordPress dashboard is quite easy to use, some actions may require some technical knowledge to fully master.
Personalization
Wix’s plugin gallery is much smaller than WordPress’s. But you can still find some useful plugins to add more functionality to your website. Wix templates are also less customizable than rich WP themes.
With Wix, you’ll rely on the App Market and choose from over 280 apps if you want to enhance your website. In comparison, WordPress offers you a whole new world of creative possibilities through more than 50,000 dynamic plugins.
security
As a hosted website builder, Wix takes care of all the necessary security tasks and precautions on your behalf.
With WordPress, overall security requires extra effort on your part. However, you can hire a professional developer or opt for managed support from your host. This way you can avoid the more technical tasks like installation, maintenance and updates.
seo
As long as your website is set up correctly and you have the right tools, WordPress takes the lead when it comes to search engine optimization. With WordPress, you have more options for fine-tuning your website’s SEO, as well as a wealth of dedicated plugins for the job.
Wix’s Wiz Guide guides newbies through a step-by-step process to improve their search engine results.
support
Wix has its own dedicated technical support team that can be contacted through various communication channels. You can contact them by phone, email or live chat, and the operators are usually very responsive and helpful.
To get the same level of support with WordPress, you must first sign up with a trusted WP hosting provider with a well-trained in-app support team.
Benefits of WordPress
As you can see, WP often exceeds expectations when you set it against its market competitors. But there are even more benefits to using WordPress. Below are the highlights.
● It’s free
Not only is WordPress open source, it also comes with a multitude of free plugins that can substantially improve the functionality of your website. It also offers thousands of themes at no extra cost. Developers regularly create new plugins and security patches thanks to the app’s large online community.
● Ideal for beginners and developers
Navigating your WordPress dashboard is a breeze from the moment you start navigating. The CMS is well organized and extremely intuitive.
While some basic technical knowledge is always beneficial to get the most out of your website, WP still allows you to set it up and maintain it with little or no experience.
● Regular updates
Thanks to its large developer community, continuous updates are always available for WordPress, making it a highly secure and reliable CMS. Even when a major vulnerability emerges, developers quickly find a fix and share it with other users.
● flexibility
With such a large number of plugins available, you can do almost anything with your website. For example, there is a free WooCommerce plugin that can easily transform your small website into a beautiful online store.
Conclusion
Content management solutions like Drupal, Joomla, Wix, and WordPress are four great options for building a website.
However, due to its ease of use, large global community, and number of plugins, WordPress beats them all. It is much easier to use than Joomla or Drupal for most non-developers and much more diverse than Wix.
Although Joomla and Drupal offer more features out of the box, they are not as user-friendly and customizable as WP.
how about you What is your weapon of choice for creating a successful website?
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