I have noticed that as WordPress is usually the most well-known content management system (CMS), people tend to assume that it is the only best option they have.
Of course, WordPress is an exceptional CMS that is among the best platforms for websites out there, and that is indisputable.
However, WordPress is not the only one. Another amazing CMS is Joomla, and these two can be compared side by side based on the similar functionalities they offer the customers.
If you are looking into finding the perfect open-source CMS to build or move your website to, bear with me as I compare these two great platforms.
Joomla Vs. WordPress: general similarities and differences
The most important similarity between Joomla and WordPress is that they are both open-source CMSs and they are not meant to be stand-alone software pieces.
Both Joomla and WordPress have to be installed on a web server in order to operate, and this web server has to be provided by a third company of your choosing.
So in this direction, both of them would require you to seek your own web hosting and connect the CMS to the hosting in order to have a functional website.
When it comes to differences, one of them is the way these platforms started. Joomla was always a CMS that aimed to serve portal-like websites.
On the other hand, WordPress started as a blog-focused platform.
Both of them are capable of creating any type of website nowadays.
The most important difference that may play a big role in the choice you make when you want to build a new website is the following:
Joomla is a platform that is more focused on web development or in other words, you need developers that are skilled with web software configuration, dealing with all technical aspects of these processes, etc.
WordPress on the other hand is set up in a way that is way more beginner-friendly and even people without advanced technical knowledge can find their way around setting up and maintaining the website.
WordPress has a lot more automation in all of the configuring and installation processes, while Joomla doesn’t offer a hands-free approach but you have to install processes on your own.
Criteria for choosing
If you are not convinced so far which one of these two great platforms is the right one for you, then let’s dive deeper into the comparison.
I will compare Joomla and WordPress by different criteria.
1. Ease of use
As I briefly mentioned previously, the ease of use is one of the deciding criteria that many people use to choose the correct platform to build their website on.
This is a place where the most important difference between Joomla and WordPress can be spotted.
Joomla is generally simple to get started with. The installation process is to some extent automated and a lot of the hosting companies have a Jommla one-click installation process.
Once you get this far in the process of setting up a Joomla website, things get a bit more complicated.
The whole control panel for managing modules is not extremely beginner-friendly so people with previous web development knowledge are the most suitable for handling it.
If not, you will be required to have a lot of patience and give yourself a lot of time to understand how Joomla works.
In this aspect, Joomla is much more complicated to use than WordPress.
One of the best things about WordPress is the easy-to-use, extremely user-friendly dashboard that let’s even the people with very limited technical knowledge create amazing websites.
You won’t spend a lot of time getting used to WordPress or learning the interface. It’s quite straight-forward.
Almost all of the options are right there staring you in the face, so you can easily navigate the whole thing.
Read: 5 Features That Make WordPress Great
2. Costs and expenses
For many people and businesses, the costs and expenses related to building and maintaining a website are the top factors that influence the decision.
This is especially relevant for small businesses, startups, or personal websites.
The truth is, both Joomla and WordPress are free by themselves. They can be easily downloaded off the internet and installed very fast.
When it comes to other expenses connected with using these open-source platforms, there are two main things: domain name and web hosting.
✋ Stop worrying about SEO and have me do it for you
PS: Ready to work with the 0.01% of all SEOs worldwide? Click here.
The first thing you need to look into is web hosting or a place on the internet where your website sits and visitors can visit it.
Although prices vary, generally a web hosting service costs around $35-$40 per year.
Another expense is the domain name or the name your customers find you by like for example www.alejandrorioja.com. This can cost around $15 annually.
Additional expenses for both platforms are connected to plans, plugins, and themes that offer more than just the basic features.
Read next: BlueHost Review: Your Effective Web Hosting Solution
3. Extensions
Any content management system that wants to compete on the market has to provide a good collection of extensions and templates.
These things are crucial for letting people create great designed websites filled with amazing functionalities, and do all of that with ease.
In this area, both Joomla and WordPress satisfy the criteria.
WordPress is very popular by the extensive collection of plugins that can get extremely complex and act as additional systems for building eCommerce stores, customer relationship systems, etc.
And since it is the more popular platform in this comparison, or even in general, it has the most templates and plugins to choose from.
Joomla has a rich collection as well, but in numbers, the templates and extensions are quite less.
The positive thing is that they are often much less complex than those on WordPress.
Relevant: Top 15 WordPress plugins for 2020
4. Customization capabilities
As I previously said, both Joomla and WordPress have their own plugins or extensions with which you can further customize your website.
WordPress has more than 55.000 plugins, Joomla has more than 8000 extensions. That’s a major difference.
Hence, WordPress has quite a lot more aspects that can be customized as opposed to Joomla.
Another category where the story repeats itself is in the design department.
WordPress has themes, Joomla has templates. Again, WordPress has a very big pool of themes you can choose from, and it’s much easier to find a high-quality theme with often higher support levels.
5. Speed
Taking into account the speed of the website when choosing a CMS is a very logical thing, especially in times like these when users will abandon a website if it’s loading for more than just a few seconds.
Users are used to quick loading pages, and that’s very important to be able to offer to your customers.
Speed is depending on many factors for both Joomla and WordPress. One of the biggest things that influence speed is plugins and extensions.
In many instances, Joomla websites load faster, but they have quite fewer extensions. In other instances, WordPress websites are faster.
There is no winner in this one, it all depends on your added functionalities, how often you do updates, etc.
Read next: How To Optimize Your Website Speed: Top 12 Tips & Guide
6. Security
Website security is a very important feature that plays a role in your choice. If there is a platform that is amazing but doesn’t necessarily pay a lot of attention to security- it’s not good.
All the functionalities and designs become secondary when you know you have a high likelihood to be hacked.
When it comes to Joomla and WordPress, both platforms are taking good care to provide the best security for their customers.
Now, naturally since WordPress is the most popular CMS in the world and the biggest portion of websites are on it, most of the attacks happen there too.
Hackers target random websites, and if the majority of them are supported by WordPress, this probability is not questionable at all.
That being said, WordPress is actually quite safe. There are frequent updates that renew the security and the developers are constantly making sure that the code is quite safe.
However, the biggest responsibility for keeping the website safe will fall on you since there are thousands of plugins to choose from that will take care of the security additionally.
All you need to do is do a little bit of research and choose the ones that are the best at what they’re made to do.
On the other hand, Joomla is also quite a high-security platform. There are also updates all the time, and fixes of security issues.
Also, there are some extensions there too just like with WordPress that can provide additional security features for your website.
In conclusion, both of them do a pretty good job at keeping your website secure, but you will play a big role in the security too.
WordPress Advantages
- Very user-friendly interface
- Easy to use, beginner-friendly
- Much better suited for blogging
- A very big number of themes and plugins to choose from
- Massive support community that can help you out in the process
- It tends to be cheaper in terms of having a massive community helping with your problems often for free (though YouTube videos, forums, blogs, etc)
Joomla Advantages
- Fair amount of extensions
- Community and forums available
- Multilingual support from default
- More built-in features suitable for those who want to create more complex websites
- More advanced user management
- Multiple templates for different content possible to use
Summary
Both of these platforms are free to use on their own and offer immense functionalities that you can use to create an original and functional website.
The most obvious difference is that Joomla is in general a much harder to learn platform where developers’ help might be needed.
If you have a team of developers, or you can afford to have one dedicated to this, Joomla is a good choice.
On the other hand, if you are trying to get your website live as soon as possible and without additional help, WordPress is the solid choice.
As the most used platform it has a great community of people, videos, tips, articles on the Internet that can help you out to a large extent.
Additionally, WordPress being the more popular and used platform offers quite a lot more themes and plugins, so depending on the goals that you have for your website it might be easier to get all the functionalities you need that way.
For more complex websites with more built-in functionalities Joomla is the right choice, for a simple blog website WordPress is the right choice.
In whichever direction you may go, you won’t be wrong. It’s just good to take all things into account before deciding.
Did this post help you make your decision? Leave a comment letting me know what you think.
If you liked this post, read these next:
