Drupal or WordPress: Which CMS suits your Website Creation requirement?

A Content Management System (CMS) refers to computer software employed for creating, modifying, and managing the digital content on a website. Today, a CMS has become an indispensable tool for content management as well as website development for most businesses. But since there are a plethora of Content Management Systems available in the market, several entrepreneurs and even the web app development companies find it challenging to select the right CMS for their business.

The two major players that dominate the CMS market are Drupal and WordPress. As per a survey conducted byW3Techs, a renowned online portal that provides information on the usage trends of web technologies,

"WordPress is being used in 39.3% of the websites that account for 64% of the total CMS market share. On the other hand, Drupal is used by 1.5% of websites which accounts for 2.5% of the CMS market share."

Both of these systems have shaped the websites of popular brands and have numerous feathers on their caps. For instance, BBC America, Sony Music, The Walt Disney Company, TechCrunch, MTV News, etc. have been built using WordPress; whereas eBay, NASA, Harvard University, Nokia, Timex, etc. have been built using Drupal.

If you are planning to use any of these for your website but struggling to comprehend the difference between the two, this article is for you. It compares WordPress and Drupal and provides clear visibility of their upsides and downsides. After reading this article, you will be in a position to select the right CMS that best suits your project.

Comparing WordPress and Drupal

Learning Curve and Ease of Usage

WordPress is a super-convenient option for novices building a website from scratch. It is easy to learn and install. It’s simple and intuitive interface offers a WYSIWYG editor, a user-friendly dashboard, a drag-and-drop feature through third-party plugins, options for creating blogs speedily, and countless themes to guide non-programmers. Also, thanks to a huge library comprising of 50,000+ plugins which allow the expansion of functionalities with very little or no coding at all.

Drupal, on the contrary, comes with a steep learning curve that can be quite challenging for beginners and non-programmers. But, Drupal is easy to use once you are well-versed with its technicalities. For instance, a thorough understanding of the numerous dropdowns simplifies UI navigation; the addition of the Layout Builder in Drupal8 eases out page creation and content editing. But, Drupal still needs custom coding for making the website look and function as desired.

Web Development Expenses

WordPress offers free investment initially, though it is only for the platform. For the functioning of the website, one needs to invest in a few other things like registration for the domain, web hosting, plugins, themes, etc. The expenses in curred depend on the level of customization required. One may need to hire a web app developer for a highly customizable website.

Drupal users have to spend more in comparison to WordPress for architecting a website and making it function. The reason is, apart from investing in hosting services, domain registration, etc. the website owner needs to invest in technical experts or hire web app developers for setting up the website.

Security Quotient

WordPress has a secured core, but safety issues crop up when third-party extensions are employed. Moreover, WordPress being more popular than Drupal is more prone to cyber-attacks. To overcome this problem, the WordPress team has increased testing and the frequency of security updates. They have also employed several third-party security plugins offering advanced safety measures.

Drupal’s eco-system is more secure comparatively. Cyber-attacks on Drupal are mostly unsuccessful due to its capability to integrate with sign-on systems such as LDAP, OpenID and, Shibboleth; the availability of two-factor authentication in Drupal 8 core; and its ability to detect common threats like brute-force attacks.

eCommerce Handling

Drupal uses Drupal Commerce for eCommerce apps. Drupal Commerce is clean, advanced, and delivers a rich UX. It comes with integrations that provide access to payment providers from all corners of the world. It offers limitless design freedom and social media integration capabilities. It is ideal for small as well as huge organizations.

The WordPress users need to add the WooCommerce platform through a free plugin for eCommerce applications. WooCommerce is quite easy to use and proves beneficial for small and mid-sized organizations.

SEO Capabilities

Drupal boasts of in-built SEO capabilities. Caching is available as a native feature in Drupal. It allows one to create titles based on URL nodes and customize metatags. Also, it consists of several modules like Redirect Module, XML Sitemap Module, Yoast SEO module, etc. to enhance its SEO abilities.

WordPress provides various plugins for SEO assistance, most popular being Yoast SEO Plugin that can control meta title, descriptions, sitemaps, etc. A Plugin like W3 Total Cache can be used to get help on increasing page load speed. However, the addition of plugins might create conflicts and cause malfunction.

Scalability

Drupal’s scalability is perfect for the requirements of large and complex enterprises. Drupal enables:

• Creation of customized account classes
• Using its own CLI utility for any assistance.

Also, Drupal comes with aggressive caching procedures for handling the magnanimous quantity of data transactions.

The scalability of WordPress focuses on the high-traffic of the websites. Also, custom caching plugins are available with major hosting platforms. It is ideal for blog/news and eCommerce sites handling millions of visitors. This makes WordPress highly performant.

Other differences

• Drupal facilitates the creation of a multi-lingual website that reaches out to more customers across the globe. In WordPress, one must proactively choose the language while installing it.
• Drupal offers robust functionalities and is considered to be more flexible. However, WordPress users can replicate the popular functionalities of Drupal with the help of certain plugins.

Final Verdict

I hope the aforesaid comparative analysis will help you select the ideal CMS for your project. For any technical assistance regarding these tools or website development, contact Biz4Solutions, a global-level mobile and web app development company. Reach us at sales.enquiry@biz4solutions.com

IoT Enthusiast / Avid Mobile Technology having 10+years experience working as a successful IT consultant for tech giants, mid-size & startups companies