Drupal or WordPress – which CMS will be better for building your website? It is a tricky question, for both systems have pros and cons. Your choice depends on the project size as well as your programming knowledge.
What is a CMS?
CMS (Content Management System) is a software designed to create, edit and update website content. It does not require broad programming knowledge, which is a big advantage. Many content management systems are Open Source, which means that they are free and allow you to make changes to their code.
Advantages of WordPress
WordPress is a content management system that gained popularity mainly due to its ease of use and the number of plugins that allow you to configure a website or the CMS itself. WordPress does not require HTML or PHP knowledge unless you use advanced solutions. You will find a built-in function that allows you to install website templates or plugins that expand the website’s functions.
Another important advantage of WordPress is the community, i.e. people who participate on forums or other places on the Internet and help with various problems with the operation or modification of the CMS.
Plugins are the reason why WordPress is considered a content management system and not a blogging script. The number of plugins available on the WordPress website is enormous. Most of them are free, e.g. Yoast SEO or Litespeed Cache. WordPress has several free themes that you can use to modify the appearance of your website. The most popular of them is the Astra theme. Of course, there are also paid, more advanced and interesting solutions.
Advantages of Drupal
The standard version of Drupal has all the necessary functions such as menu management, user registration, administration system and appearance customization tool. The CMS is famous for the fact that you can easily post various content on it – videos, surveys, blogs, podcasts, statistics and more. Additionally, CKEditor 5 and Gutenberg, introduced in Drupal 9, significantly facilitate creating and editing website content. CKEditor 5 offers extensive tools for text formatting and customizing multimedia content, while Gutenberg allows you to create attractive page layouts using blocks.
Like WordPress, Drupal also has an extensive library of modules that can be found on its home page. Since it is an Open Source CMS, you can create your modules for it. Drupal has a large developer community that will help you in case you need it.
Drupal CMS is perfect for building large websites and advanced, extensive online stores where integration with other systems is often necessary. However, as we mentioned earlier, a blog and small websites will also work great on it.
Drupal vs WordPress – Similarities and Differences
Although the platforms compete with each other, both have similar achievements. Both have created solutions that help build and manage websites. Below we present some of the most important similarities and differences between the systems.
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Drupal vs WordPress – Functionality
When comparing WordPress to Drupal, the latter is more complex since it offers lots of functions. Let’s take a closer look at some of them:
- Types of posts – this function in Drupal is more flexible than in WordPress. Drupal might be a better option if you publish various content types that require different templates.
- Access accounts and permissions – WordPress allows you to assign several main roles to people having access to the website but Drupal has a built-in access panel thanks to which you can create various roles or grant access to selected content.
- Multi-language support – since Drupal 8, the support for multilingual websites is the default option, while WordPress requires installing additional plugins.
- Content management – Drupal’s taxonomy system is more flexible than WordPress’, so it can handle larger amounts of content.
- Greater integration possibilities – Drupal has more modules that focus on integration with external services, e.g. SalesForce.
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Drupal vs WordPress – Security
Drupal is famous for its security level. Recent reports indicate that hacker attacks on Drupal-based websites were only 0.6% of all security breaches compared to other CMS systems. For this reason, it is a popular choice among government institutions. Drupal publishes “security advisories” as well – information about security threats and recommendations on how to prevent them. “Security advisories” contain detailed information about discovered security vulnerabilities and their potential consequences. They aim to provide Drupal users with access to the latest solutions so that they can effectively protect their websites against attacks and data loss.
The biggest disadvantage of WordPress is the fact that to gain the capabilities of other CMS systems such as Drupal or Joomla, it requires the installation of plugins that reduce its performance. It also negatively affects the security, because most hacks are related to installed plugins. This comparison of WordPress vs Drupal wins the latter.
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Drupal vs WordPress – E-commerce Solutions
You may not be at the stage of implementing sales to your website yet. However, if you want to scale your business, it is worth thinking about e-commerce solutions. Both Drupal and WordPress offer their modules and plugins. In the case of Drupal, it is the Drupal Commerce module. while WordPress offers the WooCommerce plugin. What is the difference between these two? First of all, the scalability – WooCommerce is designed for stores with a small number of products, whereas Drupal Commerce can handle even very extensive online sales platforms or PIM systems.
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Drupal vs WordPress – Popularity
WordPress and Drupal are two well-known and valued CMSs. There is no doubt that the former is more popular but statistics show that 7% of the 10,000 most popular websites use Drupal. This is a good result and proves that the largest websites use this solution. WordPress however is used by 43% of all websites on the Internet.
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Drupal vs WordPress – License
Both WordPress and Drupal operate on an Open Source license, which means that installing and using them is free. This is a huge advantage because website owners do not have to worry about the costs of maintaining access to their platform.
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Drupal vs WordPress – Configuration Options
One of the main goals of Drupal is to enable the creation of websites catered to individual needs. For this reason, its users have not only over 50,000 modules (e.g. Views, Media or Webform) and over 3,000 templates at their disposal but also the ability to freely edit files according to their needs. In addition, Drupal requires greater coding standards to ensure all modules interact with each other.
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Drupal vs WordPress – SEO
If you have a website, you certainly want it to be visible on the Internet. Both Drupal and WordPress offer extensive options when it comes to search engine optimization. What distinguishes Drupal from WordPress are several built-in important SEO solutions, e.g. a caching process that supports faster page loading. However, the list of SEO plugins and modules for both systems is very long, so positioning on these CMSs is not technically complicated. In this category, it is difficult to decide which platform is better.
Why Should You Choose WordPress?
Building and managing WordPress-based websites is easy and does not require excessive programming knowledge. However, it is designed for simple websites with low traffic, such as blogs, small news websites, business card websites or, thanks to the WooCommerce plugin, for small online stores.
Here are some examples of WordPress-based websites:
- sonymusic.com
- blog.ted.com
- blog.yelp.com
- blog.playstation.com
- snoopdogg.com
- usainbolt.com
As you can see, WordPress is used e.g. by record labels, musicians or sportspersons.
Why Should You Choose Drupal?
Drupal is a more advanced content management system than WordPress, although programming knowledge is not required to use it for editing purposes. A well-prepared admin panel allows you to make changes to the website yourself. The CMS is perfect for building large pages, online stores, and high-traffic websites (currently it supports more websites of this type than WordPress), but it will also work great for smaller projects, e.g. blogs and company websites.
Here are some exemplary Drupal-based websites:
- kghm.com
- oxfam.org
- ox.ac.uk
- commission.europa.eu
- tesla.com
- royal.uk
The above examples prove that Drupal-based websites are used by famous corporations, non-government organizations and universities.
Drupal vs WordPress – Which One to Choose?
Comparing the advantages and disadvantages of both content management systems, it is clear that both of them are good CMSs, and which one you choose depends largely on what kind of project you are working on. If you want a small website or online store, WordPress will work perfectly. However, if you are thinking about developing a website or e-commerce platform in the future, Drupal will prove to be a solution that will serve you for many years.
Summary
As a summary, we have prepared answers to frequently asked questions.
