Choosing the right Content Management System or CMS for your new website is critical. If you are building the site for the first time, you will need this platform to help design and manage your site.
WordPress and Drupal dominate the CMS market share, occupying 60% of the market. Each has its dedicated online community and powers the most popular websites worldwide. Most entrepreneurs wonder which CMS would be best for them.
While Drupal is focused on developers with its array of customization features, WordPress is more beginner-friendly.
This article will take you through a detailed comparison between WordPress vs. Drupal by stacking one up against the other based on several points of comparison.
Ultimately, you will know what to expect from each platform and how to choose the best.
Table of Contents
WordPress vs. Drupal: A Quick Insight
Before moving on to the more nuanced aspects, let’s briefly get introduced to the two players in the field of Content Management Systems. Both Drupal and WordPress provide self-hosted solutions to create and manage the content on your website.
WordPress is the World’s most popular content management system. In 2003, it was launched as a blogging platform, and today, it powers 43.3% of all websites, controlling a massive 65.1% of the known content management system market.
Some famous websites using WordPress are Whitehouse.gov, Sony Mobile, Mercedes Benz, TechCrunch, The New Yorker, and the University of Washington.
Drupal has been functioning even longer than WordPress. Launched in 2000, Drupal powers 2.3% of all websites and has a 4.6% market share of all content management systems.
Some notable websites powered by Drupal are Nasa.gov, The Economist, Dallas Cowboys, The University of Colorado, and the State of Colorado.
Drupal vs. WordPress: 5 Points Of Comparison
Let us now compare WordPress and Drupal based on the following essential features:
1. Ease of Use
Ease of use is a crucial point of comparison because one of the reasons to use a CMS is to make building and manage the site efficiently.
Regarding Drupal, it can be installed easily using beginner-friendly web hosting. In the backend of the Drupal hosting environment, you can install several CMS.
When you install Drupal with CMS hosting, you get various customization options. However, from this point, the learning curve accelerates. So, if you need further customization, you must know how to program in HTML, PHP, and other languages.
Also, code adjustment will be needed whenever you try to update the site to ensure that all the site elements are compatible with the new version.
WordPress, on the other hand, is straightforward to use and set up. You can install WordPress in minutes, and once it is up and running, you get an intuitive dashboard.
You can handle all the theme customizations from the ‘Appearance’ tab. You can also install a drag-and-drop builder to make the site building even more straightforward.
So, WordPress offers greater user-friendliness than Drupal, especially for beginners.
2. SEO
Your work on your site is not over even after it is built, the content is uploaded, and it is live on the internet.
Beyond these, you will need regular updates, troubleshooting issues and SEO optimization.
Keeping it up to date with your Drupal site can be tricky unless you are an expert developer. However, while updating may be difficult, Drupal is good with SEO. The CMS comes with built-in SEO best practices and a variety of extensions like Yoast SEO to enhance functionality.
The Drupal community is also beneficial and smaller, filled chiefly with developers.
WordPress is quite well-optimized with SEO too. You can get a variety of the best WordPress Magento eCommerce themes. Additionally, you can install plugins like Yoast SEO to optimize even further.
Again, the WordPress community is always there to support whether it is a plugin conflict or you want to add a specific feature to the site.
3. Speed and Performance
A fast-loading site is necessary for satisfying visitors and ranking in search engines. Let’s see what each platform does to ensure improved performance.
Drupal helps produce very high-performing and fast-loading websites. As this CMS is not very resource intensive, it allows for faster response speeds and lightning-fast server communication.
Drupal is very well-equipped to handle websites with thousands of pages. It allows you to add more extensions to enhance performance, like enabling website caching.
On the other hand, speed is the main drawback of WordPress. You can make it fast, but you need to use WordPress-managed hosting and run it on a server environment entirely optimized for your site.
With proper optimization, a website caching plugin and a high-quality host, WordPress can give you a very speedy website.
4. Security
Security is a prime concern regardless of the site you are building. Your goal should be to achieve the highest level of security possible.
Over the years, Drupal has earned the reputation of being one of the most secure CMS. This platform is used for several government websites for its high-security standards.
Drupal takes security very seriously. Its relatively smaller theme and plugin marketplace are advantageous as it is less susceptible to hacking.
The WordPress core is highly secure. However, security holes are created by the presence of third-party plugins and themes. Its high popularity also exposes it to security threats.
You can overcome these security vulnerabilities by following the WordPress security best practices. Additionally, you should avoid installing a theme or plugin that is poorly coded.
So, while Drupal is very secure, WordPress can be made more secure by taking the proper steps.
5. Flexibility
If you are not a professional developer, you will likely use themes and plugins to build and customize your site.
Both Drupal and WordPress are open-source, allowing you the flexibility to build the site of your dreams and easily add features without any previous coding knowledge.
You can also turn your WordPress or Drupal site into a headless CMS. This is because both platforms have an API to deliver your content to your blog, apps, and even social media.
Drupal customizations are handled through extensions and modules. Similar to WordPress, customization is available through themes and plugins.
As a result, you can heavily customize your Drupal site. However, these customizations can be more difficult to implement unless you know how to code. Most of these extensions have to be located, installed, and set up on your own, and it’s not as intuitive as WordPress.
Typically, this is why you’ll see unique Drupal sites, as most are custom-built by experienced developers.
WordPress has a massive selection of plugins and themes. The core of your site will be built using a theme, while additional features will be added through plugins.
You’ll not only find a vast free plugin and theme library, but there are premium versions of most themes and plugins. The premium versions are typically higher in quality, pack an additional feature set, or have expert support.
You can build practically all types of websites with WordPress.
Advantages of WordPress Over Drupal
By the detailed comparison, WordPress stands out utilizing its flexibility, user-friendliness, and large and supportive community.
Here are a few advantages of WordPress over Drupal:
- WordPress is easy to use, even for beginners. It does have a learning curve but spending some time with this platform surprises you about how much you can accomplish. For non-technical webmasters, it is a preferred option over Drupal.
- WordPress is also highly flexible with its huge marketplace of themes and plugins. Alongside, it is affordable. Besides hosting and a domain name, you can use entirely free themes and plugins to build a functional WordPress website.
- A massive online community is a plus point of WordPress. Whenever there is a support issue, the solution is just a search or post away.
- These benefits score WordPress over other platforms, too, especially when comparing Weebly vs. WordPress or WordPress vs. Laravel.
Advantages of Drupal Over WordPress
Drupal is undoubtedly not much behind WordPress, and its notable features are security, in-depth content customization options, and robust performance.
There are numerous advantages of using Drupal.
- First, it has an advanced permission control system, allowing easier user management and control. It offers greater depth than WordPress.
- Second, Drupal offers multi-language support with the core installation. It is flexible and can further be customized to meet your unique content requirements. It also has a wide variety of content and an in-depth taxonomy system.
- The content customization abilities of Drupal need special mention. Drupal allows multiple page types and custom content. It does not cost much to customize, as you need to pay for hosting and domain to get your site up and running.
Expert Insights on WordPress vs. Drupal
We asked agency experts: "What is your verdict on Wordpress vs Drupal?"
Nikita Shah, WordPress Developer, WPWeb Infotech:
"WPWeb Infotech believes that WordPress excels in user-friendliness and a vast plugin ecosystem, making it ideal for beginners and small to medium businesses. Drupal, on the other hand, offers robust security and flexibility, suited for complex, large-scale websites. Both have their unique strengths, catering to different web development needs."
Lucky Gobindram, GM, CXR.Agency:
"WordPress excels in user-friendliness and extensive themes/plugins, ideal for beginners and content-focused sites. Drupal offers robust customizability and scalability, better suited for complex, high-traffic sites requiring in-depth development."
Derek Robinson, Chief Marketing Officer at Top Notch Dezigns:
"WP is great for websites that aren’t too large or complex. It is more user-friendly than Drupal, which is better for larger/more complicated websites."
Fabricio De Felippe, CEO at Tuxdi:
"I would personally choose WordPress for an institutional website. But if you need to build a more robust, scalable and secure platform, and you have more time and budget, I would choose Drupal."
Alex Velesnitski, Chief Technical Officer at Timspark:
"Drupal is a versatile PHP framework, offering extensive capabilities with specialized tools for every task. WordPress, on the other hand, is known for simplicity and speed, making it perfect for less intricate websites."
Takeaways on WordPress vs. Drupal
Selecting a suitable CMS is a crucial step in the future of your website. Choosing the wrong one can put you in a lot of trouble right from the beginning.
WordPress and Drupal have out-of-the-box features and several points to stand out against the other. Deciding upon one would require careful study of the two CMS along with your level of developmental expertise and business requirements.
