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Choosing the right CMS platform is important before you start building your website. Many content management system platforms are available and have their own advantages and disadvantages. Two CMS platforms that stand out among all the other CMS platforms and can be directly compared are WordPress and Joomla, so, we are going to discuss WordPress vs. Joomla in this blog.
These two CMS platforms are known for their ease of use, extensive customization options, and large online communities. WordPress and Joomla are used to build modern, interactive, and eye-catching websites. So how to choose the right one?
Here in this post, we have compared both CMS platforms to help you choose the best one. So let us get started with WordPress vs. Joomla.
Joomla vs. WordPress – A Closer Look
Both WordPress and Joomla are self-hosted, open-source content management systems, present in the market for more than 15 years. These CMS platforms have brought success to many online businesses, from beginners to expert developers worldwide.
WordPress
WordPress is an open-source content management system platform developed with PHP and MySQL. It has a very dominant position in the market, with 81% of live websites running WP across the world.
WordPress was launched in 2003 as a blogging platform. However, it is now grown and tops in the best CMS platform list. WordPress is easy to use and is highly flexible because it allows you to create any kind of site and customize it with extensive WordPress plugins and themes.
WordPress is divided into 2 options:
- WordPress.com and
- WordPress.org.
WordPress.org – It is a self-hosted content management system platform and offers you full control of your website. All you need is web hosting to get started. Many popular web hosting platforms offer one-step installation from your web hosting’s cPanel.
WordPress.com – WordPress.com, on the other hand, is a hosted version. All you need to do is create an account, choose a plan that suits your needs, and build a website directly. You do not need separate hosting.
WordPress also offers a top-notch user experience. Creating and publishing new posts and web pages is very simple. WordPress also provides different editors like the classic editor, block editor, and Elementor that enable you to format your content, add visual graphics, do SEO, and much more.
Joomla
Joomla was introduced in 2005 and is almost as old as WordPress. Similar to WordPress, Joomla is also an open-source CMS platform built with PHP and MySQL. According to Builtwith, Joomla hosts 5% of the websites globally, and over 1.6 million websites use Joomla. It is ranked as the third-best and most popular CMS platform in the world.
Joomla is free and is available for everyone. You only need website hosting and a custom domain name for your business. You can download it from the cPanel. The main aim of Joomla is to allow users to build business and personal websites without any coding language experience.
WordPress vs. Joomla: A Detailed Comparison
1. Pricing
WordPress
Since WordPress is an open-source CMS, it is available for free to all users. You only need to download and install it from your web hosting’s cPanel. All you need is a domain name and web hosting.
Note – Many web hosting providers offer the best and pocket-friendly web hosting plans. Choose the right one wisely. Look for the hosting that supports CMS platforms.
Keeping in mind the domain, hosting, website developer fees, if any, security, plugins, and site maintenance, the cost for your website can range from $100 to $3,000. But you can launch a professional, dynamic, and interactive website with unlimited customization, an effective technical support team, and have full control of your website.
Joomla
Just like WordPress, Joomla is also an open-source platform, and you need to register a domain and hosting and pay for website development and monthly website maintenance. You might have to pay $700-$6,500 monthly to get a website built on Joomla. Hence, it is costlier than WordPress.
Conclusion – The development cost of building a WordPress website is lower than that of Joomla because of its huge community. The users can find help via blogs and forums.
Note – You can cut down on the website development fees if you build a website all by yourself and not hire a website designing expert.
2. Help and Support
WordPress
Known as the best CMS platform, WordPress has built a very strong support forum specially designed for WordPress enthusiasts. They offer advice and tutorials on all WordPress-related topics. Additionally, they also offer text documents, video manuals, guidelines, and tutorials.
Joomla
Joomla has an online collaborative community specially designed for its users, developers, or anyone interested in learning Joomla. Additionally, it also offers support in the form of tutorials, guides, articles, and videos that are free to use, really helpful, and easy to find on the official website.
You can also get advice from the Joomla experts. However, you need to purchase the support plan to get full-service support. They offer 4 support plans; Basic, Started, Specialized, and Business starting from $39/month.
Conclusion – Both WordPress and Joomla have huge communities where the users can meet, share their experiences, and get their queries answered regularly. Both the CMS platforms also offer many support documents. Additionally, you can also get premium support for more complex issues.
3. Ease of use
WordPress
WordPress is well-known for its ease of use, and many users are opting for it over other CMS platforms. People using WordPress are either beginners or tech-savvy individuals. It is also easy to install. The simple dashboard allows beginners to understand the basics in little to no time.
The dashboard is so simple and clean. You can access the various content types and change your site settings from the left side of the dashboard. Additionally, you can also easily customize your website design using a large variety of niche-specific themes, set up social sharing, and create a new blog post.
Joomla
Unlike WordPress, Joomla is different, and you might need some patience if you do not have any idea about its technical jargon. If you have the time and interest to learn Joomla, it can be the biggest asset to your company. But remember you need to put in a decent effort if you are a beginner.
Joomla uses a combination of articles and categories. In other words, before creating any content on Joomla, you need to create categories for every content. This process can be very time-consuming and complicated when compared to WordPress, especially for non-developers.
Conclusion – Both WordPress and Joomla support very easy-to-use interfaces and have the same installation process. However, the Joomla interface is not beginner-friendly. Beginners who are using Joomla might find understanding it a daunting task compared to the WordPress interface. So, if you are new to IT, using WordPress for building a website can be the best choice.
4. Customization and Design
The main reason that makes CMS platforms famous is the ease of customizing the websites easily in a few clicks. This means you can use different themes and plugins are available online that enable users to create an eye-catching and engaging website without much coding knowledge.
WordPress
WordPress offers 7,000 free WordPress themes and thousands of premium themes that allow users to build simple and dynamic websites without any coding and website designing knowledge. Additionally, you can also edit the source code the way you want. These themes come with an easy-to-use editor with many drag-and-drop tools.
Joomla
Unlike WordPress, Joomla is very different and requires more time if you are not familiar with the Joomla interface. If you have time and interest to learn Joomla, it can be a big asset.
Joomla has a combination of articles and categories. In simple words, before creating content, you need to create categories for the type of content you want to create, which can be complicated and time-consuming compared to WordPress, mainly for beginners.
Conclusion – WordPress and Joomla are simple to use. However, the Joomla interface is very confusing. So if you are new to website creation, then WordPress is your best bet.
5. Security
WordPress
With an increase in WordPress popularity, hackers target WordPress websites for data breaches, hacking attempts, malware, and trojan attacks. Also, WordPress has more websites than any other CMS.
Since there are thousands of plugins available on WordPress, it is impossible to ensure that every plugin is safe and compatible with the latest version of WordPress. This can be the biggest disadvantage in terms of security.
Additionally, the advanced add-ons rely on plugins, and you need to customize the core files to enable the SSL certificate. But you need not worry. WordPress comes with a few security plugins that will help you secure your website. Also, WP allows you to install plugins for the SSL certificate.
Joomla
Like WordPress, Joomla also faces some security issues when you install extra plugins. You need to understand that no CMS platform is 100% secure, and Joomla offers a few security plugins.
Unlike WordPress, Joomla offers “Joomla Force SSL,” which allows you to activate Joomla SSL easily without installing any third-party plugins.
Conclusion – In terms of security, there is a tie between WordPress and Joomla. Although WordPress and Joomla both have the risk of being attacked, they offer a large variety of plugins that helps to protect them from cyberattacks.
6. Extensions and Plugins
WordPress
WordPress plugins allow you to create any type of website ranging from a membership portal and an online store to a school website and professional portfolio. WordPress has 50,000 free plugins available on the official website that helps you to create any type of website.
Additionally, you can add and customize a WP plugin. WordPress also offers many premium plugins that offer more advanced features.
Joomla
Joomla has 8,000 plugins available on the website. With time, Joomla has become very popular and offers advanced functionality. The Joomla extensions are classified in terms of functions, purpose, and scale:
- Plugins – Plugins add simple features to the Joomla websites.
- Modules – Modules allow you to add bits of content around the main content area.
- Components – Components have their own set of plugins and extend the main functionality of Joomla.
Some of the most popular Joomla extensions are Virtue Mart, HikaShop, MijoShop, JoomShopping, J2Store, and EShop.
Conclusion – To conclude, both WordPress and Joomla offer the best plugins that help you to manage your website. However, WordPress is considered to be the best. Additionally, since Joomla is less popular, it has fewer extensions compared to WordPress.
7. Search Engine Optimization
WordPress
WordPress is the best platform in terms of SEO. Many themes offer SEO features like schema markup, breadcrumb navigation, and open graph data. WP also allows you to create tags for posts, unlike Joomla. The best thing about WordPress is that you can optimize the URL structure and enter metadata for each page.
The most popular SEO plugin in WP is Yoast SEO. It offers many features and is very easy to use. Yoast SEO allows you to categorize your SEO score in different areas with a traffic light system of red, yellow, or green colors.
Additionally, Yoast SEO also tells you how to improve your score in every aspect and offers a readability score for your posts to optimize them and make them engaging and SEO-friendly.
The good news is that Google bots love WordPress because it comes with very simple code that allows the crawlers to scan through the website easily. It is also very easy to get a high ranking even with very little SEO knowledge, and you also have full control over your website’s SEO.
Additionally, with WordPress, you can also connect your company’s social media accounts. WordPress also makes tracking traffic easier.
Joomla
Although Joomla is an SEO-friendly CMS platform, it requires more attention to rank high on the SERPs. With Joomla, you can create search-engine-friendly URLs and increase content readability. The best part of Joomla is that it allows you to rewrite your URL and eliminate words like index.php.
You can also add meta titles and descriptions to your pages and posts. However, Joomla SEO is not one-click like WordPress, especially for beginners. So choose Joomla only if you have some experience with Joomla.
Conclusion – To conclude, WordPress is considered more SEO-friendly when compared to other CMS platforms like Joomla. As mentioned, Joomla does not offer one-click SEO like WordPress.
8. Payment Gateways
WordPress
WooCommerce is the most famous eCommerce plugin for WordPress. This platform has over 100 payment gateways that allow you to process payments easily. The payment gateways include PayPal, Amazon Pay, Stripe, eWay, and PayFast.
Joomla
Joomla has many free and paid plugins for payment gateways that allow you to accept any payment type. The payment options include Checkout Lightbox, PayPal, and Simple SagePay.
Conclusion – In terms of payment gateways, there is a tie between both platforms because they offer equal plugins and features. However, due to its popularity, many brands use WordPress for building eCommerce websites.
WordPress vs. Joomla: Which One to Choose?
In the end, WordPress wins the race of the best CMS platform. It has the greatest share in the market when compared to other CMS platforms. To decide which CMS platform to choose, you need to keep in mind your website’s purpose.
In simple words, WordPress is the best CMS platform designed for beginners and is ideal for blogging. So if you are new to website creation and want to build a site, you can go ahead with WP.
On the other hand, Joomla is a more flexible CMS platform used to display different types of content and manage users. If you know how to build websites and are looking for a more flexible CMS that allows you to create dynamic websites, Joomla can be the go-to option.
So if you do not know which CMS platform to choose, then identify the website you want to build and then choose the CMS platform.
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