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When building a new website, choosing the right content management system (CMS) is imperative. This choice will directly influence how simple or complex it will be to maintain and manage your new site.
Many new business owners, individuals, and organizations debate whether to choose Drupal or WordPress. Both are open-source CMS platforms that are free to use, have a vast selection of plugins, and have strong developer communities.
With more than 60% of the market share combined, it can be a tough choice. So, Drupal vs. WordPress—Which is the right choice for you?
What is WordPress?
WordPress is an open-source management system installed on your web hosting server. The platform allows you to create, change, and manage your site.
With thousands of themes and plugins available online, this free-to-use CMS powers over 75 million sites, making up around 39.1% of all internet websites.
Some of the most giant corporations have built their website using WordPress, including:
- Vogue.com
- BBC America
- Sony Music
- Whitehouse.gov
- TechCrunch
- The Obama Foundation
- The New Yorker
- MTV News
- The Official Star Wars Blog
- Angry Birds
What is Drupal?
Unlike WordPress, Drupal is a cost-free open-source CMS that allows you to publish and remove content from your site.
Although created just a few years before its competitor, Drupal only has a 3% market share, which is considerably less than WordPress.
Despite this, it also powers some of the biggest websites in the world. This includes:
- Government of Australia
- The Economist
- World Economic Forum
- Fox
- Pfizer
- The Emmy Awards
- Entertainment Weekly
- NASA
- Tesla
WordPress vs. Drupal
Pricing
WordPress, like Drupal, is entirely free. However, self-hosting incurs additional costs, such as domain registration, security, hosting, and any premium themes or plugins you may want to use.
A highlight is that you can handle most tasks thrown your way, provided you know where to look, saving you the need to hire a website designer.
Drupal is also free to download, but like WordPress, you must pay for your domain registration, security, and hosting. Additionally, if you aren’t too technologically savvy, you may need to hire a developer.
Ease of Use
Creating a website with WordPress is uncomplicated, which is one of the biggest reasons users choose this CMS for their websites. Just choose a reliable web hosting service and follow up by installing WordPress.
From there, you can create, edit, update, and customize your site. The best part is that editors allow you to create page layouts using a drag-and-drop system.
Another benefit is that you don’t have to write a line of code to get your site up and running. WordPress is your go-to choice if you lack technical knowledge, such as understanding programming languages.
Drupal works similarly to WordPress in that you need to choose a hosting service like Bluehost or Hostinger and then install Drupal.
You will need technical knowledge, such as HTML and PHP programming, when customizing your site. If you don’t know much about programming, we recommend hiring a developer.
In terms of ease of use, WordPress has the edge over Drupal.
Loading Speed
The speed at which your website performs is crucial to keeping users on your site. For example, the likelihood of bounce surges 32% as page load time goes from 1 second to 3 seconds.
This means that users want their questions answered, and they wanted those answers two seconds ago.
Drupal is faster than WordPress because it isn’t resource-intensive, meaning it is lightweight and better equipped to handle hundreds of pages.
Several factors impact speed with WordPress. Managed WordPress hosting is best for this as it takes care of technical aspects such as server speeds, backups, scalability, updates, and security—all of which can influence performance.
Themes and Plugins
Customizing your website is possible only when you have the right tools—themes and plugins—available. In terms of numbers, WordPress has more than 50,000 plugins and over 12,000 themes. On the other hand, Drupal has more than 35,000 modules (plugin equivalents) and over 2,500 themes.
There is more choice with WordPress, but there is also the added benefit of functionality. You don’t need to be a tech expert when choosing user-friendly themes and plugins from WordPress. With Drupal, there is a steeper learning curve when setting up your extensions.
Website Security
It’s impossible to be 100% secure online, no matter which CMS you choose for your website. However, Drupal does have a reputation for being one of the most secure CMS options available.
This is mainly because it doesn’t rely as much on third-party extensions, making it less susceptible but not immune to hacking.
As WordPress is used by more people worldwide, it is also a bigger target for cybercriminals. Security blunders are most often a result of users not taking the right security precautions. Again, using managed WordPress hosting virtually eradicates this issue.
SEO
Putting your best foot forward means optimizing your website for SEO. Both Drupal and WordPress are impressive in this area. Drupal has several modules available to further your SEO and built-in coaching.
WordPress has a plethora of SEO plugins that you can choose from, both paid and free.
Final Word
While WordPress and Drupal are excellent content management systems, they also have limitations.
While Drupal offers top-notch security and speed, WordPress outshines user-friendliness, themes, plugins, and cost. This is why it’s a substantially more popular choice among users.