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Joomla! Vs WordPress: A Comparison of Both Platforms

There are lots of platforms to help you build your website. In fact, there are so many they all tussle for your undivided attention, and make the decision tough. Joomla! vs WordPress is a popular comparison, because both platforms offer a lot to help you create your site.

This is because both have a lot of common functionality and infrastructure aspects. However, there are lots of differences too. Because of this, you’ll want to weigh up each platform based on a number of factors.

In this post, we’re going to compare Joomla! vs WordPress. By the end, you’ll have all of the information you need to make the best decision on which website platform to opt for.

Introducing Joomla!

Joomla! is almost as old as WordPress. In fact, its birth has lots in common with WordPress. It ‘forked’ a solution called Mambo in 2005, and (of course) still develops Joomla! today:

joomla!

Joomla! 4 went live in August 2021, and still maintains a free and open-source business model. Much like WordPress, Joomla! also uses PHP as a core programming language, and stores data in a MySQL (or equivalent) database.

Because there are so many similarities between Joomla! and WordPress, there are lots of reasons to use both platforms. However, in the next section, we’ll look at the benefits of Joomla!

Why You’d Want to Use Joomla! For Your Website

Given the dominance of WordPress, it’s sometimes hard to see why you’d opt for another platform. Here are a few reasons we’d recommend Joomla! over WordPress:

  • There is more flexibility for different types of content. WordPress is great for blogging, while Joomla! can work with non-standard content types in a more natural way.
  • You get more scope for using different site templates at once. While WordPress lets you use one theme only, Joomla! will let you mix and match templates for various pieces of content across your site.
  • Joomla! is a multilingual solution out of the box. WordPress requires third-party plugins to make it a full multilingual solution. However, Joomla! is set up to handle this without the need for additions.
  • User management is fantastic in Joomla! WordPress has a great user management system, but it’s basic for some advanced needs. Joomla! offers rich depth when it comes to managing your users.

All of these reasons give some groups of users a great reason to choose Joomla! for their site. For example, if you have complex site design needs, or want the least hassle when it comes to running a multilingual site, Joomla! might suit you better over WordPress.

However, let’s take a more focused look at how Joomla! vs WordPress compares next.

How WordPress Compares to Joomla!

We’ve discussed what Joomla! offers to a would-be site owner, but WordPress is of course no slouch. Yes, there are lots of similarities, but WordPress does pull ahead of Joomla! in a number of areas:

  • WordPress is the ultimate in extensibility. The WordPress Theme Directory and Plugin Directory both offer many more ways to boost the functionality of your site. In fact, you’d be unfortunate not to find exactly what you’re looking for in either of these places.
  • The WordPress community is immense. Whichever way you look at the community of users, developers, support workers, and other champions, WordPress has many paths to help you find out whatever information you need.
  • WordPress is perfect for blogging. A blog is an essential part of a site, and the pared down content types get to the core of what most users need.
  • The price of WordPress is dirt cheap. This isn’t a slight on the platform. You have so much power at your disposal that it’s amazing the Content Management System (CMS) is free. What’s more, many of the themes and plugins are too.

While we’re on the subject, pricing is an important aspect of any decision relating to your website platform. We’ll talk about this next.

Joomla! vs WordPress: Pricing

Much like many of the other similarities of Joomla! vs WordPress, pricing is almost the same. This is because both platforms are free and open-source. This means you can download and install them on a server for zero outlay.

What’s more, WordPress themes and plugins are free in lots of cases, much like the extensions you’ll find for Joomla! We’d suggest that WordPress offers lots more premium extensions than Joomla!, but provides more assets on the whole.

wordpress plugins

As such, you’d do well to consider the other aspects of both platforms than the price. This is because whichever platform you choose, your budget won’t suffer.

Joomla! vs WordPress: Which One You Should Choose

On the whole, there are lots of reasons to choose either Joomla! Or WordPress. Both offer flexibility, and core functionality that you can depend on. What’s more, you will be able to extend the platform of your choosing based on your own needs.

However, our money goes on WordPress in most cases. It’s a long-term solution, has a mammoth community of developers, educators, and users, and includes so many ways to extend the platform.

You have almost all of the tools you need, and for those that don’t exist, plugins can do the job. While Joomla! does offer some handy functionality out of the box, this doesn’t mean it’s yards ahead of WordPress. The most popular CMS in the world can catch up fast, and for that reason we recommend WordPress for almost every scenario for your site.

In Summary

When you look at the right platform to build your site, Joomla! vs WordPress is a common comparison. Both have similar features, long-term development strategies, and an extensive suite of add-ons to boost site functionality. Joomla! Arguably pushes ahead on multilingual content and user management. However, WordPress has greater usability, and a larger community. As such, it’s the platform we recommend in most cases.

Do you think we got this Joomla! vs WordPress review right? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below!

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