Blog

Why Businesses are Choosing Drupal 8 Over WordPress & Joomla

The Content Management System (AKA “The CMS”) is the front end of the website building platform that gives creative content makers, the ability to create and manage high-quality sites without the requirement to have extensive prior knowledge of website programming, development and markup languages.

The introduction of the CMS has been the birth of independence for countless new businesses and resulted in new careers and project opportunities. Your CMS is ultimately the gateway and the framework for your content marketing campaigns. Whilst your site content is king, your CMS also needs to keep up with your company goals and vision.

Choosing the right Platform & CMS for your business is integral. Simply “switching platform and CMS” is not just a click away, but an entire website rebuild. Statistics show that WordPress, Joomla, and Drupal – the “Big Three” – dominated the 2017 online world covering about 71% of the CMS Market. WordPress is the most prevalent CMS from a volume perspective, dominating 27.8% of all sites on the web (with about 50,000 new sites being created daily).

There's a vast number of platforms to choose from, so why do businesses select Drupal 8 over the famed WordPress and Joomla? Without further ado, let's compare the three:

CMS	Drupal	WordPress	Joomla
Released when?	Released in 2001 by Dreis Buytaert	Released in 2003 by Matt Mullenwegg	Released in 2003 by Mambo
Number of Websites	1.1 Million	75 Million	2.8 Million
Free Themes	2000+	3000+	1000+
Free Plugins	26k	44k	5k
Cost	Free	Free	Free
Market Share	4.7%	58.9%	7.0%
Update Frequency	30 Days	40 Days	36 Days
Level of Skill Needed	3	1	2
Ease of Use	Requires Coding Skill	Beginner-friendly	Somewhat Beginner-friendly
Security Ranking	1	3	2

WordPress and Joomla, without a doubt, are the most suitable platform for beginners. They are easy to use, have a user-friendly interface and a great variety of plugins and functionality. Drupal, among the three, is more advanced, secure and complex which is favoured in popularity with enterprise-level business websites.

Pros

Drupal

WordPress

Joomla

Technically advanced, websites perform better, enterprise-level security
Can do almost anything. Extremely Versatile. Easily extendable. Tweakable modules.

Supports Multi-site & Promotes SEO practice / SEO Integration

Speedy

Customizable, easy to use, tons of learning resources, excellent community, and support
User-friendly
Promotes SEO practice / SEO Integration
Responsive Sites
Great Support

Easy to learn, great help portal, can be used for social network, updates integrate seamlessly, more built-in options
Powerful interface
User-friendly
Handful available extensions
Strong Developer community

Cons

Drupal

WordPress

Joomla

Users need basic knowledge of HTML, PHP, and other web development languages
Finding a good Drupal developer can be difficult
Complex. Large Learning Curve. One must be dedicated to learn how to build sites within Drupal CMS.

Needs code for major visual customizations, updates may cause issues with plugins
Prone to hackers. Vulnerable particularly around 3^rd party plugins
Updates that may harm rather than improve website
Slow loading time due to unnecessary generic codes

Modules are hard to maintain, middle-ground CMS (not as easy as WordPress, not as advanced as Drupal)
Limited marketplace for additional modules and add-ons.
Frustrating compatibility issues occur between some plugins.

Considering the features, benefits and value propositions, you can see why majority of enterprise businesses looking for security and industry leading website capabilities, chose Drupal. With it’s main technology being PHP, as an open source platform and being a community run software project, it’s clearly the most technically advanced CMS.

Complex as it is, Drupal's foundation is stronger than others and most importantly has higher security. Drupal offers Scalability, Development and Growth. Having your website on Drupal will help your site evolve at the same speed as your business.

Need advice upgrading your Drupal 6 or 7 website to Drupal 8?

Or just investigating building a new beautifully designed, lead generating website on any of the above platforms?

Contact Elephant in the Boardroom for a free consultation:

Email: [email protected]

Visit Us: Ground Floor, 555 Bourke Street, Melbourne, VIC 3000

Call: +61 418 967 352 or (03) 7018 7620