WordPress Vs Drupal, both the platforms have their own fan following, but we will try to narrow down your choice according to what suits your need best. This is one of most fundamental questions that comes when we want to setup a blog or website.
There are a number of Content Management System (CMS) available but when you choose a platform, consider – ease of use, features and migration ease from one platform to another.
In this article, we will concentrate only on WordPress Vs Drupal.
If you are a starter and want to setup a website with CMS, then we recommend that you consider these two.
- Setup – WordPress and Drupal can both be easily setup and most of the hosting service providers have a one click install facility which make pretty easy to install these CMS.
- Ease of Use – Hands down WordPress wins this because WordPress is very easy to use compared to Drupal. For both the CMS, there are endless tutorials on the internet but to really understand Drupal it will take some time depending on your interest. And Drupal is only easy to use if you have a bit of programming background otherwise you will definitely struggle in the beginning.
- Extension capabilities – For WordPress you can use plugins and for Drupal you can use Module. Both the platforms have thousands of plugins/ modules but WordPress has significantly more plugins. However, Drupal takes a bit of a lead here of being a true CMS because with the use of Drupal’s inbuilt features like forums, polls etc you can make changes according to your need rather than depending on the plugin or a module. This is the reason why Drupal is considered more powerful than WordPress.
- Managing version update – WordPress it is very easy because it’s all automatic and you don’t have to do it manually. But with Drupal it is quite a task. Personally, when it comes to Drupal updates, it gives me quite a headache because to update Drupal is another time consuming process. If you use Drush, then updates can be managed automatically in Drupal but as mentioned earlier it is only good for those who have a programming background.
- Free Themes – Themes are a very important factor which determines how your site will look like. WordPress has more themes as compared to Drupal. But with Drupal you can make so many changes that theme concept is really not applicable on Drupal.
- Speed of Loading a Website – Well this is most important that website loads really quick because nobody likes lower websites. WordPress is bit slower compared to Drupal. You will be adjust lot of features and use of plugin to make your WordPress site load faster and Drupal is generally have better load time. But before you decide the Platform it also equally important to select a good host provider because good hardware and good software, wins the game.
- SEO – Drupal has better SEO capabilities than WordPress. With both platforms you need to install SEO plugin or module for exploit its full potential.
- Security – Drupal offers enterprise level security which makes it less vulnerable to hacks.
- Market Share – WordPress has a massive market share of more than 50 % of CMS market powering million of websites and since Drupal is not so easy to handle, its share is very low commpared to WordPress but it still manages to hold a large pie of CMS market of around 5%.
- Cost – Both platforms are free!
We leave this matrix for you to decide which platform to use. We hope that we help you in narrowing down to your choice.
 WordPress |
Want to Start your website Fast, Not having much knowledge of software, basic requirements and simple website. |
Drupal |
Want a solid structure for your website, have time in hand, willing to learn the system and security is top concern. |
