Wordpress or Joomla?
I have 8 different websites for my business that I have always done myself. I've used FrontPage and Dreamweaver with premade templates in the past, and created two from scratch. I want to redo my main website that was originally created through FrontPage. What is better Joomia or Wordpress? I've done a little research that says Wordpress has more plugins, but mosaicHUB answers have suggested to use Joomia. What are the pros and cons between the two, and would I be better off using Joomia, Wordpress, or staying with Dreamweaver?
Expert Answers
Sort by Date
Sort by Votes
Jan 2, 2015
As a general rule of thumb, a site that is content based - like a blog/ news website, we prefer WordPress (be it little or huge content). For complex sites with more functionality (e.g. Intranet portals required by corporates) we prefer Joomla. In your case, I definitely recommend WordPress.
Jan 4, 2015
I cannot think of a single time I would recommend Joomla over WordPress. The community and product base of WordPress dwarfs Joomla. Something like 18% of the web is on WordPress. I think the bigger question is, 'WHAT KIND OF WORDPRESS SITE ARE YOU LOOKING TO BUILD?' There's a lot of different ways you can go with WP. You'll want to nail that down first.
Jan 3, 2015
Good point was made already: Dreamweaver is just a design editor while WordPress and Joomla are content management systems (CMS). I would recommend WordPress. It's (as someone mentioned) the "800 lb gorilla" in the market, and being open source, this means it has the most plugins and options available to customize. It also works very well with Google's algorithms, so you can work well into search results and other Google integrations. Also, because it is the big guy in the market and always being updated, whenever Google updates its algorithm, WordPress pops out an update very quickly after to make sure it stays in line.
Something to keep in mind though: There is WordPress.org and WordPress.com. WordPress.org is the type you want to go with. (WordPress.com is not as customizable and is more meant for basic blogging.)
Jan 10, 2015
Dreamweaver is a site creation application, not a content management system. This means you are the coder, designer, and developer. If you know and understand HTML/XHTML, and CSS. If you can code scripting languages like PHP, Ruby, Python, or JavaScript. If you understand how to create, write, and retrieve information from a database such as MySQL, SQL, etc.; then, and only then is Dreamweaver a viable option.
If you can't afford to hire a team of developers, or don't have these skills yourself, you should consider WordPress. WordPress is completely free, fabulous, easy-to-use and manage blogging/CMS system. Some "programmers" object to its use as a Content Management System citing WordPress got its start as a blogging system. So what? Many people, myself included, are using WordPress for more than just blogging. Corporate websites, portfolios, galleries, and selling products are all possible.
Before I chose WordPress as my main "web site creation platform", I looked into many other choices. I tried Joomla and Drupal. It didn't take long to decide on WordPress. With WordPress's theme and plugin structure, I knew working with WordPress fit into my level of expertise. I also knew that once a web site was up and running, my clients would need little to no interaction with me. This was the ideal solution. Know your goals.
* WordPress has the largest web development community.
* WordPress has the largest community of themes and plugins. This means any and all functionality you need for your site, that you can't create yourself, is out there.
* Literally thousands of themes, both free and commercial, are available. WordPress themes are very, very easy to modify if you have even a most basic understanding of CSS.
* WordPress keeps the "look" of your site, the theme, completely separate from the functionality.
* WordPress has millions of tutorials, video's, and books online and off that help you learn how to use it.
* WordPress is not any harder to learn than Microsoft Word.
* You do not need to know HTML/XHTML or CSS in order to use WordPress.
You might think I’m just pushing what I know and sell. Not true. There have been measurable changes within WordPress and the community that supports it. From "ESPN and SAP to CNN and Ford," organizations of every size are realizing that WordPress is powerful. The fact that WordPress is used by 23.3% of all websites shows that is a powerful force. WordPress has a content management system market share of 60.8%. Wow!
I know. I've drunk the WordPress Kool-Aid . A more balanced analysis can be found at:
http://www.rackspace.com/knowledge_center/article/cms-comparison-drupal-joomla-and-wordpress
I dispute their conclusion that Joomla allows you to build a site "with more content and structure flexibility than WordPress offers." But I will confess the technical skills at Rackspace exceed my humble talents.
- The Pragmatic Web Designer
Jan 2, 2015
You will always find individuals who have other personal preferences, but WordPress is now the 800 pound gorilla in this arena, with a huge base of plugins and experience and support. Hard to go wrong with WordPress.
Al Shultz alshultz.com/
Jan 14, 2015
Hi Al!
Yes, WordPress is the 800 pound Gorilla but can you lift it? Being able to lift that Gorilla will depend on your knowledge on how to go about lifting that big baby, experience and what tools to use!
Jan 4, 2015
If you any confusion about what to use amongst WordPress or Joomla or even Drupal, then I certainly know a place which will help you a lot in getting a clear view on using these platforms. Give your worth visit to http://dailynulled.com/comparison-different-cms-wordpress-vs-joomla-vs-drupal/ and get the head to head comparisons of these giants platforms.
Jan 5, 2015
Hi Ray,
After years of testing which products the search engines love the most, hands down Wordpress websites are consistently what we choose for speed and technology for our clients. We will always be fans of HTML CSS sites for organic speed (is DreamWeaver) (Is Frontpage is still around?) if you don't want or need technology outside of scripts for your sites. It's been about 4 years for us but the slowest organic movement websites were Joomla sites, we abandoned building in that technology after about two years of testing. Your biggest consideration now in recreating your company websites should be that they respond (flex) to the many devices your customers/clients are viewing them on. Hope that helps.
Jan 14, 2015
Hi Terry,
Can I please ask what type of testing you did for Joomla and WordPress! Please note that both CMSs can be good or bad for search engines depending which template used, who is your hosting company, and so forth! As far as the speed, we were able to get Joomla sites (with many modules, images, large content, and so on) to no more than 3s (or less) to download! I have see a lot of websites where WordPress and Joomla was used but the page load was very bad and the reasons for that is because the web designer (for Joomla and WordPress) did not know how to minify their HTML, JS and CSS files, nor how to combine all their JS files into 1 file, and all their CSS files into 1 CSS file, did not know how to optimize their images for faster download while keeping good quality, and so on! So as far as speed is concerned, you can use either Joomla or WordPress as long as you know what you are doing! Please don't take this comment the wrong way!
Jan 15, 2015
Hi Armor, In 2008 - 2009 we were building websites in several different technologies (HTML, Flash, Joomla and WP etc.). We have an extensive checklist which includes loading speed and organic positioning after launch. Our DirectionWorks developer pros know picture load, single CSS sheets and clean files etc. are just great website building technique, so we knew it wasn't us (of course)! Time after time the slowest indexed and positioned sites were Joomla, we felt their code was getting in the way. BTW at the same time, and while developers were introducing website templates for it, we noticed Google search engines liked WP better than it's own Blogger product ;-). HTML CSS sites are still our fastest moving sites overall when we don't want to include anything jazzy besides JS. Still, over time the quality WP sites proved this to be a great product to build in for download speed and for search. and now with WP Responsive sites, even when using plug-ins.
Jan 2, 2015
Dreamweaver is just an editor and Wordpress and Joomla are CMS's or Content Management Systems. I have experience in both and can tell you from experience that small business owners should go with Wordrpess. Why? There are dozens of free templates to choose from and Wordpress Implementation is a easy and straight forward. Wordpress is a PHP-Based CMS. Joomla is more difficult for the small business owner to implement and maintain and it's my opinion that you would have a much easier time with Wordpress than Joomla.
More information can be found here: http://counterintuity.com/
Jan 2, 2015
For ease of use, versatility, and extensibility, I have to give it to Wordpress hands down. I tested all three of the Open Source CMS: WOrdpress, Joomla, and Drupal, when I made a platform change, and I switched to Wordpress and I have been thrilled with the decision.
Jan 5, 2015
Hopefully I will look back on this thread and will also be thrilled with the decision to use WordPress. Thanks for the helpful comments.
Jan 3, 2015
I have worked with both Joomla and WordPress and the latter is by far the most easiest to use, the most well-supported in the community, etc. You can get up and running with WordPress quickly on your own; have some set it up for you and then take it over later; etc. The fear of ending up with a legacy solution with WordPress and no one to support it / help you is close to zero.
Jan 4, 2015
One thing I would add to my response is that WordPress comes with a number of plug-ins (bundled or separate downloads; free or paid) that help you check off a lot of little boxes required for better web performance, search engine ranking, etc. Things that need to be done and are labour intensive. Another reason why WordPress is a big plus.
Jan 4, 2015
I also agree with most here, with its very vibrant community coupled with extreme ease of use, word-press should be your choice to go forward.Also, wordpress has another cool feature, where you can setup and administrator multiple website from a single administrative control,the feature is known as multisite or "network". However, its technically more changeling to setup initially, however can prove a real time saver in longer run.
Jan 4, 2015
Sorry for being late in answering your question! I have been using Joomla since Mambo, and WordPress since its release in 2003 and I love both! But choosing WordPress or Joomla will depend on the type of website you are planning to have. If it is a blog type website, then WordPress (from WordPress.org) is better suited! If you are looking to design a complex site, then Joomla is also a very good option! Please note that Joomla has around 8735 extensions (as of today).
I also had to switch some client's website from WordPress to Joomla as per clients' requests because they felt that WordPress was too difficult for them to learn and even use!
Again, both are good at what they do!
Sorry for being late to the Party!
Jan 5, 2015
Thanks for the answer Amor. There won't be anything complex about the site. It's not a blog web site and there is nothing that I couldn't accomplish with DreamWeaver or some html and css. It isn't real complex but probably runs 125 pages or so. I guess part of my reason for going from Dreamweaver to Wordpress or other options would be that it would be easier for someone else to update it in the future and some wordpress sites seem pretty responsive which is getting more important these days. Once I get on to Wordpress it could be faster and easier to create the site as well or at least seems that way.
Jan 14, 2015
Yes Ray, if you want others to edit the site, it is better to use WordPress than Dreamweaver for the only requirement, beside the knowledge, is WordPress. All you need is a browser (any) update your WordPress website!
Jan 5, 2015
WordPress is far more flexible and user-friendly. Joomla can be very frustrating to work with and the user base is 1/10th of WordPress.
Dreamweaver is an excellent tool for 'static' web sites, but once you start working with a database-driven CMS (content management system) you're better off using a dedicated program for development like PHPStorm or Zend Studio.
Jan 6, 2015
If you decide to work on content yourself in the future, Wordpress is definitely the Rolls Royce to go for. But less expensive...
Jan 14, 2015
You can have a Rolls Royce if you want but let's think of it this way! Let's just change cars for a moment! Let's say you have a Ferrari but you never drove one, nor ever maintained one! How far and how fast can you go with that Ferrari? If you know how to use WordPress and to its full potential, then go ahead use it for it is a good CMS once properly used!
Joomla is also less expensive! No matter which CMS you go with, they both have Free and Paid extensions, so I am not understand the 'Less expensive' part!
May 20, 2018
Joomla is really good to manage database-based content. So, Joomla is good for building online stores. While WordPress supports so many plugins which best for non-coder bloggers. I think choosing one of them depends on your needs.
Jan 4, 2015
Thanks for all the helpful responses. It looks like Wordpress wins hands down. I also appreciate the suggestion to use .org not .com. I would never have known that.
Jan 4, 2015
Ray,
Pls have a look at following link.
http://www.apptha.com/blog/wordpress-vs-joomla-vs-magento-comparative-analysis-to-pick-the-best/
Let me know if you need further technical assistance
--Anil Ignle
Jan 8, 2015
For people who make websites,...While reading about responsive web design #mobilefriendly sites i thought i would share this info with you. https://developers.google.com/webmasters/mobile-sites/mobile-seo/configurations/responsive-design
Jan 10, 2015
Well here is a huge pro for Wordpress. Multi-site management from a single admin. Since you have 8 different websites for your business, having them all within one admin panel it will make it easier to manage all of the content across the various sites.
Additionally, with a theme like X - The Theme from Themeco you can have one theme provide each of your sites with a different look and feel to them, if you'd like.
Jan 16, 2015
My answer will be WordPress, with a few simple reasons:
1. Compare their websites. http://joomla.org looks much outdated than http://wordpress.org. This suggests that WordPress is more up-to-date and is very actively developed.
2. Look at the staggering stats about WordPress - https://managewp.com/14-surprising-statistics-about-wordpress-usage
3. Look major CMS themes marketplace, such as http://themeforest.net. There are tons of resources for WordPress. And the more resources you have, the easier it is to do what you want with the CMS.
PS:/ On a site note, my company (http://zippisite.com) helps businesses create professional company website at $179, delivered within 5 days. We have the specialized tools to do it professionally and quickly without adding too much to the costs.
:)
Thanks for the very detailed and helpful comments John. I appreciate it very much.