Joomla vs WordPress: Which CMS is better?

Joomla vs WordPress

As popular as it may be, WordPress is not the only CMS for your website. There are other software like Joomla that have formed a huge community.

Joomla and WordPress have evolved over time and changed the way people make websites.

WordPress dominates the market with more than 59.9% share. Whereas Joomla has only 5.8% market share. (source)

Today we will be comparing Joomla vs WordPress on aspects other than market share.

Joomla vs WordPress: Introductions

Let’s start with a brief introduction of both platforms

WordPress

Joomla vs WordPress

WordPress was first released in 2003 as a blogging platform. It has evolved as a complete Content Management Software within a few years. WordPress is known for its ease of use as it provides a clean and simple user interface.

Many famous brands and celebrities like Beyonce, Usain Bolt, BBC America, Forbes etc use WordPress to power their website. You can also have a look at this list of 61+ Awesome WordPress websites.

However, it should be noted that WordPress offers two platforms WordPress.com and WordPress.org. WordPress.com is a fully hosted blogging platform. By creating a blog on WordPress.com you receive your web address on a subdomain.

On the other hand, WordPress.org is a self-hosted platform. You need a domain name and hosting to create a website on this platform.

Note: We will be comparing Joomla with WordPress.org in this article.

Joomla

Joomla vs WordPress

Joomla was released in 2005 by Mambo team. It is the most popular Content Management Software after WordPress. Joomla is a software that will help you to create and manage all your digital content- photos, videos, text, apps everything. Unlike WordPress, Joomla is known for its complexity and is not an ideal choice for beginners.

There are all types of websites from business to entertainment that are powered by Joomla.

Joomla vs WordPress: Similarities

Before we jump on to their differences lets take a look at some of the similarities between both

  • WordPress and Joomla are both free and open source software licensed under GPL
  • Primarily written in PHP, both CMS support MySQL database.
  • Over the time both these CMS have formed their own communities consisting developers, designers, trainers, and users.
  • They both provide users with themes and plugins for customization.

Joomla vs WordPress: Differences

Besides the above-mentioned similarities, both WordPress and Joomla are different in many aspects. These differences play a major role in creating a website. 

We will compare Joomla vs WordPress on the basis of following points:

1. Ease of use

2. Designing

3. Functionality

4. Security

5. Support

6. Localization

7. SEO

8. Cost

1. Ease of use

Whether you are a beginner or an expert, you will always prefer a platform that is easy to use. Both these CMS have enabled users to create a website without the need for coding.

WordPress

WordPress comes with the easy 5-minute installation. Most managed hosting companies also provide one-click WordPress installation.

joomla VS wordpress

WordPress offers a clean and simple dashboard. It has less and straightforward options which help users to navigate easily.

For eg: If you want to create a new post, just select the Post and then Add New option.

Joomla

Like WordPress, most web hosts offer Joomla auto-installer that makes installing process simple. But, the interface is a little confusing as Joomla uses Articles and Categories. So you will have to create categories for the type of content you want to create before creating articles.

Joomla vs WordPress

Also, the number of options available on the Joomla interface will surely be confusing to a lot of people. Apart from that, it offers a graphic interface to add content, images, extension and change settings.

2. Designing

Designing involves basic layout to make attractive blog designs. These elements are mostly controlled via themes. Both WordPress and Joomla offer a wide range of themes.

WordPress

You can easily change your site’s appearance using themes. Simply go to Appearance Menu > Themes and click on Add New. You will see a themes directory with thousands of options. This directory features both free and premium themes. If you are not sure about which one to choose we’ve compiled a list of 10 free responsive WordPress themes for you to choose from.

Joomla VS WordPress

Joomla

Just like WordPress, Joomla also comes with pre-made templates that you can install and control the look and feel of your site. However, the number of templates available is far less than WordPress. It doesn’t have an official theme directory, hence you will have to use third party themes.

Joomla vs WordPress

3. Functionality

A software cannot offer everything on its own, you will need some add-ons to extend its functionality. Plugins and extensions provide additional features and functionalities.

WordPress

Currently, WordPress has over 54,000 plugins in the official plugin directory. Most of these plugins are available for free but you can also buy the premium version which provides extra features. These plugins are like apps for your WordPress site. You can add these plugins to improve SEO, Speed, and Security of your site.

Joomla vs WordPress

Joomla

Joomla also provides many useful extensions which allow users to add features to their website. Its extension directory has more than 8000 free and paid official extensions. You can get access to these extensions directory through Joomla’s dashboard.

Joomla vs WordPress

4. Security

With increasing data breaches, website security is a very important concern for every site owner. The CMS you choose needs to provide protection against all kinds of security threats.

WordPress

WordPress is built on a secure platform and provides regular updates to minimize security threats. But it is still the number one target of hackers.

WordPress accounts for 74% of the hacked websites (source)

WordPress itself is not responsible for these hacks but they are mostly caused due to some third party software like plugins.

It is always advised to keep all your plugins and themes updated also Use SSL and security plugins.

Joomla

Joomla also stresses on keeping your site safe by maintaining regular updates. They offer a security checklist which covers everything from getting started to recovering from hacks. You can also use some extensions offered by the CMS to provide extra security.

5. Support

You are always going to face some problems while using a new software. Help and support are very essential especially for a beginner if you get stuck somewhere.

WordPress

WordPress has built a strong community of developers, designers, and users. You can find help from these people on official support forums, social media groups, docs, codex etc.

There is a wide network of blogs published related to this topic. Our WordPress knowledge base is one such example of a WordPress support forum which caters to every need of a WordPress user.

Joomla

Joomla offers extensive documents on their website for beginners support. You can also get more interactive support through forums and chat rooms. Communities are not as big as WordPress but you will surely find some fans of Joomla.

You can also hire technical support if you feel you need some customization on your website which is not offered by any extension.

6. Localization

Many of the website creators nowadays are looking for sites that can support multiple languages as they want to work in an international market.

WordPress

WordPress offers support for a multilingual site. It does not support multiple languages out of the box, but there are some excellent plugins that help in creating a multilingual site.

Joomla vs WordPress

Also, most of the popular themes and plugins are available in languages other than English. All this makes WordPress a great platform to cater to a global audience.

Joomla

You don’t have to install any extension, Joomla comes with out of the box capability to handle a multilingual website. You can simply change the language from the language manager.

Joomla vs WordPress

7. SEO

Once you have your site up and running, SEO is the next step that you have to look for. Google itself doesn’t take which CMS you use as a ranking factor. But you need good SEO to get traffic to your site.

WordPress

WordPress takes care of most of SEO by providing features like custom URLs and meta descriptions. In addition to that, it offers a wide range of SEO plugins that makes it very easy for any user to optimize the site content.

Yoast SEO is one of the most popular plugins, it lets you set focus keywords and provide recommendations on how to make your content more SEO friendly.

Joomla

Joomla is very chaotic when it comes to SEO. It does not offer basic features like title tag optimization or URL optimization. There are some extensions like EFSEO available that help out users but overall SEO is very tough through Joomla.

8. Cost

How much will it cost? This is one of the biggest questions that we are asked by beginners. Both of these CMS are free to use, only creating a website and maintaining it comes with some expenses.

WordPress

It does offer a lot of free features but there are some things for which you will have to spend some money. Like if you add an e-commerce plugin like Woocommerce, the initial setup is free but you will require additional features like payment gateway, which have transaction fees.

Also, if you are not tech savvy and require professional help you will need to go for companies that provide managed WordPress hosting. Here at Breeze, you can get a basic plan that starts with $25/ month. You can sign up today to get 3 months free WordPress hosting. Use the coupon code RISE18.

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Joomla

The cost of running a site on Joomla is same as on WordPress. You can use the software for free but you will need additional features that might cost you money.

Also since Joomla is a little confusing than WordPress, there is a higher chance that you will require professional help. The price is almost equal to that of WordPress.

Conclusion

After an in-depth comparison between Joomla vs WordPress, let’s summarize all the points

BaseWordPressJoomla
Market Share59.9%5.8%
Ease of UseBeginners friendlyNot ideal for Beginners
Designing15,000+ Official Themes1500+ Third Party Themes
Functionality50,000+ Official Plugins7500+ Official Extensions
SecurityFrequent updates & patchesFrequent updates & patches
SupportCommunities and ForumsCommunities and Forums
LocalizationProvide Multilingual SupportProvide Multilingual Support
SEOExcellent for SEONo default SEO options
CostFree to useFree to use

Both these platforms provide some flexibility to its users and have some flaws.

WordPress does seem like a better choice because:

  • It is user-friendly
  • Easy to install
  • Allows better SEO
  • And more customization options

Keeping all this in perspective, we have to agree that Joomla’s market share is also declining day by day.

Joomla vs WordPress

What do you think? Which CMS do you prefer?

Let us know in the comment section below

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2 thoughts on “Joomla vs WordPress: Which CMS is better?”

  1. My programmer is trying to convince me to move to .net from PHP.

    I have always disliked the idea because of the costs.
    But he’s trying none the less. I’ve been using WordPress on a
    number of websites for about a year and am concerned about switching to another platform.
    I have heard great things about blogengine.net. Is there a way I can import all my WordPress content into it? Any kind of help
    would be really appreciated!

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