CMS comparison: Joomla vs WordPress, which one to choose?

In the world of CMS, the choice can sometimes be difficult. Although they may differ in terms of performance, they still largely meet the expectations of the majority of projects. Let's put the CMSs in parallel:

WordPress and Joomla were born in the early 2000s, from the free world, with an open source code, they both benefit from the work of a community of passionate developers, while being supported by an organisation.

The starting point is the principle of free access, so it's not long before you can launch your own site using one of these two platforms.

Even though they are based on slightly different development principles (the template system, for example), everything is organised to make the user's task easier. After a quick installation procedure, users will have at their disposal a set of publication tools that can be accessed directly from the administration interface.

Brief history of the two CMS

Joomla

Joomla is supported by Open Source Matter, a non-profit organisation. Version 1.0 was released on 16 September 2005, and we are now at version 3.7.2 with numerous improvements and new high-performance features.

Joomla is just as suitable for beginners who know nothing about HTML / CSS or PHP as it is for experienced developers. It can be used to create all kinds of sites, from the simplest to the most complex, including institutional sites, blogs, community sites, online sales sites, intranets and extranets.

Joomla was voted best free CMS in 2016, a title it had already won in 2015, and best PHP Open Source CMS in 2014.

WordPress

WordPress was created in 2003, when Matt Mullenweg took over the B2 project. The first official version was released in January 2004. More than 13 years later, we are at version 4.7.5 and version 4.8 is due to be released in June.

Initially dedicated to blogging, since 2005 it has been equipped with new features to become a true content management system (CMS). WordPress is the engine behind many types of project, from simple blogs to corporate sites, e-commerce and community sites.

Two very active communities

Joomla and WordPress are both driven by a hyperactive international community, see the map of Users Groups for Joomla (https://community.joomla.org/user-groups.html) and WordPress (https://wpfr.net/).

For Joomla, there are annual international meetings with J and Beyond, JoomlaDay, one per year and per country, as well as Joomapéros organised locally (Bordeaux, Marseille, Toulouse, etc.).

For WordPress, there's the annual WordCamp, local events and workshops all year round.

Getting to grips with CMS made easy

Like all CMS, installation takes just 10 minutes. It's quick to get to grips with because the administration interface has been completely redesigned to be user-friendly.

It is also responsive, so webmasters can update the site from their smartphone.

Development costs

Licence and free access

Distributed under the GNU GPL licence, Joomla is free to download, as is WordPress, also under the GPL licence.

Development costs

Joomla and WordPress remain economical thanks to the free or low-cost resources made available by their respective communities.

Maintenance costs

The cost of maintaining two CMS depends on the complexity of the site:

• the number of extensions installed that need to be kept up to date, depending on whether they are free or paid for,
• the specific developments made,
• the theme, depending on whether it is free or paid.

Security

Because of its popularity (28% of websites worldwide), WordPress is frequently targeted by hackers. Regular updates of themes, extensions and WordPress itself minimise the risk.

Joomla is a little less vulnerable than its competitor because it is less popular, but it should be kept up to date when necessary. Extensions are available to add layers of security.

Joomla and WordPress updates

Updates are the key to CMS security! For both CMS, updates are just a few clicks away.

Security updates

As both CMSs have a reactive community, any security flaws are quickly pointed out and the development teams publish a patch to correct them.

Evolving updates

Joomla is regularly enhanced with new features (see the development schedule: https://developer.joomla.org/roadmap.html).

WordPress updates are just a few clicks away, with version updates 1 or 2 times a year, regular corrective updates and patches, and an average of 2 upgrades per year.

Extensions

A large number of extensions available, available from the official WordPress directory and checked when they are created.

More than 7,900 paid or free extensions under GPL licence for Joomla, non-GPL extensions with poor security are excluded from the official directory. Joomla 's powerful framework means that any developer can create their own extension to suit the customer's project.

Types of site

Blog

The king of blogs is WordPress! But you can also create one with Joomla.

E-commerce

The WooCommerce plugin for WordPress lets you quickly create an online shop.

On the Joomla side, components such as Virtuemart and Hikashop have long since proved their worth.

Community website

The BuddyPress extension opens WordPress up to community management, including conversation threads, forums and private messaging.

Joomla is ideal, for example, for an association that wants to manage memberships online, and create a social network-type platform (with extensions such as Community Builder or Jomsocial) for its members.

Advantages and disadvantages of the two content management systems

Creating a multilingual site

Joomla allows you to create a site in several languages natively, with a single, user-friendly interface for managing content in the different languages required.

This is a big advantage over WordPress, where you have to install plugins that may be incompatible with others, at your own risk...

User rights management

The 5 native capabilities of WordPress need to be extended to meet specific needs. To do this, you can use an extension or a specific development.

Joomla allows much more advanced native management of the rights assigned to the various users of the site, or groups of users, whether to read, create or publish articles or to assign particular rights to extensions. Ideal for a site with a lot of content and dozens of contributors.

Themes

There are many paying offers, but you need to be careful about the quality of the themes, which are often complex. Frameworks are also available. Genesis, _underscore, for WordPress and for Joomla, Warp, Gantry, Helix, T3 Framework, etc.

One advantage of Joomla is that you can change your template without affecting your content. Content and form are completely separate, whereas with WordPress you have to be careful that the theme you choose doesn't include plugins that will jump out the next time you change it.

Conclusion

As you can see, there is no single best CMS: it all depends on your project, your webmaster, your knowledge and the time you can devote to your site.

If you want to manage your project independently, the range of themes and extensions on the market will satisfy you, with a wide choice for WordPress, where Joomla has the advantage of offering a smaller but high-quality choice.


Below is the summary table: