Anita Ashland

A client wants to create a website using Drupal instead of WordPress. This will be a small-medium size site for a non-profit organization.

I've created about 20 websites using WordPress and am trying to encourage him to use WordPress instead because I think it will be easier for me and others in the organization to add content and update the site if he uses WordPress. He's never created a site with Drupal or WordPress but seems to think Drupal is best, whereas from what I've read it seems like Drupal is a bear to learn and too powerful for our needs.

I'm biased toward WordPress but want to have an open mind. In your opinion which is best for creating a basic site?

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mywebwork

Hi Anita

If his requirements can be satisfied with WordPress and he just needs a basic site then I would agree with you and use WordPress.

Drupal is an excellent CMS and has management and security advantages over WordPress. But it does have a steeper learning curve, and is probably an overkill for his site.

If his intention is to build a portal to use as a tool for his employees or an online community then perhaps you should consider a more advanced CMS like Drupal or Joomla. But otherwise go with WordPress - you're familiar with it and he will find it much easier to use.

Bill

vrchards

I've personally worked with drupal and joomla, but not much at all with wordpress. In my personal opinion, drupal is by far more flexible than is joomla; however, joomla has many built-in features that makes it much easier for people to use.

Power/Flexibility v. Content Management Useability
If you are an experienced developer and will be leading the charge on content updates and the like in addition to programming very specific social networking modules, go with drupal.

If you have a client that is not very internet savvy and will be doing a majority of their content management once the site is up, go with Joomla. Joomla has a much better user interface for those that aren't very well versed in internet lingo. My clients tend to catch onto Joomla's Categories and Sections faster than they do Drupals Content Types and Taxonomy.

Upgrading:
Joomla is by far superior to Drupal in this category. I'm still waiting for Drupal to include some form of a module that will automatically update the core files for you without having to manually upload and install patches/updates. Joomla has this.

Theming:
I've found that theming a page is much easier for Drupal. They have a very intuitive theming system that allows you to easily control all aspects of the design with some clean css. Joomla, in my past experiences, causes the designer to create a lot of work arounds and/or hacks to get pages looking similar across browser types. This experience with Joomla was with a previous version, and I think they may have recently cleaned up the core theme code considerably to make it xhtml complaint. I personally do not have any experience with Joomla as of the last few months.

Conclusion:
I lean towards Drupal because my designer prefers it. I like the content management structure for myself, but find that clients have a difficult time leaning the system.

If I have a client that really wants to get their hands dirty with content updates and they're not necessarily very web-savvy, I'll suggest Joomla.

Hope this info helps!

carte iedge

Loren Woirhaye

I love Drupal but it is tough to learn. If you know
Wordpress you can graduate to Drupal as a user...
but if your client is clueless Drupal will seem very
complicated to him.

You can set up Drupal so it is idiot proof, basically.
You can rename just about everything and set
permissions so your client only has limited options
and can't mess anything up badly. Drupal is cool
that way.

I use Wordpress too. It's easy to learn but it doesn't
have the flexibility Drupal has. You can create really
complex designs with Drupal pretty quick using
a theme like Acquia Marina combined with Chaos
Tools and Mini-Panels.

Orlando Web Design

Drupal makes more sense to me for a medium sized site. Let's remember that Wordpress is still a blogging platform. Go Drupal!

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jminkler

Right tool for the right job. Also you have to think about the future. Small organizations best wya to go is Drupal or Joomla. Personally I would say Joomla. There is just more support out there for it, and more plugins/modules.

Wordpress is not a full blown CMS, and it you try to make it one you'll fail eventually.

smilez360

I have absolutely agree wordpress is for simplier websites, so use wordpress. I am using drupal, I remember that when I started using drupal it was terrible, I didn't know what to do and it took some time for fully understand and control it.

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Steve Solem

Hey Anita - good to see you here!

From my experience with content management systems over the years I'd agree with your thoughts completely. I use wordpress for just about everything these days, and find both joomla and drupal to be overkill for smaller sites and a challenge to learn to work with.

I don't know what's available as far as templates and getting help for joomla and drupal sites, but there is no shortage of great templates and all kinds of tutorials and helpful resources for word press around.

Cheers,

Steve

cma01

Honestly, if they are doing any sort of fundraising at all, I would go with their choice of Drupal.

I actually use Joomla more than Drupal, but with Drupal you can set access control levels for different groups. Also, there is an amazing fundraising tool called civiCRM that will allow them to track all their contributors, donors and run fundraising efforts.

CiviCRM runs on both Joomla and Drupal as well as a standalone version, but it was originally designed for Drupal.

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hwijaya

I'd prefer Drupal for medium to large site and Wordpress for blogging. But since Wordpress 3.0, it's starting to look more like Drupal.

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Anita Ashland

The client ended up going with Expression Engine instead of Drupal or WordPress. Expression Engine doesn't have the learning curve that Drupal does so that's a relief. Thanks, everyone, for your input.

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lucidica

Never used wordpress but have heard many people moan about it, so I'll go for Drupal

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SEO_BOS

Hi,

Another vote for Joomla. Most of my clients are not too tech savvy but get the hang of using Joomla fairly quickly after a brief tutorial. Version 1.5 is really taking off with lots of improvements and some great plugins

Running Joomla special - could get you up and running fast and cheap.

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Mike Adams

With the number of plugins available with wordpress, you can do anything. I have had to tell my clients at times, don't worry about what I use and just tell me what you want.

99.9% of the time they don't know the difference. If they really knew the difference, they would be savvy enough to build it themselves. The reason they hire a web designer is because they don't know. Chances are they heard or read somewhere that one is better than another and their set on using it.

kittyd

very glad to see so many hands raised for joomla here I love joomla. Drupal is good to give to clients with an "idiot proof account..." is just that from my experience, clients end up wanting THE ADMIN acount... and then.... the tragedy begins...

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Jamian

I prefer to use wordpress, because it is easy to use and has many unique plugins that has many functions, and great themes.

dan208

I like Wordpress better, but it is what I am familiar with. If you want a website and not a blog, and don't have the skills to change Wordpress API/themes, you should go with Drupal.

James Danh

Wordpress hands down! Millions of themes, plugins, mods.. I mean what more do you want lol

The-English-Webmistress

For simplicity and ease of use - Wordpress. Cons? Security is likely to be an issue.
For accessibility by all of his office team and greater functionality - Drupal. Cons? Pretty steep learning curve.

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Katie_White

I would prefer to go with wordpress because its easy to customize layout and lots of plugins available for wordpress

anthonylatona

My Vote is definitely for Wordpress. There are TONS of free themes on Smashing Magazine's website and it's a really excellent system to work with. Between it's ease of use and the availability of plugins WP is always my go-to for a CMS.

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ivanadee

I prefer wordpress..
it is the easiest way to build a website

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BryanComm

Hey Anita,
I do not consider myself sufficiently qualified specialist in the field of CMS, to critically assess the value of any content management system, though tried almost everything available, but ...
Both these systems are quite flexible in configuration, have a development database plug-ins and templates that are easy to change in code and design is well optimized for search engines, have a good quality multi-lingual.Both Drupal and WordPress are a perfect choice.
WordPress is quick to install and it is convenient to operate. CMS WordPress is simple. The main organization of information is a chronological display type, although WordPress is well implemented headings and labels. Ideal for your blog.

For greater flexibility and capabilities, Drupal is the best choice. It is easier to organize an extensive chronology of the content, just endless possibilities for sorting and categorizing information. It is also easier to manage if you require more complex functions such as access control, a wide range of types and formats. Is best suited for social projects, where you need to manage different types of information.

PS: If you are planning to conduct a personal or group blog, and there is no need to integrate with the rest of the site, choose WordPress, in other cases it is better Drupal.

vahn

I still prefer wordpress. wordpress is very easy to customized and have the most complete plug in than other platform.

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izapharry

Hello Anita,

I want you to prefer WordPress bcz u can handle it better then Drupal.
According to your experience.

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maxdesigningstudio

Hello Anita I am very comfortable with both CMS, WordPress as well as Drupal and Both CMS are robust and very Powerful. If your client's requirement is a small or medium type of website then I will suggest to go for WordPress In stead of Drupal because both CMS used for different purpose, though both are content management system but for small type of website we should use WordPress as Its very user friendly and very flexible too where as Drupal Is for Advance users and its not much user friendly and you will not easily get all types of modules for Drupal and Upgrading your Drupal to a newer version is also very painful, one minor mistake makes your site paralyze but In case of wordpress you will get many free Plugins and you can easily upgrade your wodpress to a newer versions using any Plugin.

Wordpress will consume less web space and Bandwidth where as Drupal will Consume More Web Space and Bandwidth. So Anita just do one thing forward my this reply to your client if he is a smart person then he can guess what cms is good to use for his website.

Thanks.

Natashka

Hello,

I have worked with both systems and would suggest to stay with Wordpress if the site permits it. Drupal is way to complicated and mighty for an average sized website, the theme probably won't look that good and working with the backend is not that nice.

I hope I could help you.
Natashka

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thelinkster

Drupal does not have half of the plugings that wordpress has.

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LiemNguyen

Yeap! Wordpress is the answer...very easy to use and has ton of themes & plugin!!!

Peter Olson

No way... go drupal. Its way easier than everyone makes it out to be. It's far more flexible than wordpress without being all hackish.

For business sites, I always recommend drupal because biz owners are always looking to expand and do something new. Drupal handles that with ease. You can do it w/ wordpress, but the pluggins start to get hacky and just are poorer quality.

Drupal may have less "pluggins" but they are higher quality, more secure, and more flexible. So for drupal less pluggins = Do more.

24 by 7

Drupal was better than Wordpress, if you were using it in 2006 - 2008, i guess google started hating them, so the website' rankings started going down. I like both.

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Peter Olson

WHAAT? This is just crazy talk and really makes no sense. Google doesn't hate one platform over the other, total non-sense. Drupal is easy to seo, is open source YET has BIG BIG commercial backers (Who is Using Drupal? | US&V and Drupal - Content Management System | Acquia ). Wordpress is great, but you will feel limited soon after using it, especially for business.

cswjohnni

I prefer Wordpress because it's easier to use than Drupal, which is a CMS similar to Joomla. In my first days, I used both Drupal and Joomla to create my websites, but I settle down with Joomla because they have more resources and info on the internet that I could search for. But Drupal is also a very good CMS. For general websites, such as blog or simple membership site, I'd suggest to use Wordpress, but if you need more complicated layout or designs, Joolma or Drupal are both a good choice.

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mojojuju

That is crazy talk indeed.

Peter Olson

Ha... finally someone whose got my back :P

rife

Wordpress is the better choice if you are planning to do something simple. It takes a LOT of work to coax WP into being a successful content management system for anything complicated. WP can also be a resource hog if customised badly.

jmbinfo

Drupal, imho, is very user-unfriendly.

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brayanaustin

If you are an experienced developer and will be leading the charge for updates of content and programming and social networking modules very specific, go with Drupal.

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markphil

I have tried wordpress and it is kinda good and easy.. I havent tried drupal so i think wordpress will do for me although i also want to learn drupa..

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Peter Olson

This seems kinda weird to me... I am a poor programmer (very poor). I hire it all out. But I can do crazy things without knowing any programming w/ drupal. So I would say you dont have to be an "experience developer" to use drupal.

Peter Olson

ooops double post... delete this please mods.

belfend

i love Wp more user friendly and easy to learn

but druppal is amazing like joomla but u must have more skil and time to learn it

Mike Adams

Ive had the same problems at times. I ask my clients, what exactly do yo want? They will tell you product pages, contact forms, etc... They don't know the difference, if they did they would be building the site themselves.

mahesh2010

I think Word press is best because in word press presents in lot of free themes and it really excellent content management system to use and also easy to use these availability of plug-in

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olapeju

I go for wordpress. Drupal is complicated

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CDarklock

If you're a programmer, it makes sense and rapidly becomes usable because you perceive the underlying rules and patterns of "the Drupal way."

If you're not a programmer, then God help you.

Peter Olson

I would love to get everyones drupal questions are: Your questions about Drupal? Your questions answered...

If things are confusing, I wanna hear it... maybe I can help.

Syntheticore

I'm a wordpress gal all the way. I've recently started working with Drupal (sort of against my will actually!) and it just confirmed my love for Wordpress.

Though honestly, you can make an amazing site with either system... it's just about what you're more comfortable with in the end.

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hendricius

Wordpress without any doubt, i've been using it for 3 years now and it hasnt given me any trouble till now. And the installation of drupal is complicated when compared to wordpress, so i'd recommend wp.

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DKristine

I actually started out with Drupal - I googled wordpress vs drupal and felt compelled to join this board and add my 2 cents...

I love Drupal. It took me a while to learn and become very proficient with it. Aside from the VERY occasional template override or form alter, I really didn't touch PHP. I work in a large Web Development firm, and have built sites for everything university subsites to bed and breakfast sites in Drupal.

We are now branching into wordpress for our "lower budget" <5k clients, and I have not been able to build even the simplest site without pretty much developing custom themes every time. It seems everything needs to be done in the template files - I even had to write a script to dynamically overlay a transparent png over thumbnail images. Sure, you've got custom fields and post types, but you need to first define them, define your meta boxes, define your fields, and then write out how you want to display your fields in a custom template file for each post type. Drupal, you've got CCK and Views, and boom! You're done.

It is not that I lack the technical expertise to write my own PHP, it just seems to tedious and counter intuitive for a supposedly simple platform.

Am I missing something here? I honestly find WordPress to be one of the most challenging platforms I have ever had to work with and, aside from installs and upgrades, I work twice as fast in Drupal.

I am a newbie to WP, so I am genuinely curious... what am I missing here? To me the answer, if it is up to me, will always be Drupal.