Stick With Joomla Or Change To Wordpress?

by WikiWarrior

Posted: 12 years ago 23 replies

WEB DESIGN

I have a bit of a dilemma and want to ask your opinions on my website. I'm currently using JA Teline IV Magazine theme on my wiki site but having a bit of frustration using it. The reason I chose Joomla in the first place is because I wanted to eventually turn my site into a membership site and Joomla seems like a solid platform but now I think it will be more of a magazine style site just used just for blogging.

Every time I log in to the backend I seem to waste a ton of time just tinkering around with menus and other options that don't seem very intuitive to me. Compared to Wordpress Joomla feels like a headache and I kind of dread interacting with it to publish my content, so things are moving pretty slow. On the other hand I've spent a fair amount of time getting the site up (although not loads) and wonder if I should stick with it or switch to Wordpress which is simpler for me. Do you think the payoff for sticking with Joomla is worth it?

I'd be really grateful if anyone can take a look at the site (in the root) and give me your opinion. I'm at the stage where switching wouldn't be too painful and I haven't built many links to the root either.

#change #joomla #stick #wordpress

infinitewp 12 years ago

Took a look at your website. Definitely converting that in to Wordpress would involve some hours of work. But on the long run for a wiki site you wouldn't need Joomla (its a heavy architecture for your application). You could still use lots of WP plugin to develop membership features extra.

If you think its worth the pain moving to Wordpress I would suggest you to do so.
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Nikolas

12 years ago

I would suggest to go for WP as well. Besides better security and community, you will have a much easier to use interface which is important especially if you are going to work with other people in the future (editors, writers, etc.)

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alixwijaya

12 years ago

Originally Posted by Nikolas

Agree,
and I think, many blogger use this CMS (WP)
so you will easily get a solution when there are problems with your CMS.

Ale,.

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purpleswizzleswirl 12 years ago

I switched to WP and have never been happier. Easy to edit and easy for others to access with limited editing power. Wordpress is a breeze to make changes in. Joomla is not for me.
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- Kirk Ward 12 years ago
  
  Joomla is not growing and developing like Wordpress. It had some potential once, but the Joomla community has essentially dropped the ball and failed to simplify the admin experience.
  
  WP has it's problems, but the community support, and the commercial support (Automattic), react faster to problems than Joomla does.
  
  And, with all the advances in WP, I don't see that there is anything that it can do that WP can't.
  
  Kirk
  
  Non-affiliated commercial plug here ... if you're going to be implementing a membership site, make on of your fist stops over at the DAP (Digital Access Pass) website and check out their software. I've been using it on WP for well over a year now and it sure beats out the other dozen or so systems I tried (search my posts).
  
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InWait

12 years ago

I had the same problem. I thought joomla would be perfect for the type of set up that I want, but I wasted so much time trying to figure out the basics that I completely removed it from my site and switched to wordpress.

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WikiWarrior 12 years ago

Thanks for your replies and advice Warriors, it has definitely set my mind at ease and I went ahead and nuked the Joomla install, good riddance!

@Kirk Thanks for your comments. When I decided to install Joomla ages ago my thinking was "well it must be better for something since it's more complicated"...how wrong I was. At least, my experience has been nothing but head-scratching with Joomla. As you say, there is a ton of support for Wordpress and I can still add a membership element at some point with a product like DAP (thanks for the headsup). Will check it out once I get back up to speed.

Toby
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Linkie

12 years ago

Originally Posted by InWait

it happened to me also..
now i have change the platform of my site to WP..

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guy99 12 years ago

I would recommend you to go for wordpress its simple and easier....
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- Daniel Evans 12 years ago
  
  I'm with everyone who reccomend Wordpress for so many reasons!
  
  I'd make the switch as soon as possible.
  
  Thanks
  
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network606 12 years ago

but joomla sometimes proved to be better because of its extensions, components and templates.
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- Kirk Ward 12 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by network606
  
  but joomla sometimes proved to be better because of its extensions, components and templates.
  
  Maybe it would be a good time to do a head count of extensions, components and templates and see who has the most to choose from ... Joomla or Wordpress. Then, finish up by reading the comments about usability.
  
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rooze 12 years ago

For a magazine style website I can't imagine anything more powerful than Joomla with the K2 component. Add to that one of the two excellent Joomla community comps and it will run rings around Wordpress.
70% of the sites I design these days are WP, but for some applications you just can't beat Joomla.

Headcounts on who has the most components/plugins are basically irrelevant. First you decide what you need for a specific website (functionality) then you decide which platform offers you the best option. It ain't the other way around.
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- blogfreakz 12 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by rooze
  
  70% of the sites I design these days are WP, but for some applications you just can't beat Joomla.
  
  agree, because wordpress is easy to use, user friendly.. go to wordpress! good luck!
  
  Thanks
  
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EricHall 12 years ago

Joomla is dead to most of is in the web world. It is never recommended anymore for most of the reason posted here.
While it maybe a pain to convert your site it will be worth it in the end. WordPress right now is the software to use.
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nole 12 years ago

I have both WP & Joomla sites. WP is so much easier to work with than Joomla as others have already commented.
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kokopelli

12 years ago

Originally Posted by WikiWarrior

Every time I log in to the backend I seem to waste a ton of time just tinkering around with menus and other options that don't seem very intuitive to me. Compared to Wordpress Joomla feels like a headache

That's exactly why I stopped using Joomla and switched to WordPress - do it, you will be glad you did.

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cassiegetty 12 years ago

go for wordpress, it gives endless option that allows the use of a few specific plugins and themes and a few customization features
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coolsharad 12 years ago

Go for wordpress with so many tools arround u can use them with easy.
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mapetshi 12 years ago

go for wordpress there's alot of membership plugin to use
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Hafeez 12 years ago

Its better for you to switch to WP because you have made up your mind that Wordpress is easy. Otherwise, Joomla itself is a big platform than wordpress.

I guessed you have problem or difficulties to admin the website. If so, try to change the template. The template you are using JA Teline has its own T3 framwork which is often difficult to operate and understand for many joomla users otherwise administrating a joomla website is not difficult and complicated, once you understand.

Joomla has much potencial than wordpress. Wordpress was develop for bloggers only and later developers come out with some plugins but Joomla was develop for big websites with applications and has much power than wordpress.

But in your case its better for you to switch to wordpress because you have made up your mind that "wordpress is easy".
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nightshade877 Banned 12 years ago

Being that I have used wordpress for so long, I am obviously biased toward it. I beieve there is more of a customizable feeling when compared to Joomla.
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- CampbellMcArthur 12 years ago
  
  I have been web mastering with Joomla for 4 years now and just over the past 10 months I set out to expand my webmastering vocabularty so to speak and started developing WP Sites with the Genesis and Thesis Frameworks and I will adamantly say that recently I have been giving strong consideration to converting my main business website over to wordpress due to the ease of use and complete flexibility that premium frameworks such as Thesis and Genesis have to offer.
  
  Although I am really not looking forward to sorting out the database Joomla to WP conversion. I believe in the end I will be glad that I did as WordPress coupled with Thesis or Genesis are quite Powerful and SEO Optimized Frameworks.
  
  All and all the past 4 years since I built my first Joomla site using the Rocket Theme and the Gantry Framework I have had zero issues and have always been on the first pages of the Seach Engines so it has been a very pleasant experience but...WP is much easier to work with despite the fact that I have 4 years experience with Joomla ...it's just easier and less time consuming to get your content up and out without bopping all over the Admin Backend vs the Joomla deal.
  
  Hope that helps.
  
  Cam
  
  Thanks
  
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Stick With Joomla Or Change To Wordpress?

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