Drupal, Joomla and WordPress Comparison
Drupal, Joomla and WordPress are management systems. It is possible to create functional and easy manageable sites without serious financial expenses on their basis. We have decided to compare these systems among themselves and to tell about it in comprehensible language. We have chosen the most important aspects which most likely will interest the ordinary user.
Drupal site example
Joomla site example
Wordpress site example
Versions/Security
Drupal
The 7th version is now prepared for release. It is available for testing as beta version. Now 6.6 and 5.12 versions are used. The line of the 5th version hasn’t died as fast as the 4th one because a lot of exterior modules had been written and some of them hadn’t been adapted for the 6th version. New versions are tested for a long time. A core is stable. Bugs in demanded modules usually get fixed operatively. Now a variety of large corporate sites of the world names companies work on Drupal, therefore for developers take the security seriously.
Joomla
The current situation is the following – the latest version is 1.5.8. And 1.0.x branch provides only cosmetic changes, mainly improving security. So everything is fine with the availability of new Joomla versions. Security is also on the high level, you can consider 1.5.8 and 1.0.15 versions as very stable and secure.
As for third-party security extensions, it is not so smooth which actually repeats the whole situation in PHP language which is popular among beginners and people who do not know anything about how to break sites. 90% of software has troubles and paid programmers are willing to work for food. Indeed there are few strong expansions, but there are some, for example OpenSEF or MosetsTREE.
WordPress
Although it is stated officially that the WordPress versions will be released on schedule, it does not happen in fact. If any serious «hole» is found then the developers provide updates very fast but the versions timetable changes. There are two WordPress lines: 2.0.* and 2.1+. The first (the current is 2.0.12) is still supported and security updates are produced. But new opportunities appear only in the 2.1 line (the current is 2.2.2). The division appeared after refusal of MySQL < 4.0 support. The speed of new versions is higher due to queries optimizing. It also played a role that AJAX became actively used in WordPress, which requires UTF-8. All this has led to certain problems of compatibility, but on my opinion that was worth it.
Although it is stated officially that the WordPress versions will be released on schedule, it does not happen in fact. If any serious «hole» is found then the developers provide updates very fast but the versions timetable changes. Wordpress is developing in one direction now without breaking into lines as Drupal and Joomla. The latest stable version is 2.6.5. But Wordpress 2.7 release is not far away and its beta version is already available for a long time.
The fight against spam
Drupal
Akismet - one, graphics or mathematical captcha at your choice - two, the analyzer of customers behavior and bolting bots - three. You can also specify a limit to the number of links in one message, flood control, ban ip, make «black list» of advertised sites, and also filter messages by keyword.
Joomla
The fight against spam takes place only in comments for publications at this moment. There are a lot of comment’s components, and I did not hear about such without the support of captcha (well, maybe very old and not used only). At actually here th fight against spam ends. As far as I know SpamKarma and similar to it are not realized.
WordPress
Usually WordPress has a Akismet plug-in which is enough effective against spam. Besides that it is possible to create the black list and word filters. With their help it is possible to block any comment which contains the forbidden word or to send it for moderation. to achieve The greatest efficiency in fighting against a spam can be achieved with the help of captcha — pictures with a character set. In this case the barrier from automatic spam-robots is used. Installation of the majority of antispam plug-ins is very simple, very often you only need to activate it in the administrator-panel (for example, popular SpamKarma). With the help of a special plug-in there is a possibility to moderate spam-comments. And not only usual comments are accessible but also pings and trackbacks. There are a lot of plug-ins for antispam (I have counted more than seventy).
Integration with Forum
Drupal
The basic Drupal package contains a functional forum, which will work for managing small communities. But it would also work for large communities, for example drupal.org forum has more than 320 000 messages now.
There are moderators, user groups with different access rights, email notifications, avatars, signatures, RSS. The advantage of the built-Forum is a common base of users which is used by other parts of the site.
As far as I know, there is a possibility of integration with PHPBB.
Joomla
The basic Joomla package doesn’t contain a forum, however the best choice for creating the forum is FireBoard and its Russian edition - Adeptus’a. As for integration - they exist. The most common is Joomla-SMFl.
WordPress
BBPress forum which is fully integrated into the blog was developed and now is recommended for WordPress. However, the possibilities of this forum are very small. The official WordPress site uses this forum. There are plug-ins which allow partial integration of some popular forums into the blog. But this requires a good knowledge of programming, and still you will not get an absolute integration (they are different system).
Visual Editor
Drupal
TinyMCE or FCKEditor can be implemented to Drupal. Both are flexibly configured. Both are powerful tools. In TinyMCE, for example, you can work with tables, adding and deleting lines and columns and combining the cells. Also TinyMCE can «clean» copied from Word texts from surplus tags.
Joomla
There are lot of them. However the most convenient and good among free editors is JCE developed specially for Joomla (it was firstly built for Mambo and was called MosCE). It is capable to be a very good alternative to WysiwygPro which is not free.
WordPress
Usually WordPress uses TinyMCE (not full version) and simple text editor. If you need it is possible to install the full TinyMCE version then three panels of buttons with all possibilities will be accessible. It is necessary to notice that in WordPress there is a possibility to add buttons in the editor for different plug-ins. Thus for example it is possible to receive functions for video, audio addition, etc. If you don’t like TinyMCE, it is possible to install another editor s of it, for example FCKMonkey. Choosing the editor is a matter of taste. It is even possible to turn off completely the use of the virtual editor in a profile of the user.
Create content in Drupal
Create content in Joomla
Create content in Wordpress
Working with images
Drupal
Inserting pictures is not included in a base package. It is possible to solve this problem in several ways. One variant to add a picture is «Attach a file to a post». Alternative way is installation of TinyMCE WYSIWYG-editor and media manager IMCE. Changing sizes of a picture while loading and auto thumbnails generation is supported. I would not name working with images Drupal strong side: it is necessary to do too many clicks.
Joomla
Joomla is ahead of other systems. There are 3 extensions types (components, modules and mambots). And each type of extensions can solve their types of tasks that actually allows you to add any new functionality without changing the “core”. Also I think there are no competitors to official site of extensions (extensions.joomla.org).
WordPress
It is possible and convenient to add pictures to the editor in WordPress. It is possible to specify the file name and signature while loading at once. The miniature will be made automatically. That is done to help a not skilled user handle this task. If you use a separate plug-in it is possible to specify sizes of a picture, miniatures and other parameters. After adding a picture to the editor, it is possible to change different parameters (styles, sizes, borders, spaces, etc.). Though these are the possibilities of the visual editor.
Templates
Drupal
Templates engine is Drupal strong side. This component is well designed, therefore junior PHP-programmer can handle the integration of the templates. In general Drupal gives a lott of possibilities on management of themes. There are beautiful sites built on Drupal, however there are very little of free popular themes. If you decide to build your site on Drupal please get ready to spend money for a template.
Joomla
1.0.X Joomla branch does not support templates. Of course, there is a common large template that allows creating quite intricate structures for the site structure and module’s location on PHP. But there no templates for each element, all is confined by using CSS (by the way, the system is very flexible) and working with the components. However, ContentTemplater is used for articles which allows you creating templates for the design of articles and very well manage their appearance.
Templates for standard components and modules was added in the 1.5 version. Their HTML can be changed straight in the theme.
The second point which is worth mentioning separately is the system of modules. The modules are merged into positions which would load to the correct places in the template. Modules can be linked to specific pages (switch on and off their displaying) as well as displaying on the page in different ways. Sometimes, using the template and few modules you can create a very beautiful home (or any) page, simply by turning off the component working there and replacing it with modules (for example, displaying news from various categories).
WordPress
Thousands of templates are created for WordPress and many of them are done at a very good design level. WordPress is built so that it is not difficult to do for example html-template. The usual PHP-functions are used in the templates, therefore there are no complexities with studying template’s language. There are very many articles on creation of templates, even online generator exists. You only need to load ready templates into the separate directory and after that choose the one you liked in the administrator-panel. There is also a possibility of switching the templates by visitors.
Expended functionality (plugins)
Drupal
Now there are about 1000 of free modules in the official repository. Among others, there is a solution for e-commerce, CRM-system, wiki-engine. I would also like to menyion Views and CCK modules, which give Drupal all the rights to be called CMF, rather than CMS. CCK (Content Construction Kit), for example, allows describing objects of subject area in the database and immediately create forms for management using a graphical interface.
Joomla
I think Joomla is ahead from other systems at this point, for example there are 3 extension types. Also there are no competitors to official site of extensions (extensions.joomla.org) among other systems.
I believe the most strong Joomla side is the system of extensions. Not only that there are several types, there is a special installation system that allows describing all the necessary steps when saving extension data using xml-file (for example SQL-queries, copied files or actions performed immediately after installation, which can not be executed automatically).
WordPress
It is possible to expand WordPress with the help of plug-ins (various php-scripts which are automatically connected to basic “core”). Thus it is possible not only add the necessary functionality, but also to change already existing. It is not so difficult to create a plug-in, all depends on the level of PHP knowledge. Connection to WordPress is very simple: the plug-in is copied into the special directory and is activated in the admin-panel. Some plug-ins can be adjusted, some need to be written in a template, and some work completely automatically. There are few thousands Plug-ins for WordPress (only on one wp-plugins.net there are 2568). Therefore it is possible to find a plug-in practically for any needs.
Widgets/blocks
Drupal
It is called “blocks” in Drupal . It is possible to place them in different areas of pages depending on template possibilities. In each area the blocks can be sorted for output order management. Initially there are 5 areas — header, central, left and right columns, footer. It is possible to show blocks not on all pages.
Joomla
In Joomla it is called modules. They can not be moved but very conveniently placed in the template.
WordPress
Full widget support has appeared only in version 2.2. Before it was necessary to install a separate plug-in. The widgets are very convenient. There is no need to change something in the template for the user now: management is visual, noting the necessary options and arranging the blocks is enough.
Drupal blocks configuration
Joomla module list
Wordpress widgets
Support of authors (one blog) and multiuser blogs
Drupal
Drupal is famous for it is possible to make a platform for a blog in a few clicks. Both personal and collective blogs are supported. One of Drupal features is possibility of books publication.
Joomla
If it is possible to consider the built in component of a content as a blog then yes , blogs are supported. If you need the one-user blog with beautiful design can be easily done from a content component, ContentTemplater and a component of comments. It is more complicated with multiuser. It is possible to tell “yes” though it will be difficult enough. All the same Joomla is a CMS for general purpose.
WordPress
WordPress proved to be a multiuser blog. But in order to extend standard opportunities we need to use additional plug-ins. For example adding fields to the profile of the author ( avatars, photos, etc. The paradox is that WordPress has almost everything to make it, but it is still not completed.
A system of roles is used to control the authors. Using a special plug you can easily (visually) edit any role or enable / disable any action by any author.
There is a separate version for multiuser blogs: WordPress Multi User. Claims and the possibilities are almost the same as for general WordPress, although there are some differences. One of the largest blog services WordPress.com which has nearly 1.3 million blogs is working on WordPressMU.
Trackbacks, pings, XML-RPC, RSS
Drupal
Drupal is popular in the world so all «fashion» things implemented fast. In the basic package there is a possibility of blogging through the blog client. There is a module pinging special directories of Drupal-sites.
Joomla
Joomla is a CMS and we can talk about implementing these things only at the level of third-party components. It seems this issue is very important to Drupal and Wordpress because originally they were blog engines, rather than CMS. And in Joomla we have to consider this on the level of some components, for example MyBlog which is not free.
WordPress
Trackbacks and pings are supported for a long time. And it does not require any additional actions for their use: it all works on the «engine» level. As for the XML-RPC, WordPress supports some API, so you can add / edit entries in WordPress with many blog client programs such as Google-Docs.
WordPress fully supports RSS and Atom. You can subscribe to the latest blog entries. With a special plug-in RSS-tape blog redirect at feedburner.com can be done automatically.
Encoding
Drupal
Drupal is working on UTF-8. I think there are no old functions which are not working with UTF-8. Problems with MySQL usually get fixed with one line in the code.
Joomla
It is more difficult with UTF-8 in 1.0.X, but full support is expected in version 1.5. There are also some problems with Ajax in different charsets.
WordPress
There is a possibility to set any encoding in WordPress. The main thing is that the encoding of the database coincides with the encoding of your blog. However, since version 2.1 WordPress should work in UTF-8. This is directly related to the use of AJAX. Now we can fairly say that there no particular problems with encoding in WordPress.
Commenting
Drupal
Comments in the blogs can be either «flat» or «treaded». This is all included in the basic package. Notices by email are performed by external module.
Joomla
As it was said before – there are a lot of comment components. You can use any at your choice. But only some of them stable and userfriendly.
WordPress
You can allow or not allow comments for any post. Separately you can allow reception of pings / trackbacks, as well as automatic ping to addresses in the post. With the help of some plug-ins you can do «treaded» comments, as well as split comments displaying on the pages. You can add avatars or favicon. The text editor of a comment can be implemented with formatting buttons and smilies. There is also a plug-in (works on AJAX) which allows the user to edit his comment for some time.
Data export/import
Drupal
Many converters are written for Drupal, mainly related to forum migration. There are RSS for all tastes. There are many special things such as exports in RDF or CSV.
Joomla
I understand that this issue is very important for blog engines. Once again I want to mention that Joomla s is not a blog but CMS. That is why exports of notes in any format are not important for Joomla
WordPress
WordPress allows you to export your blog entries and comments into the XML-file. You can export the posts of the concrete author. You can use many ways to import entries in WordPress. These are the main blog «engines»: Blogger, Textpattern.