WordPress vs Drupal Showdown

Introduction

In today’s technology era, now is the time to have an engaging online presence. As of 2022, there are over 1.3 billion websites on the internet, with more being updated and created each day. Selecting the right Content Management System(CMS) is one of the most important decisions to make for your business.

A CMS is a software tool that allows you and your team to create, edit, and publish content on the internet. It is the best online tool to help your business to create brand awareness and trust, and grow revenue.

Choosing a CMS is no easy feat. There are dozens of CMSs available for businesses to choose from, most notably Drupal or WordPress. It is important to put some thought into the website starting with the CMS. Taking into consideration your business growth, scalability, content strategy, and budget.

WordPress and Drupal are both excellent platforms. The one you choose will depend on your organization’s specific needs.

Drupal

Drupal was released to the public by Dries Buytaert in 2001. Drupal is a free open-source CMS system with a passionate community of more than 1,000,000 developers, designers, strategists, sponsors, and more!

About 1.8% of sites on the web are Drupal. Drupal is dynamic, scalable, flexible and the most secure CMS available. With a passionate community, Drupal allows you to build your dream website, with over 27,000 themes and 40,000 modules. Security is at the forefront of Drupal’s popularity, the Drupal community routinely updates modules and the Drupal core to ensure threats are kept at bay. To state it plainly, Drupal offers the best security and flexibility for growth with virtually unlimited potential for the innovation of today’s technology.

All that being said, Drupal is not for everyone! With great power comes great spending. If you choose Drupal as your CMS of choice ensure you have the right budget. Although Drupal is free, building your dream website and maintaining it is not. Building a Drupal website can be anywhere between $10,000 to $150,000+ for the initial build, not including ongoing maintenance which can be anywhere from $500 to $1200 a quarter.

Drupal is best suited for medium to enterprise-level companies or for companies looking to scale quickly.

 

WordPress

WordPress is the most popular and intuitive content management system available. With over 35% of websites on WordPress, it is hard not to know about this platform. We can see why – it is simplistic, user-friendly, and appealing to any level of technical background.

Released in May 2003, WordPress is open-source software. It is free like Drupal, but there is a cost to hire an agency to build your website. WordPress started out as a simple blogging platform and can be quickly moved into a full-spread CMS. With WordPress, you can customize and develop any type of website.

WordPress has plenty of capabilities, putting it in direct competition with Drupal. Both Drupal and WordPress have the ability to scale your business to an extent. With each CMS, you are able to create your dream website without too many limitations. WordPress is a great fit for small to medium-sized businesses – you don’t need the biggest budget, just creativity to create an effective website. With over 50,000 free plugins and 5,000 themes on top of the premium versions, WordPress can be developed to fit your business needs.

Although customizable, WordPress does have its limitations in comparison to Drupal. As you build your website and start using more plugins on WordPress the slower your website may become, creating a less than ideal experience. Security is not necessarily a limitation with WordPress, but something to be aware of. As WordPress is the most popular CMS available with over 50,000+ plugins, it is more at risk of being compromised. As a business owner, security should always be an important factor when looking at which CMS is your best choice. In comparison to Drupal, WordPress is vulnerable to hackers, however, it is more easily recovered.

The proper CMS is an important choice for any business website. If you have a smaller budget but still looking to make an impact, WordPress is a great choice.

 

Decision Time

Both Drupal and WordPress are fantastic content management systems. You can’t go wrong with either one, but the decision lies in what is best for your business and budget. Choosing the right CMS for your business is a big decision, one that does require consideration. A website is an extension of your business – it is how you ultimately interact with your customers.

Taking the proper considerations before choosing the CMS for your website will save you time and money down the road. When choosing your CMS, here are a few questions to ask yourself,

1. If you have a current website, is it complex? Does it require a lot of advanced functionality overall?
2. Do you need multiple admin users, roles, and permissions?
3. Do you have large volumes of content?
4. Does your site have thousands of users?
5. Do you require a lot of custom code?
6. Do you have plans to scale your website dramatically in the future?
7. Do you require enterprise-level security?
8. Do you have a large and steady budget to support and maintain your Drupal site properly?

If you answered no to more than half of the questions above, Drupal may not be the right fit for your website. WordPress is a great alternative CMS if you aren’t looking for an enterprise-level CMS that is customizable and needs to accommodate complex data organizational scenarios.

While there is always a lot to think about, and plenty of pros and cons to weigh, a partnered agency can work with you to make an informed decision.