Joomla vs. WordPress: Which is Right?

Creating and Managing a successful website largely depends on choosing the right CMS or Content Management System. WordPress or Joomla are the two major contenders of the top CMS position. Each platform offers unique features and benefits, catering to diverse website needs. While WordPress boasts user-friendly interfaces and a vast array of plugins, Joomla stands out for its robust security and customization options.

Understanding the specific requirements of your website is crucial in making the best choice between these two formidable CMS options.

In this blog post, we will discuss the features of each platform. By the end, you'll have a clear understanding of which platform suits your website needs best.

What Is Perfect For You? Joomla Or Wordpress 

Before jumping into a straight comparison, you should consider a few factors. Some of these factors are connected with the overall performance, customization options, deliverability, user-friendliness, and security issues.

To elaborate on these factors, we first need to understand the following aspects:

Practicality 

Ease of use or practicality is the first and foremost thing one CMS can provide to attract a ton of potential users. From this perspective, let’s see how WordPress and Joomla perform:

WordPress is the most used CMS in the world. Due to its heavy usage, it already managed to attract many open-source developers who have been working constantly for its development. This nature of WordPress is providing a greater practicality to its users globally.

Hosting companies are also collaborating with this CMS more than any other CMS, which gives this platform an added advantage for compatibility. In addition, the control panel of WordPress offers ease of use so it is very beginner-friendly. Finally, the navigation option is pretty much straightforward and doesn’t require any action beyond two clicks. 

Nevertheless, Joomla offers almost similar options for its users. Then again, it offers a critical control panel that comprises a range of web development terminologies. Additionally, the complex nature of admin pages and numerous settings makes it more expert-level CMS than WordPress.

As a result, WordPress is probably the good option for the users who potentially lack technical prowess, but Joomla is better for those who already passed the beginner stage in web development.    

Effective Content Management 

In terms of managing content efficiently, both WordPress and Joomla offer a lot of similar options for users. However, some of the features are distinct and these CMSs retain some unique features which should also be kept in mind for further decision-making.  

Since its inception as a blogging site, WordPress has still been maintaining its internal system for keeping a ton of data related to content and different media files of various sizes. It was already simple to make WP posts and pages with the Classic Editor before Gutenberg editor was made the default one. Furthermore, despite requiring no code at all, Gutenberg continues to allow HTML for sophisticated customization.

In addition, WordPress has two different page types: static and dynamic; the former is used to store blog content.

On the other hand, Joomla offers three types of pages: single format, custom module, and category blog. However, the catch is that anyone can publish a post after creating a particular category.

Joomla’s TinyMCE is almost identical to the Classic editor of WordPress, on which you can make easy installation of editing extensions for modifying templates swiftly. Yet, Joomla doesn’t have a taxonomy system which is why, it offers a complex set of tasks for its users to add extensions. 

As a result, WordPress is a better service provider than Joomla in this segment. It's not because of its vast popularity but for its ability to manage a large amount of content in smarter ways. 

SEO Capability 

Both Joomla and WordPress offer a built-in solution for their users to implement SEO effectively. Such a solution assists the users in making their pages rank higher on search engine result pages.

As a renowned CMS, WordPress offers a range of SEO options for its users like permalinks, meta tags, alt text of images, and so on. In terms of themes, internal or third-party options can easily be found in almost every business category. In addition, a lot of powerful all-in-one plugins can also be found in this CMS like the Yoast SEO, RankMath, All-in-One SEO, which offer keyword optimization, readability checks, and linking suggestions.

On the other hand, Joomla offers a versatile SEO optimization option for its users. With the built-in SEO tools, you can get a search engine-friendly URL and site names in page titles. In addition, Joomla also allows its users to use third-party SEO tools like Quix and EFSEO. However, a beginner may need help understanding the overall SEO functionalities offered by Joomla for its complex settings and layouts.

We will recommend using WordPress over Joomla, for its user-oriented options and greater SEO capability.             

Functionality & Appearance 

The appearance and functionality of a website are crucial factors that shape its internal user experience. This encompasses the effective utilization of templates and extensions, which we will delve into in this section.

WordPress boasts a diverse collection of themes and plugins available in its built-in store, catering to the needs of various users. These themes and plugins offer extensive customization tools, robust security features, and advanced website analytics functionality.

However, WordPress restricts users to maintaining only one active theme at a time, despite the abundance of available options.

In contrast, Joomla hosts an official library with over 8000 extensions, allowing users to enhance their websites with specialized features. However, adding extensions directly from the dashboard is challenging, requiring users to manually upload them to the installation page after downloading from the directory.

Interestingly, Joomla users have the flexibility to employ multiple templates on a single website, enabling distinct designs for each page based on specific requirements.

Overall, WordPress holds an advantage over Joomla due to its vast selection of plugins. Moreover, it offers a smoother and faster installation and activation process for users.

Security Options 

When considering security while selecting the right CMS, it's essential to pay special attention to this aspect.

In WordPress, you're required to choose the version of the CMS you'll utilize, as different versions offer varying security features. For instance, versions 3.7 and above benefit from automatic updates for maintenance and security, while version 5.5 enhances security updates for themes and plugins.

However, it's crucial to stay vigilant about the regular security and maintenance updates of WordPress. Neglecting these updates may expose your website to potential hacking and cyberattacks, as witnessed in 2019.

Conversely, Joomla has encountered fewer cyberattacks than WordPress, partly due to its lower popularity. Interestingly, Joomla continues to employ built-in security patches to provide security options for its users, making updates somewhat less burdensome.

Overall, WordPress maintains an edge over Joomla in security features, thanks to its extensive array of user-friendly security plugin features.     

E-commerce & Ease of Payment 

WordPress has WooCommerce, which offers users great flexibility in choosing their preferred options. While the basic setup of WooCommerce is free, most customization features are only available in the paid version. The main advantage of using this plugin is its ability to offer free downloads, support for over 100 payment gateways catering to local and international markets, and specialized shipping handling features.  

Joomla also offers a variety of eCommerce extensions for its users, and one of the most popular ones is HikaShop. With this extension, you can easily create shopping carts and product catalogs. Furthermore, it allows you to handle transactions and accept payments from over 60 gateways. 

While it may be challenging to differentiate between the features of these two CMSs, our suggestion is for you to choose one of these options. Just remember, if you encounter any difficulties, it is essential to seek expert assistance.  

Official Assistance 

Many people find the ‘Official Support’ as a significant issue when facing any problem regarding functionalities and assistance in using any CMS. 

WordPress may not offer live chat support, but its large user community forums can provide you with almost every solution you need. However, for beginners, understanding this process can be challenging. Many users receive help from a wide range of user forums for their free support. 

On the other hand, Joomla's support channel features an active community forum. There are also numerous online lessons and recommendations available for potential users. Unfortunately, compared to WordPress, hiring an expert to assist with technical issues can be more challenging and costly. But, at GlossyIT, our experienced team of Joomla professionals is ready to serve you with a budget-friendly Joomla Development Service package.

Overall, both WordPress and Joomla offer a lot of user-friendly tutorials, yet WordPress will have better engagement because of its vast array of popularity and active user community.  

How Glossy It Can Help You Choose Between Joomla And Wordpress? 

If you are new in this field, then choosing the right CMS will surely be a tough task for you. Here at Glossy IT, we recommend you get specialized tech support regarding this issue. As a whole, either WordPress or Joomla can be the right CMS for your company. However, our skilled and experienced Joomla developers and WordPress developers can assist you choose the right one for you based on your budget, expertise, and capabilities. 

Give us a shout to know more about our company and its services. 

Final Remarks 

Joomla will be your ideal choice if you want to develop a sophisticated website or web application with tech-friendly functionalities. On the other hand, WordPress will be your best choice if you see yourself as a beginner-level enthusiast with the potential to grow over time for your site’s development and success.