WordPress and Joomla are by far the most popular open source CMS tools available – we’ve built hundreds of sites using these technologies, and so are intimately familiar with their structure, limitations, pro’s & con’s. Until about 2 years ago, most clients didn’t really care what CMS was used, most didn’t know what a CMS was, but these days people are coming to us with some idea of their options, and often need a little guidance to ensure they make the right choice.
1. Content structure
If the site is just a simple brochure site, with a straight forward menu system (top/side menu), simple content pages, for example, use WordPress. Similarly, if it’s just a Blog – use WordPress. This site, for example, is built in WordPress.
If you’re looking to build a larger, more complex site, with a more sophisticated content structure (multiple levels of content), more than 1 menu system, more modular content (in left/right columns for example), and would like more control over what menu appears where, then use Joomla.
2. Community/larger more complex site
If you want to build a community site, including member login functionality that provides users with members only content, or create a feature rich website including user polling, banner advertising, user profiling, etc – then use Joomla. Likewise if you want a corporate site that is more feature rich, including categorised content for case studies, or whitepaper download capabilities with integration into a 3rd party CRM database, use Joomla.
3. Administrator technical capability
If the website administrators are less savvy, use WordPress, if you can get away with it. Joomla, while not hard to use, is hard-er to use than WordPress, which is just a bi-product of it being so much more sophisticated.
Wordpress admin - simply about managing content
Joomla admin panel - lots of options and functionality (although most only ever use about 20% of it)
4. Design
The design of a site can also lend itself better to either technology. Simpler designs, using more traditional content structures (limited number of pages, less modular content, little interaction) are better suited to WordPress. Either CMS is incredibly flexible in terms of being able to conform to just about any design, so that’s not really a consideration.
5. Future development possibilities
It’s painful to swap over (need to build from scratch – there is no “upgrade”, so make sure you consider the above points for future development also – if your needs are simple now, but they will grow later, you’re better off choosing Joomla right off the bat – it may cost a little more (5-10%), but worth it in my opinion.
6. SEO
You’ll read a LOT about which tool is better for SEO. In our experience, the technology is only a very small part of the SEO story. Both CMS’ offer the necessary infrastructure to effectively optimise a site, including (albeit with a free additional module or 2):
- Search engine friendly URL’s
- Ability to control meta data for each page
- CSS styling to support H1, H2, tags, etc
- And many more…
There are a bunch of other factors that weight into how well your site performs in the search engines (content, back-links, internal menu structures, etc) – so don’t let this affect your decision. You can build the same site in either CMS and achieve the same SEO result.
The takeout – if your needs are simple, use WordPress, which is more geared toward Blog or simple brochure-ware sites. Otherwise, use Joomla.
Tags: cms, joomla, save money, wordpress
