In this article WordPress vs Joomla, we are going to see which one is the best platform for website building and managing your content over the internet.
WordPress and Joomla are both website builders by using any of the two platforms non-techy persons can also manage their websites.
Both these website builders are most popular among bloggers and small businesses, they allow you to easily create a website without any technical skills and programming knowledge.
Here we will see which one is the best website builder and how you can decide which works best for you. In detail, we are going to explore what are the best features of WordPress and Joomla.
Now, let’s compare and understand the features of both WordPress and Joomla in detail.
What is WordPress?
WordPress is one of the Open-source website builders or we can say that it is a Content Management Software (CMS) that is built on the PHP programming language paired with the MySQL database.
WordPress is launched on 27 May 2003; it supports the architecture of plugins and a template system means that you can add more features using the plugin and change the design using the templates.
It is one of the most popular content management systems used all over the World, with around 42.8% percent of the top 10 million websites using WordPress.
As WordPress is an Open-Source software and it is now managed by the WordPress foundation.
It is free to use and anyone can download it from its official website https://www.wordpress.org, only the thing you need is the domain and the hosting.
WordPress is fully customizable and offers a lot of features such as you can add any function to your website using the plugins. As it provides thousands of plugins for adding different features to your website.
You can also use third-party plugins for extra features and functions on your website.
What is Joomla?
Joomla is also an open-source Content Management System used for publishing content over the internet. It is also just like WordPress, made in the PHP programming language, and supports the MySQL database.
Joomla also has the extension to expand the functionality of the website. It has the software dependencies on the Symfony PHP framework. Joomla includes the features such as Page caching, RSS feeds, blogs, Search and support for languages internationally.
For Joomla around 6,000 extensions are available to enhance the features of Joomla, there is a slight difference between WordPress and Joomla in WordPress extensions knowns as the Plugin.
Joomla is considered the fifth most used CMS after WordPress, Wix, Squarespace, and Shopify.
Now, Let’s see the detailed comparison of WordPress and the Joomla-
Common things in WordPress and Joomla:
There are many things that are common in both WordPress and Joomla in terms of technology and features.
The common feature is as follows-
- Both Joomla and WordPress are free open-source software Licensed under the GPL.
- WordPress and Joomla use the PHP programming language on the server side.
- MySQL is used for the management of the database.
- Both are contributed by the community as both are open-source projects.
- They have templates and themes for the visual appearance of the site, plugins, and extensions for increasing the features of the website.
Ease of Use: WordPress vs Joomla
As WordPress and Joomla both are CMS and are mostly used by non-developers. So easily managing and maintaining the website is one of the major issues for the person who does not have much knowledge about programming and coding skills.
Therefore, ease of use is an important factor for non-techy persons. Now let’s see which platform is easier to manage and customize.
WordPress:
WordPress is very easy to install as most Hosting companies come with the one-click installation.
After installing WordPress, it asked a few steps and after completing the steps your website gets ready to serve.
In WordPress, all the menus and settings are well organized and really user-friendly. WordPress dashboard is beginner-friendly pages, posts, and settings are on the left side of the dashboard.
And If You Install any of the plugins then its feature and setting start appearing in the extreme left of the dashboard.
You can also easily change the styling and appearance of the website by changing the theme of the website. And you can also switch between the themes of the website.
Joomla:
Joomla Installation is also somewhat similar to WordPress if you are a beginner then you will find a little bit of complexity in comparison to WordPress.
As in the case of WordPress, Hosting companies provide the one-click installation of WordPress.
Some companies also provide the one-click installation of the Joomla.
After the complete installation process, the Joomla setup wizard appears which is more complex than the WordPress setup wizard.
Therefore, when we talk about the ease of use of the platform then WordPress is the best platform than Joomla.
Themes and Add-ons: WordPress vs Joomla
WordPress and Joomla come with the feature of plugins, extensions, and themes which helps in increasing the features of the Website.
In WordPress and Joomla, there is a theme that controls the appearance of the website. How it will look to the users.
And for increasing the feature and functionality of the website there are plugins and extensions on WordPress and Joomla, these plugins and extensions behave like apps that add additional features to the website.
WordPress:
WordPress comes with a number of plugins to change the appearance of the website, there are pre-installed plugins.
But WordPress has free plugins in the WordPress directory to change the appearance of the website.
There are also some paid plugins available from the third party which changes the appearance and add some premium features. If you have good programming skills then you can also make your own customized themes.
The next thing is the feature of plugins which add extra features to your website and there are approx. 59,000+ plugins available that add any feature you want.
Joomla:
Just like WordPress, there are also many themes and Extensions in Joomla, which add extra features and functionality to your website.
There almost has every plugin available to do every task in Joomla whether it is an eCommerce website, managing the posts and or doing the SEO of the website.
In Joomla, there are not too many better extensions available in comparison to WordPress.
In WordPress, there is the feature to search the plugin with the WordPress dashboard. But in Joomla, you have to search it Manually and then add it to Joomla.
Support Option in WordPress and Joomla:
Support and help are one of the most important factors in running the website. When the beginner starts to hurdle in learning the new software then he or she will face many problems.
To counter that problem there must be a support system so that the beginner can get help and resolve their issues when they counter so.
WordPress:
WordPress has a very strong community hence you will get help from most of the web design and web development platforms.
For help and support, you will also have the WordPress support forum, stack overflow, and many forum websites and blogs.
which provide tutorials and solution tips related to WordPress.
And if you want full support and want to hire a WordPress developer who makes your WordPress website.
Then you will take it from the paid platform such as Fiverr, Upwork, and Codable.
Joomla:
Just like WordPress Joomla also has a big community that provides the best solutions for Joomla users.
There is extensive documentation on the Joomla website which is a valuable resource for beginners. For more interactive support, users can join forums, mailing lists, user groups, etc.
There is also paid agency and websites available which provides support and help to Joomla users.
As most websites used WordPress therefore the community of WordPress users is big and there is almost every help and support available for WordPress users.
Final Words:
Whether you choose WordPress or Joomla, you will need a domain name and website hosting to make a website.
Luckily, all this two of these top CMS software have quite similar requirements which means all top web hosting companies support them.
We recommend using either Bluehost or Site Ground. They are both among the largest hosting companies in the world and specialize in hosting WordPress, and Joomla.
Want to edit your 404 error page, read our this post –How to Edit 404 Error Page in WordPress?
