CMS Wars: WordPress vs. Drupal
First let me say, I am no code monkey. I can Google enough code to bend just about any WordPress template to my will, but coding a site from scratch in a huge fail for me. I’d love to learn, but it’s just not in the cards for me right now. I’m envious of those who can code whatever their imagination comes up with. Sites that are beautiful, imaginative, and still simple and direct in their functionality are the spice of the net.
The other day a young, up-and-coming designer friend and I were discussing various cms solutions. I am, by nature of my coding ineptability, an outta-the-box cms fan. He (@craftydevon) was on the other end of the spectrum. He’s all about the opensource. I’m a WordPress and he’s a Drupal. I made the statement on Twitter that I haven’t been all that impressed with Drupal, and I instantly got a flood of @repiles asking me how I could tweet that. Most of the people taken aback by my tweet were designers. Hmmm. There is obviously something more to this Drupal platform than I have seen. I started looking around a bit deeper. I personally choose WP because of it’s simplicity. Easy to customize, easy use, and easy to teach to beginning bloggers. I still recommend WP to the majority of my clients for just those same reasons. I have, however, expanded my horizons a bit. There are times, it would seem, that WP is the right option, and there are times when Dupral is the best way to go.
WordPress
WordPress has been, from the outset, a blogging platform. Set up is easy and virtually pain free.
Pros:
- Simple interface, anyone can use
- Perfect for blogging
- Thousands of plugins
- Huge support community
Cons:
- Upgrades can be a headache
- The community tends to complain a bit much
- Not developer friendly
Drupal
Drupal is, plain and simply, the designer’s cms.
Pros:
- Very designer friendly
- Also has a large support community
- Complete control
- Can be used to create some of the most amazing sites on the web
Cons:
- Not user friendly
- Code knowledge required
- Themes are a huge fail. (That is changing though as designers get behind this system and develop more)
- Can be more costly to get published
It’s really all up to what you want.
I mean, what do you want from a web site? I can’t answer that question for you. If you are a blogger on your own site, then WP is your solution. If you have a blogging community, then take up Dupral. If you are a developer/designer, you probably already use Dupral. Looking for user friendliness, then you are back to WP. Then again, if you are selling online, Dupral handles e-commerce quite well. Like I said, it’s really all about you.
What about you? What do you use and why?
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I’m with you on all sorts of levels with this. Like you, I know enough about coding to make WP do what I want (usually) or at least enough to tell a code monkey what I was aiming to do without sounding like a complete idiot (although, real code monkeys think we’re all idiots anyway).
I also have experience working with Drupal and WordPress both (and Joomla as well). For the time, effort, and pain involved WordPress is my default choice for many of the reasons you’ve outlined, especially if I want to hand it over for a client to manage on their own.
I get the beauty of design that Drupal offers and the brilliant custom functionality of Joomla’s modules, but if I have to provide something a client can master (or at least feel unafraid of) in a short time, then WP is the logical choice. I think 3.0 has provided some new functionality that makes it pretty interesting to use. I’m looking forward to exploring more of its potential.
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I will still recommend WP about 90% of the time. But I know know that there are definitely times when WP just won’t do. I’ll be more careful when listening to the needs of clients now. This discussion that I had with @craftydevon and the subsequent post have been a great learning experience for me.
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Excellent explanation, Brian. Thanks for keeping your less-than-jargon-savvy readers in mind, too!
Personally, I get very overwhelmed by the whole business of putting together a website or blog. Plug and play is a very good thing for those of use who would be happy using FrontPage until the end of times. If it is intuitive, looks decent, and doesn’t cost me more than my mortgage, I’m going to be happy.
If a developer can hold my hand (for less than my mortgage) and make a site using some sort of magic that I’ll never fully understand, I’ll probably be happier… delighted even!
… until that developer goes away and leaves me with a site that I can’t edit/alter/recolor without having go out and search past all of the, “Oh, you have a Cloanige 413 site. Ha ha ha. We haven’t seen those since the MacDog 41230s came out.” comments to get some help making it work for me again.
So, you are super-right in saying that it’s about what you want from your site.. and it is also about what you might grow into wanting from your site and how adaptable it will be to those future a-ha moments.
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Thanks Gina. I work with a lot of people who aren’t jargon savvy so it is good to see that I am reaching the people I want.
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I have a different take on WordPress… First, you say your friend is all about opensource so that makes him a Drupal. WordPress is opensource software, top to bottom. Second, your pros list WordPress as good for blogging, but its great for websites too, particularly small business marketing websites. I was able to get a nice looking website for Marble City Brewing Company put together in about 4 total hours, from concept to launch: http://marblecitybeer.com with the help of a good pro theme and several plugins. You say that WordPress is a hassle to upgrade and that its not developer friendly, which run contrary to me personal experience. Especially since you can now enable automatic upgrades…
I’m a huge fan of WordPress. It allows us mere mortals to really get stuff done. And the few times I’ve used Drupal, its been a massive headache for this non-programmer.
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You make some very good points. WP is opensource but limited. It truly is the engine for us “mortals”. I believe that Drupal has been a headache for you because as you state, you are not a programmer. It is a headache for me as well. WP for me, in my experience, has had it’s hassle times as well. Updates on WP have been a bit of a problem on occasion. I think that the question may come down to a matter of religion over actual pros and cons. There are things about WP that you and I love and it will continue to be our go to CMS, while there are the Drupal acolytes that no matter what will shout from the highest spire that their chosen CMS is the best.Thanks for your thoughts.BTW Marble City is a great looking site. Makes me thirsty just looking at it
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Interesting comments. A code monkey i am but not a programmer like my friend Frank. WordPress has allowed me to focus alot more on my design and less about programming for I know I can find a plug in, widget or snippet of php that will do what needs to be done. Before WP I was strictly a static web site kinda guy and could not supply a client with something they could manage (CMS). Yes,WP falls in the plus column for me.
Discovered a WP theme called wordpress naked, it is the barebones WP site and you can build a custom design site from it, compared to finding a theme that is close to what you want and stripping all unnecessary code and features you do not need.
I thought WordPress was the the one stop shop for it all. But after my meeting with Jonathan
Longnecker of Forty Seven Media Monday morning i feel there is one more CMS to conquer, Express Engine. From Jonathan recommendation it takes the headache out of coding. I agree with Brians closing comment, to each their own.
Charles Duggan
http://www.hbncdesign.com
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Expression Engine has some great qualities, like security, and deploy-ability. I’ve looked at more than a few sites that are running on EE and most just aren’t that impressive, but I’d say that has more to do with the designers/clients than anything else. The biggest drawback to EE is the $300 buy in, and if you want a forum it’s another $100. That, in today’s economy, is gonna stop people in their tracks.
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I am a WP user mainly for the ease of use. It may be because WP was the first platform I had a positive experience with, but I have tried several other platforms (not Duprai though…) and I always return the WordPress. I am in the same boat as you when it comes to coding, so the multitude of themes available and great plugin support also make WP my go-to CMS. When I need someone to be able to manage their own content for a blog or small business website, I always set them up with WP.
Very nice site Brian! Always nice meeting a fellow Knoxvillian in the industry.
Matt
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Agreed. When putting together a site for a client to use themselves, WP is generally your best bet.
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