WordPress vs Drupal

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Which Content Management System suits you best?

If you are creating a website or a blog or just about anything online that requires content, then you will also need a system to deal with that content. Two of the most popular content management systems in the market are WordPress and Drupal. As one would expect, both systems have their pros and cons, strengths and weaknesses. In this blog, we’ve highlighted some key features to help you understand the difference between WordPress and Drupal and choose which open source content management system suits you best.

Overview of WordPress and Drupal Market Share

WordPress and Drupal are both content management systems, though WordPress didn’t start out that way. Instead it was a straightforward blogging platform when it was first launched in 2003. Technically, Drupal is older than WordPress, having been introduced in 2000, but its market share is much lower: Drupal represents 2.8% compared to 63.1% on WordPress. It also loses out with the number of websites being powered by it sitting at 1.8% compared to Word press’s 35.2%.

Notable Customers of WordPress and Drupal

WordPress

Drupal
Bloomberg Professional
Tesla
Sony Music
eBay
BBC News
NASA
Microsoft News Center
Stanford University
Walt Disney Company
The Economist
Still, Drupal is widely used enough to be one of the most popular CMS choices on the market, and both Drupal and WordPress support major websites and notable customers.

Security Issues – WordPress vs Drupal

The security features of a website are a very common concern for anyone worried about hacking and malware. Let’s see when it comes to security how WordPress fares vs Drupal.
  • WordPress:
    While the WordPress core is very secure if it is properly updated, WordPress users have access to a massive third-party extensions ecosystem that makes it especially vulnerable to third party malicious players. While there are ways to mitigate the issues, there are more potential vulnerabilities on WordPress than Drupal.
  • Drupal:
    Generally speaking, Drupal is the more secure platform. One of the most notable users of Drupal is NASA, which should give you a sense of the security capabilities and why it is preferred by government institutions around the world.

Key Benefits – WordPress vs Drupal

While each user is going to have a unique perspective on the benefits of each platform, there are a few key strengths that are almost universal. In terms of key benefits how does WordPress fare against Drupal?

  • WordPress:
    If you have chosen WordPress to power your site, then you will be able to enjoy the following benefits:
    1. Cost – The cost of hiring a WordPress developer is less than that of a Drupal developer.
    2. Community – WordPress has a huge community which you can gain access to in order to address any issue.
    3. Extensions – WordPress has many third-party extensions that can increase the functionality and personalize your site for your use.
    4. Usability – WordPress is very easy for non-technical users with a very short learning curve.
    5. Mobile responsive – WordPress sites are also mobile responsive which again increases its user- friendliness.
  • Drupal:
    If you choose Drupal, you can enjoy the following benefits:
    1. Flexibility – Drupal allows much more flexibility in customizing content compared to WordPress.
    2. Security – It has one of the best security systems.
    3. User Permissions – You can create additional users’ roles in Drupal unlike in WordPress where you are restricted to just 5.
    4. Multilingual Sites – It doesn’t need extensions in order to have multilingual functionality as it is in-built in its core.
    5. Taxonomies – Drupal can handle much more content than WordPress with more ways to slice and dice the content throughout areas of your site.

To summarize, WordPress is generally easier to use, especially for novices, and features a wide range of upgrades, but it’s also not as sophisticated or powerful at its core for complex sites and use-cases.

Plugins and Themes – WordPress vs Drupal

In order to improve functionality and aesthetics plugins or modules and themes are used on both WordPress and Drupal. These third-party items can be free or paid based on the provider.
  • WordPress lists about 50,000 plugins available in the official directory and thousands more from third party developers.
  • Drupal has about 44,000 listed in the official directory but only about a handful can be accessed from the net.
  • In the case of themes, WordPress has about 2,500 with more being added each day while Drupal has about 250.

While the number of themes and plugins is lower for Drupal it allows the user far more customization options than WordPress out of the box, meaning there is a good chance you need less of them to achieve your goals. The cost of plugins for WordPress is in the range of $0 – $ 200 and the themes are in the range of $0 – $250. For Drupal it is in the range of $0 – $100 for modules and $0 – $80 for themes.

Which is best, WordPress or Drupal?

There’s no easy answer to this question of which is the best CMS. While we’ve tried to summarize some key areas where the systems differ, both WordPress and Drupal are great choices depending on your specific needs.

If you still have trouble deciding, we can help. Korcomptenz is a US-based web, mobile, and marketing technology services provider headquartered in New Jersey. We have 16+ years of experience on a wide variety of different systems including Kentico, WordPress, Drupal, Mautic and more. Contact us now to get an assessment on which Content Management System is best suited for your needs and how to best leverage it to grow your business.

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