WordPress vs Joomla – Review
By Rudolf Boogerman |
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This is not a pro-contra review. In this article I try to give you some pointers to make it easy to chose between the two popular content management systems. The basic difference between WordPress and Joomla is that Joomla is a portal- or community type site while WordPress is a blog. Both overlap each other in several areas and can be extended beyond their original purpose thanks to the use of plugins. You can find those plugins almost everywhere on the internet. Both have a large user base with a lively community where tips and tricks are shared. Both are free to use and many hosting providers have them as an option in their web tools section. WP has a large community of volunteer developers, Joomla can count on many commercial add-ons by specialized professionals.
This topic is somewhat outside the scope of Miracle Tutorials, but the reason I thought it was important to publish is that it relates to the tutorials series Creating your own video channel by John, since we need to make a decision on a CMS system to work in that series. So, here it is:
To Joomla or not to Joomla
If you want to create a community or a network with a membership area, newsroom, forums, articles, input from external authors etc… then Joomla is a good choice because it is made to be that way. Creating a navigation structure is easy, once you understand how it works and it doesn’t require knowledge of html. You can set articles to expire after a time, activate dates, authorname, breadcrumbs etc.. Thus, Joomla gives you a lot of power in your hands and that is noticeable in the admin section where there are so many options that you get dizzy the first time you go in. You really should get a good book on Joomla if you want to set it up fast. Otherwise you end up fiddling around and getting nowhere for days. A reasonably good starter is “Beginning Joomla” from Dan Rahmel. It guides you by the hand while customizing the site and setting up the naviagation structure. There are other books, but I cannot recommend them since I didn’t read them.
Adapting the look is simple if you are happy with changing some colors and the logo. Beyond that, you will find that Joomla has a complicated structure and even seasoned web developers have to go through a learning curve before they master the layout system, and that approach is different depending on the layout template you chose.
If you do not want to get involved in the gritty work of stylesheets, you can buy professional layout templates for a reasonable price (between $35-$50) from JoomlaShack, for instance. Or you could ask a developer to do it for you, but make sure they have references of Joomla sites or you might end up paying their learning curve and that is what you want to avoid.
Disadvantages of Joomla
The disadvantage of Joomla, and the producers know that, is the way code is generated. Joomla has to use tables to build its layout and that means that Joomla code is non web standard and the god of search engines, Google, is not happy about non web standard code. Yet, it will list your site anyway. There will be a time when this method is phased out and they work hard on it, but it cannot be done right now. No longer a true issue since Ryan commented and proved below that he created a real table-less template, so it can be done. I just haven’t found a truly table-less commercial template for sale yet. I bought several and they still have a couple of tables. But I presume we will see real table-less templates popping up everywhere soon, and then I will be able to remove this issue as a disadvantage. Thanks again for pointing this out, Ryan.
A remaining problem is that the core system is very complex which demands a lot of resources from the server. If the database is not tweaked for better performance and you add a couple of fancy external plugins, chances are that the site breaks down starting from 50,000 visitors a day or more.
If you are born to be very popular on the net, it is important to keep this in mind, therefore best involve a webdeveloper with experience in high traffic sites to tweak the system.
In short:
Joomla’s strenght is in complexity. Deep level navigation, sections in sections, categories etc… It has fixed pages and posts, posts Great for community sites, you can create a regular site with it but I would regard that as overkill.
To WordPress or not to WordPress
WordPress is basically a very user friendly blog system but it can be used as a regular site which you can update without any knowledge of html (the same goes for Joomla). You can create pages and posts, and with plugins, you can add a lot of functionality included standard in Joomla, except that all code is web standard. And because WordPress is web standard, Google really loves it. So, from a marketing standpoint, WordPress is hard to resist.
The interface is easy to understand, you won’t need a book for it, although buying a “WordPress for Dummies” – book will save you some time if you have no experience with blog management at all. Adapting the look requires some knowledge of CSS, the style sheet language. Like with Joomla, if you select a template close to what you want, adapting the colors, logo etc.. is not that complicated but if you do not want to get involved with CSS, and you would like to re-arrange navigation elements as well, you might consider hiring a web developer. Since WordPress has a logical structure, it is easy for a developer to change things around, place ad banners etc…Again, give preference to a specialized developer used to work with WordPress.
It is setup very quickly and you can be listed in Google within 2 days. I haven’t seen any other system doing that so far. A normal site takes up to 2 months to get listed in Google, so this is something to take into account. Anybody can learn enough in 2 hours to create content with WordPress right away, including using categories and sub pages.
WordPress can handle tons of visitors. It will not break down easily.
Disadvantages of WordPress:
For instance, adding or removing post dates, need to be changed in design mode and it requires knowledge of WP scripting. The navigational structure is determined by the layout template you chose. Changing that structure again requires knowledge of the WP scripting language and CSS. With Joomla, you do not run into this problem because menus are controlled via the control panel and attributes like dates, author name etc, can be turned on and off per article or for the whole site in one go. In that sense, Joomla is much more a content management system.
Also, changing the order of categories or pages is rather cumbersome in WordPress. It involves having to go into all of the categories and change the order by hand. The WP developers are working on it to fix it, but when is unpredictable.
In short:
WordPress is simple, you can see it as a blog or as a regular website. It has fixed pages, posts and categories.
Through the use of plugins you can extend its functionality and let it grow as big and complicated as you want. However, not every plugin is easy to understand, so it might be a good idea to have a specialized web developer in case of emergencies.
What do I need for my video channel?
You can add membership functionality in WordPress but Joomla will handle membership much better as it is really made for things like that. So, let’s say, while presuming you do not want to tinker with scripting:
- if you want members to access your videos on a subscription basis and have members in various levels of permission (depending on their subscription level), Joomla is your best bet.
- If you simply want to show your videos on your site, or you only have 1 type of members and you want things to be simple and clean, WordPress will do nicely.
- If you want to show off different types on videos on your home pages from different sections, more or less like a magazine, again Joomla is better equipped for it.
- If you want to create a video journal, WordPress makes life really easy for you.
If this little list doesn’t do you any good, you can always ask me a question by writing in the comment box below. I will answer as soon as humanly possible to give you some advice.
Don’t panic!
The great thing is, that if you discover that you selected the wrong system in retrospect, you are not lost because it is always possible to adapt the system. Both systems are open source, which means they are adaptable in every direction. Sometimes those changes will be costly, others peanuts. It depends on what you need to add or adapt. AND, there is a third way: Use them next to each other!
Have the best of both worlds if you want to. Install one of the systems in a sub folder, match the layout more or less and there you have a super site with all the bells and whistles you can imagine.
Installation difficult?
Given the fact that these are powerful content managment systems, installation is a dream, but don’t be fooled by this expression, if you do not know what a database is or what FTP means, you better rent web space with a provider that has the system of your preference in its package. Dreamhost has both WP and Joomla available for you with the press of a button. As a free member of Miracle Tutorials, you will get a special extra discount of $48 per year in the form of a unique IP address. In order to get this extra, signup with Miracle Tutorials in order to get the promotion code for Dreamhost.
I’m personally so happy with Dreamhost that I have become an affilate and I can assure you that I only do that with companies I have good experiences with. Read more on Dreamhost in Creating your own video channel – Part 1
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September 4th, 2008 at 7:36 pm
[...] WordPress vs Joomla – Review [...]
September 5th, 2008 at 10:20 am
This is exactly the type of review that I’ve been working on writing on my site. I had already written a pro-contra version of this, and realized that doing so is unfair to both systems. Rather, a definition of what each system can and cannot do is what will help someone choose which is best for their site.
Very good article. I’ll be telling others about it.
September 5th, 2008 at 11:45 am
Thanks AnotherGuy! I feel honored by your positive comment because I know you are well acquainted with both systems.
Cheers,
Rudolf+++
September 5th, 2008 at 4:08 pm
[...] WordPress vs Joomla – Review [...]
September 5th, 2008 at 9:21 pm
I thought the review was VERY good and very accurate (I have developed nearly 300 Joomla websites wholly or in part) until I got to this:
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This is simply not accurate. There are many Joomla sites that meet or exceed that traffic. See: TGDAILYdotCOM for just one example.
September 6th, 2008 at 1:29 am
Nice review! You state that Joomla! is generating tabled output and for that it is not complying with web standards. This might be true for version 1.0, in version 1.5 we have added a template in the default installation that generates output that is complying to those webstandards. In other words; the designer can choose whatever he wants to output.
Also the comment that Joomla! will break down with 50.000 unique visitors per day is not a proper statement. We know sites that have around 40 million visitors per week, and Joomla! is holding perfectly…of course it needs a pretty massive infrastructure, but that is obvious if you have a high traffic website
September 8th, 2008 at 8:38 am
Hi all,
First of all, thanks for your comments!
It is true that designers can create tableless templates, I use them myself , but if you go look into the source code of the output, you will see that the Joomla 1.5 core elements are still in tables at this time of writing.
As to performance, I have a little explaining to do here: this article is part of a series on building your own video channel and it is meant for non technical website owners who do not really understand how databases on the internet work. I agree that if you tweak the database of a Joomla installation, it is possible to get 50,000 or more visitors a day, but with a standard install and a couple of fancy external plugins, chances that it breaks down is pretty high. Since both Wilco and Randy make a remark about this issue, and I’m sure they are right from their viewpoint, I have rephrased that section.
September 15th, 2008 at 7:03 pm
[...] world of Blogs and Content Management systems? Does it all sound a bit daunting and confusing? Then checkout this review by Rudolf Boogerman to help you decide which CMS suits your needs best. Rudolf has done a fantastic [...]
November 20th, 2008 at 5:34 pm
I thought you might like to know about the responses we are getting to our new networking sites – one social (No Tall Poppies) and one for financial planning(Smart Poppies).
They have only been put up in the last week or so and we are adding more content to Smart Poppies every couple of days.
They have both been developed on WordPress (after starting on ireporter as a single site) because WordPress is very friendly with LinkedIn and that means you can maintain a great network on LI and have your blogs and websites connected with no trouble at all.
The response is growing every day and this is a sample comment:
Hi Lesley,
I was setting up my appointment with my financial planner when I remembered you. In the spirit of keeping the connection alive I thought I’d drop a quick line. How’s the sponsorship of the football (?) club going? You were also putting something together for the 35-55 year olds if I remember rightly. How’s that going?
Hope all is well with you. Just a quick touch base.
Regards,
Keith
Since Keith is in Melbourne, and we are in Perth, it is a great endorsement of the spirit with which the sister sites are being received.
The very best financial planners come with a predefined attribute – that makes them stand out from the crowd. Lesley Dewar is one of those financial planners, as she explains in her post “Put-A-Tiger-In-Your-Financial-Plan”
Times like this, when the markets are in turmoil and customers are seeking reassurance, that you profit the most by being highly visible and having a sound web presence.
Having access to something as simply as WordPress means that it is very easy for a small business to develop a net presence – that is Google friendly too – if you add some content.
We are not putting up videos (yet) and have been able to link a slide show to Smart Poppies as well, using powerpoint – that was easy too.
Overall, WordPress – so far – has done everything we need, when we work it in conjunction with LinkedIn; that may not suit everyone.
November 20th, 2008 at 7:55 pm
Thank you for your comment, Lesley. Another thing learned!
Has anyone experience with Joomla and LinkedIn? If so, please let us know.
November 23rd, 2008 at 8:31 am
Hi,
Many thanks for the beautiful article. I’m in the process of building a social network using wordpress for its seo friendly structure.
Do you think it will be good idea to build the community site using wordpress and do you know any developers I can contact who can build my site for me?
Regards
Natalie H
December 9th, 2008 at 12:18 pm
[...] WordPress vs Joomla – Review [...]
December 11th, 2008 at 7:18 am
Thank you for this information.
January 8th, 2009 at 5:27 am
I think you are confusing a template written in tables with “core output.”
If you select a template written in table-less CSS – then your output will be completely table-less.
crucialclickDOTcom is mine, for example. I wrote the template myself – it’s completely table-less – meaning – the code outputted to the browser (core?) is all without tables.
If the entire website that is visible to a user, including spiders like Google is tableless-div -then what is the issue here?
Also, it’s well known you can get millions of visitors on a joomla site without crashes. That is just flat out incorrect.
I ask that you please update your article to reflect factual information.
January 8th, 2009 at 6:15 am
Hi Ryan,
Thanks for your comment. But you have to realize that I’m discussing out-of-the-box solutions for non technical people, while you see this from your viewpoint as a web developer. I’m sure you agree there is a distinction.
I agree your template is completely table-less and it is the first I encounter, actually. So, you have my compliments and if you develop commercial templates for sale, I’m more then happy to add your url to the Creating your own video channel series, in which I show Joomla and WordPress installation options. And if you know about other commercial templates that are really table-less such as yours, I’d love to hear it.
I therefore have adapted that part, thanks for putting that right.
Regarding traffic: I repeat that there is no way that an out-of-the-box installation of Joomla can handle millions of visitors. Most developers tweak their databases for better performance. A non technical person cannot do that without help.
March 13th, 2009 at 8:56 am
Hi Rudolf,
Ryan is right, there is a built in template in Joomla! version 1.5 which is ja_purity, it is perfect for bloggers and completely tableless. If you don’t belive me have a look at the template ja_purity folder and index.php it’s all css. It is available out of the box for non technical people, in Joomla! admin you just go to templates menu and select it.
March 13th, 2009 at 1:07 pm
I wish you were right, Phantom, but a look at the source code of my test site with the JA_purity template: http://www.videochanneltest.com/
It will reveal that there are still tables in the code, notwithstanding the fact the template itself does not contain tables.
Ryan wrote to me that his table-less template is custom made, which is of course possible if you are a web developer, no doubt about that. As it happens, web developers are not the audience of this site, therefore this information will only confirm that you need to have web developer skills to setup Joomla without tables.
March 13th, 2009 at 1:16 pm
To make it perfectly clear: I have nothing against either system, be it WordPress or Joomla. Both have their own typical advantages. I use them both successfully.
March 18th, 2009 at 8:23 pm
I too am using Dreamhost. I am researching right now in order to start a membership site. This comparison that you offerd has helped. My question to you is if you have ever heard of or can make any recommendations about a WordPress Plugin called “Wishlist Member”. I just wanted to get this thing right since I have been burned in the past. Thank You.
March 19th, 2009 at 7:22 am
Hi Jeff,
I do not know Wishlist Member, although I tested several membership plugins. All of them have some quirks, alas.
I’m currently working on a full membership site, (the one that I have now is a primitive password protected page).
I’m using “Members Only”, which protects every page, even if you don’t want to. Therefore, I use a work around: I simply have set up a second WordPress site in a subfolder and in this way you have a totally independent section in your site with its own database and templates. I hope to have it finished next week, but it is rather busy right now, so I can ‘t work on it one go.
In any case, as far as tests go, this works for me. Hope this helps?
April 17th, 2009 at 1:23 am
Hi. Thanks for this article. Can you please expand upon what you mean by using the two side by side? I am planning a complicated site and debating between WordPress and Joomla- will have social forum, ecommerce, paid databases.. would using both make sense?
April 20th, 2009 at 9:22 am
What I mean is that you can have Joomla as your main site and for instance WordPress in a sub folder. If you make sure the layout looks more or less the same, nobody will even notice they entered into another CMS. That way, you can have the advantages of both systems and your options to expand the site are limitless because if a forum doesn’t work properly on WordPress, no problem, you use one for Joomla and the other way around. As with all systems, they have their limitations and by using both, you are not limited in one direction.
Especially in your case, where you want to have a full fledged community site, this is definitely a good idea.
May 17th, 2009 at 10:33 am
I am planing for a site that that could handle 50 k visitors per day and the site could have a large database with 1 million posts, this is my foresight for my site .
Which would be better for me WordPress or Joomla
May 17th, 2009 at 1:17 pm
Hi Ali,
Interesting question! If you are positive that you are going to attract that kind of traffic and you are planning such a large database, the cms doesn’t really matter anymore because you will need a seasoned web developer to tweak the database in any case. Most databases are fine with 4,000-10,000 records or so. Beyond that, things get a bit hairy with the standard settings.
So, what I would do in your case is to talk with a web company or a developer used to maintain big community sites and ask for good references before you decide to work with them.
You may also want to consider a dedicated server, because with shared hosting, your site will get sluggish. To clarify: shared hosting means that you are with thousands of other sites on the same server, while if you have a dedicated server, you actually have a server for yourself, which only contains the sites you own. The result is that performance is much better and you have total control over the software on that server. The downside is that you need somebody who knows how to run a server.
However, if you are on a tight budget, getting there will take time. And if you have to start out on your own without assistance, you might want to begin with WordPress, because it gets you quickly into Google and as long as you stay below 10,000 posts, nothing dramatic is going to happen. Still, it depends what your requirements are, other then a large database, before you truly can decide whether is will be joomla or WP. If you want a community site, you might want to work with Joomla instead.
I hope this is useful?
June 16th, 2009 at 2:23 pm
Thanks for the basic, helpful information. It was just what I was looking for!
June 16th, 2009 at 2:57 pm
Thanks, John
July 22nd, 2009 at 7:21 am
Good Information to know thank you
July 25th, 2009 at 8:40 am
[...] Read this article for more information. http://www.miracletutorials.com/wordpress-vs-joomla-review/ [...]
July 30th, 2009 at 7:24 pm
I couldn’t of said it better than what has already been said by other folks who have commented on the quality of this review! I really appreciate reading this because this is exactly what I was looking for as well.
Keep up the good work and great suggestions,
Cheers,
RoTimi Waddy
July 31st, 2009 at 5:45 am
Thanks for your kind words, RoTimi!
August 3rd, 2009 at 1:45 am
I’m interested in creating an activity site. In other words there would be an average of about 30 activity pages as well as location pages and regional pages. On each activity page there will be a “book bow” button which actually sends the user to a booking engine outside of whatever CMS system is used. Do you think WordPress could handle this? I have tinkered with Joomla for a couple years but like the usability level of WP better. What do you think is this possible?
Thanks in advance for any feedback!
August 3rd, 2009 at 5:34 am
Hi WP user,
I don’t see any objections using WordPress for your site. I would use pages for permanent content (bookings, contact info, etc…) and postings for temporary content, like events, time limited discounts, etc…).
Just keep in mind that WP does not work with iFames and you probably will have to enclose booking code between <code></code> tags.
By using the categories, you can split up content into convenient groups, as you would with sections and categories in Joomla.
Hope this helps?
August 27th, 2009 at 5:34 am
Very interesing article which directly relates to my situation.
Im new to website development and just want to create a basic website for a physcology private practice. This would contain text, images, downloadable documents, news items and at some point may contain video. Need to be to amend the style/colours to suit the clients requirements .No blogging.
Whats my best option guys?
August 27th, 2009 at 6:17 am
The simplest solution in your situation is probably WordPress, nothwithstanding you are not interesting in blogging. You can create fixed pages very easily and the posts could be used for news.
Although many developers use Joomla for small sites as well, and there is nothing against it, my personal idea is that it is overkill in terms of management and adapting the often complicated templates (colors, images) is not easy if you are new in web development.
With WP, you generally only have to deal with one stylesheet.
September 4th, 2009 at 7:07 am
Excellent article, however personally i don’t think its fair to compare between the 2 CMS’s as Joomla has unlimited advanced features that currently WP doesn’t cover, it will be suitable to compare between them If WP grow up to compete on the same level of Joomla or to compare them only for blogging, which also i don’t think its fair because you will be taking maybe 2% of Joomla advantages and throw the rest.
Having said that there are so many tangible and intangible criteria’s in comparing between applications each with its cons and pros thus what makes the real difference in my opinion is knowing your exact requirements, and if the CMS can meet these needs with minimum time and programing skills or not.
I will vote for Joomla as it answers all my clients growing demands, however with comments on the support as its not yet taken as serious as it should.
Also till date i don’t see serious companies adapting this CMS and building commercial solutions with it, which still limit Joomla from spreading its wings over the CMS world.
September 4th, 2009 at 8:59 am
Hi Mike,
Thanks for your comments!
I agree that the comparison is somewhat unfair, since WP is a blog system and Joomla CMS, but the reality is that many people struggle with the question which system to go for. Hence this article
September 13th, 2009 at 6:19 pm
Hi there,
Usually, ‘versus’ articles creates war.. you prevented it, plus, you received positives comments!.. bravo
September 13th, 2009 at 6:33 pm
Thank you, Minz!
October 23rd, 2009 at 2:17 am
each of that CMS has benefit and weakness. But I prefer joomla to build web to wordpress. Good comparison review. Nice posting. Thank’s
October 29th, 2009 at 8:51 am
Thanks for such a great review, it really help in deciding which platform to go for, before I had second thought about wordpress or joomla and now it all make sense.
November 10th, 2009 at 1:48 pm
Hello Rudolf,
I question your statement “…you can be listed in Google within 2 days. I haven’t seen any other system doing that so far. A normal site takes up to 2 months to get listed in Google…”.
Was that supposed to be just a Joomla to WP comparison? Or are you saying that WP indexes quicker then any “normal” site?
What is a “normal” site that you are comparing in that statement?
It really seems much too broad to be accurate.
Otherwise, nice review.
- Greg
November 10th, 2009 at 6:47 pm
Hi Greg, thanks for your comments!
Let me clarify: with a normal site I mean any site that doesn’t use rss feeds to broadcast its updates to rss directories.
While you are building a WordPress blog and write the initial posts or articles, you are already broadcasting your presence to rss directories every time you publish such a post. So, those directories know about it already before the search engine of Google does.
Syndication to rss directories is in many cases instantly, and the bigger your list is, the sooner Google will take note of your presence.
So, by the time your site is ready for its official launch, the indexing process has already started, so to speak.
Any system can be optimized for fast indexing, but WP happens to be good at it out of the box, and that is why I mention this as a perk.
For instance, the site you are looking at right now was effectively listed on Google 2 days after it’s launch and it contained only 5 articles at that stage, I’m not kidding. I was really surprised about it myself.
I hope this makes it a bit clearer?
November 16th, 2009 at 9:12 pm
Rudolf,
Thank you for replying. Doesn’t your response rely on the subscriptions of an RSS feed?
Did you have a lot of subsribers to your RSS feeds previous to launching?
(Was there a soft launch or beta launch that allowed for RSS subscription?)
The use of RSS within SEO is a new train of thought for me…
Sincerely,
Greg
November 18th, 2009 at 6:31 pm
Hi again Greg,
No, I get an email every time a comment is posted.
I did have no subscribers to rss feeds when I launched because I had to get them yet and that was only possible by going life. At least in my case. I could have launched a googleAd campaign or whatever before launch, but decided against it because I didn’t had any content yet. What the point of promoting and empty shell, he?
Rss feeds, well, I regard them primarily as a tool to promote articles to rss directories. That is to me where the real power lies. I don’t really mind if individuals subscribe to the feeds or not because from my own experience, I subscribe to loads of feeds and forget about them within two days, so I seldom see the new stuff from those feeds. I think a lot of people are like that.
Subscription to newsletters is more effective, because you send them by email, thus reminding people that your site has new content. That’s my two cents.
However, I do know sites that have a load of lively rss subscribers, especially fashion or beauty sites thrive well with rss feeds, so it really depends on the subject.
November 18th, 2009 at 7:06 pm
Rudolf,
Can you direct me to more info about promoting feeds to rss directories – especially pertaining to SEO?
I’d really like to learn more about this and think I’m drifting off topic with it.
Sincerely,
Greg
November 27th, 2009 at 2:40 am
Thanks for the basic, helpful information. Can you add some review about Drupal?
November 27th, 2009 at 2:33 pm
Hi Freelance web designer,
Sorry, I won’t review Drupal. I’m sure it is a good CMS, but like with all things, you like it or you don’t and to use a metaphor, I find Drupal rather a cold fish. No rational explanation, it’s just how I feel about it and I haven’t seen a Drupal site that appealed to me so far.
November 27th, 2009 at 2:35 pm
Hi Greg,
I’m sure you find the right rss directory by using google and type “seo rss dorectory”. There is also Yahoo, Ask Jeeves, etc…
Hope that helps?
December 6th, 2009 at 12:50 pm
Did that – thanks again Rudolf
December 15th, 2009 at 3:10 am
Not true, whitehouse.gov uses Drupal as there CMS and it looks pretty damn good
December 15th, 2009 at 7:33 am
Hi Chris,
There are exceptions, yes, and as I said, I’m sure it is a good system, but it is not my cup of tea, so I probably would do it injustice by writing about it.
December 24th, 2009 at 7:53 pm
Hi Rudolf,
firstly I really enjoyed this article, it gave me some insight into the two systems.
I have so far only ever used WYSIWYG programs for building sites, and am now interested in a building a “review” type site where users need to log in and write reviews for products. There would be only one level of member and the changes they could make to the site would only involve adding their review/s to the database.
Not an overly complicated site really, would I be right in thinking from your above article that you would recommend WordPress over Joomla for this project?
thanks a million for any help
Col
December 26th, 2009 at 10:58 am
Hi Colin,
Never a simple answer to this sort of question
If you want to keep it simple and do not plan to grow the site into a community, WordPress is fine. You can place every product in an article and you set commenting in the admin section to “registered” and then you can have them write the reviews in the comment box. You will need to change the naming “Comment” to “Review”, of course. That is the easiest way out.
However, this is not such a flexible option and I actually did not find a plugin dedicated for review creation for members.
Actually, my first instinct is to go with Joomla because the standard install has already a rating mechanism build-in and other useful features like displaying a list of the best rated reviews etc, …AND I found a plugin dedicated to reviewing for users. Have a look here:
http://extensions.joomla.org/extensions/communities-a-groupware/ratings-a-reviews/9070. It isn’t very cheap but it works with a range of other plugins which can make the site into a flexible review community site.
With Joomla it certainly will be more work and you will have to think about where you see this going in the future before you make a decision, because once members have filled in the reviews and you get stuck in some way, it is hard to turn it around.
I hope this is helpful?
December 29th, 2009 at 7:48 pm
Thanks Rudolf
This was very helpful. I had virtually decided to go with Joomla already and was just looking for the lazy way out with WP, I think. But what you say confirms that Joomla is the better option and that plugin (not cheap as you said) is exactly what I would need for the site!
(what a great prblem that would be 
Just hope I don’t have probs when I get over 50,000 users a day
thanks for all the advise and help!
Col
December 30th, 2009 at 9:29 am
Hi again Colin,
50,000 users a day is indeed a luxury most of us only dream of, and if you get that far, I’m sure you will have the money to contact a programmer to fine tune the database of Joomla.
Often it is not joomla itself that causes instability, it is mostly badly written plugins or a combination of modules that cause a heavy workload for the database software.
Picking your modules and plugins carefully is a good remedy.
But I have high hopes for the new version, namely Joomla 1.6 which will clean out a lot of redundant code (about 50%, they promise) and it will integrate already a couple of plugins that you normally need to install from different vendors. This will increase the stability of joomla enormously, so I probably will have to rewrite this article when that version comes out.
December 30th, 2009 at 10:28 pm
hey Rudolf
I hope joomla 1.6 isn’t a completely revised program, as I have my head stuck in a J1.5x book at the moment
By the way, having investigated more, that Jreview plugin couldn’t have suited my site more, so thanks again for that!
When I get my 50k per day I’ll put you on retainer!!
January 5th, 2010 at 5:42 pm
Hi Rudolf,
Much has changes since you’ve published this fine article, but today I still face the same dilemma, let me explain.
I feel quite comfortable with WP by now, as I’ve opened a photography blog (mostly to get acquainted by it). I’ve enjoyed how easy it is to setup and customize a well coded website with WP. My other CMS experience is mostly with 3 “in house” CMS’s that were used by companies I worked with (over all about 4 years of experience with operating CMS’s).
As you can see by the attached website, I have a good idea of what can be done with WP, plugins and some very basic html ability. Not to an extreme extent, but a nice basis.
I’m now in the process of defining a new website to be set up, it will require: rating, reviews, forums and possibly user registration and other community tools later on, and of course articles in different categories- which I would like to dynamically display on the homepage and other pages (think any proper content website).
My initial tendency is to go with WP and expand it as needed using plugins and official expansions (bbpress for forums, buddypress for social aspects), mostly since I’m already in my comfort zone there, and I think they’ve done a great job with the admin interface.
On the other hand, I’m thinking to jump in the water and learn Joomla so I can have a platform which is stronger in its basic form.
I know it’s still vague, but I noticed you write using a lot of intuition and don’t let yourself always get “confused by the facts”, so I’d appreciate your intuitive input.
Taking into consideration the evolution these 2 systems have gone through since 2008, what do you think I should go for- comfort zone+easy setup and figure out later how to expand (WP)? or learn a new system now which on paper may fit my needs better (Joomla)?
Another issue is indexing by Google and the rest of the search engines. If I submit a proper xml sitemap and use google webmaster tools should I still expect a long wait to be indexed? doesn’t sound logical. If that is the case then WP has a big advantage.
Sorry for the long one, take your time with it
Tal
January 6th, 2010 at 2:26 pm
Yes, Tal, a lot has changed and I will write a new review quite soon because Joomla 1.6 might still take a while before it is online and stable and too much has changed in the meanwhile.
You have some very interesting questions here.
However,what is your ultimate goal? Do you want to work with paid memberships or will it be a free community site?
If you see this site as a free community, sharing information, buddypress probably will cut it nicely, but if you intend to have several levels of paid membership, Joomla combined with Community builder ( http://www.joomlapolis.com/ ) will probably make life a bit easier for you, although it means quite a lot of study.
Speaking of comfort zones: it’s a two edged sword. If you work in the realm of what you know, you will not waste time on technical issue, thus you have more time concentrating on content for the site.
But if you setup this site because you want to grow your technical knowledge, getting out of your comfort zone will make you fly because you will be able to compare notes, so to speak.
It depends who you are and what you want to achieve and how much time you have. sorry, if my answers are actually more questions for you
Let me know what your bottom line thinking is in regard to this project and we discuss this further.
Now some practical info: If you use a proper xml site map and submit it to via your google account, Joomla! will index quickly, no problem there.
January 6th, 2010 at 4:25 pm
Hi Rudolf,
Thanks for the somewhat philosophical reply, I was sort of expecting that. I’m well aware of the double edged sword dilemma, and usually like to push my comfort zone even if it costs time- as long as I have a notion the effort will be worth it. Can’t say I have that here although I’m curious about Joomla’s ability to expand in the future.
As for my goal- it will have to be quite a comprehensive content website.
User levels:
there will be unregistered readers- which will have normal access to read everything.
Registered users- can use forums, comment, rate and review items, maybe later upload images. and of course receive newsletters.
And probably other admins, but that’s never a problem.
In general I’m not “inventing the wheel” with this site, it’s not extremely innovative technically speaking: Content, user reviews and photo galleries, limited social tools, a forum system.
I’m currently working for a couple more weeks on writing content and editing some videos I took for this project, so I can still throw ideas around.
Regarding the practical info: that’s good to hear.
Tal
January 7th, 2010 at 7:21 am
Hi again Tall,
Sorry for the philosophical speak. I understand you want to get on with this and as I said, using WordPress in this case is going to give you a head start as you do not need to study a new system. Practically, I do not see obstacles, except that you will have to be a bit creative with reviews because as I already said in comment 53 to Colin, I haven’t found a good plugin for reviews for wordpress yet.
Perhaps I’ll ask my programmer to create such a plugin.
January 31st, 2010 at 12:38 am
Excellent, thanks for the simple breakdown. I’m gonna install a WP site soon as they might be a whole lot easier for clients to use who just want content on their site.
February 1st, 2010 at 5:30 pm
I was searching for just this sort of approach, as cons vs pros tends to leave so much out, and sometimes just seems to point out there is no clear winner. This article really helped differentiate needs and wants for me.
Thx.
February 1st, 2010 at 5:54 pm
Thank you Timmy and Yaco! Your comments are greatly appreciated
Rudolf+++
February 12th, 2010 at 10:45 am
I’ve been running 3 WP sites for over a year now and was starting to wonder if Joomla would have been a better option for 2 of them. I’m just about to launch another site, and been debating WordPress vs Joomla for the last couple weeks. I have absolutely NO experience with Joomla so I really didn’t know where to start.
After reading your review… looks like I’ll be sticking with WP. Rather the devil you know, than the devil you don’t
February 12th, 2010 at 11:36 am
Hi Jay,
I know the feeling
But could you tell a bit more about the type of site you are planning? Sometimes it is worthwhile to take the dive, you see.
February 24th, 2010 at 11:04 am
Im totally new for both wordpress and joomla, i understand mostly features of both after reading this article which i can not understand after reading many wordpress vs joomla, comparison articles. good job
February 24th, 2010 at 11:20 am
Thank you Nayan. Much appreciated.
February 26th, 2010 at 3:53 am
Hi. I read the review and commented here last year when I was in turmoil over whether to go with Joomla or WP for my expanded site with community forum, e-commerce, directory, etc. I went with WordPress and a kajillion plugins, and the site is finally up. Still needs some polish, but I wanted to let all here who might be turmoiling over WP or Joomla know that I am very happy with the functionality of wordpress in a “larger than blog” site. Thanks for the help in deciding!
February 26th, 2010 at 9:53 am
Hi Kim, thanks for letting us know! You have something good going over there: http://whatsyournameagain.com/
Doesn’t look like WordPress at all. Congratulations!
March 25th, 2010 at 5:15 am
Hi Rudolf
Was talking to you here way back in December, to help me decide whether to go with joomla or WP. Ended up with joomla, you even recommended the plugin that the site runs on to me! I have to say joomla is a bit of a steep learning curve but the community of support both for joomla and the plugins is amazing, willing to answer any question no matter how stupid it may seem to someone more knowledgable.
Anyway maybe you’d like to take a look, who knows maybe even write a review, live for 1 week and have 6 members and 60 unique hits a day – http:///www.shopzzz.com – thanks for the advice!
Colin
March 25th, 2010 at 11:18 am
Congratulations, Colin!
One thing I would do, if possible, and that is to move up the text content in the reviews themselves and put the star ratings on the right or left because they take up a lot of space and many people may think there is no content.
On the home page, I would place an introductory text or feature an article because when you land on your site, it isn’t that clear what it is about.
That said, it appears you are getting quite some traffic. There were 8 people on the site while I was there, so that is going into the right direction.
Keep up the good work
March 29th, 2010 at 12:04 am
Hi Rudolf
Thanks for writing this article. I am getting familiar with WordPress myself and know little on web development. I have got no knowledge in Joomla either. I am trying to decide if I should still proceed with WordPress or Joomla.
I was actually planning on getting someone to build a WP website. This will be a knowledge sharing website targeted at professionals working in legal and compliance function. It will be a site for those who are seeking to enhance their knowledge in regulatory compliance.
I plan to deliver a web 2.0 experience for the users where they will experience the use of webinar, youtube videos, MP3 podcast, flash slideshow, etc.. Users will get to read succinct articles on relevant topics (not long essays, but summaries with diagrams/pictures) and they get to contribute their comments and thoughts at the bottom of the articles (similar to this site!). They can also recommend to others with the ShareThis widget (Facebook, Twitter, Google, etc) and follow through the homepage or article page via RSS, email.
My idea is to involve the users in a collaborative manner where they can submit their own articles to the Admin (me) and I will post on the site for peer comments & feedback. I don’t intend to have multi users per se as I will have full control over who’s content gets published on my site.
I intend for the users to view the homepage in full and read only a portion of the articles in the inner pages requiring them to sign-up as members in order to read all articles on the site in full. Just one level member access. Through this registration process, members will also be subscribing to email newsletters from me whenever the site is updated. (on a side note: can my site make it mandatory for registration to include newsletter subscription? or I can’t impose on them?)
So given the above plan that I have, will I still be good to proceed with WordPress or I have to invest time and effort into Joomla? I know more about WordPress than Joomla. I got to learn about Joomla after a long chat with a friend who insist that I should use Joomla because of the CMS aspect and that I am not doing a blog. From what I see, I think WordPress has gone beyond the Blog stage and is getting sophisticated over the past months. Do you know if Joomla and WordPress is about the same age (in the number of years)?
What I’m after is an ease of use in the future for me to update the content. When the web developer is done with the build, it’ll just be me managing the site and its longevity. I would prefer to devote more time and energy towards writing quality articles, recording podcast/video clips, etc..
As this is a knowledge sharing website, it won’t be a blog. That means, no calendar, grouping of month posts archives. I plan to have a search engine for users to find articles. I also need the tagging and other relevant features that enable my site to be SEO friendly. I like it to be a modern & professional visual experience (not boring) where users get to learn and share their thoughts.
Please let me know your thoughts and feel free to ask any questions that you may have. Thanks heaps!
March 29th, 2010 at 9:04 am
Hi CuffLinks,
WordPress is indeed more then a blog and it doesn’t even need to look like one either.
However, I have to compare notes, I will get back on this, probably this evening.
March 30th, 2010 at 7:37 am
Hi Rudolf
Thanks very much for reviewing my questions. Its a good challenge for myself and I’ve been meeting up with people who are from the web development area for their advise also.
Please have a think about it and let me know whenever you can.
Thank again!
March 30th, 2010 at 8:11 am
@CuffLinks,
The only stumbling block I see for WordPress is the requirement that unregistered users must be able to view excerpts from articles, yet not having access to the full articles, so it is a question of finding a good plugin that does the trick and if not, you probably have to involve a developer to adapt a plugin. But let me have a look around, I’ll come back on this.
Joomla has quite a few strong membership applications, but they are not easy to configure if you are new to that cms. In any case, you will need to invlove a web developer, whether you use Joomla or WP because there is some tweaking to do that goes beyond regular use.
Feel free to vent the thoughts of your advisers here, so that others can learn from it.:-)
As to your question on newsletters, yes, you can enforce subscription to visitors who want to become a member. What’s otherwise the point of membership if you can’t tell them about updates etc…?
March 30th, 2010 at 1:46 pm
Correction: I have not found a plugin that is capable of showing excerpts of posts or pages to unregistered users in membership areas. Normally, visitors see a login box, if they are not logged in, nothing else.
But I did found a plugin that claims to be able to show excerpts on individual password protected pages (not sure if that covers posts). Have a look here: http://www.madeglobal.com/wordpress/better-protected-pages/
Not sure that is an ideal situation in your case, so I actually think you need to involve a coder.
So, my advise is: you know WordPress best, involve a coder and have him/her create a script to show excerpts to unregistered users in membership areas.
If anyone has an easy solution for Joomla, I would love to hear about it, because I could use that functionality too.
March 31st, 2010 at 8:45 pm
Hi Rudolf
Thanks alot for your advise. The comments I got from the web developers were mixed. Someone said I should use Joomla because of that’s a true CMS platform. But I explained that WordPress will be alot easier from my non-web savvy perspective. I’m also time-poor as I would prefer to devote my time on the content and its quality. Another person swears by WordPress but his experience is only limited to his blogs. Do you still think WordPress is the way for me or should it be full fledge CMS like Joomla?
I understand WordPress templates would be a typical blog layout at installation, but will I be able to remove those calendar features and change it into a layout that looks like this:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303338304575155613782805150.html?mod=WSJASIA_hpp_LEFTTopStories
Btw, the suggested Protected page plugin would not serve my needs as its uses a password access mechanism and not a member login approach.
What I hope to achieve is something similar to this site:
http://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/Four_ways_to_get_more_value_from_digital_marketing_2556
If you’re not logged in, the site will limit the display to 2 paragraphs and ask the user to register or login to read the article. I like this approach as it will help generate grow the readership. Do you know if there would be such a plugin?
Thanks again!
April 1st, 2010 at 7:49 pm
Everyone who swears by a particular system is not objective. You need something that works for you regardless of it being “a true cms” or not.
Layout doesn’t really matter, whether in WP or Joomla. As you are not web savvy, you will have to involve a developer anyway to tweak the theme.
The breaking point, as I said in the beginning, is the article excerpts for unregistered users. I have not found a WP plugin doing that.
Perhaps unfortunately for you: There is a plugin for Joomla, called “Login to read full text” that does the trick and you can decide on Joomla exactly which articles you want to show on the home page and in which order. I think that would be interesting for you. This is harder to accomplish on WordPress. I tested the plugin yesterday and it works perfect, but I cannot use it myself because it makes the whole site registered and I can’t have that.
So, at this point in time I would go with Joomla or find a coder who can create the plugin for WP you require. Hope this is helpful?
April 2nd, 2010 at 8:13 am
Hi Rudolf
Colin here again from http://www.shopzzz.com
I changed a few things with the site based on your opininos (thanks for the feedback by the way). I have now got an intro text for each review on the carousel of the front page, hopefully making things a bit more “self-explanatory”?, also moving the text up on each review page seems to be a real headache, slightly more html coding than I’m comfortable with yet. But I have eliminated as much of the white space that I could through the template CSS. Maybe a slight improvement…
Not intending to “butt” in with your advice to CuffLinks , but I agree with you, I went with Joomla because the WP plugins did not exist for the things I was trying to do. My advice is to try it out, the community are so friendly and helpful that I would be amazed if you could not get it up and running.
April 8th, 2010 at 5:30 am
Has anyone found an easy-to-use joomla membership plugin? If it can do everything easily, that would be perfect! But this isn’t a perfect world, is it, so I see disappointment in my future.
Not sure how to add a wp area to a joomla site, which was mentioned in the forum, just not sure how to do it.
April 8th, 2010 at 6:35 am
Good advice, Colin!
April 8th, 2010 at 6:52 am
Hi Eric,
For a very easy solution: You could try http://extensions.joomla.org/extensions/access-a-security/content-restriction/5371 It’s not a membership plugin as such, but it makes the whole site registered just by installing and activating it. Yet it shows excerpts of articles to unregistered users, which is also great for SEO.
When you activate the register form on your website, visitors can become members. here is nothing more to it.
It depends on your requirements, of course.
Adding WP to Joomla is easy: create a subfolder and install WordPress in there. You do need to change the theme is such a way that it looks more or less the same as Joomla’s. Doesn’t need to be perfectly the same, in fact it won’t harm to make it a bit different so that readers know they are in a separate section of the site. I hope that helps?
April 18th, 2010 at 9:37 am
Hello, Interesting comments and tips. I am still debating between Joomla, WP for magazines and newspapers that need a good system to classify and sort out or file the news section, that need a good gallery and video options to be added and a good directory and classified section.
Some programers prefer Joomla , others WP depending on how much they know eeach system…a few offer their own CMS…..that scares me if for any reason we need to change programer…down the road…but the main problem I find is that I can not find experts in webs for newspapers!
Any idea or tip on how to continue my search for information to make a better decision would be appreciated
April 18th, 2010 at 11:06 am
Hi Adriana,
What I would do is some market research to find out which newspaper site is close to what you want, and simply contact the developers who made it. Often, they have credits at the bottom or in the source code. (on Firefox, type CTRL + U – IExplorer: View > Source).
If that cannot be found, simply pick up the phone and ask the newspaper, they might be willing to give you the details, especially after you told them how wonderful their site is.:-)
Advantage is that the developers will not need to re-invent the wheel for you.
For a custom cms, you can demand from developers that they document their cms properly so that others can take over if needed. But tell them upfront, because it has an influence on workload and pricing.
Now if you want to go on the cheap, I would use Joomla for the main site because a newspaper site typically has all those news snippets spread over the home page, which is Joomla’s strength. Also, Joomla has a couple of top class directory plugins for classification. Beside that, I would certainly install WordPress in a subfolder because you are going to need a blog as well.
As for audio and video, there are loads of good plugins around.
I would, in any case hire a graphic designer to create the look of the site, so that the developer knows what to do. Many developers claim to be graphic designers too, but trust me on this, a newspaper site needs someone specialized in typography, who does nothing else all day but design. Preferable someone working for ad agencies because they are very demanding when it comes to quality. Call a mid range ad agency, they gladly give you addresses if you tell them you only have a small budget (you won’t be interesting as a client then).
I hope this is helpful?
May 14th, 2010 at 9:50 am
Non technical people should stick to the standard templates.
However if you want a professional looking website in Joomla with 50.000+ visitors and a high rank in google i should think that some knowledge of css is required.
When you have that knowledge it is a piece of cake to build your very own template.
Build your tableless template in dreamweaver.
(only requires basic css knowledge)
go to youtube, watch the ‘build a simple wabpage in DW’ video from tutvid.
You will be able to build your own complex template using div tags and css.
After that go to the website of Media65 and learn how to make that template joomla ready.
I really don’t understand why 99% of the joomla community are fooling around with the crapy standard templates.
Making your own is more easy than changing an existing one.
Just my 50 cents.
May 14th, 2010 at 10:23 am
I agree that creating your own template for Joomla is not that complicated if you are a web developer. I’m not sure adapting an existing template takes more time then starting a new one from scratch, certainly not if you want the bells and whistles from, let’s say, a JSN_epic template for instance.
However, I understand where you come from and you definitely have a point. Thanks for sharing that, Paul.
June 9th, 2010 at 9:41 am
Well, I am a WordPress man who recently started doing some Joomla and I think it has its merits.
I’ve compiled a list for areas where Joomla really beats WordPress here,
http://www.elmalak.info/joomla-beats-wordpress/
So, what do you think of them?
June 9th, 2010 at 11:23 am
Hi Elmalak,
Interesting viewpoints you have there.
Sorting articles in Joomla is indeed easier, although there is a plugin for WP taking care of that: WordPress Navigation List Plugin NAVT
Don’t think sections are especially an advantage. This is something they realize at Joomla! and that is why in version 1.6 sections become obsolete.
I fully agree with point 3. Menus are indeed very flexible in Joomla. Bit of a learning curve there but once you understand, it is very powerful, especially in combination with Frontend User Access extension and AEC.
I do not agree with point 4. About the admin section, it depends how you setup WP. With the Role Manager plugin, you can determine/restrict every possible option per user. Also, Joomla is over-protective at some points. Try upload an xml file for instance (for playlists or subtitles in video). It results in an error. I’m forced to upload those via FTP which is a nuisance.
Point 6 is arbitrary because it depends which functionality you need. No beating there, to my mind, although I like the flexibility of module positions very much in Joomla. The fact you can place a module into an article is priceless.
Thanks for sharing your article!
August 6th, 2010 at 11:18 am
if you want a blog, so you need wordpress, otherwise joomla.
August 12th, 2010 at 2:58 am
Yes but i will prefer wordpress as the wordpress community is well more alive. with plenty of wordpress plugins are available.
August 18th, 2010 at 8:01 pm
Thanks for this useful post. Can you please help me with my situation. Trying to build a website that will work as a “alumni networking site” for college students (in a remote corner of the world
– this is a non-profit volunteer effort.
1) A few of us alumni will set it up, and want it to be a self-sustaining website with very minimal maintenance over the years. Transfering ownership should be easy.
2) Completely control the whole site with login id and passwd
3) A few people need admin privileges – instead of one admin
2) Some blogs (or blog-like pages) to profile some successful alumni
3) forums – where students can ask questions to mentors
4) post documents, spreadsheets, photos, videos.
August 19th, 2010 at 9:57 am
@pdxmama, you can do this with both Joomla and WordPress. It’s a matter of personal preference in this case. Joomla is great to place snippets of content all over the place, while WordPress has a structure where pages and posts taking center stage. So, it depends if you need to spread content.
Here is an example of a typical Joomla site where you have pieces of content all over the place: http://www.triplepmagazine.be
And this site (miracletutorials.com) is typical for WordPress.
I’m not saying you cannot get the same result as http://www.triplepmagazine.be with WordPress, but it is easier to do with Joomla. So, if you know what you exactly want, it is not difficult to decide which cms to use.
If you work with WP, you may want to install the Role manager plugin to get more control over the admin users, but it is not required.
As I understand, students only would have to login in for the forums, right?
In that case, you can install an independent forum like vBulletin or phpBB. There are many others as well. Here is a link to a comparison site: http://www.forum-software.org/
I hope this is useful to you? Feel free to ask additional questions.
October 13th, 2010 at 9:16 pm
Joomla’s installation is the most convoluted, manual dependent mess I’ve come across. For a suite that’s supposed to simplify, it makes things susceptible to user-error from the first double-click.
WordPress is far, far superior. Stay away from Joomla.
October 21st, 2010 at 10:31 pm
[...] here: http://www.all4yourwebsite.com/reviews/Wordpress/. I also found another great review (http://www.miracletutorials.com/wordpress-vs-joomla-review/) which further explains the benefits of WordPress. One of the most surprising facts I found was [...]
October 31st, 2010 at 6:56 am
I haven’t had any problems with 3.1on a free host
November 4th, 2010 at 3:39 am
Thanks for the great information Rudolf! One question: if I plan to make an online directory (complete with maps and scheduling) with a community component added to it down the line… would either one of these be the right service to use or should I look elsewhere?
Thanks in advance!
Sami
November 4th, 2010 at 6:25 am
Hi Sami,
In your case, I would go with Joomla. There are some wonderful directory extensions that will be useful to you.
December 9th, 2010 at 10:33 am
Spelling mistake – ‘strength’ NOT ‘strenght’
December 9th, 2010 at 12:56 pm
Hi Hengist,
There are probably more mistakes and I personally do not mind about them as long as people understand what I say. Nevertheless, thanks for being so considerate to tell me.
December 15th, 2010 at 4:16 am
Correction to this point
” Both are free to use and many hosting providers have them as an option in their web tools section. WP has a large community of volunteer developers, Joomla can count on many commercial add-ons by specialized professionals.”
I am a web developer and using both WordPress and Joomla.
There are lots of Joomla volunteer developer who give their works for free, but of course like in WordPress other plugin are commercials.
Joomla use Component, Modules, Plugin while WordPress use only plugin, and that is one diff between the two and you don’t need to touch the code in order to work the Component, Modules, Plugin.
and wait there also a lots of Table-less template in Joomla, I can developed it
December 16th, 2010 at 5:17 am
Hi Ryan,
Indeed, there are a lot of free extensions for Joomla. Personally, I do not mind to pay for a module or plugin as long as I get good support.
Success with your templates, Ryan.
December 17th, 2010 at 6:55 am
Hi Rudolf,
Would you recommend Joomla or WordPress for a website like http://www.magazine.org/ ?
I would like to use WordPress because it is more userfriendly but I am ‘afraid’ Joomla is better suited for a website like http://www.magazine.org.
It must also be possible to sell books on the site (shoppingcart).
December 17th, 2010 at 2:08 pm
Hi Sandra,
I think this site is perfectly possible with both Joomla and WordPress except that for WordPress, you will have to install a plugin to get the articles lined up like that, or perhaps purchase a template that accommodates this sort of layout.
WP has various shopping cart plugins that are really easy to handle. A favorite of mine is WP e-Commerce. Here you can find a demo of several sites working with this plugin: http://getshopped.org/showcase/
It will give you an idea what is possible.
In short: if you would feel more comfortable with WordPress, you can safely do this.
January 7th, 2011 at 4:44 am
Both WordPress and Joomla are very good tools. One may serve a better purpose than the other it just depends. Joomla is pretty easy to use and has everything there for you to begin…as wordpress does but wordpress has just a few less things than Joomla. I like them both a lot.
January 22nd, 2011 at 6:19 pm
Great post and I agree.
Good news is now you don’t have to settle for one or the other, though. If you want a great CMS AND a great blog platform, you can have both with CorePHP’s WordPress to Joomla bridge. It’s proving to be the best solution for most of my web development clients.
January 26th, 2011 at 1:11 pm
Very good Article.
I have learnt a lot from this.
I am new to both Joomla and WordPress.
I want to create a nice simple website for my friend small grosery shop.
Please suggest me which one I should go with Joomla or WordPress.
Best Regards
Mohan
January 26th, 2011 at 1:52 pm
For a simple site, I’m not sure if either system is suitable. If your friend is not planning to do regular updates on his site, both Joomla and WordPress are overkill. I would create a html site instead.
don’t forget, CMS require quite a few processing tasks, the bandwidth used is quite substantial too.
So, if there is no need for it, I would not burden the server and keep it simple.
However, if you are not that good in HTML, go with WordPress, it is the easiest option with a small learning curve.
January 27th, 2011 at 7:26 am
Many Thanks Rudolf,
can you or anyone suggest me how about using Artisteer and WordPress.
if any one has used Artisteer please give your feedbacks.
Begards
Mohan
January 29th, 2011 at 11:00 am
I tested Aristeer. If you’re not a professional developer it’s a good application to start from because it guarantees a template that works.
That said, if you plan to do this professionally in the future, you need to do some studying because Aristeer’s templates are not optimized. Meaning, it has quite a lot of redundant code and uses too many css style sheets.
For a small project it is acceptable, though.
January 31st, 2011 at 7:11 am
Many Thanks Rudolf for your feedback and suggestions.
Take Care
Mohan
February 9th, 2011 at 7:48 am
Nice article Mohan..
I was looking for a comparison on which system would be better long term for a small business client of mine. The site is basically more of a static site that requires almost no advanced features such as forums and such.
What do you think is the best fit for a small business site?
February 10th, 2011 at 10:27 am
Hi Martin,
Both systems are equally suitable for big or small business sites, but the learning curve of WordPress is much lower for your client, so I would go with WordPress if I were you.
February 14th, 2011 at 12:33 am
Thanks Rudolf,
I didn’t know much about Joomla until today. Your article really helped in making the choice for my next website.
Cheers
Ariel
February 14th, 2011 at 3:11 pm
Dear Rudolf,
I wonder if you can help direct me? I am a novice in web design and creation; however I am a quick learner. I have been using joomla 1.5 when I started, switched to joomla 1.6 because I thought it would be better, and am experimenting with wordpress on the dotcom counterpart to the dotorg to see which one I should use. Although I thought that would help, it did not. Each system has of course their benefits and annoyances.Especially since I am learning as I am going.
I am not that knowledgeable to know what system would be best for what I am trying to accomplish. I am trying to create a theatre site that will show my organization’s profile as well as its coming performances. I would like to accept donations as well as have a contact form for contact or for audition notices.
In addition, I would like to create member section for those in the organization. A sort of private website for the volunteers, actors, board members, etc. I would like these select people to view, not visitors. That way I can upload scripts, have a calendar that shows who needs to be where at when. Upload videos to see how the group was doing so actors can improve themselves. have people upload documents so board members can read and give their opinions. Communication among us on the private site would be nice.
What are your opinions? Do you have questions for me?
February 17th, 2011 at 10:51 am
I forgot to also ask, if Joomla is the way to go, should I go with 1.5 or 1.5
-Uriel
February 17th, 2011 at 11:47 am
Hi Uriel,
I would work with Joomla in your case.
You may want to look into Community builder, which is an extension to run memberships in various ways. Other extensions can hook into Community builder and that is what makes it so powerful.
Regarding the version: 1.6 is the new version, all new plugins will be developed for it, so it would be wise to take that one instead of version 1.5.
Currently, there are still quite a few extensions not compatible, but that won’t take much longer. I wouldn’t want to have to move migrate from 1.5 to 1.6 myself.
I remember what a hassle it was to move from 1.0 to 1.5.
I hope this is useful?
February 27th, 2011 at 12:19 am
Dear Rudolf,
I am a sales and marketing professional. I have been writing copy, and designing the layout for websites for some time, and work with a developer/Graphic Designer that codes it and makes it all look good–at least that is the intent. I am new to Joomla. I am not a techie/coder/developer.
You mentioned in an earlier post that Joomla 1.6 was supposed to be much better than 1.5 because they were going to reduce the redundancy of the code by as much as 50%. In your opinion, did they succeed?
You also mentioned earlier that “out-of-the-box”, WordPress works better for indexing among the search engines. Is Joomla 1.6 any better at this than 1.5? Or were you specifically referring to a blog oriented website when you made the comment?
You also mentioned, that at the time, Joomla 1.5, “out-of-the-box”, could have a problem once a site reaches approx. 50,000 hits a day. But with some tweeks from a developer, that could be remedied. Does 1.6, “out of the box”, also have this problem?
Thanks
Darin
February 27th, 2011 at 1:46 pm
Hi Darin,
I’m sure Joomla 1.6 is better then its predecessor but it is probably too early to tell in what sense. I have a test version currently, but there are still a lot of extensions that need to upgrade, so I cannot use it live until that happens.
I’m planning to write a new article in a month or so to compare WordPress 3.1 with Joomla 1.6. Both platforms have undergone radical changes since I wrote this article and it would be useful to spell that out.
As for indexing, I can say that there is practically no difference anymore between the two. I had a joomla site indexed in 2 days on Google without doing anything special. Sure, you need to know a bit about SEO in terms of using the right keywords and so on, but that goes for WordPress too.
March 4th, 2011 at 7:10 am
Hi Rudolf,
my friend and are starting up a business in aviation and now need a website which has to look very professional. I’ve done the odd bit of developing in the past and used to work for a company that did content management for schools but now that I’m responsible for our website I wanted to make sure we’re going in the right direction without spending ridiculous amounts of money.
In short we need a website that is mostly informative i.e. about us, our services pages etc. We’d also need a contact us form and a VERY secure login area for clients to enter booking requirements etc (no actual booking needed but maybe in the future).
I looked at Joomla last night and was quite impressed but hadn’t thought of WordPress. The other thing is this – my friend designs very good looking sites but doesn’t build them. Would it be better to use a template in Joomla or WP or is it possible to get the design from my friend and Joomla or WP to build without using tables?
Apologies if these are somewhat silly questions – you have been so helpful with others and have far more experience than I that I felt I could trust your advice.
March 4th, 2011 at 10:13 am
In this case, i have to confess I do not know whether to use Joomla or WordPress, because I have no clue which cms has the best booking extension available. I can only advice you to look at both systems and try to find out if they have the goods you need. For WordPress that is: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/
and for Joomla that is: http://extensions.joomla.org/
Use the search box to find relevant booking extensions and read the descriptions carefully. Once you find the extension that might work for you, keeping in mind that you might have to adapt them to suit your needs, you know which system to use. As for the other requirements, both systems are equality suitable, so the booking feature has to be your point of decision making.
Regarding design: Whether you would use WordPress or Joomla, I would start out with an existing template that looks closest to what your friend designed. Or, another way is to select template and ask your friend to base his design on that.
That often works the fastest. Practically all templates are tableless nowadays, so no worries there.
Hope this is useful?
March 7th, 2011 at 9:08 am
Hi Rudolf,
yes, many thanks! I’m not particularly confident in my knowledge so its always great to find someone so willing to share theirs!
Thanks again…
April 12th, 2011 at 8:18 pm
This site used wordpress anyway
April 14th, 2011 at 7:01 am
@khiangte ,
I use Joomla on several of my sites and I compare the two systems because I know them very well. I don’t have a preference for either of them, I decide on a system that fits my requirements. Favoritism leads to bad end results.
April 24th, 2011 at 1:57 pm
I have a website built using dreamweaver, html and css and I am thinking of transferring this site to Joomla. I am also using Miva Merchant for purchases – is that compatible with Joomla or will I have to transfer all my products over to virtuemart?
Thanks.
April 25th, 2011 at 9:20 am
Hi Cecilia,
I did some research and did not find a method to combine Miva with Joomla.
Miva is a system on its own with its own registration process, so you will have to migrate to VirtueMart or Tienda if you do not want to force your customers to register twice.
April 25th, 2011 at 12:07 pm
Yeah, I suspected that. Thanks Rudolf!
April 25th, 2011 at 10:22 pm
Thanks for the info. Still need to try out Joomla.
May 7th, 2011 at 11:18 pm
Nice review! You state that Joomla! is generating tabled output and for that it is not complying with web standards. This might be true for version 1.0, in version 1.5 we have added a template in the default installation that generates output that is complying to those webstandards. In other words; the designer can choose whatever he wants to output.
here: http://mega.svsupham.com/v2/post.php?t=wordpress_and_joomla_review
May 9th, 2011 at 6:33 am
Hi JoomK,
Indeed, Beez is a template that is tableless and most commercial templates currently are, but it took quite a while.
May 14th, 2011 at 8:33 am
I want to develop a website which would be hosted on Ethernet, the site would host pdf/doc reports which would be uploaded on daily/weekly/monthly basis and downloaded as per need basis, user management would be implemented, specific people would have access to specific reports.
I have not worked on any of the 2 mentioned CMS and I would start learning, after reading this article I have reached to the conclusion that I should learn and develop this website through Joomla, is my conclusion correct?
May 14th, 2011 at 2:05 pm
Hi urShadow,
Yes, you could do that with Joomla. You may want to check the Front User Access extension, which creates levels of access where every file can be allocated to one of those levels. Or you might be interested in RSE Member as a membership application.
June 14th, 2011 at 2:02 pm
Hey. I want to inquire one thing…is this a wordpress web site as we are planning to be going across to WP. In addition did you make this theme by yourself? With thanks.
June 14th, 2011 at 2:52 pm
Hi Seo, yes it is WP. I adapted an existing theme. This is easier because you have already all the files in place.
In fact, it is about time I do something about the design and navigation again because it is already 4 years ago. But, the time…
July 11th, 2011 at 7:43 pm
This review is great Rudolf. Congrats!
The site I’m planing to do is a complex social website including job postings, calendar of events, paying services. That’s a lot of databse administration.
I’m not savy at all on web development and I’ve been doing research for some months now. I noticed that most Joomla websites look “ugly” in layout and design, while wordpress seem more aesthetic. Should I worry about design when choosing the web tool?
Also, do you know anything about paid programs like phpFox, Dolphin, and so on? Are those good options to save time and energy?
July 12th, 2011 at 6:23 am
Hi Martin, you can shape Joomla in any form you like. You can make a joomla look like wordpress and the other way around but it depends on your knowledge of html and css.
I do not know phpox or Dolphin from personal experience, but if social media is the core of your site, you might want to consider a cms that is specialized in that field because you would not need to install bulky extensions like JoomSocial.
The only problem might be that it won’t be so easy to find additional plugins that hook into those cms.
Therefore, it is important that you write down everything you need (and will need in the future) and contact the vendors before you jump into this.
July 12th, 2011 at 2:04 pm
Hi Rudolf,
I was checking JoomSocial. What’s the disadvantage with that extension? You need Jommla first and then add JoomSocial and it makes the whole thing too bulky?
What specialized social media cms have you heard are good.
Thanks once more
July 13th, 2011 at 6:29 am
There is no disadvantage apart from the fact that is is not so easy to configure. I have no direct experience with social media sites myself, so I cannot really advice you on that.
But it stands to reason that a specialized cms will have less overhead.
July 28th, 2011 at 8:46 am
hello RudolfB,
Thanks for such great information and knowledge we found here.
I wish to have some valued inputs and would appreciate any advise from all of the experts here.
We’re plaining to build a daily deal or group buying website similar to groupon. Do you think we should go for WordPress or Joomla? I noticed some company out there are selling Joomla and WordPress template/themes for groupon site. Can we buy the ready made template and do some customization to further suit our business needs?
Thanks again.
July 31st, 2011 at 7:27 am
Hi Kenny,
In this case I wouldn’t know which one to pick.
But I would certainly work with a ready made template if it is specially made for this purpose. You will win a lot of time that way.
I suggest you compare both WP and Joomla template features and see what looks the most promising one. You may also look out for life sites that already use such templates to compare. If the template vendors have no example sites listed, best contact them and ask. It is important to do research upfront because it is always a hassle to switch once your site is on cruise speed.
August 12th, 2011 at 10:13 am
This post is really an informative one to analyze about joomla and wordpress , which are the best CMS platforms..
August 15th, 2011 at 6:18 pm
Excellent work… thank you!
Question: I’ve been using Joomla for the past couple of years and have built some reasonably robust sites. I was recently asked by someone if I would be interested in building small (non-blog) sites for some of his clients; however, his preference is WordPress vs. Joomla. (Although he’s flexible either way.) I’ve tried WordPress, but have been somewhat frustrated by the lack of flexibility — but willing to learn it if there is a valid reason for doing so. If I am proficient in Joomla, is there any advantage to switching to WordPress for these sites?
August 15th, 2011 at 6:29 pm
Thank you for your comments… this is extremely helpful!
I’ve built several rather robust sites in Joomla over the past couple of years and have been very happy with this tool. Someone recently asked me if I would be interested in building small (non-blog) sites for some of his clients; however, he would prefer that I build them in WordPress instead of Joomla. (Although he is flexible.)
Question: Since I am more comfortable in Joomla than WordPress, is there any advantage to switching to WordPress? I’m willing to make the switch for these sites if there is an advantage – but would prefer not switching if there is no – or little value.
Thanks again for your great feedback!
August 15th, 2011 at 6:48 pm
David, this is an easy question for me
Wordpress is easy to implement, it updates with the push of a button and, most importantly, it is easier for customers to understand.
If you have a potential client asking you, go for it.
Wordpress has become very powerful since version 3 onwards, you can drag and drop widgets and menus in minutes. So, I would not let this opportunity go to study this system while being paid.
Knowing both Joomla and WordPress makes you exceptionally informed and you will be able to judge which system works best in any given situation because you know both systems.
Most developer I come across only follow one system.
As a result, they are not flexible and are forced to push their favorite system forward although it is not always the best choice.
You see what I mean?
It will certainly take a week before you understand what makes WP tick, but you won’t have the same learning curve as with Joomla. It is easier then that and regarding flexibility, I see no difference. It is just different, that is all.
August 16th, 2011 at 10:02 am
Great advice… Thank you!
August 18th, 2011 at 8:11 am
3 Reasons why I choose WordPress
A lot of people are asking me what content management system I recommend and I always say WordPress. It is my choose and I will stick with it, but there are some people that ask me why I choose WordPress:Community.Ease of use.Simple to code
August 23rd, 2011 at 3:29 am
I would like to point out that WordPress version 3.* comes with custom menus so now you are able to control the navigational structure. (required is a template which supports custom menus)
August 23rd, 2011 at 4:12 am
Absolutely right, Johnny. I cannot demonstrate that because my template does not support custom menus. I regulate most things via coding here, but WP 3.x has indeed quite few excellent new features in comparison with the 2.x generation.
September 28th, 2011 at 8:40 am
great review but in my view wordpress is best for new bloggers the wordpress is best because it is simple for usage rite admin?
October 11th, 2011 at 7:34 am
This is helpful, many thanks!
October 12th, 2011 at 12:11 pm
I have used both and now am planning like one of the users in the comments above for an Alumni Site.
I am worried as when I used WordPress previously, the site got really slow.
October 12th, 2011 at 1:46 pm
Hi Joel,
A site becoming slow often has to do with a particular plugin. Try to turn them on and off one by one to see if it makes a difference.
October 15th, 2011 at 1:34 am
looked at Joomla last night and was quite impressed but hadn’t thought of WordPress. The other thing is this – my friend designs very good looking sites but doesn’t build them. Would it be better to use a template in Joomla or WP or is it possible to get the design from my friend and Joomla or WP to build without using tables?
October 15th, 2011 at 4:39 am
You can use a WP or Joomla template and adapt it to the design you like. Of course this requires an understanding of html and css but the trick is to select a template that is closest to what you want and then change it. Tableless in no longer a problem in Joomla nor in WordPress. It depends a bit what you need.
You have some interesting Joomla extensions, by the way. I presume you just wrote this to promote your business, right?
October 16th, 2011 at 5:48 pm
Having been working with WordPress for quite a while, I can say that it has improved a lot in the recent days, and I have seen a growing community for it too. Having said that, Joomla still held a nice share of the websites. So the best is to know how to use them both and adapt according to your needs
October 17th, 2011 at 3:48 am
That is the right spirit, Ryan!
November 3rd, 2011 at 8:05 am
Nice post! A professional Joomla developer should be able to create different types of Joomla websites
November 4th, 2011 at 7:07 am
Interesting article! Our site was currently built using custom PHP but it has now outgrown its boots as we now need complicated subscription sign ups and the ability to manage our users better. We decided to go for joomla! as they seem to be the platform to go to when looking at subscription systems.
November 18th, 2011 at 11:28 am
You stated in a post that you would be doing an updated review of Joomla and WordPress. Will you also include Drupal? All three open source programs have advantages and disadvantages, in your review can you clarify skill level needed for each, and best suited for what type of site? I am on the fence as to which one is best to use for a public library website.
November 18th, 2011 at 1:18 pm
Casey, I indeed will do an update as I’m investigating Joomla 1.7 currently (1.6 was a huge mistake), but I will not cover Drupal because it is not my cup of tea. I simply do not like it and I only review things I know from my own experience. I’m sorry.
November 22nd, 2011 at 2:49 am
Joomla is a widely used open source CMS platform that enables a customer to interact easily with it without requiring any technical knowledge.
November 28th, 2011 at 2:53 am
Nice POst..Now I ‘m clear that I should change my website from joomla to wordpress
December 10th, 2011 at 7:07 am
really nice review
I would add another thing 2 things about Joola:
1) in Joomla you don’t want anybody else to post content on the website – lack of knowledge can destroy the layout of the category and front page
2) if you want to insert picture in an article – you have to prepare the picture beforehand – especially the white border (it is very, very risky to use built in feature for the last mentioned action)
but, I still love Joomla .. and use wp as well
Helmuts
p.s. working with Joomla from 2006
December 10th, 2011 at 10:00 am
Actually, if you setup categories and menus properly, new articles do not destroy the layout. I agree things can go wrong, but a cms is made to work with various people, otherwise what is the point? It is a question of training the customers. I always create a workbook for them with detailed info and plan a session to create articles on location or via webinars.
December 25th, 2011 at 10:49 pm
Hi Rudolph
This article was really useful. I’m building a community site with a page dedicated to a one daily question or problem posed by a community member and the community has 24 hours to post their advice and response after which, a new question becomes live and so on. It will also have a blog page and an amazon store. I am thinking that joomla is the best platform for this. I’ve used wordpress in the past mainly for blogs which has been great. However I find that some html coding is required to customise the pages and I have no relevant skills.
What do you think?
Thanks again for a great article
January 6th, 2012 at 8:23 am
WordPress is easy to implement, it updates with the push of a button and, most importantly, it is easier for customers to understand.
If you have a potential client asking you, go for it.
Wordpress has become very powerful since version 3 onwards, you can drag and drop widgets and menus in minutes. So, I would not let this opportunity go to study this system while being paid.
January 6th, 2012 at 2:34 pm
Hi Robelen,
I think Joomla is a good choice in your situation. There are many extensions that can help you, thus avoiding having to write html code.
January 12th, 2012 at 5:28 am
I prefer using wordpress to built a website than joomla. with wordpress I can take control on how “the html output” will be generated. I can clear the output from tag that usually come from modul/ component, like in joomla.
joomla is to complex and not eficient, need more resources. I even get error when editing post or uploading just a small image. this case is rare in wordpress.
in my poin: in wordpress I can build a website with html output to what I want, not what the modul want.
sorry for poor english.
January 23rd, 2012 at 8:40 am
thanks for providing Joomla module title links. keep posting…
January 25th, 2012 at 7:31 am
its a nice comparision between joomla & wordpress. note : good point:-you can be listed in Google within 2 days by wp & other r 2 month
January 25th, 2012 at 12:16 pm
Thank you, dharmendra. Joomla gets listed quite quickly as well these days.