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+++