Because website development keeps changing daily, the choice of the appropriate content management system becomes very crucial in the present day. In fact, the global open-source services market growth is expected to reach a CAGR of 16.9% from 2023 to 2030, meaning there will be an increasing demand for platforms such as WordPress and Drupal. In our latest CMS series, we take a look at the core features of these two platform giants and bring you a thorough guide on which one will best suit your website.
A Short Introduction to WordPress and Drupal
What is Drupal?
Drupal dates back to the early years of the 2000s and has since continued to evolve. The most recent release, Drupal 10, launched in 2022 bringing quite a few improvements, like an enhanced user interface and access through keyboards.
Drupal 10 is also packed with CKEditor 5, the Olivero theme, and supports Twig 2. It has enhanced layout builders too. This makes Drupal a strong choice for big websites, especially for businesses and government sites.
What Is WordPress?
WordPress is a dynamic content management system that helps in building custom websites. The added custom designs are achieved through a template system and plugin framework. It is a large player in the CMS world, bearing 63% of the market share.
WordPress is among the top options when thinking of Drupal alternatives, and is almost ready for an update with the Jetpack AI Assistant: an AI assistant that streamlines text writing and editing on behalf of the user.
Both Drupal and WordPress are among the leading open-source content management systems. Both are strong for different reasons and can suit any type of website requirement. Both will lead the way as long as the world of content management systems keeps on expanding.
CMS Choices: WordPress vs Drupal
The debate on which CMS – Drupal or WordPress – your website should run on has gone on since having an online presence became a core component to businesses and organizations across the board. Both Drupal and WordPress have their pros and cons. Lets take a look at exactly how they stack up against each other.
WordPress is more popular and powers 43.5% of all websites. Only 14% of the top 10,000 websites are powered by Drupal. Yet, Drupal has more than a million members and is supported by Acquia, a $1 billion company.
Drupal is more secure than WordPress; however, both offer excellent security features. This is because hackers tend to attack WordPress sites due to their high usage. Drupal also supports more complicated web applications and gives extensive flexibility by the use of its custom content types and taxonomy system.
Drupal is ideal for large, complex sites that require security and flexibility. WordPress is ideal for beginners or as a platform of ease. Both WordPress vs Drupal CMS offer good features and options in comparison.
Installation
WordPress and Drupal differ in the process of installation. The installation of WordPress is quite easy and is perfect for beginners and small sites, which you can set up within minutes, courtesy of one-click options on hosting sites. This has made WordPress a favorite, powering over 500 new sites daily.
As a CMS, Drupal is more difficult to install, requiring even higher technical skills. However, it offers deeper customization and is ideal for big and complex sites. Many big names like Tesla and NASA rely on Drupal to install their CMSs, including 71% of the leading universities.
Drupal may be more difficult to learn but is very good for creating great projects, having powerful customization and security. Therefore, whether to use WordPress or Drupal depends on the needs and skills of the person using them.
Ease of Use
The ease of use during operation between WordPress and Drupal varies in two aspects. WordPress is easy to install. Given a blank page, you can have an up-and-running site within 24 hours. Its user interface is easy, making it perfectly suitable for novices and individuals without technical backgrounds.
The ease of use in using WordPress is a huge reason it’s so widely used. On the other hand, Drupal is more difficult to work with but offers more customization options. Although it will take longer to learn, with the new theme generator in Drupal 10, the CMS usability features in Drupal make the process of creating custom themes easier. That makes Drupal ideal for people who seek more control and advanced features.
In the end, whether to choose WordPress or Drupal depends upon your skills, needs, and preference. WordPress serves best for the novice who desires quick and painless setup. Drupal is ideal for those in whose need lies in a robust yet customizable publishing platform for complex websites.
Security
WordPress and Drupal have different points of strengths and weaknesses concerning security. WordPress, because of the large number of plugins and themes that exist, is more open to attacks. Drupal, on the other hand, has strong website security due to its security modules.
According to HubSpot, some of the key vulnerabilities in WordPress are with plugins, themes, and core software. Of course, you should be able to mitigate these very vulnerabilities by introducing the right security measures to keep your site secure.
Drupal has a team that vigilantly watches and continuously patches possible vulnerabilities. Updates are quite frequent. The design of Drupal is such that it is easy to pick out problems and fix them. Moreover, the community works as a team in solving security issues of the platform.
Drupal 10 will be using Symfony 6.2 PHP; as such, it will be more secure with added features. It offers solid user access control and fine-grained permissions. That’s what makes Drupal fit great for complex big sites.
In other words, WordPress security does require more support from a developer himself, such as timely updates and strong passwords. However, the safety of Drupal is stronger out of the box, owing to its team, design, and community.
Perhaps it is an issue of semantics – tools themselves are neither secure nor un-secure inherently, but the wide adoption of WordPress inherently makes it more susceptible to security questions. Like anything, adherence to best-practices for configuration and maintenance become the difference between having to entertain the possibility of an exploited vulnerability or not, not the tool itself.”
– James Weiss, Big Drop’s Managing Director
SEO Capabilities
Talking about SEO, both WordPress and Drupal have their strengths with SEO. For example, in WordPress, there are a couple of SEO plugins that can be used, such as Yoast SEO and All in One SEO Pack. These tools help optimize your content and make it much easier for search engines to find your site.
SEO capabilities in Drupal 10 have also been improved. It handles meta tags better, supports structured data, and has been doing great with canonical URLs. The way Drupal stands out is by the capability of providing understandable SEO, such as custom meta tags for every content type and RDF support.
SEO in WordPress is easier, but in Drupal, it’s more flexible. Drupal is perfect for large sites and companies needing rich functionality to provide extensive SEO, and also plays along well with Google Analytics.
WordPress and Drupal are very good in terms of SEO. The better one depends upon your project requirements, the balance you need between ease and high functionality, and how customized you need it.
Customization
Both WordPress and Drupal have great options for customizations. WordPress has more than 55,000 plugins. On its own, Drupal has a lot to offer, boasting upwards of 40,000 modules. The most recent version-Drupal 10-includes the Olivero theme. It gives websites more functionality and ease through its modern design.
Whether you need plain blogging or a complex site, take your pick-they are both capable. Which one between WordPress and Drupal you choose depends on your needs, your skills, and how far you want to customize.
Speed Comparison: WordPress vs. Drupal
When choosing between WordPress and Drupal, you could potentially make a very big difference in terms of speed. WordPress is extremely popular but might not be the fastest in all instances, whereas the nature of Drupal includes fast server communication and responses.
Drupal really shines with large sites, supporting thousands of pages. It has native caching and can be extended with modules like “Boost” or “Memcached.” With all this, Drupal will be very fast, even with an enormous amount of content on it.
For WordPress to stand its ground with Drupal on issues of speed, it takes considerable work. All the same, WordPress can also be rather fast with appropriate plugins, image optimization, and hosting.
The question of choosing between WordPress and Drupal depends on more than just speed. You should also consider ease of use and security, among the needs of your project.
Support
In terms of support for the content management system, both WordPress and Drupal are supported differently. Community support for WordPress includes live chat with support staff 24/7 on weekdays, email support, contact forms, and a large community forum. Drupal user support is through forums, community documentation, Stack Exchange, and the Core Issue Queue. This ensures that users have a wide range of resources at their end.
WordPress support is usually quite fast and very helpful. It often takes little time to get a solution through any of the channels for support. On the other hand, Drupal support is deep, meaning that this platform provides in-depth guidelines for complex tasks and challenges you may face while working with Drupal by using community documentation and forums.
Ultimately, your needs determine whether you will go for WordPress support or Drupal support. If you want something fast and easy, WordPress is your destination. If you like technical support in a more detailed, step-by-step manner, then Drupal would be best suited for you. Both of these are leading CMS platforms that have fared well with regard to offering support to get you through the web development journey.
How to Choose Between Drupal and WordPress
Choosing between Drupal and WordPress is a big decision, one that requires consideration about what your business needs and wants are. Both platforms have pros and cons.
With its ease of use and plethora of plugins, it is ideal to stick with WordPress for tiny blogs or online stores. However, in extreme cases, when highly complicated features have to be added, you may prefer switching over to Drupal. It’s flexible and strong.
Scalability: This is the prime concern for businesses that are on their way up, and Drupal has a history of handling big projects although setting up and using WordPress is easier.
Security, performance, SEO, and customization are also important. When it comes to elite security, Drupal boasts of the number of government sites hosted on it. Whereas there have been more malware infections with WordPress, some add-ons being particularly vulnerable.
In the end, just go ahead and select the best CMS for your business. First, understand what you need; then, use what each platform can offer to help your website succeed in the long term.
Conclusion
WordPress and Drupal are two powerful open-source content management systems, each catering to different needs. WordPress is perfect for small businesses and bloggers seeking simplicity and quick setup, while Drupal is better suited for large enterprises requiring advanced features and top-tier security.
By exploring the points outlined in this article, you can determine which CMS aligns best with your website’s goals. Whether you prefer the user-friendly nature of WordPress or the robust customization options of Drupal, the choice is yours—and it’s a crucial step toward online success.
Ultimately, it depends on your specific needs. Knowing the pros and each of their weaknesses will help you make a smart choice for the future of your website. After you decide which best fits your needs, feel free to reach out to us at Big Drop and let us bring your vision to life with our web design and development services.