It all comes down to what CMS will be used the most by the owner.
If you have to work hard to post, you won't.
Even as easy as WP is- some people can't even manage that. So- if you aren't techy- forget Drupal and Joomla.
Still doesn't explain why everyone doesn't use a Mac instead of a PC- but, it's a start.
The great thing is- once you start in WP- it's not too tough to move the content into either Joomla or Drupal- at least compared to a static site.

That's exactly right. I had to think about what you meant by "If you have to work hard to post, you won't" and then I realized that the truth in it. If I can't figure out how to do something quickly, it will become more of a hassle than its worth.

There's actually a new plugin for Wordpress and Joomla that allows owners to combine the two. It's put out by corephp and seems to be very promising for those people who want to have the blogging capabilities of Wordpress with the flexibility of Joomla.

http://www.corephp.com/wordpress/

I think a big reason people don't use macs is because they're so much more expensive. It's like with these three systems, the reason you would choose any one of them is because time=money and you can't waste time. Some people wouldn't choose a Mac because it just costs so much more than PC's.

@AnotherGuy, I think you and I see exactly eye-to-eye about the 3 CMS's

I personally love Joomla as long as you "stay in the system". Once you're getting too custom in every aspect, it's time to go to Drupal. I know you can do lots more in WordPress than blog, but I still thing that's its strong suit (of course, I use the term "blog" loosely, it's great for info sites)

I firmly believe that a "Mom & Pop" company shouldn't use any of these 3 after tons of personal experience and pain. The fact that they're open source leads people to believe everything's going to be cheap or free.

All 3 systems require a talented individual (or team) to run and maintain the site properly. If this isn't in the budget, I've been pushing lots of folks to hosted solutions that are dead simple to learn like Light CMS (http://www.speaklight.com/) for info sites, and Ning (http://www.ning.com/) for social sites.

That's very cool that you would go even farther to add in other systems that people should use. I've not actually used either myself, but since you mentioned them I say "Heck, why not?" Maybe that will be something I can start doing for people who need a quick and cheap solution.

That's a really good observation too, about people believing the work behind the open source software will be the same cost as the software itself (free).

Thing is, if you ask any user of these systems to make you a website, they definitely won't give you a good job if you want it done for cheap. I run into that so often with people asking me to do work for them... it just won't work the way that they expect.

I knew I should have mentioned CMSMarket in the blog somehow. You are doing awesome there by creating a place that can be used by users of WP, Drupal and Joomla. One of a kind!

By the way, for any of you that have not seen CMSmarket, you need to do so now!

http://www.cmsmarket.com/

This is a fantastically useful post, thank you! I'm neither a designer nor a developer, but I need to find both for clients who want sites developed -- and that usually means making the CMS decision first. I've been recommending Wordpress a lot for smaller companies and NGOs whose biggest challenge is a) budget and b) finding the time to actually maintain a site, but I've been wondering when Joomla or Drupal might be more appropriate. This is exactly what I was looking for.

Incidentally, I switched from PC to Mac six months and I've experienced more crashes in that time than I did in the previous two years. Not that I wouldn't make the switch again - the trackpad and Spotlight alone are worth it -- but it is, believe it or not, possible to talk up the benefits too much.

@AnotherGuy - thx for the CMS Market addition, we really hope that it will help level the playing field and allow folks to easily compare the 3rd party addons, which really define a CMS

@pamsykes - I let my MacBook Pro sit for a year before getting completely disgusted w/Vista and then Windows 7. Don't give up, you can prob bring your to a Mac store and they can fix!

I have used all three quite a bit and strongly prefer Wordpress & Drupal.

Joomla just never did it for me.

That being said, as time goes by I find myself using Wordpress more & more. It is definitely not just for blogging anymore. It is developing nicely into a sweet little CMS. It is an invaluable tool for small business websites.

Matt the DebtFREEk!

I was wondering if anyone had any experience with EZ Publish?

Awesome Article.

The way you have explained about those three CMSs is impressive and accurate. I am little experienced with these three systems. Hope soon all these systems will fix everything, so that users can feel more comfortable in doing things.

Thanks

@Sankar Datti - I'm glad that you enjoyed it, Sankar. I agree with you and I think that these three systems are definitely paving the way to make some huge changes in the web development world.

@Paul Flyer - Sorry. I have very little experience with EZ Publish.

@DebtFREEk - It is true that WP is starting to grow into a more developed CMS, but it still has a long way to go before I feel comfortable using it to manage many design or development projects. In fact, in most cases that I've seen anytime that I needed to design a Wordpress site to look completely different than regular themes, it also required a large amount of development knowledge as well....

And that's just not something that's too acceptable for some people (like myself).

@kyle - It's an exciting new community that you are building. I can't wait to be a part of it myself with some new templates that I'm trying to work on.

@pamsykes - I think that you've been doing the right thing with recommending WP to smaller businesses with tight budgets. I think that if you just take the understanding the I wrote above and keep that in mind while recommending clients to various CMS's, that you will do well in matching them with the right system.

Good luck to both of you!

Thanks for the article. I am starting my own business and I am a bit of a DIY'er so I have been researching these three. I've used Notepad and Filezilla for years but it's time to move to a CMS now. Thanks again.

Nice comparison and I liked the Pros and Cons the most.
As far as I am concerned, I like to develop the projects in any of Drupal, Joomla or wordpress depending upon the requirements of the project.
For simple content categorization with not so long category tree Joomla is best because it will be easier to develop and will be better designing wise. Wordpress can be used for Blogging platform only. Takes no time to install, too easy to use and asks not many efforts. For larger projects I use Drupal only. It's really cool to develop complex functionalities, the community is very big and very helpful and modules are also available for almost all kind of necessities.
So, I like all of the CMSs and I am fan of all of three. Open source CMS have helped me a lot building my websites so I am thankful to the great community of Open Source Software developers.

Regards
- Mittal Patel

Interesting post!

We have been doing a lot of WordPress sites lately. (Few of which would qualify as a standard blog.) The platform has come a long way!

@Paul - For larger sites we also use EZ Publish a fair bit. The learning curve is a bit steep, but it is a powerful and well thought out system that can handle just about anything you throw at it.

Great why to put all 3.

Wordpress was great to start with. Wanted to know if I would keep up making articles so I started easy.

Drupal, I wanted more power but did not have time to learn something new that was going to be a hobby.

Joomla fit just right. Has the medium power I wanted and little learning curve.

This was the first article that I have read from start to finished in a long time it would have helped out a while ago. I could have saved 2 headaches

Joomla sucks and comparing Wordpress to Drupal is just crazy.

Thanks for the comparison. I'm a previous WP user who started looking at joomla, but I think WP suits my needs better.

I thought Drupal is for more serious site; and Joomla is for "entertainment or edutainment" I choose Drupal

Thanks for the comparison. I am not the most tech savvy guy in the world but, I'm looking to expand my skill so I can build a site where I can sell. I know it mentioned Joomla was good at this. My question is; while I have no experience with WP, is it possible and would anyone suggest going that route given my lack of tech skill?

I am pretty good with apps like Illustrator, photoshop and dreamweaver (not so much the coding stuff though).

Thanks.

If you are looking to expand your skill and feel that Joomla is the right solution, then I would suggest going with that. Wordpress is very difficult to build a shopping cart site with, as I've had to do it several times. Joomla on the other hand is much simpler for actually building the site and managing the shopping cart.

Check out VirtueMart for a complete shopping cart solution.

This is helpful. I've been looking extensively at the three. I have some WordPress experience but needed something more for a site I'm designing. I don't know if the learning curve for Drupal is fully appreciated (made more challenging by what seems to me to be overly convoluted jargon/terms). I'm now looking at Joomla because the site needs to get done and it seems much more intuitive than Drupal. (Wonder how hard it'll be to convert over later, if necessary)

I'm mostly a graphic designer who does websites because they need to be done (though I have a strong understanding of XML and CSS and a little of Java and C++). What I'd like most is a program that is much easier for a designer to use (mostly manipulated through CSS).

Very helpful I think you hit the major points on all three.
One thing to mention, drupal nativly tracks revisions and what was changed for content items. For some sites this is a big plus.

Because thanks to my friends about this author.
every time you enter the site. youtube is always providing the original video.
A very good site like facebook siteside. I said I love you.
regards...

Okay, I admit I'm biased, but WordPress "not developer-friendly"? I think you need to either elaborate or clean out that crack pipe.

I'm going to have to agree with Dougal. Although Wordpress doesn't encourage editing of its core files and occasionally alienates its plugin developers; plugins are immensely powerful and can do most anything that you would want. Also you didn't mention the large amount of themes and plugins that Wordpress has. Wordpress is the only CMS of these three that I have experience with and thats why I'm commenting about that one. I do agree that its not always the best choice for a CMS though. It is a great blogging system and a very good at making a information site, but its a royal pain to integrate a good cart system into it and I hear that its pretty easy to do that with Joomla.

ahh yes...

Wordpress - very easy to theme works flawlessly with plugins. Small buisness where community is not an issue.

Drupal - Da best for medium-large buisness with community in mind or no community at all happy face.

My experience with Drupal is basically the following:

1) Drupal's architecture is too obtuse for words. I'm an experienced web programmer, and despite that, I oftentimes have trouble formatting its oftentimes illogical approaches for my pea brain to comprehend. Also consider the obtuseness of terms like 'node' for this exercise.

2) Drupal-based sites become too complex to maintain very quickly. They become "busy", inside and out. I don't like the drama. And I wonder how site visitors can even comprehend these sites.

3) Drupal-based sites are difficult to set up in a development/test environment, separate from the production environment. Too many deviations, that I have to track, have to be created, and that's a continual headache.

4) Drupal tries to do too many things, and excels at few, if any of them. If you're using Drupal for blogging or discussion boards, you need to look at WordPress or phpBB instead. Wake up!

5) I've found that a lot of Drupal modules are visually or functionally clunky. "Not vurry 'tractive"

In comparison...

1) WordPress's architecture generally makes sense. Thus, developing for WordPress is reasonably straightforward. I rarely scratch my head and wonder "what the heck were they thinking!?" It flows with my logical development brain.

3) WordPress succeeds wildly in its core competency.

4) The range of available useful (read: really cool) plugins for WordPress is amazing.

5) Duplicating a WordPress production site in a development/testing environment is slap-simple.

6) No matter how much functionality I add to a WordPress site, it stays reasonably manageable. WP's recent advances with its admin interface have been amazing and very well keyed to keeping admins SANE.

Hi guys, take a look:
http://www.google.com/trends?q...a,+drupal

WP, J! or Drupal, all is really excellent. Depend on the purpose, choose the one for your needs.

In my opinion, I can do everything with Joomla!

Well I have been using Joomla for a while now and find it very easy to use but its very true what you say if you have no idea whats going on then you will find it hard to work with Joomla, I think Joomla will stay my preferred choice though.

Drupal 5 greatly improved the installation process.

Drupal6 improved the installation process and the end-users impression. It eliminated its previous approach towards teasers (the break tag), and by putting jQuery into the kernel only make it easier to theme with AJAX and the like.

Drupal 7 is improving the usage greatly with little things like rewording the "story" content type to "article". Now if they would change "book" into something English speakers can understand better ("book" doesn't necessarily mean organized). It is also improving security by treating the password better.

In the past I've tried Drupal and Joomla. I got pretty proficient at theming Joomla but it was such a pain that when I discovered Wordpress it was obvious that it was what I should be using.

Wordpress is great because you don't need to modify the code once you have it installed. The functionality you want comes from your theme files that you code up. Unlike the other 2, Wordpress strives to make the complicated as simple as possible.

The problem with most CMSs is that they try to do everything and are not spectacular on anything. Wordpress can be used for 80-90% of a sites functionality and then I would recommend using other software for the rest. What's wrong with using a dedicated shopping cart in addition to a wordpress CMS site? You get 2 things doing what they do great instead of 1 thing doing 2 things mediocrely.

How do you design a website? Everyone i know uses some kind of image program…like Photoshop or maybe even Illustrator. They base it on some kind of grid (960,etc). Then you chop it up to the web. Using HTML, and CSS.

For many, many, many sites that’s all you need to do. Why on earth would you install a CMS (or a blog system like WordPress) just to make the home page and the about page of a 7 page website editable? Why would that site need to pull content from a database? Why would that site need a fully custom CSS? What if you had designed a really unique layout that didn’t fit into the a standard 3 or 4 column grid.

When I say ‘Not Difficult’ i mean 5 minutes. That’s how long PageLime integration takes, if that. We are not the choice if you want to run a very content heavy dynamic site that changes every 5 minutes.

If you are a construction company that wants to keep your rates up to date, or a clothing boutique that wants to post new specials and update images of your inventory, or a 13 year old thinking about starting up a babysitting company and just wants to be able to change a list of current dates of availability so her perspective clients hire her. Why would these businesses need Drupal, WordPress, or Joomla? Why should they have to learn to code or use Dreamweaver?

If you are a web developer who wants to give your clients who do similar professions to the latter examples…a simple interface that handles all there needs, that works right out of the box, that you never have to upgrade because it’s a service and upgrades across all sites at once, and basically simplifies content management down to the level of Microsoft Word. You should check out PageLime.

I have no problem with the CMS’s mentioned in the article. I do have a problem with opensource CMS zealots who act like they are the only solution to the problem. That for some reason you need to have every feature possible on sites that don’t need that many. It’s not about features, its not about Opensource, it’s about the benefits to your clients and picking the correct tools for the correct jobs. Sometimes these are right, but sometimes they are not. The internet needs to stop acting like these big 3 are the be all end all of content management just because some people have spent years getting used to integrating. If your grocery store was across the street, you wouldn’t get in your car and drive there, sometimes it’s faster to just walk. That’s why we created PageLime.

Tom Twitter: @pagelime

P.S. We also spent a lot of time on the UI. We know how important impressing clients is.

P.P.S. I can hear the flames coming

Wordpress is intended for blogging.
Joomla & Drupal is intended for general site which may contain or not a blog module.
You can publish with any but it is like making a comparison on a truck, a ferrari & a porsche: all of them let you go from point A to B but ferrari & porsche are designed for speed while a truck is not in the same track.

Drupal is far the easiest CMS from all of them, I've tested both PHP & .Net CMS and trust me, for PHP drupal is the easier as for .Net umbraco is the easier.

One of my concerns in picking a CMS has been security. Wondering if the author has any view on which CMS provides the most solid platform in this respect.

We are also interested in understanding which platform is the most secure?

Although we have been using Joomla for a while now, we are increasingly looking to Drupal for its ability to integrate more complex functionality into websites. Joomla gets kind of messy when you start installing modules for everything and there are often cross-module issues which need to be resolved.

Regarding Lav's question on security, here is a link on Drupal Security practices -- http://powerfulcms.com/drupal-security

As to which CMS is better for Search Results, just check with all the top SEO companies - they use Drupal. While the effort is more initially, the benefits from Search pay good returns over Wordpress or Joomla. SeoBook is on Drupal. SeoMoz recommends Drupal as well.

In my opinion, Joomla wins across the board in every development aspect for any imaginable project as long as mysql can store, php can render and java can dynamicize it (my new word...).

Wordpress is GREAT for blogs! Building advanced functionality into it requires to much customization of the theme files, so that the template itself becomes a core component of the overall functionality. This only underscores the short-ranged ineffectiveness of the Wordpress core. Of course, that's only assuming you want something beyond a blog site.

Drupal: I've tried my hand at it several times and have given up because I have better ways to spend my time... like actually *completing* projects within a given timeline and budget. OK, that's harsh. I will admit I don't know Drupal well enough...

Joomla: Jeez, how many people actually realize that Joomla is a framework upon which the Joomla CMS is built. That same framework is used to build a WIDE variety of components, modules and plugins, with which a developer can do ANYTHING. The Model/View/Controller architecture alone makes Joomla a breeze to decontsruct and develop upon. The component/module/plugin philosophy lays the ground work for orderly develpment of a variety of applications which can easily be installed on any Joomla website.

Check this out... Drupal developers will rave about the modular architecture which allows you to build separate "modules" which can interact with each other to create advanced functionality.

...OK, how about Joomla's plugin architecture which allows you to create "modules" which interact with website content, and *can* interact with each other to expand the core functionality of Joomla. Oh yeah, they can also work directly with one or any number of different components (you may think of them as installed programs) or modules (you may think of them as positionable data-output blocks).

I get so fired up when people ignore or are unaware of the immense power contained within the Joomla framework and the fast-growing web of extension and template developers who support the community.

BTW, Joomla development has recently been proceeding at an accelerated rate. If one looks at the GSoC participation, development on Joomla 1.6 and the development momentum building in 3PDs, it's easy to see how it dwarfs the progress Drupal is making, even if you take Acquia into account. At this point, I would recommend to anyone who wants to quickly jump into open source CMS development, to look at Wordpress and Joomla first and checkout Drupal later.

Thanks for your insights. I'm a copywriter with no website, the proverbial cobbler. I've been thinking about a WP site and you confirmed it's the best choice for me. Code, schmode.

This is interesting reading to say the least. Do I have a preference? You bet I do..

Drupal Rocks!
It generally takes me about 2 hours to have a D6 site up. The best parts of Drupal is the community behind it and the huge number of options available for the system. I have been testing D7 and it is even easier to get started with for new users.

With Joomla, getting even a simple site up takes a few days and then it's still not right. And your lucky if you don't get hacked.. security is lacking. I just had an account get suspended because of it, lucky it was just a demo site(no real content). The best part may be the themes look better.

Wordpress is a real nice system for small stuff and takes about an hour to put a small site up. Themes.. 900 at last count and some nice ones too.

I think everyone has some good points in this thread and it seems as a lot of this is preference or what your comfortable with.

There is a flat file system that looks promising, I have been running some tests with it. Some people need something that does not require a database. www.SkyBlueCanvas.com

Great reading ! Thanks for the article..

I am curious if we can get some more discussions related to Joomla and apparent lack of SEO capability. Is there a way to build a site in Joomla and integrate good SEO design and achieve good search engine rankings? Or is Joomla truly lacking? This is a major issue that seemingly does not get much discussion here. I always wonder what good is a well-funtioning, well-designed site that doesn't get any traffic? Thanks in advance to all who respond. And remember, regardless of the preferred system, we are all in this together. Peace.

I think it is more a matter of the lack of adequate templating/theming tutorials. Reminds me of the "sink or swim" mentality as well as "I'll throw you a lifesaver, if you throw me some money."
I do prefer Joomla! over Drupal and Wordpress for its template simplicity but for more complex templates; therein lies its major fault.
I need a template that can help me download the Internet for offline viewing.

Joomla commits the unforgivable sin of delivering pages based on tables. Whilst it is possible to use "template overrides" to correct this flawed behaviour, you have to question the design ethos of a CMS who's core modules are built around deprecated table constructs.

Version 1.6 is believed to to address this - BUT with thought to compatibility with earlier versions - possibly no upgrade path?

If you are interested in web standards, page load times, accessibility issues for those with disabilities and SEO matters then does this suggest you should avoid Joomla like the plague!

Great article and a well-written and impartial look with an eye toward the future. Having worked in two of these three and stumbling upon this site as research on the third, it's great to read something that shows pros and cons of each while bolstering the support for all 3 by the same communities. Great job.

I maintain a high school booster organization site on a volunteer basis. I have been using NVu (and its derivative Kompozer) for a few years and want to move to something easier to maintain and which can also be shared amongst content providers. One thing that is missing in what I've read about all these CMS systems is what is the method of proofing your work before is it committed to the public site? With a pure HTML editor like NVu that is simple because you can just edit the files locally and then upload. With Joomla I realize I can set up a localhost environment but not sure I want to hassle with the database, etc. But is that the normal process for incremental updates once the site is designed? With Wordpress I'm not sure the local option is even possible.

I enjoyed the article. I work for a company that developed their site in Joomla...however for my needs, my mom owns a daycare and I want to create a site for her, I think drupal will prove to be best because of the web 2.0 features id like to add ...so it will prove interesting when im working with the 2 systems at the same time...

Drupal? Forget it! It is a jack of all trades, master of none.

I normally use Joomla for large sites with user registration and shopping carts (virtuemart is REALLY GOOD!). Also if I'm the one maintaining the website.

Otherwise, it is Wordpress all the way. Such a time-saver. lso, its user friendly backend allows the most unsavvy person to update content.

For years I've used this simple content manager system:

vim + cvs + ssh

(& over the past 8 years, +php)

It has revision control, works with a development server so you can see before you commit, automatic backups & recovery, very flexible and with a fairly simple, site-specific PHP module, is search engine friendly.

You can customize it to whatever degree you need.

PHP, by itself, is actually a pretty decent CMS. (not that great as a programming language though)

Oh, and the pages load VERY quickly.

You can say the learning curve is steep, but you can actually learn how to do all of this in about 3 hours.

I've looked into various CMS systems, now I'm looking at drupal, the feature-set is too big and whats worse, the code inside is terrible! most of it isn't even object oriented.

Where did we ever get the idea superflous features are a /good/ thing? a web application should do exactly what you want and nothing else. Why have hang-nail code that serves only to slow the server down and become a potential security hole?

Files (including your DB settings..) are stored in web space, which can be a security issue.

Hope you never make a mistake with your .htaccess file, unless you want the world to know your database passwords. (and hope your hosting provider never makes a mistake with their httpd.conf, otherwise your .htaccess file could be ignored.. hey, I've seen it happen!)

Unlike CVS based systems, you don't have an automatic backup (stored on another server) of your website at all times and can't preview the site in its entirety.

Like to use file search or grep? forget it with these CMS's.. everything is in a database... hope you never want to do a search & replace across multiple pages..

They mangled the filename extensions, it's hard to know if you're looking at a php file, template or settings meta-info file.

The only thing "good" about drupal is that there aren't a zillion levels of nested if's.

Do people ever "peek inside" source code anymore? for critical web applications, you should.

If drupal really is the most developer friendly application, it's a sad day indeed.

Joomla - Quite confusing though Designers friendly.

Drupal - Looks Awful to site visitors

Wordpress - Simply the best!

I still use WP for my blog & happy to know that I can use any of this three for my blog.Thanx...

Is there any article on the net which can tell that which one is better? Every article ends up without specific and clear conclusion.

Wow.

One of the best posts/response groupings I've ever seen. Seriously.

I'd like to add a pithy comment at this point, but I just don't have one. Thanks, very much, everybody!

Jeff Yablon
President & CEO
Virtual VIP Business Coaching and Virtual Assistant Services

I am new to web design and development. I've spent some time tooling around with all my different options. To be honest I'm not really sure in which direction I should try and perfect first, seeing on how there's so many options. I've done a blog for my grandma. You can check it out. Please don't take this as advertisement, I really DO want you guys to look at it and tell me what you think. I could honestly care less if you read it or not. This is my first real website and (for all you WP users) it's done in WordPress. So far, I like WP and it's user friendliness. I mean, my grandma isn't exactly computer savvy, however she does well writing in her blog. Oops I forgot to give the address http://www.beckisbreastblog.com. Again please don't take this as advertisement, I'd really like to receive some emails telling me what I should work on or different plugins I could use, advice in general. This post definitely opened my eyes on what to expect form all three CMSs. Thanks for writing this post man, I appreciate it!

Really good article (wish I had written it ). @Accounting Teacher: I don't think there is an answer to what CMS is the best. I always re-evaluate what CMS to use for my customers based on their requirements. Based on my own experience I think Joomla is the best allrounder - but that my personal opinon.

The article is very fair and very accurate - well done.

Okay, Guys & Gals: I REALLY need your help!

By way of explanation, I'm a a fine art photographer who sells my on-line matted and framed prints to the general public. I also want to cultivate the home decor and gift industries where sales of my products are concerned.

My present (and antiquated) web site at http://www.hummingbird-studios.com needs to be fast-forwarded into the 21st Century!

In response to a web redesign inquiry, someone has sent me a proposal using Joomla.

You can help by offering some badly needed input, please!

My static, multi-paged, shopping cart web site will be evolving and require the following:

1) A well written sales page and means of capturing visitors' e-mail info for list building. (From a product sales standpoint I will need to periodically change the written content, product images, and offer special pricing promotions.)

2) Creation of blog(s) relevant to the various galleries and sub-galleries on the site.

3) Ability to upload self-created, upbeat, promotional videos.

4) Inclusion of podcasts which I'll offer on various subjects.

5) The ability to post and archive self-created teleseminars and webinars which registrants can download.

6) A separate product page containing related information products for purchase.

7) A page for downloading e-books (some free and others priced).

I'll also need to create and design quarterly "mini" pdf catalogs and image rich brochures.

9) I'll probably want to create some slide shows.

10)I may want to include music in the background on the home page and perhaps differently themed music for the respective galleries on the web site (but no overkill).

11) I'll need a calendar of events, a press room, and a page promoting my availability for speaking engagements, exhibits, and workshops.

Right now, that's all I can think of.

On --- A percentage of the net profits from product and service revenues will go to help build and support a fund connected with a separate non-profit organization I'm associated with.

In the meantime, I know NOTHING about these different systems. My google search and reading indicates that WP just won't swing it; however, people associated with a local web designer group recently cringed when I mentioned that I was considering contracting with someone who would be using Joomla.

(With respect to the above: Something about layers of obscure Joomla coding and having to spend hours and hours of a web designer's time and the client's money to make even simple changes, so that I'd be spending more in the long run. Question: If all of the code is provided, then should there be a problem?)

Drupal sounds intimidating to me! I read another article about the "architecture" being excellent with Drupal. I'm not a big or even small business, though. It's just me, with a need to get a decent site up and running for targeted customers to visit, convert, and make purchases.

What's your opinion?

Sincerest appreciation for you input!

Phyllis Walker
twitter.com/hummingbirdlady

Very good and helpful article. I am a Graphic Designer who evolved into creating websites via Dreamweaver (hated it!) but never quite got into CMS as we got a techie to handle that side of things and we would manage content. So far I have managed two websites based on Joomla and one on the pre-Joomla Mambo. I have also used the free WordPress for blogs. I found Joomla easy to use once a site was up. Having read this I want to learn how to deploy both Joomla and WP sites myself. The point of this comment I suppose is to say thank you for taking the time to explain the three. Comments were also helpful.

Just want to say - the titles for each section are perfectly thought out to represent the current thinking / ethos around each system. Nice job!

Thank you so much for writing this! Very helpful and straight-forward.
Please fix the above, though: "joomla" is NOT a Swahili word (nor is Urdu a flavor of Swahili), but is in fact the romanization of the arabic spelling of the word that means "all together." Wrong language family entirely there.

WordPress is very easy to use. I love it! Lots useful gadgets can be effortless applied, like posting videos from any popular online video sites, adding Google adSense to any pages, SEO, etc. So I can focus on posting contents I want.

Here is my blog, http://www.JoeNo1.net/wp/

I just started to try Joomla! It took me a while to get use to its structure. I need to do a little bit more research and testing to make it work. Hope I can post a Joomla! site later.

No matter what, I think I will still keep my WordPress site.

each of that CMS has benefit and weakness. But I prefer joomla to build web to wordpress. Good comparison review. Nice posting. Thank's

I started with Joomla and ended up un the Drupal bandwagon myelf. Drupal offers the flexiblity of organizing your content ant way you like--so long as you have the VIEWS and PANELS modules installed---both will be native in Drupal 7.

I believe that once drupal 7 is out with these two crucial modules, it will level the playing field a whole lot and make Drupal more competitive with Wordpress.

Why on earth you miss MAMBO ? Is it because it's similar to Joomla. Please help me out here. I know there are still tons of folks out there using MAMBO. I was once fan of it, now loving Wordpress because it's so FREAKING EASY TO BACKUP/RESTORE/ and not to mention automatic upgrade. When thinking of CMS, I think 99% of the people are afraid of SECURITY (will someone hack my site?) If a CMS isn't smart enough to automatically upgrade, then it's difficult to decide. I love WP, but WP used to be much faster before. Are all CMS just getting bigger and bigger ? I hope DRUPAL also goes further with less cons. Very good article. But still I can't decide what I want. I think one should try many of these on certain section of the site, if your site is big. You can always have multiple sections, etc, running different CMSs.

thanks for great info.

I have tried all 3 and use only 1 of these systems - WordPress - it can be persuaded into doing almost anything and there is a free plugin to do just about anything i can imagine.

I also use CMS Made Simple - which is easy for the average person to login and manage content.

One major point to this article that was lacking is, what do the pople you build sites for think - do they understand i without extensive rethinking and training.

Most sites i build are for people that don't care what the system is - they just want to be able to update their sites at 4:50pm and be out the door by 5:00pm. And boh WordPress and CMS Made Simple excel at that.

I prefer CMS Made Simple because it is easy to create templates with.

Also with WordPress if you need to do something in it - you just google it and get the answer after 3 minutes of reading. The community is HUGE.

Joomla feels like a hoe on the wrong foot with me, Drupal feels like i am wearing someone elses underwear and WordPress feels like T-Shirt my spouse buys me - i only wear it because i am obligated.

None of these are the perfect solution to every problem. It comes down to client preference in the end - if someone asks for a Drupal site - they get one, if they don't know wat they want it is usually CMS Made Simple and they are adding content the 1st time they log in - no huge learning curve.

Thanks for this article. Wish I'd seen it when considering CMS options.

I have been working with WordPress as the other two just seemed too intimidating technically. And I'd say that WP does what I need it to.

Steve T.'s comment that in WP the template is a crucial choice, yes, very true, I've found that out myself.

I was just contemplating trying out Drupal - but after reading this I think Joomla should be the next step in my learning curve.

As for the only real mistake, I echo the earlier request to correct the misidentification of Swahili with Urdu!

Thanks again for the clear thoughts!

I've been a Wordpress user for years and now started to explore Joomla too. I totally agree to your comments regarding these both.

Nice article overall but you became a little over emotional in the last para. Btw, 'Joomla' in Urdu means 'Sentence'.

Joomla was my first leap into cms. I choose Joomla because as a newbie to cms it provided the easiest path to acclimation. Now that I'm "grown" I'm moving to Drupal.

Good post. I been reading so many blog or article related to Joomla, Drupal, Wordpress comparison, mostly are too bias to outdated, this is one of the good comparison explanation I ever read.

We've been working with WP forever, but will definitely start new projects on Joomla and Drupal to see what benefit can we get out of them. Great explanation of the pros and cons of each one. That was really helpful.

Keep up the great work!

Andres A.
Raleigh SEO Expert

Joomla is becoming stronger & stronger & now so many hundreds of Extensions are there that almost all things are possible which people could do with Drupal (i.e. I don't think 95% people would need any thing extra which Joomla could not provide). And with Joomla 1.6, remaining options are also going to be covered in native Joomla without need of Extensions.
And above Mr. Moscow_delight wrote "Joomla" means sentence in Urdu. It seems his Urdu (Pakistani National Language) is weak as Joomla is actually Persian borrowed word which means "together" "Collectively" as mentioned in above Article. Based on this meanings, it is used as "Term" for Sentence in Urdu (means all words "Together" forming a sentence).

I think both Drupal and Joomla are overweight, overcomplicated, and over-rated. Especially with Drupal, I wouldn't be surprised if they had a special team working on ways to make the user interface as complicated as can be.

And how useless are those modules and plugins that rarely ever work with the latest version of the CMS. Most people won't use 99% of them, and in many cases, if you want them to look good and do what you want, it takes about as much time changing them as developing your own module from scratch.

The best, slimmest, most user friendly CMS I have used so far is good old Website Baker. CMS Made Simple is another one I'd choose before Drupal and Joomla.

I join with Sitefixers, But for sites more like a web-application, Drupal and Wordpress call do it. But for a smart simple info websites there are phpwcms and typo3.

Both of them are Designer & Search Engine Friendly. Specially with phpwcms I never forced to use any other plugin for doing something. And I found teacing Wordpress, Drupal and Joomla to clients is tough.

VERY interesting posts everyone, thank you.

The only CMS I have experience with is DotNetNuke.com ("DNN") which runs on Microsoft .NET. It's comprehensive and allows much customization, however, it's not cheap. My web project on DNN is www.commercialdeals.com.

I want to try either WordPress or Joomla to build a site for my first client.

Questions:

1) Is it possible to add 3rd party video spokesperson code (see commercialdeals.com)to both WP and Joomla?

2) Does anyone have experience with DNN who can compare it?

would be good to see comparison on opensource .net cms projects like umbraco, DNN etc... we just did our web site http://www.myopenware.co.uk with Umbraco within days!

hmmmm nice information that i not know about wp joomla and drupal
Iam using wordpress for blog of fm 96 sargodha .. it seems quite easy , supports with lot of plugins.

Ghazanfar hussain
fm 96

Can you add video spokesperson code to WP and Joomla? Does anyone know?

Not developer friendly- Wordpress??
Im sorry... would you please care to explain as to WHY? thanks...

I am not a developer or a designer. I don’t understand PhP , FTP, CMS nada! I can use a Wordpress template and use the html button to make easy changes, but that’s it. Wordpress isn’t recommended for e-commerce and I have a recession budget. I decided to use a web developer to design two different pages that I could duplicate and build out the rest of my website. The code and instructions (because I am seriously need super easy, “point and click” help) were to be provided also.

The developer was using Joomla and then changed to Drupal. The 2 pages delivered look pretty good, but some of the basic requirements to match the sample - like the font choice & centered title listed in: (www.petlosscomfort.org) weren’t met .

When I asked for the code so that I could make these changes myself the developer informed me that there was no specific code to send because the pages were created dynamically. (Huh?) The developer suggested installing an FTP program (huh?) and then I could “go into the server and modify the code on the pages.” ????

Now, I’m confused – and frustrated. ( I wanted to launch all by 12/15!) I thought the purpose of installing Drupal (or Joomla) was to make it easy for a rookie like me to modify the developed pages and build out my site?

Well I've been playing around with Joomla and Drupal. With Joomla, I had a very difficult time installing modules. I'm not sure why, 'cause I used Joomla in the past and all i had to do was copy the module to the module directory..not so now(?)

Now Drupal can probably handle ANYTHING you throw at it, but SHEEESH, try creating a simple page with a web gallery and you need about seven different modules...Image, views, cck, filefield, imagefield, just to name a few...why so complicated????

Maybe my client needs wordpress instead...

Drupal is really long to learn, requires extensive kwnowledge but many modules are available, it's a mature system, you can easily create module, extend core module... It's more a framework than a CMS, powerfull for developer and for complex web sites.

Joomla and wordpress are easy to learn, there is large community, large amount of plugins available...
Perfect for non programmer and for small/medium content oriented project.

I think it's for you to update this post, Since now joomla 1.6 is about to launch and it's going to bust some asses...

I have been reading many posts, and I am sooooo confused. New releases are being put out there and posts are therefore behind by a release or two making them seem outdated. The worst is when you feel you have a handle on what you need based on some peoples opinions, then when you read on to recent posts they seem to change teams.

I had one guy rant and rave about Joomla and what it could do. This was around March 09. Now on his site it's all about wordpress. So which is it?

Here is my goal and I hope someone can give me some guidance. I am building two sites. My focus is on one of them right now. I would like to have one main corporate site that will allow each sales person in the company to have their own site (Not just a page) that they can manage. Their site will be a "Child" (if that is the right term) where I will have several templates and pages that they may chose from with the ability for them to add/develop their own pages from blank ones if the desire.

So, when they login from the main site, they will enter the backend of their site only. I would love this to be sooooo simple for them, but maybe its not the biggest deal.

Joomla or Wordpress? or something completely different. Maybe Joomla with Wordpress module?

Not that it matters, but my second site will be for the extranet and I was thinking Joomla or Drupal.

Thanks for any help and comments.

Personally i like joomla, because it competible with any web component like comerce web and community. thank u.

It seems that Drupal is the best option. I am new to Drupal and PHP. Just want to ask you how well will Flash integrate with Drupal? I would like to focus on User experience so I am inclined to use Flash. There was another option of jQuery. I am puzzled.

Wordpress no doubt is the best blogging platform but in recent time it is expanding its wings.. hope it ll be a big competitor to joomla and drupal in coming days...

@Hein - I like Umbraco more than DNN. DNN seems more like Drupal in that I have a harder time making it look like I want on the front end. Umbraco is easier to expand with custom modules and the end user interface for adding/removing content is better IMO.

The administration of DNN and Drupal are somewhat similar, sort of how Umbraco looks more like Joomla on the admin side.

Wordpress theme designers should target businesses more, and it will out do joomla and drupal any day.

Very clerify and useful experience,thanks a lot!

We have been using Wordpress for a variety of projects in the past few months. We used to use Joomla but our clients prefer Wordpress for its simplicity. If I had to pick one of the two, I would say Wordpress can do almost everything Joomla and is much simpler for the user at the same time. Can't comment on Drupal as I have not used it extensively like Joomla and Wordpress.

Tim,

Thanks for the article. You framed up the open source alternatives very nice. Now, what if someone had the opportunity to utilize SharePoint or Oracle's CMS? How would those compare. That is my dilema now. I have plenty of budget. I need to mange projects of significant size. Priorities are a collaboration site, Customizable document managment, that also feed the internal and external website.

Any thoughts...

Thanks - Chris

Wordpress - Windows - Really easy, most users. But not very developer friendly.

Joomla - Mac - Looks fantastic. You can make dynamic themes with everything you`ve ever wanted.

Drupal - Linux - If you`re very techy you can use it like nothing. It`s used for the presidents website, and others.

This is a great comparison. A while back, I started building sites using Wordpress, Joomla, and Drupal (because I didn't know which one to choose). Then shortly after, I dropped using Drupal since it required too too much thinking to do anything. Now I'm finding myself keep coming back to using Wordpress whenever I am able to. This is testimonial as to how effortless it is to use Wordpress (when compared to the others). I even use Wordpress as a CMS for regular non-blog websites.

I have to go away from Wordpress only in the case of eCommerce site (in which case I go to ZenCart). Or if it is a social network site that requires multiple user login (in which case I go to Joomla).

I have only just started using Wordpress after years of making static sites with html/css. A couple of people needed sites with CMS in a hurry, but info sites, not blogs. I think a rudimentary knowledge of php is necessary to get WP to do anything useful. I had great trouble splitting/having different menu's on a page which is very easy to do on a static site but requires a lot of fiddling with the php to work on wordpress. That's pretty fundemental, so will be looking at Joomla for next CMS site that I build.

This is a very informative comparison.

I agree with you Paul, it does take knowledge of php and css to get wordpress customized. I'm currently using wordpress though for my new 3 day-old site, but its mainly a blog and I somehow find that wordpress does the job for me. The problem i've had with joomla is that i love building my sites from ground up and learning the whole positions and jdoc thing for setting up layout has been giving me trouble. So i'll stick to wordpress for my blog for now. I won't abandon joomla though, i think its a gold mine but i just having digged deep enough yet.

Alot is made of usability and presentation 'problems' with Drupal. However, I find that the ability to use the same skin/theme for content adminsitration is of MASSIVE value to users...being able to navigate around the site like a 'regular user' and then just click 'Edit' when you get to the page you want to modify is an extremely intuitive way of administering content - expecially in smaller sites where you don't have to drill down too far to find what you need.

I also find that, as a site designer, the omnipresent 'drag-and-drop' features in Drupal are fantastic for rearranging lists, menus, forms etc. Not sure about Wordpress but certainly the Joomla interface switched me right off...

I can understand the concern with the complexity of Drupal, but when you get to grips with the power, it really can make life easier for end users. The granularity of user privileges allows you to refine the end-user view, locking off bits that might confuse and preventing the chances of content being lost or corrupted.

With great power comes great repsonsibility but for those who don't shirk a challenge, the rewards are immense!

This article is a perfect summary of all the articles I read over the years about these three CMS systems.

I also use the three systems. My first impression of Joomla was quite good, but once I got to work more on it I was disappointing. The extra modules in Joomla seem to do everything on their own without using all the Joomla core. It seems that the modules are patches to Joomla instead of integrating with and enhancing the functionality. This really made it hard for my customers to edit their website, even more thatn Drupal. If you are not gonna add any extra functionality, Joomla is a good option but for specific functionality Drupal is more developer friendly as said before

I'd put Umbraco up against any CMS. Its the best I've found of the low cost/free CMSs. I have some experience with quite a few including the three you listed above.

My biggest issue with Drupal or Joomla is that its generally hard for the end users who have to use the site on an everyday basis to use. That's the ultimate measure for me. Umbraco allows me to craft the admin experience so that its easier for the end users to maintain (assuming I'm doing my job right).

My biggest issue with WordPress is extensibility. At some point you may hit a functionality wall that you just can't get past (we even hit this with Joomla). The answer then is to move to another CMS. And that can be expensive. Again, that's why I like Umbraco. We haven't found anything we can't do with it.

As a developer I'd have to disagree that we somehow all love Drupal. I (and I note a good many others) find Drupal absolutely painful to work with, for instance most developers find the idea of storing snippets of code in the database (essentially adding a hack) has offensive.

But anyway I digress from the main issue, developers (real ones) like freedom, you don't really get that with Drupal (to be fair you don't get it with Joomla or Wordpress either), so has a developer if I'm not going to have the freedom to do it properly (i.e. - with a decent framework) then I'd rather go the other way and have a usable product (not a mish mash like Drupal) hence I prefer Wordpress. (And for 80% of sites it is performs well, after all 80% of sites can be covered by something that provides articles / blogs, basic user login / acl, ratings, comments, etc, for the other 20% use a framework not a CMS)

I would be interested to know what you think of the zend framework. I am just learning it, and I love it. I think it is much more powerful than any of these, but it is for creating full blown enterprise web applications.

Obviously Wordpress

This is like comparing shoes.
Which one is best?

Best for what? Walking in the mountains or on the dance floor?

You have to select your tool after your needs/project.

I love your comparison, I have been using wordpress now for almost a year and I am enjoying it. I am hoping to move on to either drupal or joomla then found this nice topic. As it stand I will start with joomla and then drupal. Thanks Tim

I recently used Wordpress to built a large portal. Before doing a huge search in the documentations i discovered that I, with some effort, can do anything.

Of course, some oh the portal features i did handcoded but it's doing great.

Still im urgin to learn Drupal.