Drupal vs Wordpress: Which CMS is the best?

June 18, 2021

Tags: Technologies, Tech Trends, Managed Teams
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This is not the first time we talk about CMS’s, and the importance of choosing the right Content Management System that suits your necessities. As a matter of fact, we already have two blogs on the matter, [here](https://www.rootstack.com/en/blog/top-things-final-users-check-when-considering-their-next-cms) & [here](https://www.rootstack.com/en/blog/factors-keep-mind-when-implementing-seo-cms). Which we suggest you to read before starting this one. You see, a CMS framework is the heart and soul of your online platform. Pick the wrong one, and you won’t be able to establish a real online presence that impacts positively on your offline business. Currently, there are many (and we mean many) different content management systems that you can choose from, but today we will be focusing only on the two biggest content platforms: Drupal and Wordpress. ##Why are CMS frameworks so important? Before we go on and on about these two different platforms, what they have to offer you and which one is the best option for your company, let us tell you why picking the right CMS is so important. Like we previously said, the CMS is the core of your online platform, meaning, your website. It is the place where you’ll post your content and edit it for others to see (hopefully future clients) A good CMS- No, a great CMS framework should be one that allows you customize your website, easily update any page on your platform, keep your information safe and adapts to Google’s algorithm. Let’s repeat this information once again, shall we? The perfect CMS framework should be: 1. Customizable: It should include all the necessary features that allow you to customize your website and the content you are planning to post (whatever that might be). 2. Easy to update: Most Content Management Systems required certain updates to keep functioning correctly. The one you end up choosing should be easy to update without interfering with your regular schedule. 3. It must be secure: We will talk deeply about this matter later on, but for now, you should know that any CMS should have a great security system that protects your website from being hacked or infected with any online virus. 4. Adaptable to Google’s algorithm: Your CMS is your best friend when it comes to adapting your SEO strategy. If you do not have one that makes your content easy to ready by Google’s algorithm, then you will face a huge (and unnecessary) trouble. To put it simply, CMS frameworks are important because they allow us to create the web software solutions we need. They support and maintain our websites up, allowing us to reach to a wider public. ##Drupal vs Wordpress: Top factors to consider When you take a look at the statistics, Wordpress and Drupal [come across as the most popular Content Management Systems currently available](https://websitesetup.org/popular-cms/), with millions of people using their system. So today, we will evaluate them in four key aspects: Installation, features, support and security. Four main factors to take into consideration when picking your next CMS. ##1: Installation It doesn’t matter if you are an expert software developer who can get around installing difficult platforms and systems, we all want a CMS framework that is easy to install, not a pain in the head. That being said, both Drupal and Wordpress are extremely easy to install, and you’ll be able to get it downloaded in just a couple of minutes. Not tricks, not difficulties at all. On one hand, Wordpress offers their users a quick installation process that is pretty much straight forward, although they do give you the option to this manually in case you want to customize your CMS from the start. Drupal follows a very similar process, allowing their users to quickly get and install their system in just a matter of minutes. What is even better about Drupal is that you can download their system directly from their page so you know you’re getting the actual framework from a secure source. ##2: Features When we talk about features, we talk about how easy it is to use this platform and if it comes with all the right features to help you get to where you want to be. That being said, here is where these two CMS’s really are set apart. On one hand, Wordpress is extremely easy to use, has just the right tools for beginners to move around, and it is very user-friendly. Not too complicated, not too much to worry about. Their interface and the features they give you when it comes to posting content are really straight forward. Which is why Wordpress is considered as the perfect Blogging platform. However, if you’re looking for something much more complex that allows you to go beyond just blogging, then Drupal is for you. Now, don’t get it wrong, Drupal has a very clean interface and it is easy to use, however, they have much more features that make the experience a little bit more complex, but once you get use to it, there’s nothing you can’t do. Drupal is the perfect CMS framework for those who are searching for a much more complete online experience and want to create a strong-solid website, not just a blog site. ##3: Support The importance of support depends on the type of website you’re getting. Again, if all that you want is a simple blog site, support might not be amongst your top priorities. However, if what you want is a complex, well put together website with different pages and sections, then support should be your #2 priority. And, luckily for you, both Wordpress and Drupal have great support systems. Both of these platforms have active online communities that are constantly offering help and posting useful information to those who need it. Not to mention, they both count with actual customer support, so you will be okay. ##4: Security After point #1, security should always be your top priority when looking for a CMS. Remember, this is where you’ll have your whole online platform, and as such, should be able to protect it from any outside attacks. Let’s start talking about Wordpress, who only in 2017, made a total of twenty-one updates of which 33% of these were security updates, according to [teach advisory](https://www.techadvisory.org/2018/05/wordpress-security-updates-yay-or-nay/) statistics. Although these updates were made to help protect the different websites that are currently using Wordpress as their CMS, many of them only made the sites suffer from malfunctions when implementing these new measures. In fact, when users tried to use these updates they suffered from problems such as: Incompatibility with plugins, slow pages and different altered functions. It should be noted that although [Wordpress has increased the number of security updates since 2014](https://www.prontomarketing.com/blog/can-wordpress-security-updates-be-bad-for-your-website/), it is still the CMS with the most websites hacked / affected, according to the [sucuri report](https://sucuri.net/reports/2017-hacked-website-report). On the other hand, it is important to mention that Drupal is rated as one of the most secure CMS (being the [security of its platform](https://sucuri.net/reports/2017-hacked-website-report) the strong point of Drupal). This is precisely because the security team of Drupal is constantly looking for any vulnerability that may affect them, and to find some, they fix it almost immediately, and they alert their users through their official page. Last, but definitely not least It should also be noted that among the main CMS in the market (Wordpress, Joomla and Magento) Drupal has the lowest number of infected websites, with only 1.6% of websites affected by security problems in its platform, while Wordpress has a total 83% of websites affected, and joomla 13.1% -even when all three platforms have constant security updates- Not to mention that frameworks (like Drupal) are much more secure compared to generic CMS that do not allow their codes to be personalized. ###So, which one is the best for me? To put it simply, if you’re looking for a very basic experience and you’re not really on the look to build a proper website that serves as an online platform, Wordpress is your best bet. However, if you’re looking to create a customizable, secure, versatile website, Drupal is the CMS framework you definitely want to work with, we guarantee you that.

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