A lot of websites today are powered by easy to use content management systems (CMS) that allow you to make changes to a website without needing to touch a single line of code.

Three of the most common CMS Systems are WordPress, Joomla and Drupal and all a lot a lot of  great features, tons of customizaions, ease-of-use, and strong security.

    

 

So determining to choose the right one can be difficult because they all offer good features.

But lets see the basic features of each CMS to be able to choose one as your future CMS.

Quick Overview of 3 Popular CMS:

• WordPress – Best choice for beginners because of it’s ease-of-use, it works especially well for small to medium sized websites, blogs, news websites, and smaller e-commerce stores. based on extendable architecture as it provides tons of plugins that enable users to customize their website.
• Joomla – Great for e-commerce or social networking websites, but requires a basic understanding of technical skills. Also contains tons of customizes as it has a lot of extensions and components.
• Drupal – The most difficult, but also the most powerful. A lot of big websites built wit Drupal. It requires a familiar understanding of HTML, CSS and PHP.

 

WordPress vs Joomla vs Drupal Comparison Chart

  WordPress (Best for Beginners

 

WordPress is the world’s most popular content management system.

Despite it’s humble blogging beginnings, WordPress has taken the world by storm (literally), powering over over 60 millions websites today.

If that’s not impressive, WordPress is also used on over 40% of CMS-based websites – leading the market of DIY CMS websites by a wiiiiiiide margin.

Here’s why it’s so popular.

• Easy to Install – Many web hosting companies (like Bluehost) offer instant, automated WordPress installs in their hosting environment. That means you can get a brand new website up-and-running in less than five minutes! (It takes longer to go brew a cup of coffee than it does to have new WordPress website online.)
• Customizable – WordPress has significantly more plug-ins, themes and other customizations available than any other CMS. Because of it’s widespread popularity, more third-party designers and developers will create free (or relatively inexpensive) new WordPress tools to help you create/start a blog that looks like a high-dollar custom website (while only setting you back less than $100).
• Free– WordPress is absolutely, no-strings-attached free to use. And building on the last point, there are easily tens of thousands of free plug-ins and themes available to choose from. This is perfect for most beginners putting together their first site because it keeps costs down.
• Community Support – If you do experience issues or have questions about your new WordPress site, you can easily tap into the millions of people already using and supporting it. Their support forum includes helpful contributors that can answer any question you might have, within minutes, again – for free. Awesome, right?

Of course, WordPress isn’t perfect and does have it’s drawbacks.

Cheif among them: WordPress is an easy-to-use framework because it locks down the ability for most users to make significant visual edits (for their own good). So you can’t make a TON of structural website changes without the help of a designer and/or developer.

However, for a beginner, this is probably the most suitable platform to build a site.

  Drupal (More Robust & Complex)

Drupal is the third most popular content management system available today, used by sites both large and small.

It’s among the most powerful open sourced options available, which means it’s learning curve is also a bit steeper.

Here’s where Drupal excels:

• Technically Advanced – Drupal is the most technically advanced of these three content management systems. Good for technical people who like to get their hands dirty.
• Improved Performance – Drupal pages typically load more quickly, and have faster response times than those made with WordPress or Joomla. Part of the reason is because it’s less resource-intensive, requiring a less expensive server or hosting setup. (However like with all CMS, adding too many third party plugins can bog down performance.)
• Customizable – Drupal is easy to customize with many widely available plug-ins, themes and other configurable options to choose from. You can also edit the root files directly, perfect for those developers who need to make more significant changes.
• Free – You can download the Drupal software for free, and install it on your own hosting server. If you don’t which host to use, use this best web hosting chart.

Drupal is the most powerful content management system out of the box. But with that power comes some additional difficulties for the website owner.

Anyone considering Drupal should have at least a basic knowledge of HTML, PHP and other common web programming languages. You don’t need to be an expert necessarily, but being able to troubleshoot error messages and identify code problems will be a HUGE benefit.

If your website begins to gain traction, evolving beyond a simple business site or site, you’ll need to have (or hire) technical expertise to make sure it continues to run smoothly.

Which can be a bit of a problem, because it’s typically a little harder (and more expensive) to find someone with advanced knowledge of Drupal’s steep learning curve. Whereas it should be much easier and less expensive to find someone relatively tech-savvy to help you make basic WordPress updates.

Also, unlike WordPress.com, there is no option to have a website hosted by Drupal themselves. That means purchasing your own domain and hosting is required before getting started with a new Drupal site.

  Joomla (Somewhere Between WordPress & Drupal)

Joomla is the second most popular CMS. It’s like the compromise between WordPress and Drupal.

It’s powerful enough to run most websites without any problems, and it doesn’t require the same level of technical experience to run as Drupal either.

As the second most used CMS (behind WordPress), Joomla also has a lot of plug-ins and themes available to choose from (around 6000 or so) similar to both WordPress and Drupal. So customizing the look and feel of your site shouldn’t be problem.

Here are a few more reasons Joomla might be ideal for you:

• Social Networking – Joomla makes creating social networks of all three options. Social networks can be a powerful asset for many sites, and with Joomla, you can have one up and running extremely quickly and easily.
• Commerce Sites – Joomla also makes setting up an online store quick and painless. You can setup eCommerce shops with both Drupal and WordPress, but it tends to require more effort and special customizations.
• Not too Technical – Joomla has found the middle ground between the ease of managing a WordPress website and the power of a Drupal site. The good news is that most non-tech savvy people should be able to run a great Joomla site without needing any technical support.
• Help Portal – Joomla offers a great help portal for asking questions and getting technical support. It’s not fast or extensive as WordPress’ community-based support pages, but is definitely quicker (and cheaper) than Drupal’s technical support options.
• Free – Like both WordPress and Drupal, Joomla is another free option to use on your own web servers. However similar to Drupal, there is no option to have it hosted for free like WordPress offers.