Intro to WordPress and Drupal
WordPress and Drupal are open source content management platforms powering millions of websites and applications. They allow you to easily organize, manage and publish your content, with an endless variety of customization. Both are written in the PHP programming language and depend on a MySQL database. Because WordPress and Drupal are Open Source projects, users and developers all over the world continue development on it, and you are free to use it without paying anyone a license fee. The best part about these platforms is that you can focus your time and effort on building great websites instead of building features from scratch.
WordPress
When WordPress first started in 2003, it was primarily a service for bloggers. However, it has evolved into a full content management system and is used to build websites every day. WordPress has two implementations, which may be confusing to newcomers. WordPress.com is a free service that allows anyone to create blogs using pre-built themes and tools. The other is the open-source WordPress CMS software found at WordPress.org.
The free service at WordPress.com is limited, but does offer premium upgrades at a fee such as personalized domain names, custom CSS, and no ads. Your site is hosted on WordPress and is easy to set up. Some of the other benefits include automated technical maintenance and content backups. This may fit your needs just fine, but there are some disadvantages. You cannot upload a custom theme, modify the code, or upload plugins, all which limit the overall design and features of your site.
To create a more robust and flexible website, use the open source software from WordPress.org and install it on your own web hosting account. From here, customization can begin. You can transform your site by installing and configuring any of the thousands of themes and plugins available, edit the database and modify the code. You can even design and install your own theme.
Drupal
Drupal core provides a flexible foundation to get started with Drupal. It can be used as is or customized with thousands of free designs, plug-ins, and modules. Drupal comes with many tools to help organize and structure your content. There are many options for new user accounts and permissions that allow you to have tight control over who can create, view, administer, publish and interact with content on your site.
Drupal allows site designers to create usable, interactive experiences that engage users and increase traffic. Use an existing Drupal theme for your site, or if you can’t find one you like, we can design one for you! The vast majority of your site’s requirements can be addressed with Drupal core and thousands of available add-on modules. To learn more about the key concepts in Drupal, I recommend viewing the video Understanding Drupal.
Drupal or WordPress?
We have built sites for clients in both Drupal and WordPress, and have found Drupal can be more complex than WordPress from the backend to the admin interface. Typically small sites use WordPress and the larger ones go with Drupal, but that is not always the case. If you have a large site and WordPress can meet all your needs, it may be better to use WordPress.
You can expand features on your website with plugins (WP) and modules (Drupal). I’d say that Drupal has the advantage here because everything is free. WordPress has many free plugins, but there are plenty out there that charge annual subscription costs.
The main advantage of WordPress is its ease of use. It is simple for almost anyone to set up a basic blog or website on WordPress but the same cannot be said for Drupal. If you want more control over the design and development, Drupal can be better as it currently offers more flexibility and expansion capabilities. However, keep in mind that a Drupal site usually requires more time and training to manage.
This post was written by:
Fawn Kildoo
Associate
For more information on this post, the technologies discussed here, or our Software and Web Development services, please email us at contact@zekiah.com.