Joomla vs WordPress for Beginners – Features SEO and More
Joomla and WordPress, the two most popular content management systems (CMS) out there, are going head to head in an epic battle.
WordPress is the best blogging platform out there, and offers great features for content management. Joomla, on the other hand, is great for complex sites, and allows easy management and maintenance of your website even without any programming knowledge.
So, which one do you choose for your blog or site? Let’s start by taking a quick look at the features on offer by both these content management systems (CMS), and then dive deeper.
WordPress vs Joomla Feature Comparison
Joomla vs WordPress: Joomla Features
As a CMS, Joomla is excellent, and everybody can set up complicated websites without ever needing to worry about the running and maintenance of the site.
It offers all of the required features, beginning with adding of everything like your images, articles, navigation menus as well as updating them all. It allows users to increase the functionality of the sites by extensions provided by the Joomla software.
Joomla also provides great flexibility and versatility to developers in designing complex blogs and website. This is why many web designers regard Joomla to be better than WordPress.
WordPress vs Joomla: WordPress Features
WordPress is the ultimate blogging platform, and is a content management system that is easy to install and use. Also, bloggers and users can customize the site according to their need.
WordPress Features – WordPress vs Joomla
Although WordPress provides greater flexibility when it comes to customization, and you do not need extensive programming knowledge, it does have more difficulties, and the process is slightly harder than in Joomla.
The easy to install WordPress plugins are great enhancements for any blog or website, and make your site more dynamic.
WordPress also gives your blog a built in comment platform, meaning better communication with visitors and more feedback. This is vital for a blogging community, and so many bloggers hold WordPress above Joomla.
In Depth Analysis of WordPress vs Joomla
Newbie Friendliness
WordPress is the most popular CMS by current statistics, but that may be due to the fact that it is 2 years older than Joomla.
However, it is clear that WordPress is a more user friendly site, and is much better for newbies. And there is absolutely no doubt that if you are going to start a content based blog, WordPress is the way to go.
However, Joomla does have benefits in this regard – it is the best for static or corporate sites, and a great example of this is eBay.
WordPress Themes and Joomla Themes
WordPress themes are designed with a specific purpose in mind, and do not offer great versatility.
Themes – A Comparison of Joomla and WordPress
However, they do offer much more options when it comes to customization, and WordPress is certainly better for developing custom themes. But it is again limited to the blogging environment.
Joomla themes and templates may not be easily customized, but that is not necessary since the themes themselves offer great versatility.
Overall, WordPress is more for minimalistic design, whereas Joomla offers quite a lot of versatility and freedom when it comes to the design of a site.
Extensions and Enhancements
Both these CMSs have different extension structures.
Joomla’s structure requires getting a hang of, but once that happens, it becomes very easy and simple. It is hard at the start, and users need to get habituated with it for them to really benefit from what is on offer.
WordPress plugins are quite fantastic, and are specifically developed for blog type sites. They therefore also offer limited variety when a diverse usage is considered.
So, when it comes to the variety of the plugins, Joomla takes the prize. However, WordPress can surprise you by providing the extension that is perfectly suited to the core functionality of your site.
Joomla vs WordPress SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
When comparing WordPress and Joomla in terms of SEO capabilities, it is clear that WordPress is far, far ahead in this field and is substantially better than Joomla.
Joomla vs WordPress SEO – WordPress vs Joomla SEO
The thing which gives the gold to WordPress is the apart from the built in search engine friendliness, there is an excellent array of plugins available that help to make your life easier.
While Joomla is not that terrible in the SEO department, many avoid it totally on the basis of its SEO performance versus WordPress, and so Joomla is really a big loser in the SEO department when we do a Joomla vs WordPress comparison.
Usability
When it comes to usability, WordPress is a better managed CMS, and is clearly more user friendly than Joomla.
And although Joomla has traditionally been better for static pages, WordPress is catching up on that front as well.
This makes WP closer to becoming a direct competitor of Joomla, and gives it an even bigger advantage over its rival.
Support and Community
Joomla comes back with a bang by clearly winning the best support community award!
It might be surprising, but it is true that WordPress lacks a lot of community-building initiative that Joomla has.
Most of the WordPress sites are bland, and the platform offers little support or help to the community of users, unlike Joomla, which in comparison has great support features.
Shortcomings of Joomla and WordPress
Joomla Versus WordPress – Joomla Disadvantages
Disadvantages of Joomla
One of the biggest drawbacks with Joomla is the fact that its core system is extremely complex, and demands a lot of resources from the server.
If you add external plugins, the site may totally collapse and disintegrate unless it has been previously tweaked for better performance and is using a powerful server with a reliable web host.
Disadvantages of WordPress
WordPress’ disadvantage is that users are required to have at least a little knowledge in WordPress scripting if they ever want to add or remove attributes like post dates, authors etc. In Joomla, these are controlled by the control panel, and can be simply turned on or off.
Also, changing orders of categories or pages is a work which requires a lot of toil on WordPress, which makes it a hassle for users.
However, a lot of these WordPress cons can disappear with the use of right plugins!
Joomla vs WordPress – Conclusion
Joomla was developed from the ground up, and has become a benchmark for content management systems as an acclaimed and popular platform. WordPress was designed as a publishing platform, and has gradually transformed into a full scale CMS offering unique qualities.
Joomla vs WordPress – Which is Better?
In a nutshell, both these content management systems have benefits in their own respect.
Joomla is great for creating static websites, including sites oriented to e-commerce, and virtual markets, while WordPress’s greatest strength lies in its incredible blogs.
And while Joomla offers greater flexibility, WordPress may have better features and plugins.
Joomla is a fantastic option for a website that requires multiple user privileges or custom database work, whereas when developing a site that relies heavily on content, like a blog, or content based website or a news website, WordPress is a better choice.
Joomla’s strength lies in its ability to make complex things simple. WordPress is however truly simple, especially for blogs. It has fixed pages, posts and categories, and through the use of plugins, its functionality can be extended to be as big and complicated as you want.
Note: I have tried to make a comprehensive WordPress vs Joomla comparison, and have tried to include everything that is relevant. If I have missed anything, please let me know through comments and I would update the article to keep this Joomla vs WordPress comparison as complete as possible!
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