Joomla vs WordPress – Which One is Better? (Pros and Cons)

 Choosing a blogging platform might not be as hard as choosing the entire content management system that allows you to do more complex web projects. Both Joomla and WordPress have some extended functionality but let’s look into how they compare against one another. Here are the features we will compare:

Casual bloggers who don’t ask for much can easily go for less complicated services, although WordPress should always be on top of the list to make a blog. But when it comes to entire content management systems that allow you to do much more than just writing posts, things become a bit more serious.

Even in that case, WordPress is still on top of the list. But in situations where you think about the whole site, its elements, and all the possibilities, some other players in the game are just as competitive. Have you heard about Joomla?

What is Joomla?

Just like WordPress, Joomla is an open-source CMS that allows you to generate web content and powerful applications. It has been available since 2005, and it has been a good WP alternative ever since. Although very similar, Joomla is different from the very start – unlike WordPress, it allows several database options which are something important to tech-savvy folks. But if you’re not into serious web development, those features will not mean that much to you.

It is important to know the difference between Joomla CMS (the one we are talking about in this article) and Joomla Framework that allows developers to create PHP-based applications without all the extra features that come with the CMS.

When we talk about average users, it is important to know that Joomla is beginner-friendly, updated on a regular basis, features extensive customization options and counts a massive online community that’s always ready to help. Sounds like WordPress, doesn’t it? But unlike WordPress that counts more than 140 million downloads, Joomla has been downloaded “only” about 60 million times. The numbers are enormous, but still not even close to WordPress.

Although the following video shows older versions of WordPress and Joomla, the basic features haven’t changed that much. Because of that, the comparison is valid for the new versions of the two CMS as well.

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Joomla vs. WordPress Comparison 2021

Joomla vs. WordPress Comparison 2021

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Category: WordPress

Choosing a blogging platform might not be as hard as choosing the entire content management system that allows you to do more complex web projects. Both Joomla and WordPress have some extended functionality but let’s look into how they compare against one another. Here are the features we will compare:

Ease of use

Appearance and extensions

Content Management

Support

Security

Multilingual sites

Casual bloggers who don’t ask for much can easily go for less complicated services, although WordPress should always be on top of the list to make a blog. But when it comes to entire content management systems that allow you to do much more than just writing posts, things become a bit more serious.

Even in that case, WordPress is still on top of the list. But in situations where you think about the whole site, its elements, and all the possibilities, some other players in the game are just as competitive. Have you heard about Joomla?

What is Joomla?

Just like WordPress, Joomla is an open source CMS that allows you to generate web content and powerful applications. It has been available since 2005, and it has been a good WP alternative ever since. Although very similar, Joomla is different from the very start – unlike WordPress, it allows several database options which is something important to tech-savvy folks. But if you’re not into serious web development, those features will not mean that much to you.

Joomla powers up millions of websites. Those range from simple personal pages to complex web applications and intranets that help people connect and work locally.

It is important to know the difference between Joomla CMS (the one we are talking about in this article) and Joomla Framework that allows developers to create PHP-based applications without all the extra features that come with the CMS.

When we talk about average users, it is important to know that Joomla is beginner-friendly, updated on a regular basis, features extensive customization options and counts massive online community that’s always ready to help. Sounds like WordPress, doesn’t it? But unlike WordPress that counts more than 140 million downloads, Joomla has been downloaded “only” about 60 million times. The numbers are enormous, but still not even close to WordPress.

Although the following video shows older versions of WordPress and Joomla, the basic features haven’t changed that much. Because of that, the comparison is valid for the new versions of the two CMS as well.

Ease of use

Even if you are a professional web developer or designer, you want the tools to be as simple as possible. But for beginners, having a simple CMS is a must-have. Luckily, both WordPress and Joomla are quite simple to understand and start with.

Originally launched as a blogging platform in 2003, WordPress is now a multi-purpose content management system that powers over 40.0% of all the websites on the Internet (including a lot more than just blogs!). In terms of the market share of the content management system market, WordPress holds an even more dominant 40.0% market share.

What Are Some Of The Commonly Touted Advantages Of WordPress And Joomla?

If you search around for Joomla vs WordPress, you can find plenty of ideological battles between developers on both sides of the spectrum. In general, here are some of the broad reasons you’ll see on each side for why one platform is the best:

WordPress Advantages

• Ease of use – WordPress is generally regarded as being the easiest content management system to use, especially for non-developers.
• Better suited for blogging – WordPress includes a distinction for “blog posts” vs “static pages” right out of the box, whereas Joomla just includes a single “article” type that you can manipulate with categories.
• Extensibility – WordPress has, by far, the largest ecosystem of WordPress plugins and WordPress themes, which makes it easy to extend your site with a variety of different features.
• Huge support community – because WordPress is so popular, it’s easy to find help via the massive third-party ecosystem of blogs, Facebook groups, and developers.
• Lower development costs – this huge community also means you can generally get development work done a bit cheaper.

Joomla Advantages

• More advanced user management – Joomla offers a more advanced system for user access controls and user management out of the box.
• Flexible for different content types – Joomla’s components and modules give you a bit more flexibility for displaying non-standard content types.
• Multilingual support – Joomla has multilingual support built-in to the core, while WordPress requires you to use a third-party plugin.
• Multiple templates – Joomla lets you use different templates for different pieces of content, whereas you can only use one WordPress theme.

How Easy Is It To Get Up And Running With WordPress And Joomla?

While Joomla is a more beginner-friendly option than something like Drupal, WordPress is still the easiest and fastest way to create a website.

WordPress Ease Of Use And Learning Curve

If you’re just creating a “regular” website with static content and/or a blog, it’s possible to get up and running with something that looks good in just a couple of hours.

Most hosts include WordPress auto-installers or even come with pre-installed WordPress.

From there, the WordPress interface is easy enough that most casual users can start creating content right away.

Newer additions like the WordPress Customizer now also make it easy for people to make safe, code-free theme changes, which is especially helpful as more and more WordPress themes are embracing the Customizer in interesting ways:

Joomla Ease Of Use And Learning Curve

Like WordPress, most web hosts sport a Joomla auto-installer that makes it easy to get the Joomla software installed.

From there, you’ll need to put a little more time and effort into your site, though. As we said, Joomla uses a combination of Articles and Categories. So before you start creating content, you need to create categories for the type of content you want to create.

It’s nothing too overwhelming, but it is a bit more of an involved process than WordPress, especially for non-developers.

The Joomla TinyMCE Article editor is almost identical to WordPress‘ implementation of the TinyMCE editor, so there’s no huge difference on that front:

How Can You Extend Your Website With Joomla And WordPress?

Both Joomla and WordPress offer multiple add-on types that you can use to extend your site:

Functionality – WordPress calls these plugins, while Joomla calls them extensions

Aesthetics – WordPress calls these themes, while Joomla calls them templates

WordPress’ extension marketplace is larger in terms of sheer numbers, but both platforms have a good deal of variety.

How Many Plugins And Themes Does WordPress Have?

Currently, WordPress has:

54,000+ free plugins at the official WordPress.org plugin directory, plus thousands of premium plugins

5,000+ free themes at the official WordPress.org plugin directory, plus thousands of premium themes.

Are WordPress And Joomla Equally Secure?

The core software of both Joomla and WordPress is secure. Additionally, each platform also features third-party plugins or extensions to add additional security, as well as easy in-dashboard update systems to help keep everything up-to-date.

With that being said…human error is always a real thing and, because each platform is extensible, there are bound to be security issues.

WordPress Security

According to Sucuri’s Hacked Website Report – 2016/Q3, WordPress accounted for 74% of the hacked websites in Sucuri’s sample, which is ~25% larger than its market share of 58.9% (at the time):

Joomla Security

In that same report, Joomla sites accounted for 17% of all the hacked websites, which is ~132% higher than Joomla’s 7.3% market share at the time:

Interestingly, though, 84% of the hacked Joomla sites were running out of date software at the time of infection, compared to just 61% for WordPress sites: