WordPress vs Joomla: comparison
The basic difference between WordPress and Joomla is that Joomla began as a CMS meant to serve portal-like websites, while WordPress was originally a blog-focused platform. Recently, however, both WordPress and Joomla have been perfectly capable of running any sort of website.
From a technical point of view, both WordPress and Joomla aren’t stand-alone pieces of software; they only work when installed on an internet server. this is often an internet server that you simply get from a third-party company, and here we recommend Bluehost.
If you would like to create an internet site, the key aspect to consider is how comfortable you are with web software configuration, working with servers, and handling technical aspects of the method generally.
Traditionally, Joomla is more geared towards developers who aren’t afraid to “get their hands dirty” working with servers. WordPress, on the other hand, is more beginner-friendly and uber-easy to get started with.
For example, the common path to starting an internet site with WordPress is as follows:
- Choose an internet host for your site and check in for an account
- During the registration process, select a choice to have WordPress installed automatically on your hosting account (yes, you don’t need to install WordPress by yourself)
- Complete the hosting setup and log into your WordPress dashboard
- Configure your site, install a topic and install a few much-needed plugins
Joomla, on the other hand, doesn’t offer you this type of hands-free approach. The hosts that do allow Joomla don’t usually have those custom installation processes, meaning that you’ll need to do most things on your own.
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Not yet sure which is best for you, WordPress vs Joomla? Here’s an in-depth comparison:
1. Search engine optimization
If we compare the program Optimization (SEO) capabilities of both platforms out of the box, Joomla takes a small edge due to enabling its users to line meta descriptions and keywords for brand-spanking new articles, like so:
A screenshot of Joomla’s meta settings.
That being said, the true SEO capabilities of either platform aren’t readily apparent unless we take a glance at the plugins or extensions available for the task. On WordPress’ side, we’ve got the incredibly popular Yoast SEO plugin – it’s powerful, offers many features, and better of all anyone can get to grips with it in a matter of minutes.
Yoast categorizes your SEO score in several areas by employing a traffic signal system of red, yellow, or green colors. Furthermore, the plugin tells you exactly the way to improve your score in each area – and if that wasn’t enough, it also rates your post’s readability.
During our testing, we found Easy Frontend SEO (EFSEO) to be the simplest Joomla-like Yoast. It enables you to hold out many equivalent tasks—like editing your meta information – directly on the front of your site and also includes a handy automatic mode for generating this data without your input.
A screenshot of Easy Frontend SEO’s header.
However, it’s clear that as handy as EFSEO is, it’s no match for Yoast. thanks to this, round one of WordPress vs Joomla goes to WordPress.
2. Security
When it comes to security, any system is merely as strong as its weakest link – therefore, the question is: which platform is safer out of the box?
Due to its popularity, WordPress has a giant target on its back when it comes to security vulnerabilities. Each WordPress install is exclusive because of the thousands of plugins (there’s a plugin for everything, from making charts to using pig Latin) and themes available for the CMS.
While this is often particularly positive, it’s also a nightmare from a security standpoint – it’s impossible to make sure that each plugin employs proper safety standards, and remains compatible with newer versions of the platform.
Moreover, WordPress doesn’t ship with basic features like forcing a Secure Socket Layer (SSL) connection on its dashboard – you would like to switch its core files to enable it – or Two-Factor Authentication (2FA). In fact, most of its advanced security measures rely entirely on plugins.
On the other hand, Joomla ships with both a choice to force connections over SSL and another one for 2FA. additionally, it offers its own set of security extensions, and its developers maintain an inventory of these extensions with known vulnerabilities.
A screenshot of Joomla’s Force HTTPS option.
Round two of WordPress vs Joomla goes to Joomla.
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3. Customization potential
We’ve already covered some ground when it comes to WordPress plugins and Joomla extensions. Both CMSs have their roster of plugins for the most conceivable of use cases, although WordPress wins handily thanks to the sheer number.
However, when looking into the highest plugins on each respective CMS, we feel WordPress’ offerings have a greater subjective ‘polish’. You don’t get to take our word for it An easy side-by-side comparison of two tools we’ve already mentioned, Yoast SEO and EFSEO (shown therein order), reflects this:
Yoast SEO vs EFSEO comparison.
While the latter offers even as many features as its WordPress counterpart, the former provides a far better experience.
Moving on, when it comes to customizing your site’s style, there are WordPress themes on one side and Joomla templates on the other, and therefore the same story repeats itself here, like plugins. Not only is it easier to seek out high-quality WordPress themes, but they also often offer a better level of support and a mostly better experience.
Round three goes to WordPress.
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4. Content management and potential
Both WordPress and Joomla are complex CMSs, enabling users to make and manage almost any sort of website. Although WordPress is usually related to simple blogs, it’s also an excellent solution for landing pages and even more complex sites.
On the other hand, Joomla is renowned for its complexity – although it does offer some fantastic documentation. A site built with Joomla can evolve into anything it wants, but the training curve is far steeper for users with no experience in web development.
Despite being equal when it comes to sheer potential, it’s fair to mention that WordPress enables its users to manage their content with relative ease. Anyone can install the platform and devour the way to create posts, pages, or custom post types within minutes, whereas Joomla is a smaller, more forgiving platform.
Taking all of this into consideration, we must award the ultimate round of WordPress vs Joomla to the previous round, which provides the general contest to WordPress!
Conclusion
In some ways, Joomla is more flexible than WordPress. It offers an incredibly customizable system that will take almost any shape you would like, and it enables you to implement tons of small customizations without counting on extensions. However, between WordPress and Joomla, there can only be one winner, and therefore the crown must go to WordPress.
The WordPress logo.
It beats out Joomla when it involves SEO, customization possibilities, and content management – therefore, the choice is obvious. Furthermore, WordPress is simply simpler to select for brand-spanking new users, and its popularity gives it the added fringe of providing users with a far better support structure—it’s the cherry on top of the WordPress sundae.
Again, if you would like to find out how to build an internet site on WordPress step-by-step, here’s our guide.
If you’re trying to find an affordable WordPress host with easy-start features, inspect Bluehost.