Wordpress or Joomla...your choice.

[ITsoldUK]

I read somewhere recently that WP is now the dominant force in OS CMS/Blogging platforms.

Just curious what members on here use/think...being nosey if you like to see if this article bears any relation to the UKBF.

The question is which one do you use/prefer and why.

Me, I use both. J2.5 for my core site as it offers greater scaleable options and for my DM blog I use WP as it is, well, a blog with little more required.

Thanks guys

(PS I am fully conversant in both so no need for the auto posters and post bumpers to teach me how to suck eggs, just after an open and frank opinion please.)

 

[cava83]

Hi,

I use both, used to love Joomla, now prefer WP.

Currently have a project where I need to use Joomla due to the plugins it requires (real estate) but would rather use WP.

Try it, you will like it

G.

 

[Jessshailes]

Absolutely prefer WP, just find it more user friendly and it's easier to teach other people who are not so web savvy how to use it as well. Personal opinion of course. I think what I really like about it is that if I imagine that I want to be able to do something, there is usually a plugin out there that will do it, you can't say the same about less popular platforms can you?

 

[Bumblebuzz]

+1 vote for wordpress.

As Jess rightly pointed out. Joomla I think has a steeper learning curve for those less techy people.
Joomla is of course an excellent platform though, excellent extendibility.
However, I do prefer Wordpress! Used it for several years now, awesome CMS.

 

[Faevilangel]

I am fluent in both, but for my own projects I use WP, and I do recommend clients to WP if they don't have a preference, though I do get a couple of Joomla requests as it's more suited to the heavy database sites where WP is more suited to the smaller, more static type of sites.

WP 3.0 did turn the cog slightly more towards WP with the custom post types but I would still use Joomla for higher spec'd sites.

 

[Websitehandyman]

Every time I've used Joomla I've managed to do something that results in the whole site cocking up. I don't even mean code changes either, adding content or doing something in the admin end. For that reason I settled on WP because although you can still get the odd mismatch with a plugin, at least you know it's the plugin. For me WP is far more stable and far more flexible for the novice and expert.

 

[TracyWhite]

Only used WP so can't say one is better than another. What I like about WP though, as other have mentioned, is its user friendliness. On the dev side, I like it because there is a function for just about everything or a plugin.

 

[KM-Tiger]

Horses, courses, and don't leave out Drupal.

I can well imagine that there are more users with simple needs that are best satisfied with WP. But that makes it ubiquitous. Best will depend on exact requirements.

 

[businessguy206]

I would surely always pick wordpress because ive had the same experience with Joomla, where the site crashes, or something goes majorly wrong, and its really not user-friendly to correct the issue - although I like the look of Joomla - I still prefer WP.

 

[sambarnes90]

Joomla 3.0 is coming soon too and there is quite a few big changes.

Ill definitely be interested in seeing how well it does.

If you search Google the beta is already available I believe.

Personally, I've moved from joomla to WordPress over the last year or so. The userbase for WordPress is incredible and I always seem to be able to find the exact plugins I need for minimal cost. That's not always been the case with Joomla in my experience!

Sent from my HTC Desire using UK Business Forums

 

[mlbmarketinguk]

As someone who likes full control over what they do I prefer Joomla.

Also, I think save for article tagging it's almost better for blogs.

Wordpress is more user-friendly until you want to extend it beyond a blog, at that point it's not user friendly as it wasn't really designed for anything other than that.

Want a blog? Wordpress. Anything else, try Joomla, it's not that steep....

2.5 is much more SEO friendly out of the box too, 3 will be excellent I'm sure, I've been with it since 1.5 and it continues to improve each time.

 

[Bumblebuzz]

Wordpress is more user-friendly until you want to extend it beyond a blog, at that point it's not user friendly as it wasn't really designed for anything other than that.

Want a blog? Wordpress. Anything else, try Joomla, it's not that steep....
.

I do disagree slightly.

If done correctly you can turn wordpress into a full e-commerce website.
I've also mashed together several things together to turn wordpress into an estate agents website with a social networking twist.

If you look carefully and think before what you need to do - Wordpress is not just limited to a blog

It's extendibility is great... but Joomla's is better (for the much bigger projects)

 

[ITsoldUK]

Joomla 3.0 is coming soon too and there is quite a few big changes.

Ill definitely be interested in seeing how well it does.

If you search Google the beta is already available I believe.

Personally, I've moved from joomla to WordPress over the last year or so. The userbase for WordPress is incredible and I always seem to be able to find the exact plugins I need for minimal cost. That's not always been the case with Joomla in my experience!

Sent from my HTC Desire using UK Business Forums

It is indeed and I have been working with it in a local environment.

It is looking good, not a major overhaul but enough to make the switch worthwhile.

I also like the implementation of a much easier upgrade path from 2.5 to 3...nothing like the jump from 1.7 to 2.5

I am one of those that missed out some of the earlier stepping stone releases deliberately... because of the upward path. Mainly as I work with some heavily modified J sites.

 

[ITsoldUK]

Horses, courses, and don't leave out Drupal.

I can well imagine that there are more users with simple needs that are best satisfied with WP. But that makes it ubiquitous. Best will depend on exact requirements.

Never forget Drupal indeed...

And bang on, it really does depend what your development aims are for your site as to which flavour you choose.

 

[ITsoldUK]

I do disagree slightly.

If done correctly you can turn wordpress into a full e-commerce website.
I've also mashed together several things together to turn wordpress into an estate agents website with a social networking twist.

If you look carefully and think before what you need to do - Wordpress is not just limited to a blog

It's extendibility is great... but Joomla's is better (for the much bigger projects)

Good points but in my experience, I know you can turn both into whatever you want and if ecommerce functionality is required for a few products (like me for example) then both would suffice however I am a big fan of right hats for right people and this applies to ecommerce.

It ecommerce is core to my business then I would use NEITHER to handle this, I would go for a dedicated SC/Billing system to manage this (I use whmcs for example on a standalone basis).

 

[mlbmarketinguk]

I do disagree slightly.

If done correctly you can turn wordpress into a full e-commerce website.
I've also mashed together several things together to turn wordpress into an estate agents website with a social networking twist.

If you look carefully and think before what you need to do - Wordpress is not just limited to a blog

It's extendibility is great... but Joomla's is better (for the much bigger projects)

Yeah I'm familiar with the plugins etc to do it but the backend GUI isn't ideal for these kinds of application in my opinion, the whole module system in Wordpress isn't, for me, flexible enough. This stems from it's blogging platform origins and limited module needs.
Joomla has made great improvements in how modules are assigned to relevant site sections and it's one of the things I like about it.

I'd say, simple blog / company site = wordpress
Advanced blog / magazine / directory / company site = joomla

As always though, these are great technologies and you can indeed get a lot out of them now they have matured.
And it's very relevant to your personal abilities and experience of the technologies.
Haven't used drupal but heard great things, especially with regards to programming structure.

But with regards to expanded functionality, my current preference is to stand alone platforms as opposed to CMS add-ins. I.e. e-commerce = magento etc
The CMS add in's feel bloated with the CMS on top. Can always install the blog in a sub-directory and keep it separate and lite.

 

[Bumblebuzz]

This topic has been going on for years. I think Wordpress has grown massively in recent years in regards to what it can help you produce.

I do agree, whist I mentioned turning them into an ecommerce site. depending on how big it is or could be, it's best to start off with dedicated systems for that

 

[p@pillon]

Definitely I prefer to use WP, also in my opinion it's much more friendly. But it depends on what you use it for. In my case WP works better.

 

[lobbyesiqa]

I prefer joomla for Quality...................

 

[cava83]

I prefer joomla for Quality...................

Care to elaborate on Quality?

They are both good platforms, it's simply that joomla has a stepper learning curve and somethings aren't quite logical, but you get used to it.

However, I am not sure how you can label quality on this instance as superior on Joomla, they both have their flaws but both excel in other areas.

 

[jdbcomputing]

Wordpress, every time, mainly because I have a lot more experience using it.

 

[PDC]

I would say Joomla is a lot more complicated to learn to use and the admin side can be quite overwhelming for a beginner while Wordpress is far more user friendly for non technical people or those who just want to jump in to managing their website.

Both work well but we stopped using Joomla as there was little very little support nor community for it, it felt like a dying piece of software so we moved to wordpress which seems far more contempory.

I've heard good things about Silver stripe and seen a couple of sites that look very good which were built with it but I've yet to get the time to have a look at it.

 

[AngeloCamassa]

WordPress is best.. If you are looking for a user friendly CMS.. but joomla if your are a developer or you want a better control....

 

[simonswords]

Joomla and Wordpress are different tools with different uses. We use Joomla for directory, or other more "hardcore" websites that need quite a lot of functionality. Wordpress is simple, so we try not to bloat it too much and only use it on simple websites - although that's not to say it's not equally as capable as Joomla.

 

[RedEvo]

There's no answer to the question 'which one's better' IMHO. They are both fantastic tools with differing methodologies behind them. I use both and prefer Joomla, that doesn't make it better

d

 

[Esk247]

Prefer WordPress. Didn't get it at first but with the range of plugins available, and it's free, and it can be bolted on to an ecommerce site using another database to give you an interactive blog.

For Ecommerce though always use a dedicated platform. Wordpress is for writing, interactivity and imo doesn't suit hardcore product sales e.g. if you're selling 500+ products in a supermarket style website. It just ends up as a big mess.

Tried Joomla and suffered the same problem someone else mentioned. One wrong module and i stuffed the whole site up and crashed it. Wordpress hasn't had that problem...yet.

 

[FIZIX Agency]

I'm going to throw the cat into the pigeons a bit and while not entirely relevant as its not open source I am going to say that while I use Wordpress, Joompa and Drupal; and magento for ecommerce, they aren't coded well; they are popular solutions but are not the best solutions.

I prefer expression engine for an off the shelf CMS; its a better product and offsetting the cost is easy as its not expensive (unless you are working in a rock bottom budget market).

If you are bespoke building, code igniter is great as its clean and has a small footprint; or even develop your own framework which we eventually did; so that we maintained control over the platform we used and could streamline ourselves easier.

Just me 2 pence worth.

 

[techfellas]

Joomla shows its strength in its structural complexity, such as its navigation, sections within sections and categories etc. It’s really good for community websites and low-med traffic sites, and although you can develop ordinary sites with it, I would actually regard that as overkill. Joomla would probably be the CMS of choice if you were looking to build a high traffic e-commerce store.

WordPress is incredibly simple; it can be used simply as a blog or as a regular website. Like Joomla, it has fixed categories, pages and posts.

With the many available plugins, you can easily enhance its functionality and expand it as big and complex as you want. The majority of the plugins are easy to use and there is a large community of WordPress users and developers on hand should you need any help.

 

[John Forbes Nash]

i think that WP is speciallized for blogging and joomla is the perfect choice for making e-commerce website just by addiding some plugins like opencart ..

 

[URBAN COLOUR]

Joomla

Love it