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Ever since its launch in 2003, WordPress has continued to dominate the web design industry.
It would be simply wrong to just call it a CMS tool as it was no less than a revolution when it arrived. On a rough estimate more than 60 million websites online have been created using WordPress so far, such is its popularity. Up till January 2015 more than 20% of the top 10 million websites were using WordPress.
Designing websites and publishing blogs was considered a difficult task which only professionals could do in the pre-WordPress era. The only way of designing a website in the pre-WordPress era was by writing the cumbersome HTML code. After WordPress arrived designing websites became simple for both professional as well as beginner level web designers. With the use of templates in WordPress the basic structure of the website can be created within minutes.
Honestly speaking, the pre-WordPress era now sounds like the pre-historic era where designing a website would have been more difficult for a man than probably killing a dinosaur. Written primarily in PHP and MySQL, WordPress is an open source Content Management System used for managing, creating and editing a blog or a website. Web pages can be created with little or even no knowledge of HTML.
After WordPress its main rival or adversary made its entry in 2005 named Joomla. Very much like WordPress it is also an open source CMS tool for creating blogs and websites. It is now the second most popular CMS tool after WordPress and has recorded 50 million downloads so far. Although WordPress won the early bird prize, but Joomla is now giving a tough competition in trying to catch up with it.
Let us now see and compare their similarities and differences and also determine where one scores over the other or lags behind.
Let us look at the various types of uniformity of a website:
WordPress or Joomla. Cost comparison
The most important factor while choosing a CMS tool for creating a website is the price factor. What is important to understand here is that WordPress is the most popular CMS tool. It has a huge chunk of the CMS market share of 60% where as on the other hand Joomla just has a miserly 9% share. Getting your website developed by a web designer using WordPress will definitely work out cheaper. It is easier to find a WordPress designer than a Joomla designer because of the popularity. Moreover due to competition you shall be able to find a WordPress designer under US$ 500, whereas a Joomla designer shall charge you around US$ 1000 for the same. On this count WordPress scores much more.
WordPress or Joomla. Which is better for Blogs?
This is surely one question many would like to avoid totally. It would be very wrong to form a strong opinion about any one of them as they both have their fair share of features and unique qualities. But the dirty job has to be done by someone, so it better be me. So let us see which one of them a blogger should prefer.
The basic difference between WordPress and Joomla is that WordPress originated as a blog creating tool rather than a CMS tool, but during its gradual evolution developed into a full-fledged CMS tool. On the other hand Joomla was created as a CMS tool which later on incorporated blog creating features. Having said that, without any kind of doubt I can safely say that when it comes to blog making WordPress is the tool to choose.
WordPress or Joomla. Which is better for Internet Marketing?
Internet marketing is cutting edge stuff. It requires special skills and techniques like building landing pages, creation of site authority etc. Joomla might be an excellent tool for creating landing pages but learning how to build one with Joomla will require more time in learning for a beginner. WordPress being popular has been documented well all through the years. It is not difficult to find online tutorials for creating landing pages with WordPress. For beginners in internet market WordPress is a better choice.
The complete summary and conclusion
So what to consider before choosing anyone:
• It should be remembered that the CMS tools which dominate the industry in order of popularity are; a. WordPress; b. Joomla and last but not the least c. Drupal. Although each one has its unique features, but WordPress still remains the easier system to use.
• WordPress offers more SEO benefits in comparison.
• The choice also depend whether you plan to create your website or through a developer. For you WordPress is easier but a web designer could have his preferences. He might prefer Joomla over WordPress.
• WordPress is certainly better for beginners due to ease of use.
• WordPress has more theme options in comparison to Joomla.
So in the light of these above facts, my vote would definitely go with WordPress, but I would certainly not like to completely write-off Joomla as yet.
