Wordpress or Joomla? Discussion

[PerchDigital]

Hi All

I'm about to start on a new project where I've been having lots of discussions with the developers involved on the merits of both wordpress and joomla. I'm experienced with wordpress but haven't really done too much with Joomla. I've found some general info on Joomla online, most issues seems to be around duplicate content, but can't seem to find too much else.

Therefore I thought I'd throw it out there for discussion as I'd love to hear from those of you who have used both CMS's and the drawbacks/ pitfalls or plus points in both.

The project is based around a non transactional site, offering a service, but no product. There's lots of thought leadership type content planned, either through interviews, surveys, articles, video etc, and some linkbait etc. Lot of content will also be newsworthy so keep Google news etc in the back of your mind too. Lots of social integration too...

Looking forward to hearing what you might have to say Mozzers.

[Gyi]

Based on your description, I'd go Wordpress.

[RyanKent]

Both WP and Joomla are quality choices. Earlier this year I spent several weeks evaluating many CMS solutions. I chose Joomla and WP as the two I preferred and have been guiding clients to use one of those two choices based on their needs.

WordPress is my preference if a client has basic website needs, or requires easier or simpler administration.

Joomla is more flexible, but it is also more complex.

Based on the information you shared, I agree with Gyi on the WP recommendation.

[MattWilliams]

I'd have to cast my vote for Joomla! on the basis that it offers a tremendous amount of flexibility, has a massive user community and a seemingly endless supply of extensions.

Don't get me wrong.  Both are quality choices.  Wordpress is a bit easier to use out of the gate, but in my experience Joomla! is simply more customizable/flexible.

Search engines love Joomla!, though you can't go wrong on that count with Wordpress either.

In the end, it may come down to finding an template that just "fits" for your concept.

[PerchDigital]

Great feedback so far guys. As I said, I have little experience with Joomla. The content I've found online seems to focus on issues such as duplicate content issues being a bit of an issue. I've found a few plugins that seems to be able to fix such issues. Is there any major drawbacks on Joomla that I should be aware of though? Any limitations?

[RyanKent]

The content I've found online seems to focus on issues such as duplicate content issues being a bit of an issue.

There are not any duplicate content issues I am aware of on a properly designed Joomla site. With both Joomla and WP (and many CMS), the sites are created by site owners or less experienced developers and the result is a variety of quality issues such as duplicate content.

Another issue is rather then resolving the core problem, the site owner or developer will simply add on an SEO extension which can resolve the problem but it also buries it. The solution is not ideal.

Is there any major drawbacks on Joomla that I should be aware of though? Any limitations?

Nothing specific to Joomla I can think of other then general disadvantages inherit to all CMS.

The only quirk specific to Joomla is their software upgrade model. They provide a major version upgrade every 18 months, and a minor upgrade every 6 months. The result is many site owners and extension publishers stick with the major updates, while others update more frequently. The system is not ideal as you may wish to update your version but are unable to do such because you are dependent upon an extension which has not been updated to work with the latest version. This situation can happen with any CMS package, but it is more prominent in Joomla due to their update model.

The solution...be more selective as to which extensions you become dependent upon.

[PerchDigital]

Thanks Ryan, that's the kind of info I'm looking for. I have a lot of faith in the developers in this project and they are suggesting Joomla is a better option for them to achieve what they want, but very aware of the SEO aspects and want to ensure I'm happy. Appreciate your thoughts.

[waqid]

Joomla can be a pain in the arssssss if you do not have a good team of developers who understand it and its work around.

If wordpress can do the job id stick with wordpress. If you see functionality which joomla can handle and wordpress cannot, then you know my next suggestion.

In the future if you do not need major functionality and just a basic site for SEO & PPC purposes I would use modx. Its very easy to use and developers love it. SEO functionality is built in.

[Web-Designer-Dubai]

We have worked on over 100 joomla projects and almost 20 projects of Wordpress.

I am fully agree with Ryan, that its largely depend on developers that what type of issues you face with site either it is developed in Joomla or Wordpress.

I usually make my decision based on following points:

1. If site is niche based like for specific Industry. Joomla is better, as it has plenty of extensions available for specific industries like auto, realestate, event management, etc.

2. If site is multi-ligual, I choose Joomla. As it can handle multiple languages from within one system with really powerful options. Wordpress, we have to make separate installations for each language.

3. Multi-Template Website: Joomla can easily have different templatings for different parts of website.

4. If site is for small business, which doesn't need above complexities, I prefer to use Wordpress. As it is simple specially for end user to handle.

As far as SEO is concerned, Before Joomla 1.7, Wordpress was on Top. But now Joomla has almost same options. But definitely, as Joomla sites are usually more complex, SEO handling can be more complex.

One more thing, I am not sure about Wordpress, but Joomla's Admin panel is also fully customizable. We can make our own internal template, hide complex stuff for advance users only. And you can brand inner panel with your own graphics etc.

[RyanKent]

Khuram's response offers some great specifics as to how to help make a choice between the two platforms.

I am surprised by the project ratio. Most developers I know have the reverse where they had 100 WP projects and 20 Joomla.

[Web-Designer-Dubai]

Thanks Ryan.

This un-usual project ratio is for one reason.

We have more niche customers who need their niche specific features, as compared to general websites.

For Example, this month, we did 2 projects.

1. Rent a Car Company: their full automatic quote and reservation system including Fleet management.

2. A job Board including lot of advance HR portal features.

And joomla provided us great foundation, and for both requirements, some components were available which helped us to customize and deliver the solution quickly.

In the best of my knowledge, wordpress doesn't have any solutions available for both requirements.

I hope this clarify that why we have un-usual ratio.

[RyanKent]

Thanks for the details response again!

[RezStream8]

Have you considered Expression Engine? Might be worth considering.