Design Bit blog by Anthony Brewitt - a web designer, blog designer, Wordpress designer and marketing philosopher. Designbit showcases Anthony’s talents and shares his web design know-how.

Make ContactHire Me

Joomla vs WordPress

March 4th, 2009, Category: Web Usability Wordpress News

wordpress-vs-joomlaCheck out a great article on Joomla vs WordPress Usability from Playing With Wire. I agree with what they have to say, WordPress user experience is second to none and Joomla is playing catch up in this department, but in other areas Joomla shines brightly. Here’s a quick comparison:

WordPress Usability

As Playing with Fire has pointed out Joomla has a lot of catching up to do on the Usability front, WordPress makes simple tasks really easy to accomplish with few clicks to get a task done such as adding an image, publishing a page or publishing a news item.

For the website owner running a business website or a blog I haven’t found a CMS that has better usability than WordPress.

Training

When I train clients on how to manage their websites It usually takes about 40 minutes with WordPress, often a few hours with Joomla, though Joomla has more powerful features, every day tasks the client wants to learn take much longer to train.

Unfortunately once a client has received training in Joomla they often need tips or hints at how to perform a task again a few weeks later, that scenario hasn’t come up once with WordPress.

Why use WordPress over Joomla

If you have a small to medium size business I believe WordPress is currently your best open source option to manage and update your website on a daily basis, tasks are very easy to accomplish, everything is well thought out and I find myself saying this to a lot of clients when training “Everything is where you’d expect it to be” .

WordPress has an amazing community around it and the in depth documentation is second to none, as a designer or a website owner you’ll find everything you’ll need by the very people that make it and then also by enthusiasts such as myself.

Why use Joomla over WordPress

My programmer voiced to me that the main pro for using Joomla is it’s power and flexibility, and its true, with me designing and my developer programming we can make Joomla do anything.

The capabilities of Joomla are endless and custom database work is an area where Joomla particularly shines.

Joomla has a complex multiple user privilege system with user registration and layered content privileges. WordPress does not have a traditional privilege system at all.

When multiple user groups are needed I turn to Joomla, if a business requires multiple users be be able to login and view the website with different content that is user privilege dependent then I believe Joomla is the best open source CMS for the task.

Joomla also has an amazing community based around it, but the official documentation has great depth but is poorly organized, I found the best documentation from external sources.

Conclusion

Joomla was designed from the ground up as a CMS, WordPress as a publishing platform that has evolved into a CMS, giving each unique strengths and weaknesses.

I think both platforms are fantastic for managing a website, WordPress for small to medium business and Joomla for a website that requires multiple user privileges or custom database work.

  • http://www.crearedesign.co.uk Claire

    Interesting Comparison, I have only ever used WordPress as i have never had a large demand for multiple users for different areas. However, it is good to keep in mind for the future.

    I just have a few questions:
    Is it easy to install?
    Can you integrate E-commerce into it?

    I am very interested to find out more about it.

  • http://designbit.co.uk Anthony

    It’s a good platform and larger companies may prefer it over WordPress as more featured rich platform.

    I have emailed you Claire.

    Joomla’s almost as easy as WordPress to install and theyre are a number of ecommerce plugins.

  • http://www.webdesignsquote.com Dave

    I agree that in certain aspects Joomla shines brightly as it is a rich platform for instance it offers numerous ecommerce plugins necessary for websites .

  • http://www.squareonemd.co.uk Elliott (Squaremd)

    What about drupal? Is this a player? is it as big as Joomla? I reckon it’s up there purely for the fact that the backend looks like the front making it a little more intuitive that Joomla.
    One thing I do agree is that WordPress is awesome for small to medium business

  • http://www.metaspring.com Cashmere

    Anyone with technical know how might prefer Joomla, but for the average client wordpress is far easier to handle. Well compared.

  • http://designbit.co.uk Anthony

    Already knowing WordPress and Joomla inside out I haven’t put the time into learning Drupal, I do however keep an eye on it and it does have similar high levels of features the same as Joomla.

  • http://www.zerotemplates.com Pasey

    To me wordpress is very limited compared to Joomla. For the beginner WordPress is perfect, however saying that Joomla does not have a very steep learning path to get to know the ropes.

  • http://designbit.co.uk Anthony

    WordPress is fantastic for most my clients and easily meets their needs. I wouldn’t say WordPress is for beginners, I think both have their uses and the decision of what CMS to use should be based on what the clients needs are.

  • http://www.lmx-webdesign.de Saarland

    In my opinion Joomla offers you more features

  • RaiulBaztepo

    Hello!
    Very Interesting post! Thank you for such interesting resource!
    PS: Sorry for my bad english, I’v just started to learn this language ;)
    See you!
    Your, Raiul Baztepo

  • http://www.logicdesign.co.uk Howie

    This is a pretty good comparison. although I use Joomla I’m going to give WordPress a go, I reckon it might be better for some of the stuff I do

  • http://www.gavindoolan.com/ Gavin Doolan

    It all depends on your needs and what you want to achieve from your website.

    In terms of security Joomla has a poor history and the quality of 3rd party add-ons is extremely varied. The paid ones are often good, but you have to pay for them.

    Joomla’s framework has improved in 1.5 but its still hangs onto old ideas and concepts from its hey day as Mambo.

    The system’s admin interface is poorly managed – because it hasn’t evolved.

    WordPress is fantastic out of the box, user friendly clean design and great for web designers, easy to understand and well documented. It is however JUST a blogging tool for most intents and purposes. Handling multiple users is difficult in both Joomla and WordPress. However it shines in simplicity

    Drupal in my opinion is the best, because its framework is so elegant and powerful. It is not user-friendly to begin with although it can be simplified (it really depends on who sets it up). You have the power to grow a community with Drupal and its very secure.

    The Drupal website currently does not speak volumes about the design ability you have with Drupal. It is due for an upgrade and is currently in the process to reflect where it has come since Drupal’s earlier versions.

    Modules are high quality with Drupal and its core is very clean and programmers love it. It is highly scalable and has built in cache ability and CSS and JS compression.

    Finally Drupal allows for multiple websites to be run off a single code base. Making upgrading a breeze.

    Drupal’s CCK and Views Modules open up a world of possibilities that WordPress and Joomla can only dream of (or require third party plugins to achieve).

    Having said all this, I’ve used all 3 platforms and I am moving all my sites under Drupal because this is the framework that I feel is worth investing time in and can achieve what the other 2 system can without hassle.

    End rant!!! :)

  • http://printedproof.com Christian

    Great Comparison. I ran 3 websites in Joomla! Two have been converted to WP. I find that i can get more accomplished easier and faster in WP. Less of a learning curve.

  • http://www.bluewavemedia.ca/links-for-2009-04-24/ links for 2009-04-24 | BlueWave Media

    [...] Web Design Blog » Joomla vs WordPress – Designbit – Blog Design and Web Design News Check out a great article on Joomla vs WordPress Usability from Playing With Wire. I agree with what they have to say, WordPress user experience is second to none and Joomla is playing catch up in this department, but in other areas Joomla shines brightly. Here’s a quick (tags: joomla wordpress cms) [...]

  • http://designbit.co.uk Anthony

    WordPress has 2 weak areas when it comes to being a CMS; the user privileges and the search engine.

  • http://blue-anvil.com MIke Jolley

    @Anthony – The search can be fixed by using “Search Unleashed” – that’s a a brilliant plugin with highlighting and full text searching.

  • http://www.mitchellmarketinginc.com April Mitchell

    Thanks for this easy to understand comparison of WordPress vs Joomla CMS platforms. The comments on this article are also helpful.

  • http://www.siteweb-creation.com Hakim

    Joomla is here wordpress is nice and usefull. I have build some site with joomla cms it took me some time to be familiar with the most uses of joomla. as a developper joomla is very extensible and usefull. WordPress is a nice machine very simple essentielly for blogging

  • http://Www.createweb.co.za Createweb

    I like the comparison it is not one sided. I was learning to use joomla some time back I tell you its not easy even for a guy like me with good php knowledge. The coding is not friendly at all and the interface is not user friendly also. I got wordpress today I tell you you can manipulate the code very well. You can get plug ins and styles and less than 5 hours I was a very good and I could manipulate it you could never tell its wordpress at all.

  • http://www.quape.com singapore

    Nice comparison between wordpress and Joomla. All of our clients web are developed using Joomla as framework. Joomla becomes easy after you are familiar with their framework and templating system. My vote goes to Joomla regardless of small or large enterprises .

  • http://www.5starshoppingmall.co.uk 5starshop

    Thank you for comparison, it really help me decide on which platform to sign up for.

  • http://greg-loesch.com Greg Loesch

    Helpful comparison. I’ve been using WordPress for some time now, and I was considering trying out Joomla. I think I’ll stick with WordPress for the time being… both are superb services.

  • http://nu-startcredit.com/ Rich

    I agree Joomla is very difficult to just set up. I’have been trying to set up just the front page with Joomla I could not do it. I went with wordpress boom i was able to get going.I got done setting up and now runing 4 wordpress sites 3 months later I still find myself frustrating to set up joomla. Many Joomla templates and mods comes with no explanations.don’t beleieve me? go try to buy an expensive template for joomla it comes with instructions. It is like the Joomla comunity only thing of themselves like Unix Vs PC. Joola has great stuff and it is killing me to know I tried and tried could never put a Joomla one apge up. I know people that I think Im smarter then them using Joomla and that cause me the chalenge to have a joomla site. I came here cause I got tired I just 10 minutes ago unistall joomla from my server. It is just ridiculous to have something just for those like yourself to use or have to be train to use it.Joomla is all over the net I wonder how many site or webmasters are telling their client to use Joomla.Wordpress is the way to go.

  • Harry

    I have both a Joomla and a wordpress website. I started out with a Joomla website 2 years ago and a wordpress website half year ago. Here is my take:

    If you are new to the CMS world and are choosing between Joomla & WordPress – Do not choose Joomla, it takes lots of time to learn even to operate it. I bought several books and looked many online tutorials to started on Joomla but even so I am still a bit rough in it. Everytime I want to use a plugin for a new function it always takes 1-2 hours for me to get used to it. For wordpress plugin it takes about only 30 minutes to fully set up.

    For everyone who is looking for building a more sustainable website, WordPress is the way to go because people can get familiar with the interface in a very short time. However if you are seeking to build a community with forum in it, then you may want to spend the time to learn Joomla and work through it.

    Overall I feel that wordpress has a clear core value – you are managing one thing and other functions are add-ons – that means that you learn it if you really need it.
    For Joomla – you are managing everything. You need to learn everything in the beginning because they are so many built in functions existing.
    I’d say that Joomla is a layered CMS and wordpress is a one layer CMS.

    I just count the clicks required to post a news on my website – 2-3 clicks for wordpress, 6-7 clicks for Joomla….

    Give wordpress a try first – you can sign up for free blogging system to get how it feels like before you go for Joomla

  • http://www.jmc-website-design.co.uk/blog Jason

    The only problem I have with both of them is that they’re a bit too hefty for really small and basic/websites. There should be lite versions of them which cuts down on a lot of complicated options that your everyday business owner wouldn’t(or want to) understand.

    Out of the two, I would have to agree that wordpress is slightly more user friendly to configure.

  • http://www.future-webs.com Future Webs

    Great comparisons, I’ve been using Joomla and Word press for some time now. Thanks for the article.

  • http://www.rishonan.net/site Rishona

    I think a lot depends on the goals and functions that you have for the website. I currently maintain a Joomla site for my sorority; and I could not imagine accomplishing all that we do on the Joomla site through WordPress. With that being said, my #1 pet peeve about Joomla are the security issues caused by the 3rd party extensions. There are quite a few extensions that seemed to provide options and features that would be helpful, but caused too many problems when deployed within the site. You have to be a “tinkerer” when you use Joomla where as you can be a hobbyist with WordPress and still get a beautiful, functional site!

  • http://opus-terra.net/2009/10/01/wordpress-drupal-joomla-oh-my/ Wordpress, Drupal, Joomla oh my! | Opus Terra

    [...] Joomla vs. WordPress reviews by Anthony Brewitt [...]

  • http://www.sacramentobill.com/ Bill Joyce

    I have been using a godaddy blog product for several years and need to step it up a notch. I have found a lot of comments and reviews on Joomla and WordPress to be quite ‘partisan’. I think you have created a very credible distintion between the two and that has been helpful to me.

    Thanks

  • http://www.milandesign.sg Milan

    Great comparison, we have been deploying mostly Joomla web site for our customers and especially love the part with addon easily found on the web.

  • http://www.facebook.com/pages/Google-Gothic/Google-Gothic/307180726780 Malisa Braasch

    cool thanks for posting this

  • http://www.webtargets.ie Brian Duffy

    thanks. v interesting. saved me a lot of time

  • http://www.websitegreasemonkey.com Website Repair Guy

    I’m new to using Joomla and after the first few bumps have really started to like it. Can anyone provide me a few suggestions for templates?

  • http://www.design.tomgirling.co.uk Tom Girling

    I used to use Joomla a lot – agreed it is powerful & very customizable….but it is also bloated and frustrating to work with as a designer/coder.

    I think we’ll start to see a new generation of CMS coming through soon that are still as powerful/flexible but are easier to bash into submission when it comes to creating layouts.

    For now, I’ll carry on using my own CMS!

  • http://www.nucentcom.net/ Melisa Knappenberger

    Hey, I found your site while looking on Bing for penny stocks. Read through alot of your stuff and i must say, i bookmarked your site and plan on coming back. Keep up the good work!

  • http://simonhamer.wordpress.com simon hamer

    Just linked this to a LinkedIn answer asking for WordPress Vs Joomla comparisons. Great post and nice balanced comments.

  • http://www.webasyl.com Webasyl

    Joomla is definitely the best CMS ever

  • http://ravereview.shutterfly.com/21 Jerald Stoffa

    Should you don’t mind my asking, do you make fine money from this webpage?

  • http://www.upstartmediamarketing.com Aaron Mackley

    I have been developing websites for several years. For a long time, Joomla was my go-to CMS. I thought WordPress was just a blogging tool. Actually, back then, it had not evolved as much.

    Now, however, I pretty much do everything in WordPress. I can create a website or help a client build their own website in much less time than in Joomla. Although I very much like Joomla, I find that WordPress is much, much simpler for me to work with.

    You can, at the present, do quite a bit more with the design with Joomla, but the recent changes in WordPress (version 3.1) have given us much more flexibility with menus, widgets (sidebars), and content types.

    Backing up and restoring a WordPress site is very simple. Joomla, not so much.

    What about Drupal? I have worked with Drupal, but I found it very confusing to work with and to configure. The learning curve is much more difficult than Joomla, and certainly more than WordPress. However, if you have the advantage of a technical person to assist you, I believe Drupal can do more than either of the others.

  • http://www.3-60hosting.com 3-60 Hosting

    Thanks for the article. I have been using WordPress and don’t have much experience with Joomla. I am starting to see some of the developer issues with WordPress, but like the client usability. Its easy to teach my clients how to use it. This information was exactly what I was looking for regarding Joomla vs WordPress.

  • Vanesa Singh

    Up to 5 Custom designed web pages
    Rotational Banners
    Feedback / Contact form
    Google Maps
    Photo Gallery for displaying your portfolio
    Keyword Optimization
    Meta Tags
    Links to Twitter/Facebook/LinkedIn
    Youtube Video integration
    Sitemap
    Latest design technologies used like CSS3, Jquery Etc
    FREE hosting for 6 months with 5 professional email accounts
    FREE Website Submission to 350+ searching engines
    Free Domain Name for your website
    All Websites are optimized to run on mobile phones, ipads and iphones

    All this just for 5000 Rupees (115 USD) For more details, you can contact me.

    Up to 11 Custom designed web pages
    Rotational Banners
    Feedback / Contact form
    Google Maps
    Photo Gallery for displaying your portfolio
    Keyword Optimization
    Meta Tags
    Links to Twitter/Facebook/LinkedIn
    Youtube Video integration
    Sitemap
    Latest design technologies used like CSS3, Jquery Etc
    FREE hosting for 12 months with 10 professional email accounts
    FREE Website Submission to 350+ searching engines
    Free Domain Name for your website
    All Websites are optimized to run on mobile phones, ipads and iphones

    Charges only 10500 Indian Rupees (235 USD)

    Up to 25 Custom designed web pages
    Rotational Banners
    Feedback / Contact form
    Google Maps
    Photo Gallery for displaying your portfolio
    Keyword Optimization
    Meta Tags
    Links to Twitter/Facebook/LinkedIn
    Youtube Video integration
    Sitemap
    Latest ddesign technologies used like CSS3, Jquery Etc
    FREE hosting for 18 months with 15 professional email accounts
    FREE Website Submission to 350+ searching engines
    Free Domain Name for your website
    One Blog Integrated
    All Websites are optimized to run on mobile phones, ipads and iphones

    Charges only 20000 (445 USD)

    Up to 40 Custom designed web pages
    Rotational Banners
    Feedback / Contact form
    Google Maps
    Photo Gallery for displaying your portfolio
    Keyword Optimization
    Meta Tags
    Links to Twitter/Facebook/LinkedIn
    Social Media Integrated like facebook share, facebook like, google plus
    Youtube Video integration
    Sitemap
    Latest design technologies used like CSS3, Jquery Etc
    FREE hosting for 24 months with 25 professional email accounts
    FREE Website Submission to 350+ searching engines
    Free Domain Name for your website
    One Blog Integrated
    All Websites are optimized to run on mobile phones, ipads and iphones

    Charges only 32,000 (715 USD)

    For More Details please contact CentiPlex at support@centiplex.com or call us at +91-8800302311 or Our office number at +91-11-25392423 & +91-11-25391289. You can also get in touch with us on our skype at nitinnaresh