Joomla and Wordpress are two of the most popular open source content management systems available to anyone who has an internet access. They are also some of the most powerful and most efficient web based and database run software available.
Joomla and Wordpress cover more than 67% of all the content management systems on the internet, where Wordpress is far the most popularly used system.
Wordpress
Wordpress is the best pick for absolute beginners. It is, however, geared toward blogging more so than developing complex websites with various functionalities. It is possible to have add on complex functionalities (plugins), but the more extensions you load onto a wordpress site, the more likely you are going to have conflicts arise and things not working properly. It is simply not built for the complexity of bigger websites, but works very well for blogging and smaller sites. In terms of designed templates and extensions, there is a huge market of both free and paid options readily available. With a bit of research and patience, a non-developer can find solutions to put together a functional website in wordpress. Template support generally depends on the company that you buy services from, and the extension support is varied to say the least. Most free extensions, you can’t expect much support on. The more complex your site and functionalities become, the more essential it becomes that absolute beginners seek some type of web design/developer/programmer help. Wordpress also have a commercial sidekick, wordpress.com, which have managed to do a great job of marketing and which probably also add to the statistics of why Wordpress covers a larger market.
Joomla
Joomla is the best pick for medium sized and larger websites, where complex functionalities like e-commerce, booking, heavy content load, event calendars, multiple users, etc. are needed. Joomla has found that middle ground, great support available and ease of using and managing the software. Many of the extensions available to Joomla are of high quality and the Joomla website offer community support and a great directory of all the extensions available. Joomla seems to handle a great number of different extensions better than Wordpress. Like with Wordpress, a non-developer can find many solutions out there if they do the research and have the patience. Most free extensions usually don't have great support, but the paid for extensions are usually of high quality and the support, which is really what you are paying for since it is opensource, usually excels. I highly recommend joomlabamboo.com as a top notch company you can rely on getting excellent support from.
In general, I would say that the main difference between Wordpress and Joomla is that Wordpress has a much better marketing strategy and has been able to reach more people. This is unfortunate in some ways because, in my opinion, Joomla is a much better piece of software.
A few fun facts about the two
- Wordpress was released in 2003 and has had 140 Million downloads
- The following sites are run on wordpress: Forbes, CNN and Sony
- Has 2,000+ free themes
- 27,000+ free plugins/extensions
- Joomla was released in 2005 and has had 30 million downloads
- The following sites are run on Joomla: Harvard University, The Hill, Guggenheim
- Has 900+ free templates
- 7,000+ free extensions/plugins
