Drupal vs Joomla in in 2012

[cgntoonartist]

Hello Folks!

Let’s have a healthy conversation. Please do not trash any of these technologies ( be nice ). The purpose of this topic is to talk from experience in a way that can help all everyone interested.

I figure I start a more recent discussion on the Pros and Cons of using Drupal vs Joomla in 2012 based on these criteria’s:

1. Security
2. Expandability
3. Popularity ( more work available )
4. HTML5 and CSS3 support
5. Ease of upgrading from one version to another
6. Community support

If you are a PRO on any of these or use one or both, please post your experience and views.

Cheers!

[instantMash]

I use Joomla (and would like to learn Drupal someday). The Joomla core is good. What really matters is the quality of the extensions that you install. So my answer to the six questions is, “It depends.”

[cgntoonartist]

Is Joomla supporting HTML5 and CSS3 nowadays?

[TheDoc]

While it’s a good idea for a thread, you might not get a lot of responses here! We’re a pretty WordPress-heavy forum.

[rjjacob]

I use all three of these. I find it easiest and fastest to build a comprehensive and dynamic site with Joomla (especially 2.5 which is a vast improvement over 1.5) whereas I use WP less frequently simply because it’s a blog platform primarily and requires so much customization to turn it into what Joomla does out of the box. Still, when I need to do a blog or smaller, personal site, it’s what I turn to (if not just designing and developing from scratch.)

I started using Drupal because I HAD to due to a client’s requirement (the site was hosted on a university system which used Drupal 6.) So if I wanted to do the work, I had to do it within the Drupal framework. Although I learned a lot about it and can state it is extremely powerful it’s still very complicated and time-consuming to learn and I would not recommend it over Joomla 2.5 unless one had some VERY customized views and tables to create. For that kind of thing, it is absolutely the best. But just figuring out which modules to install to get the features you need can take tons of time.

Actually, I really miss Adobe Dreamweaver Developer Toolbox which only works with CS4 and earlier and is no longer supported by Adobe. I have been able to make a very good living developing database-driven reporting systems with it since 2005.

That’s my 2 cents. Hope it’s helpful to somebody.

[instantMash]

rjjacob, do you prefer a particular template framework? Like Gantry or Warp? Or do you build from scratch? How does it compare with theming for Drupal?

[criscaducoy]

Hi guys. I am here because I am also spectating things about these two.

I am a 1year experienced developer and a quite new in web programming but I am quite familiar with these. First of all, we should not limit ourselves within these things. Everything we develop and build are based on it’s functions and features. So, choosing the best one who can handle much or better of your feature and functions will suit you.

1. Security
They are both secured because they are maintained both but in terms of range or variation, it may vary. Depending on internal modification of a developer will do within these two. Sometimes, a developer may break some of the things that can lead to a leak especially of you prefer to do it in a hard way.

2. Expandability
In my perspective, Drupal is essentially built for more coding things thus mostly intended to hard code developers. Then Joomla is leveling depends on what you want from it. The case of Joomla, if you want some extra things you want, some of it’s features and function modules are bundled commercially which means you will buy them for you to use or build your own. Unlike Drupal, some of the common functions are available for free and well maintained. There are features that are already available on Joomla and so with Drupal. That’s is why you better check their availability and convenience based on your planned website.

3. Popularity ( more work available )
They rival mainly on popularity, by counting sites by most used from both of them. They actually vary in some genres. There are many small sites or simple sites which uses Joomla because of easy administration and you can really built one for just an hour unlike Drupal, if you don’t focus or give out your full understanding on administration then you will be really frustrated but it’s just for the beginners. It really depends on what functions or features your site will require.

4. HTML5 and CSS3 support
I don’t have much info about the HTML5 from both of it but in CSS3 support from them. They both support CSS3. It was just the matter of design you implemented on both of them and with regards to the per-browser compatibility and support for CSS3. CSS3 mainly depends on what browser or media you are using.

5. Ease of upgrading from one version to another
Both of them are upgrade friendly because both of them gives out fairly understandable upgrade documentation which greatly help the users to understand what the update will be and what are the changes covered. If they do huge updates which will greatly or slightly affect the whole system flow, they introduce it in more understandable way just like when Drupal 5.xx upgraded to 6.xx and like 6 to 7.xx respectively. Joomla also do the same thing.

6. Community support
Well..Community support greatly stand out Drupal because due to it’s huge community of developers sharing their ideas, works and masterpiece for free*. [There are also commercial services and modules]. Joomla has very small community which really strains new users on understanding what to do if they want to know something because mostly, even I tried it. Some threads on their forum threads are done with private discussions which also sometimes can cost you some service charge from them. They don’t usually share some things inside the community of Joomla. They took it as an opportunity to grab on. That is why some of the Joomla expansions/modules/components/plugins are commercial, if not, it has very limited features which will make you also think of buying the whole pro version of the expansion.

This is just what my opinion is, I may have said some thing you are offended, you can comment or reply for it nicely. I just want to share my ideas about these two.

Btw, I do programming using Notepad++ only today. I probably look for some easier technique sooner or later. I build templates for Drupal, WordPress, Joomla and Moodle hardly coded but also relevant and based on it’s default content model.

[krems04]

rjjacob basically hit the nail on the head here.

I still sense a lot of ‘old’ thinking around the web regarding these two systems, and its really down to the fact that they arent understood.

1. Security

Security is a moot point really, as thats not something that is up to the system alone. Any WordPress/Joomla/Drupal site can be compromised if the environment supporting it is not also secure. If meant in terms of quick response time to vulnerabilities, i’d say both are equal.

2. Expandability

Here is where the debate really is interesting. Drupal’s power comes from just how extensible it’s modules make it, and with a bit of coding knowledge, one can easily build a highly complex site. However, to say Joomla is not extensible would be doing it a great disservice, as it’s MVC Architecture actually makes coding relatively complex extensions quite straightforward. Even without any heavy PHP coding, layout and template overrides are quite powerful.

3. Popularity ( more work available )

This is an interesting metric. There are ultimately more Joomla sites in existence, but Drupal powers sites for larger entities. Take from that what you will.

4. HTML5 and CSS3 support

I believe ‘CSS3 support’ is something entirely up to us. HTML5 support i believe is accommodated in both Drupal 7 and Joomla 2.5.

5. Ease of upgrading from one version to another

Moving from Joomla 1.0 to 1.5 and from 1.5 to 1.6 i must say was an excercise in pain. The same can be said about the move from Drupal 5 to 6 to 7. Joomla 1.6 to 1.7 to 2.5’s upgrade process was much better however, and if this is how it will be in the future, is very encouraging. Same i hope for Drupal 7 to 8

6. Community support

Both have very active communities, but i must say Drupal’s is far more invested.

As with everything. Each system has their particular usage scenarios.

[chrisjg]

Visit this link for a nice info-graphic (it is a year old, but the key comparisons are still valid)
http://news.deviousmedia.com/which-open-source-backend-platform-suits-your

1. Security

How long is a piece of string?

They are both as (in)secure as each other. It depends on how you set them up, the server you use, how often the server is security updated/patched, etc.

2. Expandability

Both are expandable with plenty of add-ons for both, although there are more free add-ons for Joomla than Drupal (last time I looked).

3. Popularity ( more work available )

Joomla is more popular, with around 2.7% of the top 1million websites running Joomla compared to 1.6% running Drupal.

Does this equate to more/less work being available though?

Personally I don’t think that you can judge the amount of work available by the popularity of the CMS.

If you are going to freelance/run your own company then choose the one you like the most, and use it, learn it, live with it. Specialise in one of them and get involved with the community, the dev. team, etc. Become and known face/name within the community as you build your business and reputation.

If you want to work for someone else, then Drupal would be the one to choose (based on a very quick ‘how many jobs’ search). 72 Drupal jobs vs 43 Joomla jobs.

It has more Enterprise level installations than Joomla, and they require people to maintain and develop.

4. HTML5 and CSS3 support

The current core versions of both are not HTML5/CSS3 out of the box. There are themes available for both that will override the core and provide HTML5/CSS3.

Joomla 3.0 (due in September 2012) is looking at including twitter bootstrap in the core CMS, giving all developers a common toolkit to pull from.

Drupal 8.0 (due in August 2013) is also looking at HTML5 in the core product.

5. Ease of upgrading from one version to another

Recent (major) upgrades have been pretty easy for both. They both have update scripts, and give plenty of information about the differences.

When there is a major change in the core functionality you can run into problems with 3rd party add-ons – so check before you upgrade.

6. Community support

Both have active communities, but do expect you to read the documentation and searching for the answer before asking the question.

As with all open source eco-systems no-one gets paid to answer your questions, so there is no SLA or escalation procedures if you can’t do/find/understand something.

Conclusion

It is a personal preference, both have good and bad points.

I use Joomla more than Drupal, mostly because of cost to the client.

If you quote for a full design and maintenance based on Joomla, and an identical one for Drupal. The cost comparison works out around 1.5x higher for Drupal. Most clients are not enterprise level /national/global players and cannot see the added value for Drupal over Joomla – certainly with small local businesses you will struggle to justify the extra cost.

Chris.

[JoshWhite]

Can someone provide some examples of what Joomla does out of the box that WordPress doesn’t? It’s piqued my interest that it’s been mentioned a number of times as just a stand alone comment.

I’ve really been meaning to try to learn Drupal, but the opportunity just hasn’t presented itself in such a way that we couldn’t do it easily and very well in WordPress. I’ll need to bite the bullet some day and just do it :) On a side note, the newest Drupal version does have the most kick ass admin panel as it lays right over the content transparently. It’s confusing as hell to use, but still cool :)

I just looked at Joomla 2.5 and I was disappointed to see they still have the same horrid naming convention for everything in the admin panel :P

[chrisjg]

@JoshWhite

OK, here goes…

Joomla has these things out of box that wordpress doesn’t

• URL rewriting
• URL redirect management
• Search engine friendly URL’s
• bulk emailing
• ACL (customise groups for users, writers, readers, etc)
• Banner management
• Contact manager
• inter-user private messaging
• web-link management
• breadcrumbs

• Article settings (for each article, as well as globally)

  • Customise the ‘Read more…’ text
  • Featured article (gives prominance to article)
  • Configure the front-end edit screen view
  • Specify in-article intro text (not an extra blurb) as well as page-breaks
  • Meta data – description and tags
  • Robots instruction
  • Content rights
  • Who can view it (ACL)
  • Turn on/off

    • Titles
    • Linked Titles
    • Show Intro Text
    • Show Category
    • Link Category
    • Show Parent
    • Link Parent
    • Show Author
    • Link Author
    • Show Create Date
    • Show Modify Date
    • Show Publish Date
    • Show Navigation
    • Show Icons
    • Show Print Icon
    • Show Email Icon
    • Show Voting
    • Show Hits
    • Show Unauthorised Links
    • Positioning of the Links

Menu items can link to any of the following (* items are also available in wordpress menus, some functions are performed by default widgets)

• Contacts

  • List All Contact Categories
  • List Contacts in a Category
  • Single Contact
  • Featured Contacts

• Articles

  • Archived Articles (a widget for WP does this)
  • * Single Article *
  • List All Categories (a widget for WP does this)
  • * Category Blog *
  • Category List (a widget for WP does this)
  • Featured Articles
  • Create Article
  • Smart Search
  • * Search *

• Newsfeeds

  • List All News Feed Categories
  • List News Feeds in a Category
  • Single News Feed
  • Search

• * Search Form or Search Results *
• Users Manager

  • Login Form (a widget for WP does this)
  • User Profile
  • Edit User
  • Profile Registration Form (a widget for WP does this)
  • Username Reminder
  • Request Password Reset

• Weblinks

  • List All Web Link Categories
  • List Web Links in a Category
  • Submit a Web Link

• Wrapper
• Iframe Wrapper
• System Links
• * External URL *
• Menu Item Alias
• Text Separator

If I have made any mistakes, please don’t flame me, it is not intentional. Corrections are welcome,

This is a quick list of all the things I can think of that are not done by a default WordPress install that a default Joomla install does. I was going to do a default install of each one, but have not got the time, energy or inclination.

Chris.

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