Welcome to Part 3 of our series examining the distinct benefits for each of the current “Big 3” in the CMS world – WordPress, Drupal, and today’s focus, Joomla – to help you decide which one is right for your company.
Choosing a Content Management System (CMS) is a critical step in your web design process. With the time and expense involved in your initial setup, you want to choose the CMS that fits your business needs both now and well into the future.
Part 1 covered the “3 Benefits to Choosing WordPress as Your CMS”, Part 2 covered the “3 Benefits to Choosing Drupal”, and here in Part 3, we will dive into the benefits of Joomla.
Remember – while all 3 have particular strengths, any of these 3 systems can likely meet (or be customized to meet) your business needs. Our focus will be on some of the distinct benefits each CMS holds over the others.
On to Part 3:
So what makes Joomla the right fit for me?
Joomla fits snugly in between WordPress and Drupal in the CMS landscape. Their platform is more user-friendly than Drupal (though not as easy-to-use as WordPress), while being more powerful than WordPress, with numerous expansion capabilities (though not as powerful as Drupal).
With a market share slightly higher than Drupal (5.83% vs. 5.70% of the Top Million websites currently using CMS technologies), many companies find great balance in the middle ground Joomla fills.
Joomla may not be threatening the enormous 51.52% share of WordPress anytime soon, but with users from Harvard to eBay, MTV, Linux, Barnes & Noble, and Ikea, Joomla obviously has a lot to offer.
2 key benefits to choosing Joomla as your CMS include:
More Power than WordPress
There are advantages to beginning life as an enterprise level CMS. While WordPress has grown into an amazing platform, adapting what began as simple blogging software does have limitations.
The increased complexity of Joomla can make it an excellent fit for small to mid-tier ecommerce websites, along with social network development to encourage engagement. While not as powerful as Drupal, many companies side with Joomla because it is:
Easier to Use (and Learn) than Drupal
While Joomla can’t touch the user-friendliness of WordPress, their interface is considered significantly easier than Drupal. A little curiosity and the right Google searches (ideally along with training from your web design partner) can allow you to manage general updates and small issues relatively easily.
So, is Joomla right for me?
Joomla is a great fit for very specific companies – those that need more power and flexibility with Joomla, but still need to keep some user-friendliness in their CMS management. Budget and timing differences can also play a factor. More complexity and customization equals longer development and design timeframes.
Like Drupal, it’s helpful if your team has some technological savvy to troubleshoot error messages or identify potential problems in coding. Given the deeper complexity and learning curve compared to WordPress, ongoing technical support will also likely be required with Joomla.
Ultimately, these benefits are just a launching point for discussions on determining your CMS. Your design partner should work closely with you to weigh the pros and cons of each CMS option, and help you choose the best fit for your budget, expectations, and future business growth.