When it comes to developing sites for organizations, security, flexibility, ease of use, and speed are some of the top considerations. WordPress and Drupal are the two most popular Content Management System (CMS) platforms that most organizations consider. Both platforms allow users to set up, customize their sites, and publish the contents of their choices. The outbreak of the global pandemic was a blessing in disguise for e-commerce, but that leaves some organizations racing against time to establish or update websites to remain profitable and relevant. Here is a comparison between WordPress and Drupal.
Security
Security is an important aspect and feature that every organization wants on its website. While it’s virtually impossible to achieve 100% security, your website needs to be highly secure. WordPress and Drupal have varying degrees of security guarantee. Security is the main selling point for Drupal since its websites are rarely attacked by hackers. Drupal’s plugins and themes have an internal security code that complicates the uploading of code into the platform, making it hard for hackers to attack your organization’s website. This is why the White House and the Australian Government use it for their websites. However, with the proper tools and server setups, WordPress can be just as secure as Drupal. Here at Accomplish, we make sure to secure every website no matter which CMS you choose.
Speed and Performance
Every organization desires fast-loading websites for higher rankings in search engines and favorable impressions to website visitors. Drupal as a CMS platform helps organizations produce fast-loading websites for their businesses. Since Drupal is less resource intensive, it allows for lightning-fast server connections. This feature makes it well equipped to handle websites that have thousands of pages, which is why many government agencies like using Drupal. WordPress can provide incredible speed and efficient performance as well, with the proper optimizations. In terms of performance and speed out of the box, Drupal is the best CMS platform for an organization to consider in 2022.
SEO Tools
SEO is an important aspect of any CMS, as it helps your website rank higher in search engines and attracts more organic traffic. WordPress is characterized by auto-generated XML sitemaps that improve an organization’s site visibility on various search engines, while Drupal has modules and codes consisting of JavaScript files and PHP that allow you to add features and alter existing functionalities on your website. With both WordPress and Drupal, it is extremely easy to add SEO codes to your website for meta tags, XML sitemaps, site verifications, page titles, and search engine analytics.
Ease of Use
When looking for CMS platforms, organizations need to prioritize the ability to create easy-to-use sites for visitors. While Drupal is not hard to install and use overall, it can have a steep learning curve for new users, making it more difficult to learn and customize to meet your organization’s needs. Drupal requires technical expertise and experience to set up, but it is capable of creating more advanced and fast-loading websites for organizations. Additional customization to Drupal sites will likely require a website developer, as proper programming knowledge of HTML and PHP is necessary.
In comparison, WordPress is incredibly easy to install, set up, and use, and this ease of use is a key reason thousands of businesses prefer creating their websites with WordPress. Even without web development experience, you can likely install WordPress on your host in a matter of minutes and customize it to meet the needs of your organization.
Flexibility
WordPress and Drupal are both open source platforms that provide high degrees of flexibility to set up your dream website. You can customize Drupal sites through extensions and modules, though this can be somewhat difficult if you have little or no coding knowledge. If you would like to use Drupal and you lack coding knowledge, you will probably have to purchase professionally developed themes or explore some of the free themes they are offering.
WordPress, on the other hand, has a wide range of plugins and themes for organizations to choose from. In addition to its huge free plugins and themes library, many WordPress plugins and themes also provide premium versions for customers. These premium versions are often superior, as they are well-maintained and add additional features that can enhance the outlook and performance of your site.
If you want to have more control over the feature and design set of your site, WordPress is the best option.
eCommerce Options
WordPress boasts of a full range of eCommerce features for all types of businesses. With WordPress, it is easier to build an online store, add purchase options, and install eCommerce plugins that boost the capabilities of your site. It is also a lot easier to set up subscriptions with automated options, one-click payments, and credit or debit card payments using WordPress.
Drupal’s eCommerce options allow users to develop eCommerce websites that suit their needs. The core features of this CMS platform include multiple order types, dynamic product ranges, promotions with multiple offer types, robust payment API, and order management.
When comparing eCommerce options, your CMS choice of WordPress vs. Drupal should be based on which functionalities align with your organization’s needs.
The Bottom Line
When planned properly, creating or redesigning a website for your organization is a great strategy for increasing engagement with your current audiences while also attracting new users. Great websites are characterized by its ease of use, flexibility, speed, performance, and security, among other factors, and both WordPress and Drupal are well-equipped to create the best website for your users.
By comparing the key features of these two systems to the requirements of your organization, while also understanding the capabilities of your internal web development team, you can make a well-informed choice and feel confident in your chosen CMS for years to come.
Still not sure which CMS is right for your organization? We’re happy to help! Schedule a free consultation with one of our Solution Architects today, and they’ll get you on the right path to understanding your organization’s web design and development needs.