The main difference between WordPress and Joomla is that the latter is a community portal type-site, while WordPress is characterized most often as a web log, or blog. Both feature several overlapping services, and utilizing plug-ins allows users to extend the functionality of both. Both sites are free to the public and enjoy a sizable user community who actively share information, including useful tricks and tips, making both sites more productive and easier to use.
WordPress is primarily a development of community volunteers. Joomla, on the other hand, depends on experienced professionals to create add-ons and other new content for the site. Which site will best serve the needs of a specific user or group depends in large part on what the user wants to accomplish on the site as well as the user’s personal preferences.
What are the basics of Joomla?
Joomla defines itself as the “world’s most popular open source CMS,” or content management system. It currently provides CMS services for an estimated 2.7% of the World Wide Web, which translates to a huge number of Internet users.
What is a CMS?
CMS stands “content management system” and keeps track of all material content on a website, similar to a library that stores and tracks its collection of books and other print publications. Content can be anything you choose, text documents, music, photographs or video. A CMS system, such as Joomla manages all of your web content for you, and requires little or no technical knowledge or skill.
Who uses Joomla?
Joomla’s many users include individuals as well as small, medium, and large-sized businesses around the globe. Companies that use Joomla include:
- IKEA
- Barnes and Noble
- eBay
- General Electric
- McDonalds
- Pizza Hut
It boasts that more than 2,800 government organizations have designed their websites using Joomla software and add-ons. Joomla provides the necessary tools for users to create and edit their own websites, with virtually limitless possibilities. Powerful tools that can not only fashion state of the art websites, but intranets, directories, shopping carts, social networks and much, much more!
In little more than a decade, Joomla has built an active community of more than 200,000 contributors and developers. The platform base for Joomla is PHP and MySQL, powerful applications in their own right. Users from IHOP (International House of Pancakes) to Harvard University praise the ease and effectiveness of Joomla’s site building software.
What is WordPress?
WordPress is an open source, free, blogging software program. Users may create a website or a blog using thousands of available plug-ins and themes. WordPress users are free to run ads and sell products on their sites and the actual wordpress source code is open source. Users can edit their database at any time and even modify the source code, PHP. More than 60 million people worldwide have created virtual homes using WordPress software. WordPress software can be downloaded and a site created in just five minutes!
Users include media groups such as CNN and the New York Times, performers like Russell Brand, Ryan Seacrest, Sylvester Stallone, and The Red Hot Chili Peppers, and sports teams such as the Chicago Bulls.
Any interested user may download this free software but it has to be installed on a server, so WordPress software offers two choices for its users. First, WordPress software may be downloaded and installed on your own server or any third-party hosting provider. The second option for WordPress users is to utilize WordPress.com as a hosting platform but there are limitations by choosing this option.
How can I choose between WordPress and Joomla?
Both platforms are great to establish your presence on the web but there are points to consider when comparing the two. Joomla is a good choice for those who want to create a network or community with membership areas, forums, newsrooms, and articles that allow for input from outside authors. Joomla is also a complex site permitting deep navigation with fixed posts and pages, perfect for community websites, but perhaps more than is needed for a regular individual webpage.
WordPress is very user friendly and much more common for personal blogs and website. Like Joomla, WordPress features fixed posts and websites. Plug-ins allow for versatility but some might not be easy to understand, and may require the aid of a professional web designer.
Both WordPress and Joomla are solid choices but your preferences will help decide whether Joomla or WordPress can best meet your needs.
Related posts:
If you enjoyed this article, please consider sharing it!
Web Hosting Reviews
