Drupal vs WordPress

When comparing and deciding upon the use of a Content Management System (CMS) or tool, the most popular debate today is between WordPress and Drupal. The arguments are over which platform is most flexible, easiest to learn, more secure… In short, which one is better.  The answer can be simple: It completely depends on the content, who will be administering it, and what the site size and goals are.

WordPress and Drupal have some similarities.  Both can be used to add and edit content to a website.  Both are Open Source platforms, meaning that there are thousands of developers constantly making enhancements, improvements, and updates.  Both allow for ‘What You See Is What You Get,’ or WYSIWYG, which means easy to use visual editing of text, image placing, and linking.  The similarities, however, mostly end there.

WordPress was designed as a blogging engine – a relatively simple, highly adaptable way to publish blog posts in a stylized format.  Among WordPress’ greatest assets are its SEO friendly tagging system; its ability to publish text, image, and video blogs; and its user friendly (read: no programming experience necessary) publishing abilities and widget application.  Indeed, WordPress is the publisher of choice for a significant number of the world’s most popular blogs.  More recently, developers have taken WordPress to the next level, utilizing it as a CMS for larger sites with diverse content areas.  Here, however, WordPress’ shortcomings become more apparent.

For starters, WordPress has significant issues handling advanced customization of its administrative abilities.  Adding additional admin levels and permissions make the system increasingly brittle.  Additionally, the more it is used to sub-sect a website, the higher the potential for compatibility issues as well as site breaks.  WordPress functions best when it is utilized closest to its core purpose.

Drupal, in comparison, works in the opposite manner.  A platform that caters specifically to web developers, Drupal is a sprawling system with dozens of plug-ins and adaptations.  Drupal also has blogging and posting capabilities, but functions best as a true CMS for larger sites.  Because it is driven by programming there is really no limitation to what Drupal can do: forums, e-commerce, blogs, intranets, wikis, CRM, social networks, news aggregators, photo galleries, and the list goes on.  This makes Drupal extremely adaptable, but can also be overwhelming for some sites.

Drupal has the ability to expand administrator functions much further than WordPress.  If a site were to need, for example, ten different admin levels, from top level management who can edit and create anything to bottom level content contributors who can’t post anything live, Drupal allows for the administrator roles to be as customizable as the site itself.  However, if the site only needs one admin, again these features become overwhelming and unnecessary.

Both platforms have outstanding qualities and are growing and getting better (thanks to a robust community) every day.  The process of choosing which to use can be as unique as the intended website.