Content management systems have changed the way how websites are built and managed. Businesses have benefitted using CMSs as it allowed non-technical people to contribute content to a website without having any coding skills. Joomla and WordPress have been the two most popular content management systems in the world and there has always been a raging debate on which is the best. Both these CMS solutions are being used around the globe by hundreds of thousands of websites and have their own pros and cons when brought to a comparing table. Let us now take a look at the strengths and weaknesses of each of these content management systems.

WordPress

This is by far the most popular content management systems in the world having the largest market share among all CMS solutions in the world. Built in PHP it was primarily built as a blogging platform which also allows developers to build complete websites.

Strengths

• First and foremost it is the easiest content management system in the world which allows users to publish content and manage a website or blog with ease.

• It installs in no time and comes with a built editor within the admin area which allows developers to make all the customary changes to the website as is required

• There are nearly 1500+ free and premium themes and over 20000 plugins available in WordPress making it the most diverse content management system in the world. From a corporate website to a photo blog or e-zine all kinds of websites can be developed using WordPress.

Weaknesses

• Though WordPress can be used to build all kinds of websites it is primarily used only as a blogging platform. Building complex websites in WordPress is a painstaking task.

• Security in WordPress isn’t as strong as in Joomla and the websites fall easy prey to hackers and viruses especially when using free themes.

• The navigation structure of a WordPress website cannot easily be altered as in Joomla as the navigation is determined by the theme you choose and to change this you would need to alter the CSS.

Joomla

Right at the outset it was designed as a complete website management solution. It is built in PHP and used MySQL as its database. Once deployed this content management system can easily be extended with a wide array of extensions.

Strengths

• Joomla allows multiple users to edit the website at the same time making it ideal for businesses which offer many users to permission to edit the website.

• It can be used to a community or a network with a membership area, newsroom, forums, articles etc. as it manages all these complex tasks with ease.

• This content management system supports multi-lingual websites which allows businesses to have their website in multiple languages.

Weaknesses

• The learning curve is steep in Joomla compared to WordPress and the developer and user need to get acclimated to the admin and other features of the Joomla website.

• Joomla codes aren’t as search engine friendly as that of WordPress and you need to optimize a website to attract targeted traffic from the search engines.

• Joomla uses excess JavaScript and CSS to display pages which makes the website heavy and load slow on the web browser.

It is difficult to pass a judgment over which is the best CMS solution between WordPress and Joomla and purely depends upon the need of the business. If you are planning to develop a simple website with limited features and functionalities WordPress would be the perfect choice for you. In case of complex websites with large databases one should opt for Joomla.