Wordpress vs Drupal

Although there are some very interesting content management systems floating around the internet, Wordpress and Drupal seem to be the most impressive and useful.  Having used both for several years now I have discovered the strengths and weakness of each.

Let’s begin with the strengths of Wordpress.  I have never used another content management system that was so user friendly and makes you feel so empowered and entirely in control of your content.  The back end administration works like a well oiled machine and is truly amazing.  One can easily edit pages of content, add media, post to a blog or add a new sidebar widget in the snap of a finger, its incredible.  Wordpress also offers an abundance of plugins which gives its users just about anything they could possibly be looking for in terms of added features.  One of the key reasons I love Wordpress is how easy it is to create a custom theme.  You can easily code a website and place the required PHP in the proper areas and viola, you now have a functional Wordpress website.  I was truly stunned by how easy this was, and there are a great deal of functions for the advanced developers!

Now realize Wordpress not flawless, it also has its weaknesses which become prevalent with heavy, large or complicated websites.  Wordpress in my opinion was built primarily for blogs and smaller websites with little variation in the way content is displayed.  I have run into issues where I need a sidebar to be placed on a single page, however not be placed on any other pages.  This gets to be a bit complicated in having to download the correct plugins and ensure that the conditional statements are setup correctly for each widget.

Overall, I give Wordpress an 8.5/10 in terms of usability, custom theming and plugins and community.

Now on to Drupal, my first true love.  Drupal is a fantastic content management system due to its amazing flexibility and ease of development.  You could have anything from a simple blog website to a full blown news network website being updated constantly by thousands of writers and editors. By using Drupal, I always felt in control of how my websites were displayed, and how differently they could be compared to other pages on the website. This was one of the reasons I originally chose Drupal over Wordpress when I first began looking for content management systems to use. Custom theming was always very important to me because all of my clients needed custom designs, and Drupal delivered fairly well. It is very powerful, however the naming convention often times was downright confusing.

One of the major pluses I found with Drupal was that the administration menu was integrated with the rest of the website. This was definitely a plus over the Wordpress administration menu which always has the same look and feel no matter which website you are working on. Drupal also has an amazing community which is very supportive when anyone needs help. I never had a problem receiving an answer to a question within a day. One thing that I found difficult when working inside Drupal however was the way the administration menu was laid out. In the beginning I found it difficult to find the correct menu items I was looking for. It seemed that some of the items which should have been clearly labeled and on the front page for easy access seemed to be hidden away. On occasion I also found it difficult to implement modules such as views into Drupal to offer a completely new look within a node.

Overall, I give Drupal an 7.5/10 in terms of usability, custom theming and plugins and community.