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Building a website is not a hard job anymore. There are many CMSs available that offer you a lot of tools to build a website and manage your website easily. Anyone with zero development experience can build their website and manage it too, just because of the amazing tools the CMSs offer. WordPress and Drupal are the two most famous CMSs that you can use to build and manage your website. Both CMSs are very efficient and sometimes it becomes hard for you to choose among them. In this article, we’ll discuss Drupal vs WordPress CMSs that would make it easier for you to choose the right CMS based on your online website needs.

While choosing any CMS for your website, you have to analyze different factors such as usability, cost, security, flexibility, customization, etc. With WordPress or Drupal, you can develop a wide range of websites from simple blogs to highly functional eCommerce sites. Choosing the most suitable CMS platform for your business is based on your long and short-term goals.

Hopefully, this article will help you to choose the most appropriate platform for you.

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Drupal vs WordPress: Which is Better?

WordPress

WordPress is an open-sourced and user-friendly platform that is mostly used for blogging websites. Initially, WordPress was a blogging tool but now it has evolved and become a full-fledged CMS that allows you to develop websites on it. You can build a complete website on it, free of cost. It is reported that around 60 million websites on the internet use WordPress. You just have to get the domain name and hosting to use WordPress. WordPress comprises a huge community that offers precious support for the several kinds of websites you can develop.

Certainly, you can also use WordPress to create anything from a basic blog to a big news website i.e. CNN. This platform aims to target the general audience, which means an average web developer can customize their website on WordPress.

Drupal

Drupal CMS is older than WordPress, although the market share of this CMS is quite low compared to WordPress. It was launched in 2000, and almost 2.3 percent of websites on the internet are powered by this CMS. It has a 4.6 percent share of the CMS market. Drupal CMS is developer-centered and expects you to be easy working with PHP and HTML, and it is the best option if you want to create a more custom-operating and custom-looking website.

For this CMS, there are numerous multipurpose add-ons available that allow you to make a highly functional website without writing a single line of code. You can easily learn the workings of Drupal to make a more professional-looking website.

Here are some of the major differences in the features of both WordPress and Drupal

Usability and Ease of Use

WordPress

If you don’t have any development experience then WordPress is probably the best CMS platform for you. WordPress is a very user-friendly and easy-to-use platform. After getting the domain and hosting you can start building a website using this CMS. You don’t require any knowledge of coding to work on it. You can easily install this CMS on your hosting with just one click. The higher usability of WordPress is one of the major reasons why people prefer using this platform. If you want to customize your themes and plugins for a website, you can get help from a web developer (if you have no development experience), because the customization process can be a bit technical.

Once you have built your website using WordPress, the management of your website is also very easy with this platform. It is also very easy to customize WordPress themes because a lot of them come with their own options panel letting you change colors, create beautiful sliders, change the background, upload a logo, and truly customize it to your requirements without any need for coding. 

Drupal

Drupal is typically used to make more advanced and highly functional websites. Most of the Drupal websites have a custom-coded theme. There is no doubt that the interface of Drupal is not very user-friendly and simple like WordPress. If you don’t have any development experience, you may find it confusing and complex. Working with this platform, you should have a development experience because their tools and themes are not as simple to use as WordPress.

It means, if you want to make a website with Drupal, you should hire a developer just to make sure the website looks good. Seeing the tools and interface of Drupal. It can be said that this platform is majorly made for the developers. Furthermore, the interface of Drupal is not very familiar to most casual users or sometimes for toelopers.

Also Read: Drupal Hosting: Top Hosting Solution for 2024

Which is More Secure?

WordPress

With some built-in security features, WordPress also offers some security plugins for its users to improve the security of their websites based on their security needs. Although many security problems occur when a user uploads any third-party extensions to their website. The core of this CMS is very secure but most of the time the uncertainties happen from the users’ end. The security concerns in this platform can make your website more vulnerable and an easy target for hackers.

Because of the major security concerns, the websites made on WordPress are more likely to get hacked. It is easier for hackers to hack the WordPress website by using a malicious script. The third-party themes and extensions in this CMS are highly susceptible. Because of the huge popularity of this CMS, it is likely to be hacked more often. So, if you are using the WordPress CMS for building a website then make sure to adopt some security measures to protect your website.

Drupal

One of the best things about Drupal CMS is that it offers high security to the users. Compared with WordPress, the security features of Drupal are much more advanced and effective. Security is known to be the unique selling point of this platform. Security is the most significant feature of Drupal, that why you hardly heard about the hacking of any website made on Drupal. You cannot make your website 100% secure on the internet but still Drupal offers you the highest security possible.

Drupal6 has some security vulnerabilities that are now resolved in Drupal8. So, if you are currently using Drupal6 then it is recommended to shift to Drupal8 to ensure a high level of security. As far as security is concerned, Drupal wins the battle.

Themes and Plugins

WordPress

WordPress is the most famous CMS platform that offers a lot of extensions and theme options to users. There is a huge WordPress community that offers answers to different problems. You can find thousands of plugins and themes from the repository of WordPress which are free and paid based on your needs. There are many plugins from which you can choose the ones best suited to your website, and these can fulfill numerous website needs from SEO, and loading speed, to security.

You can get most of the themes and plugins of this CMS free of cost to make a nice and simple website. To make a highly functional website, you have to go for customized themes and designs. Although for the customized themes and extensions, you have to pay still the customized prices are very affordable.

Also Read: Top 5 WordPress Security Plugins in 2023

Drupal

As you know Drupal is a bit complex platform. If you are an experienced professional then working with themes and extensions would not be a hard nut to crack. As I mentioned earlier, it is not a platform for beginners because of the technicalities. It can be an ideal platform for developers who already have some development and coding knowledge. Most of the themes and extensions of this CMS are customized, with a comparatively higher cost than WordPress.

Drupal offers powerful features including custom views and fields. Although the complexities of Drupal themes are higher it will end up making a professional-looking and highly functional site. Because you are spending good money on buying themes with Drupal, you should have an understanding of themes to choose the right themes for your site.

Cost

WordPress

WordPress is an open-source platform that offers most of its themes and extensions free of cost to the users. It is a budget-friendly platform. Even if you are using premium themes and plugins, still you don’t have to break your banks to build and manage your website on it. One good news is that the websites on WordPress are self-hosted.

Drupal

Drupal is also a free platform like WordPress, but there are some additional costs that you have to pay. To build a website on Drupal, you may need to hire a web developer to set up the CMS and work with the customized themes and plugins. Other than this, the premium features of Drupal can be a bit expensive for you. So, Drupal CMS can be a bit heavy on your pocket.

Note: It is recommended to use the WordPress CMS if you have a limited budget for the website. Otherwise, you may be soon out of the budget because customization and management costs (for non-developers) can be very high.

Learning Curve

WordPress

Because of the higher usability of WordPress, it is also very easy to learn. The interface of this platform is so simple that even a non-developer can easily work on it. WordPress offers you a functional site even if you have no coding experience. The in-built interface in this CMS gets all the work done for you. Here, you can simply find a theme for your website business from its repository and build a site in no time. 

Drupal

The learning curve of the Drupal is steep. You can find it complex and complicated to understand the interface of this CMS. To work on Drupal, you should have some basic knowledge of coding and web development. Surprisingly, this platform can be unfamiliar to the developers also because the tools and interface are very complicated to understand at first glance. You may have to get a porter training or online course to work with this CMS. To manage a Drupal website you need to be aware of the technical things so that you can handle the technical stuff on your own.

Drupal vs WordPress: Which is The Right CMS Platform for Me?

Reading this article, the difference between WordPress and Drupal would be quite clear now. Both CMS platforms have their benefits and drawbacks. I would not be biased for one side, because choosing any platform is more to do with the nature of your website and long-term business goals. If you want to create a simple website or blogging site then WordPress is the best option. On the other side, for highly functional and professional websites, it is recommended to use Drupal (if you have a good budget).

Final Words!

This article is a comprehensive comparison of Drupal versus WordPress. I hope the article will help you to choose the right CMS for your business. If you still have any queries concerning the functionalities of either CMS platform, you can ask me in the comments section. Do share this article in your circle, if you find it helpful.