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Content Management Systems are software systems that provide website authoring, collaboration, and administration tools designed to allow users to build and manage website content without having to code it. If you are planning to create a website using any content management system, WordPress vs Drupal vs Joomla vs Magento vs Prestashop seems to be the first question in your mind. Choosing a single among the best 5 options is a tough decision because of many similarities in these Content Management Systems. 

In this article, I have tried to help you in choosing the right platform along with a comprehensive overview of the similarities, advantages, and disadvantages. 

CMS
Software	Open Source (Free)	Open Source (Free)	Open Source (Free)	Open Source (Free)	Open Source (Free)
What they say about their CMS	“WordPress is open source software you can use to create a beautiful website, blog, or app.”	“Drupal is content management software. It’s used to make many of the websites and applications you use every day.”	“Joomla! Is an award-winning content management system (CMS) which enables you to build websites and powerful online applications.”	“Magento is the leading platform for open commerce innovation. Every year, Magento handles over $100 billion in gross merchandise volume”	PrestaShop is one of the world’s most popular e-commerce platforms, and most successful open-source projects.”
CMS Market Share(W3Techs)	63.5%	2.6%	3.9%	1.2%	0.9%
Installation	Using One-click Installer or manually within 5 minutes	Using One-click Installer or manually within 10 minutes	Using One-click Installer or manually within 10 minutes	Using One-click Installer or manually within 10 minutes	Using One-click Installer or manually within 15 minutes
Ease of Use	Beginner-friendly (5/5)	Requires Coding Skills (3.5/5)	Somewhat Beginner-friendly (4/5)	Requires Coding Skills (3/5)	Somewhat Beginner-Friendly (4.5/5)
Themes & Templates	7,707+ Official FREE Themes 11,000+ Premium Themes at ThemeForest	2,897+ Official Drupal Themes and 500+ Premium Drupal Themes at ThemeForest	NO Official Template Directory 1,100+ Premium Joomla Templates at ThemeForest	10 + Official Magento Themes 600+ Premium Magento Themes at ThemeForest	3,252+ Official Prestashop Themes 500+ Premium Prestashop Themes at ThemeForest
Plugins & Extensions	56,884+ Official FREE Plugins (Excluding Paid Plugins on the web)	45,861+ Drupal Module at Official Directory	8,000+ Official Extensions (FREE+Paid)	3,145+ Magento Official Extensions	4,150+ Prestashop Module at Official Directory
Websites Using this Platform	Sonymusic, BBC America, The New York Times	NASA, White House, Australian Government, NCAA	Harvard University, The Hill, The Fashion Spot	SIGMA, Nike, Land Rover, cox & cox	Monsieur Chaussure, KliknKlik, Sumo Lounge

Popular Content Management Systems and Their Cost Estimations

All the Content Management Platforms are designed according to a specific business requirement. So, if you choose the right one it can help you to get a higher ROI value. 

• Each of these five content management systems is free because of its open-source nature. You can download any platform from their official website in just a few clicks.
• For making your website live on the internet you have to bear other costs like domain name and web hosting. 
  • Domain name is the address of your business or personal website on the internet and it costs around $15 annually. The domain of this website is Temok.com.
  • Web hosting is the space on the internet on which you will store your web pages, images, videos, content, and other data. Good web hosting starts at ~$0.5 a month and increases as per your business requirements. 

Domain and web hosting costs are the same for each content management system, but you have to pay some extra amount to enhance their native features by adding additional plugins, modules, or design templates. WordPress vs Drupal vs Joomla vs Magento vs Prestashop can be differentiated based on the estimated price of plugins and themes.

Following are the minimum and maximum price rates to enhance the functionality of the website: 

• WordPress plugins: $0-$1,051
• Drupal Modules: $0-$100
• Joomla Extensions: $0-$70
• Magento Extensions: $0-$28,700
• Prestashop Addons: $0-$89

Following are the themes (installable design packages) to give a look and feel to your website: 

• WordPress themes available for $0-$250
• Drupal themes: $0-$80
• Joomla themes: $0-$200
• Magento themes: $0-$399
• Prestashop themes: $0-$12000

If you get the free plugins and themes then your bill will be: 

$15 (domain name) +$0.66*12($7.92) =~$22.92 per year 

Note: This price is based on shared hosting which is the first choice of freelancers, personal websites, or beginners to build their website but it is not recommended for big e-commerce stores.

WordPress vs Drupal vs Joomla vs Magento vs Prestashop: Pros and Cons

What is WordPress?

WordPress is the most widely used content management system written in PHP and uses the MySQL database, but there is no need to learn to code to build your website using this CMS. It is a beginner-friendly website development platform that has great and powerful built-in blogging features. WordPress is an open-source solution that allows developers to study the CMS code and develop their plugins and templates (WordPress themes) for it. 

You can compare WordPress versus Drupal or other Content Management Systems, but each one has its pros and cons. So, in this article, I am not going specifically to Drupal vs WordPress but all popular platforms to help in choosing the right one to boost your business within a short period.

WordPress Administration Dashboard

Advantages:

1. Flexible, simple, and adaptable for changing business needs
2. A lot of plugins and themes for almost all the functionality
3. Opensource with great developers and community support
4. Easy to use and best suitable for beginners as well as professionals
5. Preinstalled plugin and template function with customization options
6. Allows you to manage your website from anywhere and any computer
7. No HTML or Text Editor is required to format pages, posts, and other changings 
8. Search Engines love WordPress websites because of their clean and simple code
9. WordPress has a built-in mobile responsiveness Blog and is Ready to go. 
10. Have Multiple Users with the option of assigning them different roles 

Disadvantages:

1. Security and website vulnerability
2. Slow page speed and not as easy as you think
3. Plugins compatibility and their frequent updates
4. Easy to create only simple websites (blogs, landing page websites)

What is Drupal?

Drupal is an open-source CMS (Content Management System) used to build amazing digital experiences with its standard features, including reliable performance, easy content authoring, and excellent security. It is mostly used by higher education institutions, NGOs, Governments, and larger enterprises. 

Drupal Administration Dashboard

Advantages:

1. Customization possibilities for a wide variety of content types
2. Enterprise-level security by offering regular patches
3. Additional custom features with the help of different modules and themes
4. Developers and community support for making your work innovative 
5. Drupal comes with Thousands of Free Modules
6. Best suitable for high-traffic spikes 
7. Drupal delivers a lot of professional and readymade Themes
8. Neat code and compelling modules 
9. Professional online community and plenty of additional functions
10. Built-in multilingual functionality and high scalability

Disadvantages: 

1. Drupal vs WordPress: Drupal is more complex and requires coding skills
2. Plugin compatibility issues
3. Website speed issues if not optimized

What is Joomla?

Joomla is an open-source CMS (Content Management System) used to build powerful dynamic websites and mobile-ready applications. It is more suitable for those developers who are not afraid to “get their hands dirty” working with servers. Joomla started as a content management system meant to serve portal-like websites, but nowadays it is perfectly capable of running any type of website. 

Joomla Administration Dashboard

Advantages: 

1. Easy to use and install
2. A lot of Plugins and templates
3. Great community support and build-in options
4. It is a free and open-source 
5. More suitable for Multipurpose websites like government applications or organizational websites
6. It is not complicated 
7. Thousands of templates and themes are available
8. The Joomla website be easily migrated to any server
9. Great SEO with better caching and performance mechanisms 
10. One-click updates and upgrade options

Disadvantages: 

1. Joomla vs WordPress: Joomla is more complex
2. Plugins and backward compatibility issues 
3. The smaller marketplace of plugins and extensions 

What is Magento?

Magento is an open-source CMS that provides online merchants with a flexible and scalable e-commerce platform. It also provides control over the design, content, and functionality of the store along with SEO, digital marketing, and catalog-management tools. 

Magento Administration Dashboard

Advantages: 

1. Opensource solution packed with e-commerce features including SEO functionality, marketing suite, catalog, website, and order management.
2. Magento has advanced testing capabilities 
3. Highly scalable and mobile-friendly 
4. More flexible and allows third-party integrations 
5. Great community support
6. A highly functional and global platform 
7. Modern frontend and intuitive backend functionality 
8. Opensource code for adding advanced functionality and features
9. It allows users to power multiple Magneto stores from a single install
10. Great options for inventory management 

Disadvantages: 

1. It is an expensive and time-consuming solution 
2. Bad product support 
3. Cost of Ownership 

What is Prestashop?

Prestashop is a free and open-source ecommerce website development platform written in the PHP programming language with support for MySQL DBMS and used to create & manage online businesses. It has a wonderful interface for management and offers advanced features including advanced backup schemes, easy accessibility, and high reliability to increase the website’s credibility. 

Prestashop Administration Dashboard

Advantages: 

1. Opensource and Easy to install
2. Budget-Friendly solution
3. Easy Customization and administration
4. Demographic assistance
5. Secure payment and minimal system requirements 
6. Easy to use and maintain without technical brilliance 
7. International shipping, payments, and promotional tools 
8. Good SEO, email follow-up automation, catalog, and site management features 

Disadvantages: 

1. Limited scalability 
2. Unprofessional design 
3. Expensive modules 

Summary

You have realized after the study of WordPress vs Drupal vs Joomla vs Magento vs Prestashop which one is more suitable for your particular business requirements. If you are directly landing on the summary without reading the complete article, then here is a short overview of all these popular website development platforms. Before choosing any of the following development platforms, it is mandatory to register a domain name that is more suitable to represent your business. 

WordPress is perfect for beginners or non-tech users to create and run a simple blog/website using any theme according to a particular niche. They can easily get the required functionality with the help of thousands of free or paid plugins. It is easier to manage and run your WordPress website with managed WordPress cloud hosting or Managed WooCommerce cloud hosting for setting up an online store.  

Drupal is the most advanced content management system that requires good technical knowledge including HTML, PHP, and other required coding skills. Drupal and WordPress both are website development platforms but it is up to you which one is more suitable for your business requirements. It is more suitable for business management systems, news websites, and commercial portals. Get managed Drupal cloud hosting and host your websites on the internet using cloud technology. 

Joomla has a market share of 3.9% and is primarily used by database-driven websites with lots of products and content. So, if you want to build an e-commerce store then get managed Joomla cloud hosting to make your dreams come true. 

Magento requires good knowledge of coding, so it is highly recommended for those who are tech-savvy or enterprise-level businesses with their developers. If you are ready then get managed magneto cloud hosting and start your journey.

Prestashop is not as easy as WordPress, not as difficult as Magento, and more suitable for those who are looking to launch a smaller store. Get the managed Prestashop cloud hosting and set up your online store today.