Starting a website can be a large undertaking. You will need to design the site, register your domain, promote your material, and create your content. The content will be the bulk of the website, and therefore a great deal of attention should be focused around that aspect. Therefore, choosing a content management system (CMS) is fundamental in your website development. Two platforms that are commonly used are Joomla and WordPress.
Joomla
Joomla has been used to manage many big-name company websites, such as RogerFederer.com, United Nations Regional Information Centre, and Itwire. There are many online tutorials showcasing how to use Joomla, or you could hire a web designer to help you with it. A user would likely choose Joomla over WordPress when they want to build a website that is more complicated than a standard blog, or when they desire more flexibility in design choices.
Joomla was launched in 2005 and is the second most popular CMS in the world. Joomla is more advanced than WordPress and offers more options for users. The users of Joomla tend to be slightly more advanced in terms of programming and web design to use Joomla comfortably. Joomla is also able to provide more flexibility when it comes to implementing unique content. There are also more template options that you can choose from, compared to only one with WordPress.
When getting started with Joomla, you will create different categories for your content. There is a wide variety of options, including manipulating the SEO settings. If you are interested in extending your website, Joomla offers extensions to do so. As of 2020, Joomla has over 8,000 extensions, and many different templates to choose from. The general online security of Joomla and WordPress is roughly the same.
WordPress
WordPress launched in 2003, originally as a simple blog platform. It currently hosts the data for over 37% of all the websites on the internet. Several successful companies that use WordPress include The New Yorker, TechCrunch, and The Official Star Wars Blog. WordPress is straightforward and simple to use. A user would typically choose it when they start up a blog website, or when they don’t require much design flexibility. There are more web designers available who are familiar with WordPress, meaning that the cost to hire one would be lower as compared to a different CMS.
WordPress content can be quickly created and uploaded without any fancy bells and whistles. To extend a website, WordPress uses plugin add-ons. Currently, WordPress has over 54,000 free plugins available for use.
Which to Use?
Ultimately, the content management system that you decide to go with will depend entirely on what your specific needs are. The main difference between the different systems is that Joomla was initially meant to store data for portal-like websites rather than blogs. However, changes have been made to ensure that Joomla can work for any type of website that is required. In order to use Joomla, you will need to install it on a web server. Configuring the web software and working with the server might be challenging, but the pay-off is worth it in the end. The price for both Joomla and WordPress is free. However, some of the extensions and plugins that each system offers will cost money. Take a look at the cost vs. benefit of each extension before you decide to make a purchase, as some of the free ones will offer many of the same features.
Joomla handles search engine optimization as well. The user would be able to set a meta description and also add keywords before they publish a new article. You can also use plugins to enhance your SEO performance as well. For instance, Easy Frontend SEO can automatically update the meta description, in case the user doesn’t want to enter it every time they publish a post.
Overall, Joomla should be the CMS chosen if the user has experience working in the field of programming or web design. If not, Joomla will simply take a little more time to get used to it before the user can operate it efficiently. Alternatively, it should be used if there is a plan to hire a web designer. The designer would have more creative freedom to utilize Joomla and create a unique result.