Ultimate Comparison of 3 Most Popular Content Management System [Infographic]

Posted on November 28, 2016   3:41 am by Kintan

Blogs, personal websites and online sectors for businesses have become all the rage in today’s day and age and you will be hard pressed to find anyone that hasn’t dabbled on the web.  Content management systems make life easier for millions of bloggers, website designers and small business owners working in different industries and targeting different audiences. The market for these helpful publishing tools is one of the most versatile and fastest growing ones. There are a number of well-known CMS out there, and it can sometimes be quite challenging to figure out which one is the right one for you.

As a newbie blogger finding the right content management system to help get my blog up and running turned into a bit of a nightmare. Finding information on different CMS tools that is in a way that everyday people can understand is next to impossible. Luckily for me, my friends are up in the know of content management systems and were able to give me the lowdown on different ones and find the one the best suited my needs. (in case you were wondering what CMS I picked,  it was good ol’ WordPress).

Three of the most popular content management systems are WordPress, Joomla and Drupal and Skilled.co provides an in-depth comparative analysis of the three within an infographic. This infographic provides similarities, differences, and individual strengths of each CMS to help individuals and businesses determine which CMS is going to best suit their individual needs. It is a one stop for all information, a time saver I wish I had when I started looking into different content management systems.

Getting to Know WordPress, Joomla and Drupal

The first step in deciding on a CMS system is to briefly understand what each CMS was designed for. Are you a blogger looking for an easy to navigate interface or a professional web developer looking to for a CMS to create something out of the ordinary?

WordPress was released in 2003 and is the most recognisable CMS on the market today. It as an easy to navigate open source software that can be used to build visually appealing web pages, blogs and apps.

Joomla was released in 2005 and is a CMS that enables users to create websites and powerful applications.

The oldest CMS out of the these three content management systems is Drupal, released  back in 2000. Drupal powers a number of commonly used apps and websites such as Rainforest alliance, Pinterest and The Economist.

CMS Usage & Website Types

Content management systems power different types of websites all over the web, but the sheer amount that each of these CMS powers is astounding. WordPress takes the cake and powers a whopping 17.3 million websites! Joomla is a not so close second place with 2.5 million and drupal brings up the reer and powers 0.74 million websites. That is over 20 million websites!

The data collected for this infographic reported that  27% of all CMS-based websites use WordPress, 2.8% of them are powered by Joomla and 2.20% use Drupal.

  • WordPress has a simple interface and easy to install features and add-ons making it easy for beginners to use. It is the most suitable CMS for everyday blogging and news sites. It works best for simple website designs.
  • Joomla is targeted towards web designers as it is designed to power complex and professional websites. It works best for e-commerece businesses and social networks.
  • Drupal aims its services towards web developers that require complex data organisation. It is a CMS that can power complex websites such as community platforms with high user numbers and online stores.

Download Costs

A key feature for a tight money scrooge like myself is that each of these content management systems can all be downloaded free of charge. The saying that “you have to spend money to make money” doesn’t always apply , especially with powering a website. A lot of money does not have to be spent to have a high quality website.

Installation Time

The installation time of each CMS being discussed are relatively short. The installation time for WordPress is approximately 5 minutes, Drupal takes an average of 10 minutes to install and Joomla has the longest installation time of 15 minutes.  A key feature of WordPress, Joomla and Drupal is that they all offer one-click installs.

Themes & Plugins

The different themes and plugins that these content management systems offer have won over millions of users. In today’s society there is a switch being made from being  similar to others and structured to being unique, different and standing out from the crowd. The different themes and plugins offered provide the opportunity to customize each website to be unique and individualised. Once again WordPress takes first place and offers a generous amount of over 7600 themes and 47,593 plugins. Joomla has over 4000 themes and 8634 plugins. Drupal users can choose between 2300 themes and 35,825 different plugins.

Available Languages

Drupal is not as widely used as WordPress or Joomla but when it comes to the number of languages on offer, it takes the top spot. There are 100 available languages on Drupal compared with 66 on Joomla and 62 on WordPress. Joomla and Drupal both offer extensions and modules for translating custom data and it’s possible to make custom data translatable on WordPress  with the help of Language Manager.

Setup and Upkeep Rankings

The data collected reported that WordPress was the top ranking CMS in relation to setup and upkeep. WordPress, Joomla and Drupal are all written in PHP which is a free script language and interpreter. The database management system utilized by WordPress, Joomla and Drupal is MySQL which is an open-source relational database management system. WordPress and Drupal users also use the alternative database management system called MariaDB. A few websites powered by Drupal utilize Percona Server which is an enhanced version of MySQL.

Security Rankings

A content management system  comparison would not be complete if it did not examine how the three content management software rank in terms of security. Joomla’s core has been reported to be the most secure while Drupal core security is moderate.  User rankings indicated that WordPress has the least secure core. The security of WordPress plugins, extensions and modules were reported to be the most secure followed by Joomla. The User rankings ranked Drupal’s plugins, extensions and modules as being the least secure.Drupal was most recently updated for security on 21 September 2016. Earlier that same month, WordPress had its last security update, while Joomla was last updated on 4 August 2016.

The Infographic

This infographic is based on recent data obtained from a large number of credible sources. All the numbers and data used in the infographic are accurate and up to date. If you are struggling to figure out what popular CMS to pick,  take a look at the infographic below. The infographic highlights key information on each  CMS and provides the framework to help you determine the right CMS for you.

Embed this on your website/blog