WordPress Joomla Or Drupal - Which Content Management System Should One Choose?

Content Management System (CMS) websites with dynamic content that can be updated with ease are increasingly becoming a popular choice to build websites. When scouting for CMSs there are a plenty of out-of-the-box solutions out there. So, once you decide to use a CMS to build your website, which one do you choose? 

In this article I will focus on - WordPress, Joomla and Drupal. These three are the most widely talked about and used open source CMS packages. Also, all the above three CMS are pretty stable, have extensive support and large user groups, and they are all feature rich with access to number of readymade templates and plugins.

The rule of thumb when choosing between the three is that you choose WordPress if you are only interested in blogging. Also, WordPress is great if the number of content contributors to the website ranges from one to few people. If you need a website which can do much more than blogging and have multiple content contributors then you choose Joomla or Drupal.

 If you are looking for a feature rich website with minimal development work then look no further than Joomla. If you are looking for a fully functional dynamic website and you require extensive customization Drupal is a better option. But, with Drupal be prepared to roll up your sleeves and do some heavy development work or set aside a budget of at least $5000 for the development work.

Very simply put WordPress is very user friendly to install and have it running as a blog. Any blogger with little or no technical know how can set WordPress up pointing to his domain name and have it up and running in a flash. But, the downside is that WordPress allows no real flexibility in accommodating anything more than blogging. It is not very developer friendly either.

Joomla on the other hand can be used to develop a robust dynamic website. It goes beyond blogging and can be the ideal solution for building an e-commerce websites. The one serious drawback with Joomla is that it is not easy to customize. So if you are looking to customize the look and feel, the functionality and the operability of the website it may not be easy to accomplish.

Drupal is a highly customizable CMS. A web developer with background in PHP can modify and customize Drupal like putty clay. The downside is that if you have little PHP knowledge then you will have to rely heavily on a developer or a development team and it might end up becoming an expensive proposition. But, if your website requires content contributions from many people and has a wide audience Drupal would be the ideal solution.