thinking about creating a new website and are confused about choosing the best system among the two most famous blogging systems: WordPress and Joomla? Congratulations, you have come to the right place. In this article, we will learn about the most important differences between WordPress and Joomla, in addition to the advantages and disadvantages of each, and how to choose the appropriate platform to start creating your own website.
In the past, the process of creating a website or blog was limited only to people who had experience in the field of programming and website design using various web programming languages such as HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, as this was the only way to create websites until the emergence of systems. Various content management.
With the rapid development witnessed by the Internet in general and the field of creating and designing websites online in particular, it was necessary to find a method that helps in creating and designing websites and enables every person to create his own website, so content management systems (CMS) were invented. ) which was able to find a solution to this problem and anyone can create their own website, without the need to write codes or learn programming languages.
There are many content management systems that are designed to be free and open source, such as WordPress , Joomla , and Drupal . There is also a large group of hosted content management systems that require a paid subscription in order to use them, such as ( Squarespace ), ( Wix ), and ( Shopify ) and others.
7 differences between WordPress and Joomla
Although more than 40% of the websites on the Internet currently use the WordPress platform, there is also a group of users and owners of other websites who prefer to use other platforms such as Joomla. What are the advantages and disadvantages of WordPress and what are they? The most important advantages and disadvantages of Joomla, and what is the best choice for you?
1- History
WordPress was launched in 2003 as a specialized platform for blogging and publishing digital content on the Internet. The only use of WordPress at that time was to create blogs and publish articles in an easy way and without using programming languages. Thus, every person could start creating his own electronic blog and write… Articles are written and published on the Internet.
As for WordPress now, it is an integrated and multi-use system that enables you to create and design a website of any type, whether you want to create a website for a company or institution, an educational website, a forum, or even an online store to sell products.
Updates are issued continuously to WordPress to add improvements to the performance, appearance, and security features of the system. With each new version of WordPress, the ease of dealing with the system increases and becomes more suitable for anyone who wants to create a website for the first time, and the ability to customize it to create multiple types of websites increases. websites.
As for Joomla, it is also one of the most popular content management systems in terms of popularity and ranks second as the most used content management system by website owners, as more than 3% of websites on the Internet currently use it.
The Joomla platform was created in the year 2005, and since then until the beginning of the year 2010, Joomla was the most famous and most widely used content management system for creating blogs and websites, but the rate of its use began to decline significantly due to the superiority of WordPress over it in many features, which in turn It made users and website owners prefer to use WordPress.
Despite the great superiority of WordPress over Joomla and WordPress being considered the number one content management system in the world, a large number of websites still rely on the Joomla platform, which in turn still has characteristics and features that make it the most famous competitor that can be compared to WordPress.
2- Ease of use
When we come to ease of use, both WordPress and Joomla were designed from the ground up with ease of use in mind, as the primary goal of content management systems was to facilitate the process of creating websites and reduce the time, effort, and cost needed to design websites and blogs. .
WordPress is certainly currently considered the easiest platform for creating your website, especially after adding the template editor and the interface for editing new articles and pages that work by adding components, or when installing page building tools that work by dragging and dropping, which in turn enables you to create Create a professional-looking website easily and without prior experience.
A- Page editing interface in WordPress
WordPress is characterized by an easy-to-use interface for editing pages and articles called ( Gutenberg ), which enables everyone to design website pages professionally or write articles and add elements such as images, video clips, and buttons to the article via components (Blocks ) , which is a new and different method. Available on Joomla platform.
B- An easy and uncomplicated control panel
The WordPress control panel is simplified and enables you to access page management settings, manage articles, install templates and plugins , manage comments on articles, and customize settings for widgets and menus on the site easily and from one place.
C- Template editing interface
WordPress is distinguished by providing an easy graphical interface for customizing templates ( Theme Customizer ), through which one can control the colors, fonts, and sizes of various elements on the site, in addition to the ability to modify menus, widgets, and the rest of the site’s sections, and see the changes directly on the site.
As for the Joomla platform, it also features an easy-to-use user interface and control panel, but it contains many elements and requires some time to get used to how to use and deal with it. Therefore, you notice that the Joomla platform is very customizable and is preferred by many website developers. For the control and access options offered by this platform.
3- Support and development community
At this point, we notice a significant superiority of WordPress over Joomla, and this is due to the large number of WordPress users compared to the number of Joomla users. We find that WordPress has an active technical support community and experts from all over the world who solve problems and provide advice and guidance, whether on the technical support forum. The official version of WordPress or through websites specialized in WordPress explanations.
The large number of WordPress developers is also reflected in the speed and regularity of issuing updates to the system, adding new features and features, and solving problems that appear in previous versions of WordPress, in addition to WordPress developers who design templates that work to improve the appearance of WordPress and plugins that work to add features. New to WordPress websites and making it easier to use.
We also note that many famous international hosting companies provide hosting services dedicated to websites that operate using WordPress, and this service is known in particular as Managed WordPress Hosting, which works to improve the experience of creating a WordPress website for the website owner and improve the browsing experience for the website owner. to the user.
If you want to install WordPress or Joomla on your hosting, most hosting companies offer you the ability to install WordPress or Joomla with one click from within the control panel by using tools such as ( Softaculous ), which carries out the process of installing the platform you prefer on your hosting easily and Automatically, and some hosting companies such as Bluehost and DreamHost now enable you to install WordPress automatically once you complete the hosting registration process.
4- Templates and add-ons
In WordPress, you will find an official repository for templates (Themes) and another for plugins, from which you can download these templates and plugins for free and use them on your website. These repositories can be accessed from the official WordPress website or from within your control panel.
As for Joomla, you will find a special repository for extensions, and there is no special repository for templates, which in the Joomla platform are called (Templates), but of course there are paid templates for the Joomla platform on the Internet that can be obtained and installed on the site.
When we look at the plugins repository in WordPress, we find that it contains more than 54,000 free downloadable plugins, while the plugins repository in Joomla contains only about 8,000 plugins. As I mentioned, there is no official repository for templates in Joomla, while the templates repository in WordPress contains more. From 5000 free templates you can use.
5- Protection
Although WordPress and Joomla are free and open source content management systems, they are characterized by a high degree of security, and security and protection problems are solved with every new update issued to the system, whether in WordPress or Joomla. You can also install security add-ons in WordPress and Security profiles in Joomla to help add an additional layer to protect your website from fraud or hacking.
Joomla is distinguished over WordPress in some security features that come automatically installed with the system, such as forcing the use of the https protocol only in the Joomla control panel, while there is no option requiring the use of this protocol in WordPress, and there is no two-step verification system in WordPress while this system exists. On the Joomla platform.
Also, with the large number of WordPress users, it is considered the primary target for many Internet hackers and scams. There are also many WordPress templates and plugins that are unreliable or have been stripped of rights and are provided with malicious files that lead to the collapse of your website when used.
Many of the security and protection factors in WordPress depend heavily on securing the hosting server, installing the necessary security add-ons, and avoiding using untrusted templates and add-ons or those downloaded from external sources other than the WordPress repository or sites that sell well-known templates and add-ons.
Among the most famous security plugins in WordPress are the Securi plugin, the Wordfence plugin , the Jetpack Security plugin , and many other plugins in WordPress that work to protect the site and secure it from attacks and potential hacking attempts.
There is also another group of add-ons that enable you to protect your website by backing up site files and databases and the ability to restore them at any time, such as the Updraft Plus add-on, the VaultPess add-on , and other add-ons.
Read also: Secure and protect WordPress websites from all vulnerabilities
6- Compatibility with search engines
WordPress and Joomla platforms allow you to improve the content that is added to your site to appear in search engine results by enabling you to add a short description to the article and add keywords and alternative texts to images, but in order to be able to better improve your website’s presence in search engines. It is necessary to use some add-ons or accessories specialized in this field.
In WordPress, we find that the most popular plugins that work to prepare the website to appear in search engine results are the Yoast SEO plugin and the Rank Math plugin , which work to evaluate the quality of the content that you write on your website and give advice on how to improve it to be better compatible with search engines. These additions also generate a sitemap file that is submitted to search engines to speed up the process of archiving the content that is added to the site.
As for the Joomla platform, the best plugin for configuring the site for search engines is the EFSEO plugin , which works similarly to the WordPress plugins that we talked about a little while ago, but it does not rise to the same level and provides limited customization capabilities. Thus, we can judge that WordPress is the best when we come to configuring it. Website for search engines.
7- The most prominent advantages and disadvantages of the two platforms
We can review the most prominent advantages and disadvantages of the two platforms as follows:
Features of the WordPress platform
- It is free and open source , meaning that you do not need to pay any amount to use WordPress, and all you have to do is obtain hosting and a domain and then download WordPress from the official website for free and upload it to your website, or install it automatically from within the hosting control panel. To create a WordPress website .
- Ease of use , as WordPress is considered the easiest content management system that enables everyone to create and design their own website without prior experience, and without the need to learn programming languages.
- The ability to customize the site . Using WordPress, you can create a website of any type, whether you want to create a personal blog, a company website, or an online store, as the possibility of customizing the site in WordPress is unlimited, and various plugins can also be used to add more features to it. WordPress.
- The presence of a large number of plugins and templates . As we mentioned in this explanation, there are a very large number of plugins and templates dedicated to WordPress, whether free or paid, and this is due to the large number of WordPress users, which makes it the preferred platform for developers.
- Continuous updates to the WordPress system , due to the huge WordPress developer community, which includes an elite group of the most skilled designers and programmers from all over the world.
- The WordPress technical support community , as we find that WordPress enjoys very great popularity among website owners, which has led to the existence of a large number of technical support forums and websites specialized in providing explanations of WordPress , in addition to the official WordPress forum, which is a huge and active community that enables you to find solutions. And answers to all the problems that you may encounter.
Disadvantages of the WordPress platform
- It is considered the first target for theft and fraud , and this is also due to the large number of websites that operate using WordPress, which has made it the most targeted content management system and vulnerable to hacking attempts. But the good thing is that with every new update to WordPress, it is better secured and eliminated. Security vulnerabilities discovered in the previous version.
Features of the Joomla platform
- Free and open source . Just like WordPress, the Joomla platform is a free and open source platform that can be used without paying any costs. The system can be downloaded from the official website or installed from within the hosting control panel.
- Ease of use . The Joomla platform is considered an easy platform and enables you to create a website easily. Although the control panel seems complicated at first glance, with time you will find that the Joomla control panel is easy and enables you to manage your website in an easy and simplified way.
Disadvantages of the Joomla platform
- Limited customization options . The Joomla platform enables you to create a traditional website consisting of a group of pages linked together. However, if you want to create a website with additional features, you will find it difficult, due to the limited customization options and the lack of a sufficient number of customization options. Add-ons help customize the site in Joomla.
- Technical support and explanations community . There is an official forum for technical support for the Joomla platform, but it is a rather small community and most of the articles or posts presented on it have been for years without being updated, and the number of websites specialized in providing Joomla explanations is very small.
- Limited templates and plugins . As we mentioned in this article, there are a very limited number of templates and plugins dedicated to the Joomla platform, and thus you will notice that most of the websites that operate with this system appear in a very similar nature, unlike WordPress sites, which differ from each other. Some completely.
- The possibility of adapting the site to search engines is limited . We find that the ability to adapt websites that operate using Joomla to search engines is very limited, and this is due to the lack of extensions or auxiliary add-ons that provide integrated features, as is the case in WordPress.
Conclusion
In this article, we have learned about the most important similarities and differences between WordPress and Joomla, and we have shown the advantages and disadvantages of each of them, and you now have better knowledge about content management systems and how to choose the best platform for creating and designing your website.
WordPress and Joomla are two of the most famous content management systems on the Internet, and each of them dates back more than 10 years and has gone through many changes and updates, whether at the level of appearance or at the level of features and features.
In the past, Joomla was the most famous and most widely used platform, but with the passage of time, WordPress has become the first and most famous platform and is used by the vast majority of website and blog owners, due to WordPress being characterized by ease of use, strength in performance, and unlimited customizability that enables you to Creating a website of any kind with ease and as quickly as possible.
If you want to create a website, blog or online store, using WordPress enables you to have your website with a professional and distinctive appearance. It also provides you with a simple and easy control panel that supports the Arabic language in a very excellent way, in addition to accessing a large group of Templates and plugins that will enable you to design your website and add the features and features you want with ease
