The Wordpress vs. Drupal CMS Debate
I have used Drupal since Drupal 6 was first considered stable, and before that, I was using Wordpress for a Flash arcade site. I recently started this blog using Wordpress. However, I am still very fond of Drupal, and I have to admit that I wish I made my blog using Drupal just because I am more comfortable with it as a developer. That said, there is a very old argument going around that one of these systems is better than the other. That is simply false. They are each useful for specific reasons.
Reasons to use Drupal
- Easier to move the site around and change domains.
- Able to run multiple sites from a single installation of Drupal, each with their own customizations.
- Flexible URL aliasing. (Setup takes a lot longer, though.)
- Designer-friendly module and theme system. (Wordpress themes are not as standardized.)
- Developer-friendly menu system and function overrides.
- Default setup supplies only the most basic of functionality rather than a complete solution.
- Premade solutions for blogs, forums, news sites, and many other use cases.
- More flexible node structure for all content. (Before Drupal 7, however, comments were not considered nodes.)
- User roles and permissions are in-depth and easily customized.
- Each content type can have its own customized form fields created from within the admin interface.
Reasons to use Wordpress
- Out-of-box near-perfect blogging platform. Very little setup time.
- Admin pages easier to navigate and look a lot prettier. (Drupal is an eye sore by default but can be customized fairly easily.)
- Very clearly defined content types out-of-box for pages, posts, tags, and categories. (I'm still not sure why you need both tags and categories.)
- Plug-ins typically require less setup work and offer more usability.
- Updates are a lot easier and can be done within the admin interface. (Drupal 7 modules can be updated this way, but the core system cannot.)
- Making new content is fast and easy. You can create new categories/tags when creating new posts. Usability is top-notch.
- Menu system offers a very visual management screen with nested items and on-the-page editing. (Drupal's menu is easier to theme.)
- Image and media management is the best it can be. Easily post an image from another post into a new one. Change titles and descriptions. Create galleries. All of this is taken care of in the default Wordpress installation.
- WYSIWYG post/page editor is the best one I've ever seen. It is actually better than Blogger/Blogspot ever was.
- Comments management is easier and faster and just more comfortable.
Other systems/frameworks I have used in addition to the above mentioned systems include ModX, CuteNews, PHPNuke, CodeIgniter, and many other solutions. I really think my favorite system for building and maintaining static pages is ModX. If I have a blog to maintain, Wordpress is the best solution for that. If I have a community-driven site I want to build, Drupal is typically the best content management framework solution but requires a lot of customization and is not an out-of-box solution. I also sometimes code things from scratch, but if a site requires content management, it is usually best to use a frequently updated framework or system of some kind to save time and optimize development flexibility.