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The Wordpress vs. Drupal CMS Debate

Wed, 24 Apr 2013, by Syrsly

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.