Drupal vs WordPress: Which is The Best CMS in 2024?

It is of paramount importance to determine a suitable Content Management System (CMS) for your site. Drupal vs WordPress are the two shining stars standing out among the pack. Each has its own loyal subset of customers, a long list of credible websites it powers, and is packed with robust features and functionalities.

For those who are wavering between the two, you may find your answer after reading our in-depth comparison. We will be going through the key points below:

• An overview of Drupal vs WordPress;
• Which platform is best for you: Drupal or WordPress?
• Comparing the two solutions on all aspects. 

Join us in exploring one by one now!

Drupal vs WordPress: Which CMS Should You Go For?

You've explored the strengths and weaknesses of both Drupal vs WordPress. Now it's time to delve deeper and discover which platform aligns best with your project's goals. From our research, here are the ideal scenarios for each CMS to help you make an informed decision.

When should you choose Drupal?

Drupal excels in scenarios with a large authenticated user base, complex content needs, customization requirements, integrations with other services, configuration management, strict security requirements, web application development, and personalization with a Digital Experience Platform (DXP).

If you’re searching for software with an enormous degree of flexibility and customization capabilities, Drupal is a suitable choice. Nonetheless, by the same token, you have to put in a great deal of effort to set up and operate your Drupal site daily.

When should you choose WordPress?

WordPress excels in areas such as eCommerce integration with WooCommerce, usability and flexibility for site owners, lower cost through starter themes, and a vast selection of plugins.

If you prefer to set up and manage your webpage with less technical headaches, we would recommend you choose WordPress. Even if you’re a newbie just dipping your toe into building a website, working with WordPress feels like a breeze. Then, if you wish to taste the flavor of eCommerce, you can install WooCommerce and try selling some items.

These statements are based on our in-depth research on all aspects of Drupal vs WordPress. Before going into the details, here is the quick-scanned version for you to spot the differences between the two platforms:

Drupal vs WordPress: Quick Introduction

Drupal vs WordPress, are both self-hosted CMSs written in PHP. These two CMS solutions have been home to millions of websites and hold a valid place in the world of CMSs.

Starting with Drupal, the platform has entered its 23rd year of active use. Initially created to serve as a small site that stored information for a group of students at the University of Antwerp, Drupal has rapidly evolved as a popular open-source framework. Since its inception, this CMS solution has been widely embraced for its great degree of flexibility and customizability.

At the time of this writing, Drupal powers about 460,000 websites on the Internet (Source: BuiltWith). While Drupal is not as popular as its competitor WordPress, these are all high-profile websites, such as Tesla Motor, Nokia, Warner Records, etc. To give you an overview of the platform, we have included its pros & cons:

Coming up next, we have WordPress, which was released a couple of years later in 2003. It started as a blogging platform and quickly became a top-notch choice for creating a website.

With the impressive figure of over 33 million live websites (Source: BuiltWith), WordPress is considered the crown jewel of the CMS world. Some well-known names that have their websites running on WordPress are Bloomberg, Spotify, SoundCloud, and many more.

There are two versions of WordPress: WordPress.com vs WordPress.org.

• WordPress.com: The hosted version. It’s free and needs no external hosting or external domain name.
• WordPress.org: The self-hosted CMS. The platform itself doesn’t cost you anything, but you will need a hosting account and maybe some efficiency-enhancing features, which often come with a price tag. You may need to pay for the WordPress website development cost if there's any.

In this article, we will delve into the self-hosted, open-source version – WordPress.org, to be easier to compare with Drupal. Let's take a look at its pros & cons below:

Drupal vs WordPress: Pricing

When comparing the pricing of Drupal vs WordPress, it’s quite hard to predict the final cost regardless of which platform you are using. Even though both platforms are free to download and install, the cost will vary as it strongly depends on what type of website you want to build and what features you want to entail.

To start with, we'll be looking at the costs of maintaining your Drupal website: 

• Domain name ($10/year);
• Drupal hosting fee (from $4/month);

And some extras like:

• Paid theme (from $20/month);
• Plugins ($0 – $1000);
• Developer fees ($40/hr).

Then, we have WordPress with the following. Overall, the price doesn't differ from its competitor – Drupal:

• Domain name ($12/year);
• WordPress hosting fee (from $3.95/month);
• Security (from $50, on-going or on-off charge);
• Developer fees (from $50/hr).

Due to its open-source nature, WordPress greatly depends on customization themes and plugins. And most of the efficiency-enhancing features come with a price tag:

• Paid theme (from $30);
• Plugins ($0 – $1000).

Drupal vs WordPress: Ease of Use

Compared to WordPress, using Drupal involves a steeper learning curve. Building a Drupal site can be a stumbling block, even for users with prior experience with other CMS software. This is because Drupal is mainly designed as a blank slate that can be customized on all levels.

However, its user interface is not as complex as you imagined once you understand the multiple drop-downs, but this surely takes some time to get familiar with.

On the contrary, ease of use can be touted as one of the primary reasons WordPress stays at the top of users' minds. It only takes a few minutes to install, and even newbies can quickly figure out how things work in less time.

Its simple clean-cut interface provides a user-friendly dashboard, quick blog creation options, and drag-and-drop functionality through third-party page builder plugins. That said, WordPress is an ideal choice for non-tech savvy users whose businesses are small to medium-scale.

Drupal vs WordPress: Themes, Plugins & Customization

Currently, Drupal users can easily access the robust library, which offers more than 51,000 modules/plugins and over 3,000 eye-catching themes. For as much of a blank slate as Drupal is designed to be, there’s no need for you to rely on either themes or third-party plugins overly.

You can always add and customize any plugins to your website all by yourself. The process, however, is way more complex than that of WordPress. Therefore, you either need to master coding knowledge or afford to hire a professional developer to complete the task for you. 

Meanwhile, the core popularity of WordPress lies within its humongous theme and plugin repository, which has nearly 60,000 free and paid plugins and over 9,000 themes. Basically, you are able to find any plugins that meet all your logistical, technical, and marketing needs.

Also, WordPress’s themes are considered a unique selling point because they are generally elegant and tidy yet feature-rich and mobile-responsive. Apart from those prefabricated themes and plugins, you can modify them or create your own to meet your specific needs regardless of your technical expertise.

Additionally, as WordPress themes apply to all pages on a site, WordPress is less effective for complex website designs that demand different layouts based on page categories.

Drupal vs WordPress: SEO

Coming with built-in SEO features, Drupal allows customizable meta tags, title-based URL nodes, and native caching. Additionally, the platform supports the foundation of the semantic web, the resource description framework (RDF).

Many modules are available for the Drupal platform to improve its SEO skills. The XML Sitemap Module, Redirect Module, Alternate Hreflang Module, and Schema Module are just a few examples.

On the flip side, WordPress has several plugins that can help with various aspects of SEO. The Yoast SEO Plugin is one of the most popular. It allows you to adjust titles, meta descriptions, sitemaps, open-graph data, and other components of on-page SEO.

In SEO, speed is also a significant ranking element. When running your site on WordPress, You might utilize a plugin like W3 Total Cache to help with page loading speed. However, with each new plugin, there is a chance that it will cause a conflict with another plugin, resulting in a malfunction. Be careful when applying a new plugin!

Drupal vs WordPress: eCommerce Features

In terms of eCommerce support, Drupal provides its users with Drupal Commerce. Unlike other full-fledged eCommerce platforms, Drupal Commerce is mainly developed as a blank canvas.

This means that Drupal Commerce provides basic eCommerce attributes and options for integration and expansion. However, Drupal is meant for further coding and customization.

With Drupal Commerce, you can create and personalize your online store, sell and ship your items, and manage the whole process of your online business.

Similarly, you have to install a WordPress eCommerce-specific plugin such as WooCommerce to kick off your online business. WooCommerce boasts a simple clean-cut interface and possesses a myriad set of powerful built-in features. Up to now, it is the most widely used eCommerce solution with over 6 million live websites (Source: BuiltWith). 

Drupal vs WordPress Security

Drupal is home to some of the most high-profile websites on the planet, meaning it has to store susceptible information. In fact, Drupal’s edge is high security, majorly because it depends less on third-party plugins. As a result, there’s less worry about hacking.

On the other side of this competition between Drupal vs WordPress, WordPress’s worldwide popularity is actually a double-edged sword. Its popularity has led to the growth of a robust ecosystem of resources, including both technologies and an active community.

The problem is that this same popularity also means that WordPress is the equivalent of a jackpot for hackers. As has already happened, such exploits could affect millions of WordPress sites.

Another security issue with WordPress stems from the susceptibility created when non-verified 3rd plugins are uploaded. As WordPress offers a myriad of extensions, it’s impossible to ensure that every plugin employs proper safety standards and remains compatible with newer versions of the platform.

Drupal vs WordPress: Support & Community

While Drupal is the older platform, it has a smaller community due to its focus on more technically savvy users. Despite its limited size, the Drupal community is quite knowledgeable about the platform itself and capable of giving insightful responses to almost every question. Hence, there might be no need for you to seek answers in FAQ threads.

Apart from that, Drupal users can always turn to professional services and Drupal training for assistance. Individuals and organizations provide Drupal-related services, including installation, design, hosting, module development, site building, and support, often led by skilled Drupal developers.

Meanwhile, with the largest user base, WordPress users are able to find a wealth of advice and tutorials from a vibrant community of peers and developers in a heartbeat in case unwanted contingency happens. Also, you can come across a huge truckload of multiple texts, video tutorials, guidelines compiled by other system users.

Or else, if you need more dedicated support, you can pay to hire WordPress experts who can solve complex technical issues for you.

Drupal vs WordPress: Personalization

In Drupal, there is the Acquia Personalization platform, which offers customer segmentation capabilities by using au courant data via customers’ activity analysis. Once your customers are segmented, pre-determined content and A/B testing may be sent to these visitors depending on their previous and campaign-based interactions. This provides merchants with customized experiences at the right time to increase engagement. Acquia uses machine learning to increase conversions, customer loyalty, and data insights.

Coming to WordPress, there are a few options that may be utilized to increase engagement and provide tailored experiences. Specifically, Google Optimize is one of the most popular apps.

Thanks to being part of the Google suite of products, it's easy to integrate with Google Analytics and Google Ads, and the free edition includes A/B testing and a variety of basic personalization possibilities. Although Google Optimize has a lot to offer, you won't be able to use it to its full potential until you pay for the Google 360 corporate package.

Drupal vs WordPress: Accessibility

Wherever possible, Drupal has worked to ensure that all Drupal core functionalities comply with the World Wide Web Consortium's (W3C) criteria, including WCAG 2.0 and ATAG 2.0. This endeavor began with Drupal 7's accessibility requirements. Those requirements have subsequently been retrospectively applied to Drupal 6.

Meanwhile, WordPress attempts to make the WordPress Admin and packaged themes completely WCAG 2.0 AA compliant. The accessibility team has established an accessibility manual and works with developers to design new themes and plugins during the development phase to provide best practices and help.

Ultimately, when it comes to WordPress accessibility, the website owner has to remediate an accessible theme or create one from scratch by manually implementing the meticulous but necessary WCAG. Alternatively, you can integrate it with tools such as accessiBe. accessiBe’s AI-driven, automated solution makes existing WordPress sites ADA compliant by remediating the website’s code according to the WCAG 2.1 AA.

Drupal vs WordPress: FAQs

Conclusion

Hopefully, in this Drupal vs WordPress comparison, you have already determined which CMS is the best fit for your unique blend of resources, objectives, and personnel.

If you have made up your mind about one of the two platforms and wish to migrate, LitExtension – the #1 eCommerce Migration Service, is here to help. With over 12 years of experience, we guarantee the most seamless, accurate, and secured migration for your store. If you have any questions regarding our service, please don’t hesitate to contact us!

For more eCommerce tips and news, you can always refer to our LitExtension blog or join the community group.

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