1300 382 777Drupal vs. WordPress – Which Should You Use In 2022?
Wrestling with the idea of WordPress or Drupal for your next website build in 2022? Our web developers have the inside scoop on these popular content management systems.
In previous blog posts, we’ve already examined some important points about WordPress hosting, its performance and reliability and have taken a dive into what Drupal can do as well as when and why you should use Drupal.
Now let’s get stuck into which you should use for your next website in 2022 — Drupal vs WordPress.
WordPress
Commonly thought of as a blogging platform due to its start as a blogging tool in 2003, WordPress has come a long way since and now ranks as the most popularly used content management system (CMS) across the world.
In fact, WordPress controls a massive 39.5% of the known content management system market and currently powers 36.5% of all websites, with more than 455 million sites utilising WordPress as of 2021.
Here are 5 famous examples whose CMS of choice is WordPress:
So what are the benefits of WordPress websites? Let’s find out.
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
SEO helps you rank higher on search engines such as Google and Bing, meaning your page can generate more leads (clicks and traffic to your site) as well as improves your user experience, which may result in more conversions and repeat customers.
Easily optimise your site to perform better on search engines using a variety of plugins that exist on the WordPress platform. We recommend using the Yoast WordPress Plugin. It’s easy to configure and one of the most popularly used SEO plugins on WordPress.
Control Your Own Website
Don’t wait for your web designer to make simple updates to your website. With a WordPress website, you can easily access and edit pages and have control over nearly every aspect of your own website.
Easy to Use Interface
WordPress provides its users with a simple-to-use interface that makes adding new pages, articles and images a breeze and editing existing pages a simple and quick task.
Due to the simplicity and ease of use the platform offers, even the least technically skilled of us can build our own WordPress website.
No Coding or Software Required
As we mentioned above, even if you’re not technically skilled in coding languages like HTML, CSS or Ruby, you can still build your own WordPress website.
WordPress is a self-contained system, which means you can create new pages, add text, images, articles, forms and more all without the need for additional HTML and CSS skills or FTP software.
WordPress Websites are Mobile Responsive
Google rankings also take into account whether a website is mobile responsive. Meaning your website needs to function and look good on any device.
With the many responsive theme designs that WordPress offers, users with even beginner levels of design experience can ensure their site isn’t penalised by Google for not being responsive on all devices.
Scalable to Suit Your Business
As your business grows, so can your WordPress website. A huge benefit of building your website with WordPress is that you can continually add new pages, theoretically infinitely, without compromising the overall performance of your website.
Manage Your Website From Any Computer
Because WordPress is a browser-based CMS, you can log in from any computer connected to the internet and manage your websites
You can also connect all of your WordPress websites to one dashboard, making editing and management of multiple sites simple and seamless, all with minimal technical coding skills.
WordPress is Free to Use
WordPress software is published under the GNU General Public License (GPL), which means it’s not only free to download and edit but to customise and use for free as well.
You can also add an unlimited number of sites to your dashboard for free, making staying on budget for your next projects, much easier.
However, keep in mind that to use your website using the free WordPress CMS, you’ll need to use wordpress.org not wordpress.com and purchase your domain and hosting service separately.
Drupal
Drupal is an open-source CMS backed by an active web developer community and powers millions of web applications, mobile applications and websites.
Users who benefit from using Drupal most, are those with content-heavy, high-traffic websites, as well as those with large resource libraries and databases, like government agencies, large corporations and non-profits.
Now, we’ll go over some of the benefits of choosing Drupal to power your next web-based project in 2022.
Reliability
Though Drupal is a continual work in progress, it has a long-standing history of being stable, reliable and one of the top 3 most popularly used content management systems in the world.
Allows for Seamless Translation (Multilingual)
Using the user’s IP address, browser settings and URL, Drupal can make assumptions about your user’s “preferred language”, which allows for a full translation of every part of your website.
The result of these multilingual capabilities is an uninterrupted translation workflow which leads to SEO improvements and higher conversion rates.
Advanced Security
Drupal’s strict community review process, high coding standards and ongoing maintenance input from developers worldwide – plus a team of dedicated experts working together to address and release security fixes – means many critical security problems are prevented.
In other words, Drupal is committed to keeping your website and your data safe.
Marketing Automation
In the most recent versions of Drupal, there are modules and tools used, which make integrating automated marketing platforms easier and more seamless.
You can now assign specific marketing automation, triggered by your users’ interactions with designated elements (i.e downloading a file) on your site.
Intuitive Design and Editing
Once you’re past the initial development phase, Drupal’s design and editing system will be easy to use. Very much “drag and drop”, you’ll be able to see what elements you’re putting where, and as a result, avoid problematic design edits.
Accessibility
Gain simultaneous access for multiple users, from anywhere, with Drupal’s Browser-based platform. Drupal’s accessibility makes for easy management and editing of your site from any computer or location.
So, Should You Use WordPress or Drupal in 2022?
It’s a hard decision to make when choosing whether to use WordPress or Drupal for your next project.
Their use cases differ slightly, with Drupal being intended for more high traffic, content-heavy and high security need sites while WordPress is more geared towards users wanting simple (yet still stylish) and easy-to-manage, low-cost websites
Regardless of which Content Management System you choose for your next website build in 2022, our developers at Digital8 are skilled in both WordPress and Drupal and can help you achieve your website goals and bring your vision online.
If you’re still undecided, feel free to reach out to us to have a chat. We might even shout you a coffee.