One question that Joomla website owners may ask is, "Should I move my website to WordPress?" There are many good reasons to do so, but the answer is not always yes.
Joomla is an open-source content management system (CMS). The project forked off from the Mambo Open Source project in 2005 when the user community was concerned that changing the name would cause confusion with the commercial Mambo CMS. It is estimated to be the second-most-used open-source CMS.
Its core audience includes small-to-midsize businesses and larger organizations (including government and nonprofit) that want a flexible, self-hosted platform, as well as web agencies and in-house developers who value Joomla’s built-in strengths.
WordPress is an open-source content management system (CMS) that was originally released as a blog publishing system. Since its initial release in 2003, it has grown to be the most popular CMS solution and is used by 43% to 44% of all websites on the internet.
Its core audience includes bloggers and small-to-midsize businesses that want an easy-to-manage, self-hosted platform, as well as web agencies and in-house teams who value WordPress’s massive theme and plugin ecosystem and its flexibility for marketing sites, publishing, and ecommerce.
WordPress also has major commercial and enterprise-grade options beyond the free, self-hosted software. For “hosted WordPress,” WordPress.com packages the CMS with managed hosting, updates, security, and support. At the high end, WordPress VIP is positioned as an enterprise platform that adds an extra layer of scalability, security, governance, and expert support for large, high-traffic sites and complex teams.
Most users would rate WordPress as easier to use than Joomla. In terms of functionality available to extend core features, WordPress is the dominant CMS, with over 90,000 plugins. Additionally, WordPress is a better choice for blogging, with native post management features.
Joomla shines in other areas, though. User access controls and multilingual support are available right out of the box, with no additional extensions needed. Many experts rate Joomla as superior for running larger websites because it is a two-part system comprising a model-view-controller (MVC) and a content management system.
If we had to decide between Joomla and WordPress today, WordPress is the clear winner. Joomla once offered significant advantages, especially for website customization. But many of those advantages have eroded over time as improvements to the WordPress system have advanced.
A major factor to consider is the amount of content your site hosts and the custom functionality in place. With a Joomla site that has undergone custom development to provide advanced features, there may be no WordPress plugins that replicate that functionality. This means you'll need a large development budget. Additionally, migrating a site with a lot of content will require a significant investment of time to manually "fix" the content view across all pages.
If you have a large Joomla website that needs updating, the good news is that sticking with Joomla can be a good option when considering Joomla vs. WordPress. If there is custom coding in place, whether done properly or done by "core hacks", our experts can get your site properly updated and secured. Click here to learn more about our Joomla services.
If you prefer to move from Joomla to WordPress, we have the expertise to complete the work for you. Contact us to learn more about our website migration services.