Open Source and usability: Wordpress vs Joomla

April 21st, 2009

Over the last few years, we have created numerous websites for various companies using Joomla! and WordPress. We came to a conclusion about these two systems based on our experience. These systems have increased their popularity and their capacity over the last years, each having its strengths and flaws. Joomla! was created to enlarge the user’s options and giving them the possibility to manage everything with it, while WordPress was developed for blogging.

Joomla! was suffering at the managing compartment, but with Joomla! 1.5 made a huge step forward for solving this problem. So, you have to learn something about Joomla! and then you can do almost everything with it.

Now let’s find out the general things about each platform. For the beginning, let’s try to post an image in an article.

First of all, you have to choose the template you want to work with. In this case both platforms look the same and very simple.

Here is the first example:
Joomla
1. Select “Add New Article” from “Control Panel”.
2. Now you must click on image icon bellow the text field and here you have the option to upload images or to browse existing images. Here you can align this image.
3. Type a Title, choose the Section and the Category.
4. Write the content, choose Published and Save the Article.

WordPress
1. Select QuickPress from the Dashboard.
2. Upload image with image icon button.
3. Type a Title and the Content.Here you can add some tags.
4. Now you can Publish your post.

For another example, we will create a static page accessible from the menu.
Joomla
1. Select “Add New Article” from “Control Panel”.
2. Type a Title, choose the Section and the Category.
3. Write the content, choose Published and Save the Article.
4. From the top menu select “Menus” and choose a menu where you want to put this article.
5. Click “New”.
6. Select “Internal link” then “Articles” and “Article Layout”.
7. Write the title of the link.
8. On the right you have to browse and select your article.
9. Press “Save”.

WordPress
1. From the “Dashboard” select “Pages”.
2. Select “Add New”.
3. Type the “Title” and the content.
4. Click “publish”.

When you have to create a website with more than 10 pages with different information, you can do this with both platforms. So when you start to put all the information on the site template, you’ll see the difference between platforms. It’s simple to accomplish these tasks With WordPress, as you only have to install some plugins, but with Joomla! you have to spend a little more time to re-organise the different module and then the menus from template. After this you have to link all the menu items.

Joomla! is a big step forward regarding eCommerce. After you install VirtueMart on Joomla! it’s really simple to customize eCommerce, as multiple options are available to configure it. While WordPress offers a simple plugin with less options.
As far as the security level of both systems is concerned, Joomla! is placed on the top of the list because it offers multiple levels of permissions, thus becoming more flexible, while WordPress comes with just three levels of permissions.

In conclusion, we can say that WordPress is well managed and is really easy to work with, while Joomla! comes with powerful options and detailed parameters for each compartment, giving you the possibility to manipulate and organize what you want and how you want.

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