Sentana.Net – Journal

Comparing Joomla and Drupal May 21, 2008

After installing WordPress, I am now trying to install a portal to my main site. Though I haven’t figured out what the content will be, I have installed and tried some of the available Content Management System (CMS) for my portal. Hence, the title of this blog post.

Of course there are more than just Joomla and Drupal (read: droople) in the CMS arena, such as Oracle BEA Weblogic, IBM Websphere, etc. I quickly dismiss them not just because they are not free, but more importantly because they are java-based portals. I learned from my past experience that Java-based portal is relatively slower than PHP-based portal. Therefore, Joomla & Drupal fits the requirement nicely since they are PHP-based.

In addition, there are many other “CMS” that are very niche in their target area such as WordPress (which I’m using for my blog site) and OScommerce for e-commerce use. They are very focused in their own niche areas, so it would be quite a tedious job (though not impossible) to use WordPress for e-commerce purposes, as well as OScommerce for blogging tool. Thus, I’d like to focus on the most commonly used CMS in the Open Source area: Joomla and Drupal.

(Note: Ideally, I should have include Plone as the third alternative; however, I currently don’t have the luxury to install and learn its configuration system as well as understanding python programming.)

Criteria
In my main portal site, I have given both system a try (Joomla 1.5 and Drupal 6.2), and after some consideration, I finally chose Drupal. Here are my criteria when selecting the portal system:

• Installation – must be very straight forward and supported by Fantastico script
• Usability – Ease-of-use for non-programmer administrator / content creators
• Flexibility Ability to add plugins / modules for enhanced functionality
• Upgradeability – Information of upgrades of the system & add-on modules/plugins
• Support – Exhausted FAQs and extensive community support system

From my point of view, I have to admit that both system are relatively easy to install, very flexible in terms of the available plug-ins / modules / themes, and has a lot of support from the number of contributors worldwide. Both system are relatively easy to learn as well, so there is no steep learning curve in managing both system.

Why I choose Drupal
The following are my reasons that draws me toward Drupal, and though these are relatively moot, I find these to be in line with my personal preference.

1. Simpler GUI
Joomla’s GUI is very well made, but Drupal makes administrating the portal to be as simple as it can be without all the icon clutters. With the latest release, Plugins and Settings are located at the top right link, while the content management is set in the top left link. This makes the hierarchy clearer and if one wants to install a new plugin or set the options, they will know where to go easily.

2. Modules / Components / Mambots v. Plugin
In Joomla, I have to figure out the differences between a component. modules, and a bot. In Drupal, everything is in the plugin directory. Installing the plugin is just a matter of storing the files under the plugin directory and activating it in the plugin screen. Joomla, while they allows installing the add-ons from the web, requires me to understand the differences between those three terminologies and install it accordingly.

3. PHP editor
Not sure whether the latest Joomla allows the admin user to change the code straight from the web, but Drupal allows that. It makes configuring and troubleshooting a plugin or theme simpler in Drupal than in Joomla. Besides, I can see how each Drupal contributors make their PHP codes and learn from them.

Drupal downside
One major thing that bugs me is that plugins for Drupal 5.x will not work in Drupal 6.x. This makes some great plugins to be unavailable in my latest Drupal installation, such as ecommerce and flash-gallery. I sincerely hope the programmer will port their codes into the latest Drupal version for better functionality.

From the marketing point of view, I have to give Joomla a thumbs-up. They are very good in projecting Joomla as one of the “most powerful Open Source Content Management Systems on the planet”, while Drupal seems not only avoid competing with Joomla straight but almost totally put aside any marketing effort. Drupal is only focusing doing what it does best in becoming a better and simpler CMS system, and maybe it is their major strength not to be taken too much into the marketing fight. Besides, word-of-mouth is the best marketing strategy, and it is free.

UPDATE (04/09):
There was a report done a year earlier by OpenConcept in canada on this comparison, and their finding is here. Of course, that was done with older versions of Joomla and Drupal, so the result may have changed.