WordPress – The Pros & Cons

The North American based CMS/Blogging software is growing rapidly in popularity due to the easy install and easy use qualities.  Worpress is truly the best software out there for out of the box, up in minutes, website capability.

WordPress was first released on May 27, 2003, by Matt Mullenweg as a fork of b2/cafelog.  As of February 2011, version 3.0 had been downloaded over 32,500,000 times, which is considerably more than Joomla!

WordPress is written in PHP, and uses object-oriented programming (OOP) techniques which is  stored in a MySQL database, and is an open source blogging tool, which can also be used as a content management system.

The Pros

Very Popular – There is no denying that WordPress is very popular.  When you compare the 32.5 million downloads that WordPress has had the 21 million for Joomla!.  You now have a difference of 11.5 million!!  That is certainly nothing to laugh at!  Do keep in mind, however, that WordPress has been around for a longer time than Joomla!  Remember that, when comparing these two CMS systems and when taking this pro into consideration.

Easy To Use – There is not a CMS/website builder available that has as much functionality and few, simple steps, as WordPress does.  All you need is a theme you have created or downloaded and then apply  the theme to the website in a few clicks.  Drag some widgets over and drop them quickly, and add a few posts.  Then, Voila!  Instant Website!  Getting a site up and running, especially through the hosting that wordpress.com offers, really is that easy.

Great Social Media – From allowing users to connect to your site through Facebook, Twitter, and Google Friend connect, to 1 step plug-ins that allow you to link all your social media profiles to your site, WordPress has taken all the difficulty out of social media integration.  The only difficulty web site administrators will face is deciding which plug-in to use because there are so many choices!  The only downside is the compatibility with Apple devices, as most of these plug-ins leave something to be desired while using an Apple device.

Free Site Hosting – Yep, free site hosting!  How does Joomla! compete with that?  The simple answer is, they don’t.  If you are looking for a free database connected, content management system based website, without the expense, you really have no other choice.  Well, except Blogger.  Blogger is also easy to usebut still does not have close to the range of plug-ins that WordPress does.  Blogger may be considered a rival to WordPress in a few years, but not yet… that’s an entirely other conversation.

Free Site Listing Community – Joomla! has a community forum where people can comment, seek help, and list their extensions.  WordPress does all that and they add sites hosted by WordPress to their directory so other users can find them.

North America Based – Now, this may not be a bonus to some, but to the people of North America still waiting for the Joomla! 1.6 English US language pack, this is a definite pro for WordPress users.

Word to Editor Cut & Paste – When you paste your text from your word document into your website’s text editor, most people want the editor to format the text to match the website’s CSS styles.  With Joomla!, the editor pulls all the Word Markup language into the article, overriding the default stylesheet.  This can be quite annoying, and can ruin the overall look and feel of the website.  With WordPress, only the basic tags are pulled over, leaving most of the formatting to the theme’s stylesheet.  This simple thing can save lots of time in code cleanup alone.

The Cons

Simpler Software – In order to be easier to use, some of the more complicated things that Joomla! can do easily is not as easy in WordPress.  High level web applications, can be included on pages, but for the most part, the selection of really extensive applications (almost websites themselves) is much smaller with the WordPress platform.  Originally designed to be blogging website software, WordPress has been extended to allow for simple, multiple page websites.  Still the best blogging software, WordPress still has a way to go when it comes to serious extended web application functionality.

Simpler Client Access Control – WordPress allows only five roles (user groups) currently, with predetermined permissions sets.  For large scale websites, this tends to not be acceptable.  The issue of needing more groups, different or more specific permission set comes up a lot.  If your site needs extensive groups, customized permission sets, or page access based on the user, just use Joomla! and save yourself the headache.

Page Settings (or lack thereof) – The pages settings can be configured on the global level for both WordPress and Joomla!.  However, Joomla! comes with a much larger set of very specific page settings, which can be overridden at the menu and page level as well as the global level.

No Built in Print/PDF Buttons – One of the things missing from WordPress is the built in Print/PDF buttons.  This is really cool feature that Joomla! Offers.  This is something that a blogger would assume is included with the blogging software.

All in all, WordPress has fewer cons than Joomla!, but the cons WordPress does have are deal-breakers if the functionality is required to meet the website’s objectives.  When you think about it, WordPress is the best software available for those looking for a simple solution.

This round goes to WordPress!  Their quick and easy solutions have won the round!  Come back tomorrow to read the conclusion:

Joomla! Vs WordPress  – The Decision