Which CMS is Best: Part 2

Wordpress

In the previous post we discussed the development capabilities of the three leading CMS platforms: Drupal, Joomla, and WordPress. We also discussed the availability and reliability of plugins.  You can read part 1 here.

This post focuses on the usability of the leading CMS platforms. Each CMS has 2 customers: Developers and users.  Developers are of course the technical, dare I say nerdy, bunch that like things to appeal to their technical savvy.  They often prefer things that speak HTML/CSS rather than plain English.  For this reason, many developers actually prefer using Joomla or Drupal. In fact, for a couple of years, Web Loft Designs used all three of the major CMS platforms for development.  Our developers prefer Joomla and Drupal over WordPress, simply because it is more fun for them to work in.

However, as I mentioned in part 1, regardless of the platform, a developer who is an expert at writing and manipulating code, should be able to end up with the same final product, regardless of which CMS he is using.

The major difference in platforms is not the end result on the front end, but the administrative dashboard on the backend. As the site owner, the dashboard is what you’ll interact with when adding a blog post, page or editing an existing page. So why, if our developers loved Drupal and Joomla so much did we switch to working almost exclusively with WordPress?

You.

Each and every time we roll out new sites, we provide training on how to use the dashboard. We found over and over that our average user struggled to use Drupal and Joomla, but understood WordPress intuitively.  Let’s take a look at why.

Secondly, let’s consider the challenges of developing on multiple platforms. Each CMS has its subtle differences and provides a unique set of challenges. Focusing on just one CMS allows developers to become expertly proficient within the platform, learn to overcome those challenges and stay up-to-date on the various plugins that improve your site’s functionality and keep your cost down.

As I stated in the previous post, when it comes down to it, there are a lot of excellent CMS platforms and, depending on your level of expertise and experience, you may find one to be preferable over another.  However, in our experience, WordPress has become so popular because, simply put, it is the easiest CMS to use for the average person.