Drupal vs Wordpress

Drupal vs WordPress: Which Should You Choose in 2024?

When building your website, should you choose Drupal or WordPress? Our short answer is that it depends.

You need a website for your business or any other online endeavor. And if you’re a beginner with little to no coding experience, your best bet for creating your site is through a content management system (CMS).

To explain it in simpler terms, a CMS provides a user-friendly platform for creating, managing, and publishing content. It utilizes templates and plugins that can be customized as needed.

When it comes to CMS, Drupal and WordPress are two major platforms that you can choose from.

You may have already heard about WordPress. As the most used platform for website building, it powers over 43% of all internet sites. But that doesn’t mean you have to automatically choose WordPress over Drupal.

In this article, we’ll have a deeper comparison between Drupal and WordPress on different key metrics. Hopefully, you’ll have better insights on what CMS to choose by the end of this blog.

Drupal vs WordPress: Overview

Key MetricsDrupalWordPress
SecurityKnown for robust security and strong protection, ideal for sensitive content.Secure with regular updates, but reliant on plugins for advanced security.
Ease of UseOffers advanced features, better suited for users with technical expertise.Highly user-friendly with an intuitive interface, great for beginners.
Customization and FlexibilityHighly customizable with extensive flexibility for complex, tailored solutions.Offers a wide range of themes and plugins for easy customization.
SEO and Digital MarketingBuilt with SEO best practices, but may require more technical tweaking.Extremely SEO-friendly with numerous plugins for optimizing digital marketing.
Cost ConsiderationsPotentially higher costs due to development and technical expertise required.Generally more budget-friendly, with many free themes and plugins.
Speed and PerformanceFast and efficient, particularly for content-heavy and complex sites.Speed varies; optimization and choice of plugins/themes are key factors.
ScalabilityExcellent for large-scale and growing websites, offering advanced scalability.Scalable, though its simplicity favors sites with less complex content needs.
Community and SupportSmaller, developer-focused community with robust documentation and support.Large, active community with extensive support resources and forums.
UpdatesRegular security and feature updates, but the process can be complex.Streamlined update process, often automated by hosting providers.

Drupal

Of all the 200 million active websites currently, only around 1.7 million are running on Drupal. But don’t underestimate Drupal because of this number. The truth is that this CMS powers 12.8% of the top 10,000 websites.

Drupal is a preferred platform among governments, higher education institutions, NGOs, and global enterprises. In fact, at various times, Drupal has been the chosen CMS for the White House website.

Businesses often wonder why they should choose Drupal over other platforms like WordPress. The thing is, Drupal’s design caters to large-scale projects and multiple users. It handles diverse libraries and file types efficiently.

Additionally, it ensures data privacy while promoting collaboration. These features distinguish Drupal from other CMS systems.

Overall, Drupal’s flexibility, security, and content management capabilities make it a preferred choice for enterprise CMS solutions.

WordPress

Leading the CMS market is WordPress, a well-known, free, and open-source content management system. It’s perfect for anyone wanting to create and manage websites easily.

Matt Mullenweg and Mike Little launched WordPress in 2003. What started as a simple blogging platform has grown into a tool for building websites of any kind. From blogs and portfolios to eCommerce stores, you can build anything with WordPress.

Today, WordPress is behind 62.8% of all CMS-built websites. Its popularity stems from its ease of use, versatility, and strong global community. With many themes and plugins, WordPress suits personal and business projects.

WordPress offers two main versions. WordPress.com is the “hosted” version. It’s easy for non-technical users, as it’s hosted on WordPress’s servers. This version updates automatically, offering a hassle-free experience. It’s a good choice for those who don’t want to manage their own server.

For more tech-savvy users, WordPress.org offers a downloadable version. Here, users host the software on their server or a third party.

And now, let’s dive deeper into how Drupal and WordPress differ on various metrics.

Security Features

Drupal

As a CMS, Drupal takes security very seriously.

Fewer sites use Drupal, and it has a smaller theme and plugin market. This makes it less prone to hacking.

Yet, its security standards remain extremely high. When compared to other CMS, Drupal only faced 0.83% of hacking attacks, making it a highly secure platform to build your site.

Like WordPress, Drupal regularly releases patches and updates. It also alerts users about new security issues by publishing detailed security reports.

WordPress

In general, WordPress is known for its strong core security. However, the vast number of third-party plugins and themes within its ecosystem can create additional risks. In fact, it’s the most commonly hacked CMS.

Based on Sucuri’s SiteCheck (a popular website security scanner) report on the first half of 2023, around 1.1% of its scanned WordPress sites were infected. Aside from these infected sites, an additional 1.6% of scanned websites contained blocklisted resources.

But don’t worry, the majority of these issues can be avoided. In short, you have full control of your WordPress site’s security.

Hacking often happens due to user oversight or outdated plugins, rather than flaws in WordPress itself. As mentioned earlier, with its huge ecosystem of plugins and themes, there’s a higher chance of encountering poorly coded add-ons.

With this, regular updates and careful selection of plugins and themes are crucial in reducing security risks. By staying vigilant, WordPress users can maintain a secure site.

Your hosting service also plays a crucial role in WordPress security. Web hosting providers like Greengeeks take extra steps to protect their servers. They leverage the industry’s best practices to prevent potential vulnerabilities on your website.

Winner for Security: Both

Both Drupal and WordPress provide the highest level of security for their websites.

Ease of Use

Drupal

Now this is one area where Drupal and WordPress can have a significant difference.

Drupal offers strong features, but it’s a bit more complex than WordPress. To use many of its functions, you’ll need to install and modify Drupal modules.

While Drupal can build simple sites, it’s often chosen by developers for more complex tasks. This makes Drupal a great option for those who need advanced customization.

Drupal also provides several pre-configured installations, known as distributions. These are useful if you already know what kind of site you’re building. Choosing a distribution simplifies the setup process, tailoring Drupal to your specific needs.

But for more than basic customizations, knowledge of PHP, HTML, and other languages is required. Maintaining a Drupal site also requires technical know-how. Updates often need code adjustments to ensure compatibility.

If you’re not a programmer, you might need to hire a developer at this stage. For small businesses, keep in mind that Drupal experts can be more expensive to hire than WordPress experts. 

WordPress

On the other hand, WordPress is renowned for its simplicity, making it accessible to everyone. You don’t need programming skills to use it, though developers can make advanced tweaks.

With a vast array of free plugins and themes, setting up a blog or website is easy. This user-friendliness has made WordPress a top choice for millions, especially small businesses.

The platform offers an intuitive interface that simplifies website management and content creation. Navigating its dashboard is also straightforward, allowing users to handle tasks efficiently. 

With a visual editor and pre-built elements, WordPress lets you design and layout your website to fit your brand. You can do all this without writing any code.

Lastly, formatting text, adding images and videos, and organizing content are just a few clicks away. It’s an ideal CMS for beginners and experts alike.

Winner for Ease of Use: WordPress

While Drupal is more catered to complex enterprise-level websites, WordPress wins the hearts of small businesses and beginners due to its ease of use.

Customization and Flexibility

Drupal

Drupal is recognized for its superior flexibility options. Compared to WordPress, Drupal excels in supporting extensive customization.

It allows users to modify existing modules and offers built-in features. These features include creating custom content types and altering content taxonomy.

Like WordPress, Drupal is a modular CMS that relies on external developers for added functionalities. This makes it easy for users of various skill levels to extend Drupal to meet their needs.

The installation process for themes and modules is similar in both Drupal and WordPress. Users download an archive file, upload it to the dashboard, and activate it.

Though you can’t add directly from the repository in Drupal, command-line users can use Composer.

Ultimately, your comfort with design and clarity about your site’s needs matter. With a clear plan, Drupal is easy to handle. However, if you’re developing your site as you go, WordPress, with its interfaces and community, might be more suitable.

WordPress

When it comes to customization, the WordPress ecosystem is rich with plugins and themes.

In fact, there’s likely a perfect theme or plugin out there for your needs. These can be found as free or as premium products. If your budget is tight, there are currently around 11,000 free themes and 60,000 free plugins in the WordPress directory at your disposal.

WordPress thrives on its plugins for adding features and design elements. This allows for creating or installing any feature you might need.

This CMS platform offers a vast selection of customizable themes and templates. And with its page builder plugins like Beaver Builder and Divi, you can transform your standard editor into a drag-and-drop interface.

With WordPress, even those without technical experience can craft stunning websites.

For those who know common coding languages, you can also change virtually any aspect of WordPress, which includes modifying how plugins and themes function. However, an update from the original developer may wipe out those modifications.

Make sure you create a backup.

Winner for Customization and Flexibility: WordPress

Both Drupal and WordPress provide great customization options. However, WordPress has a slew of plugins to simplify the process while also having the capacity for custom-coded elements.

The bottom line is that customization and flexibility are just easier to manage in WordPress as opposed to Drupal…for all skill levels.

SEO and Digital Marketing

Drupal

Drupal’s SEO capabilities are impressive, though maintaining the site can be tricky. Updating the platform isn’t as straightforward as with some other CMSs. Usually, an experienced developer handles updates.

But despite its update and maintenance challenges, Drupal is designed with SEO best practices in mind. Some of its features like built-in coaching help boost your site’s SEO. Plus, many extensions can further enhance your site’s SEO performance.

Adding SEO features to a Drupal site is easy thanks to modules. These modules, written in PHP or JavaScript, add new functionalities. You can easily integrate SEO modules for meta tags, site verification, and XML sitemaps. They also support page titles and Google Analytics integration.

Furthermore, Drupal’s community, though smaller than WordPress’s, is very supportive. It’s mostly made up of developers, not beginners. This means getting help can sometimes be more developer-focused.

WordPress

WordPress is an excellent choice for website owners focused on digital marketing and SEO. It’s built with features that support these goals.

With WordPress, you can easily adjust visibility settings, choose specific permalinks, and manage meta descriptions and redirects.

One of WordPress’s strengths is its wide range of SEO and marketing plugins. Popular options like Yoast SEO, AIOSEO, HubSpot, and Jetpack are available. These plugins are designed to make your site more search-engine-friendly.

Furthermore, content creation is essential for SEO, and WordPress has an easy-to-use content tool for this. It lets you publish high-quality content directly from the platform.

This ease of publishing helps you focus on delivering valuable content for your audience.

Winner for SEO and Digital Marketing: WordPress

WordPress has a slew of SEO and digital marketing tools as opposed to Drupal. Because of its popularity, nearly every online platform integrates well with WordPress without adjusting code. That means from the perspective of digital marketing, it has a lot of functionality.

Not to mention the plugins I mentioned automate the process of creating SEO-focused content.

Cost Considerations

Drupal

Both Drupal and WordPress are open-source and free to start with. However, the real cost comes with hosting, themes, and plugins.

With Drupal, development costs can significantly add up. If you’re not tech-savvy, you’ll likely need a developer to build your site. This necessity is where Drupal’s costs start to rise.

Finding a Drupal developer can also be challenging. Since they are less common, their services tend to cost more.

So if cost is a major concern, Drupal might not be the best choice.

WordPress

As mentioned previously, WordPress is free for anyone to download and use. But, while the platform itself doesn’t cost anything, there are additional costs associated with website building.

These costs include hosting, domain names, site design, and other extra features. Plugins or apps, for example, might also add to your expenses.

Domain names typically cost around $15 per year. Hosting varies but can be quite affordable. For instance, GreenGeeks offers plans starting at $2.95 per month. This even includes a free domain name for the first year.

Keep in mind that these are also costs that would be associated with a Drupal website. The biggest difference is that you’re less likely to need a skillful coder to design your site when working with WordPress.

If you’re mindful of spending, WordPress can be cost-effective. It’s possible to create a decent site for under $100 using WordPress, making it a great choice for those on a budget.

Winner for Cost Consideration: WordPress

Having a low cost for building a website is one of the main reasons why WordPress is best suited for small businesses.

Speed and Performance

Drupal

Drupal is known for its lightweight nature, making it ideal for creating fast-loading websites. This efficiency is crucial for sites with heavy content. Think of large-scale online magazines, video streaming platforms, and internet forums.

For even better performance, website-caching plugins can be added.

The CMS’s low resource intensity contributes to its high performance. This leads to quick server communication and fast response times.

WordPress

Speed is a notable drawback of WordPress, but it’s not a fixed issue. It usually stems from unoptimized plugins or themes, or using too many.

However, WordPress sites can be fast if properly optimized. Although this requires a bit of know-how or effort in implementation.

Optimizing WordPress involves several steps. These include using caching plugins, optimizing images, choosing a quality host, and selecting reputable themes.

Of course, the same could be said about Drupal. For instance, an image that is too large is going to take more time to load than a smaller one no matter what CMS you use.

When these elements are in place, WordPress sites can also achieve impressive speeds.

Winner for Speed and Performance: Drupal

We’ll choose Drupal in this area because it naturally provides better speed and performance without putting too much effort. On the other hand, a highly optimized WordPress site can also provide superior speed and efficiency.

Scalability

Drupal

Drupal is often the go-to choice for big businesses with complex websites, more so than WordPress. It’s great at handling lots of different content, which is why it’s used by many websites with high traffic.

For sites with lots of users, Drupal is a smart pick. It has strong features for managing user permissions. This includes setting up custom roles easily, without needing extra tools. It’s also good at dealing with complex searches and securing different content levels.

Additionally, the flexibility of Drupal as a framework means it can be tailored to specific needs. This adaptability is a big plus for businesses with unique technical requirements.

WordPress

WordPress has proven its scalability with users like The Walt Disney Company and Sony Music. But to ensure efficient performance, site optimization is key.

To make websites scalable, WordPress advises focusing on your hosting platform and server load, speeding up graphic loading, keeping hardware and software current, and using effective caching for quicker data access.

WordPress further notes that too many plugins can limit scalability. With that, it’s best to deactivate unneeded plugins and avoid those unsuitable for high traffic levels.

Complexity also plays a crucial role in determining a platform’s scalability. In terms of handling content, WordPress is more straightforward than Drupal. This simplicity makes it a great choice for sites with less diverse but high-volume content.

Winner for Scalability: Both

With proper optimization, both Drupal and WordPress can be scaled accordingly. This is evident in big companies and even government organizations that are using both CMS platforms.

Community and Support

Drupal

Being an open-source project, Drupal boasts extensive documentation and user guides on its website. These resources are freely available to provide valuable help.

If the documentation doesn’t solve your queries, the community is there to assist. You can ask questions directly on community forums or Stack Exchange.

Drupal.org also features a directory of organizations offering Drupal training. This is helpful for those looking to deepen their understanding of the CMS. Additionally, the site lists free Global Training Days, making learning more accessible.

WordPress

The community behind WordPress is massive, active, and supportive. As an open-source platform, skilled users can contribute in various ways. This includes development, marketing, and accessibility support.

The community makes it easy to get tips and advice from peers.

For those who prefer learning via tutorials, WordPress offers a solution. It has a library of free pre-recorded workshops. These cover topics like user management, advanced layouts, and content management.

Winner for Community and Support: WordPress*

Drupal and WordPress both offer an outstanding user experience through comprehensive official documentation and support from vibrant user communities.

However, I’d have to say that WordPress is just slightly higher in this regard simply because of its popularity. It is simply far easier to find specific information and/or assistance.

Updates

Drupal

Keeping a website builder updated is crucial for security. Frequent updates mean better security.

With this, Drupal typically releases monthly updates for its core platform and weekly for contributed projects. This regularity is vital for maintaining a secure and efficient website.

For instance, Drupal issued a critical security update in December 2022 that addressed several vulnerabilities. Such proactive measures are key to Drupal’s reliability, with security updates as a core part of Drupal’s commitment to user safety.

WordPress

WordPress offers a user-friendly approach to updating your site. With just a few clicks, you can keep everything up to date.

However, the frequency of these updates depends on the developers behind each theme and plugin. This is an important consideration for WordPress users when choosing these add-ons.

Better yet, updates to WordPress core files, plugins, and themes can be easily automated. WordPress itself comes with a one-click update function when a new version is released.

In other words, all you need to do is click a button and you’re running the newest version of WordPress.

Alternatively, you can choose to update the platform manually.

Winner for Updates: WordPress

WordPress updates are much simpler, and you can even automate this process.

Final Thoughts

The Drupal versus WordPress debate in 2024 boils down to your specific needs and skill level.

If you’re looking for a highly customizable platform with robust features and don’t mind the steeper learning curve, Drupal is your go-to choice.

On the other hand, if ease of use, a supportive community, and a wealth of themes and plugins are your priorities, then WordPress is ideal.

Both platforms have evolved to meet the diverse needs of users in the ever-changing digital landscape. So it’s best to take the time to evaluate your needs, skill level, and long-term goals before making a decision.

2 thoughts on “Drupal vs WordPress: Which Should You Choose in 2024?”

  1. Hi Jeremy,
    Thanks for sharing such an amazing post. You did a great job. And it depends on which kind of project we are going to do and how strong our coding is. If the project is small and needed quickly, I will always go with WordPress.

    Have a good week ahead.

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.