Drupal vs WordPress – Which is the Better One for 2021? (Advantages and Disadvantages)

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The content management systems of the current era are really saving the day with their management options. Without them, the website owners would have to manage the website themselves which would add to their pre-existing occupations.

These solutions effectively manage the content of your websites while you only need to worry about the actual business.  

wordpress

Source:Dreamstime  

drupal

 Source: dreamstime

Talking about these systems, you might want to go for a particular one when you start your own website, or you may be thinking about changing to another..

Whichever it is, you will need thorough and proper guidance in the matter so that you can make the right choice. There are some content management systems which are top of the list nowadays such as WordPress,Joomla,Drupal etc.

Today we will discuss
Drupal vs WordPress in light of certain factors and at the end, you will be able to decide which is the one for you. The system is perfect and each has its own perks and cons. We will try to remain as unbiased and accurate as we can in this review of ours.

WordPress OR Drupal- Introduction

macbook google screen

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So, how about a brief introduction for both the systems? Both of the players in our comparison offer you a self-managed solution for your website and leave you only with the worries of real problems. 

Right, moving on to comparing the ways these hosting solutions act as the content managing systems- let’s find out, shall we? 

WordPress was initially developed in 2003 to be a platform for the blogging world. It now has more of the market share than all the competitors in the market. It has a lead share of 39.5%- a percentage that is way higher lead than any other platform. Various famous organizations are using WordPress as their content management system. These include:

  • Sony Mobile
  • Mercedes Benz
  • The New Yorker
  • TechCrunch
  • University of Washington

Drupal is an older player in the market as compared to WordPress. It doesn’t have a huge market share as that of WordPress. Today,2.3 per cent of the websites worldwide are powered by Drupal. The platform has a total market share of 4.6% within the content hosting systems industry. 

Some notable entities using
Drupal include:

  • Nasa.gov
  • The Economist
  • University of Colorado
  • Dallas Cowboys
  • State of Colorado


For a better statistical review, we can look at
trends from Google. In 2004, both of the management systems met a rise in their fame, however, they were not very lucky in the years forward. When we consider the industry share, both of these management systems rose in the past few years to new heights.

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Significant and Most-Advertised Benefits of Drupal and WordPress

When you go across the internet looking for the comparison of Drupal vs WordPress, you are sure to encounter supporters of both parties. We at BionicWP use WordPress as our hosting solution but that doesn’t mean we claim it as the best solution out there. It is, however, the best solution for us.

It all depends on what your requirements are. Let’s look at some commonly discussed advantages of both the solutions:

  • It is a very user-friendly solution which is best for usage especially for beginners and non-developers. You can get it up and running in no time with amazing ease of usage.
  • You can expand WordPress without any need of external agents as there are a lot of plugins available. You can also use any of a lot of themes available in the market. Using the optimal number of extensions, you’ll see that WordPress can be as productive in versatility as Drupal is.
  • Finding help with any WordPress related issue is a piece of cake as it is a very common hosting solution around. This means that there are many communities worldwide where WordPress related problems are discussed, and solutions are provided.
  • The development costs are pretty lower with WordPress due to it being a mainstream solution. It is more affordable as compared to Drupal.
  • Although WordPress offers you a lot of customized post options, Drupal’s customized content type is considered simpler and easier to access normally.  

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  • The WordPress single website ships normally with 5 essential user characters. However, Drupal has its own controlling system that enables you to form new characters using individual approvals.

  • In the Drupal 8 version, the core is equipped with multilingual functionalities. As compared to that, WordPress websites have to resort to a third-party plugin.
  • The taxonomy procedure of Drupal has more adaptability as compared to WordPress. This makes it perfect for managing a lot of content.

Extend Your Website with Drupal And WordPress

When we talk about content management systems, a little more from the slack is always attractive. Extending the system is a good option if you’re looking for some changes rather than the same old functioning methods which have stopped looking attractive to you anymore.

For this purpose, you apply add-ons to your website. They are effective as:

  •         For better functionality. WordPress calls these agents as plugins however when you turn to Drupal, they call them as modules.
  •         For aesthetics, you can select a set of themes in both WordPress and Drupal.


Let’s compare both of our under-discussion platforms in terms of these two add-ons. In this way, we can better establish the facts which will help us reach a certain conclusion:
 

WordPress, being the larger content management system has a larger number of extensions than Drupal. However, that does not grade it as the better solution for you. Still, it is what it is. Statistically:

  • Currently,There are 53k+ free plugins when you refer to WordPress. There are thousands of premium plugins as well which require you to pay for their access.
  • Currently, There are 5k+ free themes in WordPress. There are thousands of first-class themes as well.

Drupal is not as large as WordPress. It also has a smaller number of extensions as compared to WordPress. But they suffice many of the users as reported.

Coming to the statistics:

  • There are 39k+ modules available with Drupal
  • There are 5k+ themes available with Drupal


Counting just the Drupal 8-compatible modules, the numbers drop even down to:

  • 250 themes
  • 4k+ modules

WordPress vs Drupal-Which is more secure?

Security is one of the prime concerns when it comes to any business dealing in the 21st century. In an age where data has emerged as the prime currency with the most important value in all, it is very difficult to stop your privacy from being violated. For this reason, whichever content management system you are using in Drupal vs WordPress, security will always be your upper-most consideration.

cyber security

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In reality, Drupal, being less exposed to the internet market is resultantly more secure as compared to WordPress. There are of course some disadvantages that accompany the limelight. Security is one of them.

The core reason for WordPress is less secure than Drupal, however, is the human error rather than a systematic fault. Let us compare the security of both of these management systems one by one, pointing out the advantages and the disadvantages:

WordPress itself is very secure. However, the large amount of third-party involvement is the culprit for its lack of security. In Drupal sites, these third-party executions are not large in number, so that factor is ruled out for the management system. 

A survey conducted by Wordfence concluded that out of every identified entry point for malevolent intruders, 55.9% relate directly with third-party plugins. Also, another research stated that of all hacked sites on the internet, around 74% use WordPress as their content management system.

WordPress market share on the other hand is only 74%, which raises concerns about the ratio of hacked websites under the content management system. 
All in all, if you use WordPress sensibly, you should not be facing any special problem.

If you know your thing, WordPress is the epitome of security. However, it also depends quite a lot, on the third-party websites and plug-ins, making the software more unprotected and vulnerable as compared to Drupal.

Drupal is very popular among security-sensitive organizations as it has some plus points which other content management systems lack. To begin with, You get lockdown protection that is a very good selling point for Drupal.

Drupal has a market share of 4.7% and compared to that the 2% of the world’s hacked websites under this content management system is a very less and interesting number.

Apart from providing you with
organization-level protection, Drupal posts comprehensive security evaluations and is more transparent to the users when it comes to security as compared to WordPress.

Well, when it comes to security, hands down Drupal has some plus points as compared to WordPress. This makes it more attractive for data-sensitive enterprises and governmental organizations which have high reservations for their data in use.

If you are also more conscious about your personal information and about the data in your WordPress, you can go for Drupal as a solution.

Migration between Drupal and WordPress

In this section, we will tell you how to easily switch between them if you change your mind about the one you are using.  let’s discuss how to migrate from Drupal to WordPress.

You can checkout
WordHerd for your solution as well.  They offer extensive site migration facilities from any other content management system to WordPress.

Source: Dreamstime.com

WordHerd is a renowned migrater in the market and it can handle the migration of any type of website, be it for a small business or a large one. WordHerd’s employees are also well-versed and experts when it comes to assisting with the CRM data migrating procedures.

You can also check out these plugins if you are looking for more self-sufficient solutions:

You may want to change to another content management system for a deluge of reasons. You should not feel overwhelmed by the choice and find the right people and right solution for this job and get it done. It is not as difficult as it sounds at first. 

Which One is Better in 2021?

There is something fundamentally wrong with this question. There is no “best” solution out there. It all depends upon your circumstances and needs. You will decide which content management system is more suited for you and that’s that.

You should rather ask which content management system would suit best the website I am building or planning to build? Which suffice your requirements to a greater extent as compared to all others and you will find your solution right there!

We could claim that WordPress is the most optimal solution out there, but this wouldn’t be a fair deduction for our poor readers. We need a more rational approach to the problem itself. So, let’s get down to the statistics and make boundaries here.

If you are looking for a hosting solution
that would handle your intricate database organization, Drupal is a way better choice for you not only compared to WordPress but all other content management systems out there and it’s a fact. Drupal has an edge when it comes to security and privacy.

However, you can only access it if you are:

  •       In search of hiring Developer
  •       A Developer Yourself


For now, the general principle we can establish is:

WordPress is the primary software many people use for starting their online dealings and creating their sites due to numerous reasons like:

  •     It’s convenient and practical for non-developers 
  •         It could be set up and functioning in a considerably less amount of time
  •         It’s acquiring assistance is easier with this content management system.


However, that does not make W
ordPress the most optimal solution for all types of situations. We can say that it’s applicable most of the time rather than generalizing the verdict.

Conclusion

We tried our best to do a detailed and honest Drupal vs WordPress comparison. We hope that you enjoyed reading and got good knowledge from this writing. Always choose the best option for yourself and never settle for less.

By now, you should have made a decision on what content management system you’d be using. 

Best of luck with your endeavors!

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