If you’re looking for the best ecommerce platform to put your company’s online store, you’re definitely not alone. Choosing the right platform is no small decision, nor is it easy. There’s a lot of things to consider, from layout to price. Joomla, which can also be written as “Joomla!” with an exclamation mark, is a free content management system. Both Joomla and WordPress make it into the top 5 list of most popular content management systems (CMS).
Statistics for websites using Open Source technologies. Data source.
The Brief History of Joomla
- Joomla market share: 2%
- Websites in the world: 1.45+ mln
So, when we said WordPress has been dominating the online market debate, we weren’t being fully honest. They actually were the preferred CMS website when they started in 2005. However, that win was short lived. By 2009, WordPress took over. Compared to WordPress, Joomla powers 2%.
Joomla Yearly Market Share
There ya have it, a brief history of Joomla to impress all of your friends!
The Brief History of WordPress
- WordPress market share: 45%
- Websites in the world: 30.5+ mln
If you’re anything like us, you remember when WordPress started back in 2003 and they were marketed as a blog website. If you remember that, you may want to invest in some good eye cream. However, it is no longer strictly a blog website! It is now a
WordPress Yearly Market Share
There ya have it, a brief history of WordPress to impress all of your friends!
What do you mean you don’t talk about this at parties?
Joomla vs. WordPress Round One: Cost
Cost is a major factor when considering which ecommerce platform is the best fit for your website. After all, it takes some money to make some money, and money is the name of the game. So after all this talk of spending money and the overall cost, rest assured that the following news will be as good as hearing a familiar song.
Joomla and WordPress are both free to use. Both are free to download, free to use, and free to upgrade.
However, due to their fundamental differences, one is more expensive than the other in the long run. Joomla requires website development knowledge. If you don’t have any experience, you may need to consider hiring a web developer which can cost you a pretty penny. This is without factoring in the cost of buying a domain, getting a hosting provider, and website maintenance. All in all, you can be looking at anywhere from
WordPress, on the other hand, is significantly less expensive. Assuming you’re relying heavily on free plugins and not considering one time costs of paid themes (which can run up to $200), running a website on WordPress can cost you tkprice. WordPress is significantly cheaper because it is much more possible to do things yourself, avoiding the cost of hiring professionals. While WordPress does not offer hosting themselves, they have partnered with hosting websites which provide significantly cheaper discounts.
Because of these simple factors alone, WordPress is our winner.
Joomla vs. WordPress Round Two: Search Engine Optimization
Search engine optimization (SEO) is an important part of maintaining your brand. However, the SEO capabilities are not apparent for either WordPress or Joomla until you perform a deep dive.
WordPress offers a third party plugin for a
Joomla has their own extension, however, which is supposed to be the equivalent to Yoast. However, that’s not really what happened. Yoast is far better than Joomla’s extension.
Due to this, our winner is WordPress.
Joomla vs. WordPress Round Three: the Mobile Experience
OK, if we’re being fully honest, this is probably going to be a short section. WordPress allows you to edit and write new blogs, list new products, process orders, and watch your real time analytics. Joomla, on the other hand, does not offer an app that allows you to edit your ecommerce shop while you’re on the go. This is due to their setup that requires an extensive knowledge of website development.
Joomla vs. WordPress Round Four: Overall Ecommerce Experience
Both Joomla and WordPress offer various payment gateways. The main difference between them is that Joomla’s payment gateways are extension based and WordPress’ payment gateways are provided via third party plugins. The only advantage WordPress seems to have over Joomla in this dynamic is that WordPress offers the wildly popular ecommerce plugins, whereas Joomla does not. Don’t take that to mean Joomla is behind, though! Joomla offers many great payment gateway extensions, including Stripe, and even offer some cryptocurrency options. And with all the NFTs coming out, who doesn’t want to get in on some crypto action?
Pros of Joomla
Joomla is a free
Pros of WordPress
WordPress offers a very flexible content management service for any size website and store. Their basic framework is free to download and run, and you have complete control over what you spend your money on. They have a massive support network, you can switch themes whenever you want, and when you use plugins such as Ecwid, you have access to powerful ecommerce websites.
FAQs
Does WordPress offer hosting?
No, WordPress does not offer hosting. However, they partner with hosting sites and offer significant discounts for WordPress users. Don’t let this discourage you from exploring what other services they are joined with to facilitate this hosting process. After all, they are one of the most used content management services on the internet for a reason.
Is WordPress Safe?
Yes, WordPress is safe. To attest to its success as a leading service in the world of content management services, they have grown to be one of the most secure and intuitive places to keep all of your content safe. WordPress utilizes a combination of methods to make sure that everyone using their company is
First, WordPress offers an appealing amount of plugins with their packages that work directly with your browser interface to ensure that your interactions are protected at all times.
Second, WordPress works with a dedicated team of product experts, working twenty four hours, seven days a week to make sure all clients are able to be assisted at their discretion. This line of communication, paired with constant updates to their core systems makes sure that WordPress is one of the safest content management services out there.
Overall
Overall, we consider WordPress to be the better fit for those who want maximum customization for their websites. With their expansive amount of plugins, they simply offer more than Joomla can, especially for beginners.
Joomla, while more secure due to their reliance on extensions instead of third party plugins, doesn’t seem to compare. In order to effectively use Joomla, you’ll need to either have moderate website development skills or be willing to hire a web developer. While Joomla is a great site for people familiar with web development, we enjoy the
WordPress is readily available for even the most novice of users, and promotes a
