WordPress vs Drupal: What’s the Best Platform for Your Online Store

12 min read

WordPress has long since dominated the online market debate. But what about other sites? Drupal can seem like an overlooked site. However, it’s currently coming in as the 14th most used content management system (CMS) as of 2022, with WordPress coming in as the first—to the surprise of absolutely no one.

Drupal Usage Statistics. Data source.

The Brief History of WordPress

WordPress market share: 45%
Websites in the world: 30.5+ mln

Do you remember when WordPress started back in 2003 and they were marketed as a blog website? If you do, you probably also remember when 30 Rock was a relevant TV show and the last episode of Seinfeld. Anyways, it’s no longer strictly a blogging website! Nowadays, it’s a multi-purpose CMS that powers more than 45% of all websites, not just blogs. There ya have it, a brief history of WordPress to impress all of your friends!

WordPress Yearly Market Share 2010–2022 (Source)

The Brief History of Drupal

Drupal market share: ~1%
Websites in the world: 600,000

OK, so when we said WordPress has been dominating the online market debate, we weren’t being fully honest. WordPress started back in 2001—four years before WordPress. However, as soon as WordPress hit the market, they dominated over Drupal. And frankly, they have been dominating over Drupal ever since. What is Drupal? While Drupal only powers 1% of all websites, this web content management platform powers very high-powered websites, including NASA’s official website, the State of Colorado’s official website, and the Dallas Cowboys’ official website.

Drupal Yearly Market Share 2011–2022 (Source)

There ya have it: a brief history of Drupal to impress all of your friends!

We talk about these things at parties; don’t you?

WordPress vs. Drupal Round One: Security

It’s time to start drawing comparisons! Exciting, right? In our first competition, we’re going to take a look at each respective site’s approach to security. You want to keep your data safe, and want to pick the company that will help you the most in that regard. With WordPress being so large, it can be a major target for hackers and cybercriminals. While the extensive features of WordPress can be impressive, this can leave them open to cyber attacks. To combat this, they offer one of the largest CMS support communities of the online world, and take as many preventative measures, such as dedicated customer support and routine updates, to keep their clients’ data safe.

Drupal, on the other hand, is less of a target to hackers and cybercriminals. But that doesn’t mean they don’t do everything in their power to prevent potential attacks! They use lockdown levels of security, which is why they are so appealing to government and medical websites. They are also more straightforward with their security measures than WordPress is.

Who do you think wins here?

Our winner: Drupal

WordPress vs. Drupal Round Two: Search Engine Optimization

Search Engine Optimization, more commonly referred to as SEO, is a term that any new online business owner is going to hear a lot. SEO is an integral aspect of maintaining and promoting any business on an online platform. It’s the thing that makes sure people actually see your business when going through various search engines. The differences between these two CMS companies aren’t too apparent at first, and will take a deeper look to spot the variants.

WordPress pulls much of its strength from utilizing third party plugins actually. Particularly for SEO improvement, WordPress uses a plugin called Yoast. Yoast is a user-friendly plugin that does the hard work for you by showing where areas can be approved to improve SEO, while simultaneously offering ratings along the way to give an accurate assessment of what a business’s strengths and weaknesses are.

Drupal’s SEO capabilities can be great, as they are very advanced. However, Drupal is better suited for someone who is comfortable with website development or is willing to hire a website developer for their business.

We’ll let you mull over who you think wins this round.

Got it?

Our winner: WordPress

WordPress vs. Drupal Round Three: Customization

Customization is a huge component of representing your brand, and thankfully, both Drupal and WordPress offer expansive customization options. WordPress relies heavily on third-party plugins for customization options, making customization a breeze. However, Drupal offers more expansive customization options through modification. That being said, it’s important that either the business owner themself has experience in website development or is willing to hire a website developer.

Round three is wrapped up; who do you think wins this one?

It was a tough battle, but our winner is WordPress based on their user friendliness.

WordPress vs. Drupal Round Four: Content Management

To drive the point home once again, content management is undeniably the most important part of owning an online business. That’s why it is just as important to make the best decision for your company. Both WordPress and Drupal specialize in these fields by allowing users to edit, create, and overall manage their brand’s content.

To give credence to its reputation, however, WordPress offers a small, but noticeable, advantage over Drupal. It’s fame can be attested to its user friendliness, which is incredibly appealing for any new business owner. While Drupal has the potential to offer everything a CMS company has to offer, they might require some prior development knowledge, or even outside developer assistance, to get the job done. Simply put, WordPress is the quicker, easier option that eliminates the need to master yet another online platform.

That’s it for round four, our final round. Who do you think wins this round?

Our winner: WordPress

Pros of WordPress

It’s hard to deny that WordPress has a lot going for it. It’s massively well-received platform is one of the most user friendly experiences out there, making it the go to choice for non-developers setting up an online business. They are also one of the best options especially for blog writers, as this was its inherent purpose. Due to its growth and success, it goes without saying that its uses have surely expanded beyond that of blogging alone. They offer some of the most extensive supply of readily available themes and designs, and have a massive support community backing them to boot. Did we mention that their rates are cheaper due to that massive community?

Pros of Drupal

Drupal, much like WordPress, has many advantages as well. They are very advanced—more so than WordPress. While this may not be a pro to beginners or those who do not want to hire a professional website developer, this really does pose a lot of advantages for more advanced users. It also offers flexibility for different content types, and it has support in multiple languages. It has multiple templates, compared to WordPress, which only has one.

FAQs

WordPress vs. Drupal: Which one is easier to use?

WordPress as a whole is much more beginner friendly, and that is one of the reasons it is often the first choice for many newcomers to this field. Afterall, you’re already trying to start a business. Why add one more thing to the plate to try and master? That doesn’t mean that you should entirely knock Drupal. Every CMS company has its differences, pros, and cons, so each one is worth exploring. There is always web developer assistance out there if you hit any skill based roadblocks along the way.

Is Drupal OK for websites?

Joomla is actually great for websites! Given Drupal’s extensive security measures, Drupal is an excellent way to platform your website. If you are familiar with website development or are willing to hire a web developer for your business, Drupal offers better flexibility than WordPress does.

Overall

So do you think you got that all? We know. It’s a lot of information to take in, and considering how each of these companies each has a great deal of individual strength to consider, our job is to help you make the decision of what’s the best one. Now, keep in mind, both are solid contenders in the CMS field, and you could certainly make strides with either of these fantastic companies.

When put to the test, however, WordPress comes out ahead. It is much more suitable for beginners, and offers a greater deal of customization and user-friendly options, making it the best choice for those CMS newcomers. You’ll have fun and easy to use options almost immediately at the click of a button with WordPress.

Drupal, of course, should not be entirely neglected. Keep in mind, while each CMS company has clear benefits from an analytical standpoint, what matters most is what feels best for the user. Drupal bolters an excellent security package, and may be more appealing to someone with a more extensive background in web development (or someone willing to hire developer help.) And hey, what could be more fun than taking on the challenge of learning a new skill while at the same time getting your business off the ground.

The only major downside is that Drupal’s market is not expanding at nearly the rate of WordPress. That’s not saying they don’t have a fantastic base of wonderful and prestigious clients though. We’re simply here to compare and contrast, and for the new online business owner, WordPress easily comes out ahead. The (online) world is our oyster, so don’t hesitate to try it all.

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Jan 12, 2022

About the author

Max has been working in the ecommerce industry for the last six years helping brands to establish and level-up content marketing and SEO. Despite that, he has experience with entrepreneurship. He is a fiction writer in his free time.