After writing my article Where Joomla beats WordPress, I noticed that some readers commented saying that with the release of the new version of WordPress 3.0 the battle will have a different outcome in favor of WordPress.
So, I decided to wait until WP 3.0 has been officially released to be able to do another comparison and see who wins this time.
Here are the new winner features in WordPress 3.0 that gives it the upper hand over Joomla:
- Custom Menus: The New Super easy and flexible menu system makes it so simple to create, edit, re-arrange menus using Pages, Categories, and even any external link. Something that I personally suffered from in earlier version of WP, when a client would get back to me saying” Let’s change this menu item or add or remove”. This feature beats the Joomla menus, in my opinion. And it also features a custom menu widget that you can place into any dynamic sidebar.
New Menu in WP 3.0 - Multi-site feature: Another big addition to this version of WP is the ability to manage multiple sites ( network) using one installation of WordPress. You will need to do some steps to enable the network functionality but then it’s real easy to manage sites, add users and have full control as a super admin.
super admin menu - Updates in one screen: Now you get to update everything in your WP from one screen including updating WP itself, all plugins, and even themes. For Joomla I’ve always found updating it confusing to me, and never been able to figure it out myself by reading the documentation provided.
Easier updates in 3.0 - The New Twenty Ten theme: that comes bundled with the 3.0 installation is a good starting point for creating a web site and it comes with all the new features in 3.0 enabled by default, you just need to change your header and background and you’re good to go. The basic templates that come with Joomla are so boring!
- Custom Post Types: Which is considered a powerful step-forward for WP into the CMS battlefield. Here is an excellent article on how to enable and use custom post types by Justin Tadlock. Although I was hoping it could have been enabled from the Dashboard rather than from the functions.php file, like it is now.
General notes:
- A lot of comments I got on the first post, Where Joomla beats WordPress, pointed out that Joomla suffers from security issues, and that it puts heavy loads on the server, so those are to be taken into consideration.
- Above all I think it’s the kind of site needed that dictates which CMS to use as each of them has it’s perks and weaknesses so it’s very important to evaluate as per job, also taking the end user preference in account, if applicable.
Hope that covers a lot on this topic and again, I will be looking forward to your comments and additions to enrich the debate even further.
Valuable Resources for what’s new in WP 3.0:
- Complete Guide to WordPress 3.0 Awesome New Features in DigWP.
- A complete list of the new features from the WP Codex a very in-depth coverage.
Thank you for this review. In your opinion, if you were to build a website for a chamber of commerce, would you use Joomla or WP? Yes, I know you’ll ask “well, what are you trying to do?” Features will be: static pages (about, membership benefits, etc.), news, events, membership directory, ability for people to become members (paid), employment opportunities, newsletters – I think that’s pretty much it.
Dear L:
Thank you for your comment, quite an interesting question you have in there!
In my opinion, WordPress can handle all those functions you mentioned( with the use of the right plugins, of course), however when it comes to handling a large number of users and a vast amount of articles, I would personally go for Joomla.
Other than that, WordPress has the upper hand in the ease of use, maintenance, ease of upgrading, security, and the enorums amount of plugins to choose from to add functionality to your site.
Hope you find that useful.
Dear L:
Just out of curiosity, how much would you charge to create a Chamber of Commerce site like you were asking about?
I created a dynamic website eons ago for a volunteer group, which has grown to the point where what you described would be perfect, and I’m trying to decide if it’s worth my time to learn WP to convert the whole thing before updating with new features using PHP like the rest of the site.
An estimate $$ would give me an idea on how to log my volunteer hours and make this decision…
thx in advance.
Thanks elmalak!
Dear elle:
frankly, I’m not sure because I’m volunteering my work for this one.
Dear L,
Thanks for the opinion on which cms to go for and for what situation.I have been using joomla for about a year,not as a perfect designer but a novice to say the least,i would like to really get to know this designing without having to really suffer(ease of use).From your comments above am tempted to try wordpress and see if it has alot of those plugins that one would use to do a number of things,line online chats/helpdesk,blogs,forums etc including choosing menu styles that a client would find impressing.Would you advice the need for me to try out wordpress????,
Dear John:
I would say trying out WordPress would really amaze you, especially in terms of ease of use, and the abundance of free themes and plugins that you get to choose from in building your site.
And you can start with these posts to inspire you:
http://www.103graphics.com/10-great-plugins-i-recommend/
http://www.103graphics.com/best-wordpress-themes/
And I am sure you will find more interesting things to read on my blog related to using WordPress for your site.
Hope that helps,
elmalak
Hi elmalak,
Thank you for reassuring me about the my intensions to switch camp, maybe before i engage into gear 2,please have a look at this site i have developed and let me know if i can do quite the same with wordpress if not better,like i said in my previous post,am only learning but i have had serious challenges with joomla at times.Your advice is very valuable to me. check this out!
http://www.ntbc.co.zm
Thanks
John.
Dear John:
I’ve checked your site, and I believe all what’s in there can be done using WordPress and a few plugins.
However, if you have particular points in mind that you think might be a challenge to do, please, let me know so I can see if they can be done using WP or not.
thanks,
elmalak
Dear Elmalak,
Thank you for responding promptly,
Would you then direct me to tutorials that would help me start the migration or rather start changing to WordPress,a tutorial on menu, and linking them to pages.A them that would give me top/side menu would be fine.
I have installed WordPress 3.0 already and am good to go
Thanks once more;
John.
Dear John:
You’re welcome.
I think if you watch the video tutorials I prepared on my site here,
http://www.103graphics.com/category/wordpress-how-to/ ,
you will find a lot of useful hints and in-depth how-to instructions to get you started.
The menu is one of the very interesting fields where I believe WP beats Joomla, as it’s so easy to create links now and even get them to be automatically updated when you add or edit your pages.( There is a dedicated video tutorial for that as well, http://www.103graphics.com/create-custom-menus-wordpress-3-0/ )
For themes, please, red this article again and you should find good links to themes you can use.
http://www.103graphics.com/best-wordpress-themes/
Good luck,
elmalak
The video tutorials are excellent, thankyou and just what I have been searching ages for. Thankyou
Very good articles! One thing that would help me is to tell me *how much* better a feature is in WP over Joomla or such. Is it a tiny improvement or world shaking?
Just FYI: This webpage did not load properly with IE7, had to use Chrome.
Dear TSB:
Thank you for your comment, and for letting me know about IE7 issue you encountered.
IE is known to cause web designer lots of problems, as you might know.
Thanks a lot for sharing us about this update. Want you won’t get fatigued on producing posts as insightful as this.
For me, I think wordpress is better than Joomla. For the businessmen they joomla.