These days the Internet is teeming with website hosting services. The great thing about this is that by utilizing free, open-source content management services, companies can create their own fully functional websites without ever having to consult a professional web designer. The only trouble is that so many hosting services exist out there that it’s tough to know which one’s the best. Let’s take a look at two popular content management systems—Drupal and WordPress—and determine which one offers the best experience.
The Popularity Game
If you base your decisions entirely on the popularity equation, your first instinct might be to go with WordPress. According to recent data pulled from a W3Techs survey, WordPress boasts the
largest percentage of websites online today. Evidence of its popularity can also be seen in the high-profile names that utilize its services, including CNN and The New York Times. But as you probably already know, popular doesn’t always equal better.
The Nuts and Bolts: WordPress Hosting vs. Drupal Hosting
The origins of WordPress as a strict blogging platform have resulted in a few disadvantages that many users aren’t aware of. Before making any decision to choose any hosting service, be sure to consider the following:
- Security issues:
With WordPress, securing your site from hackers requires plug-ins from third parties since native security protections in WordPress are nonexistent. Without taking the appropriate steps, your site could be fair game for anyone wanting to hack into it. Alternative services like Drupal offer better security.
- Volume concerns:
High-volume content can sometimes be a strain on WordPress. Originally developed as a free tool for bloggers, WordPress wasn’t built to handle the kind of content and traffic that bigger companies often produce. If you’re going to be churning out numerous daily blog posts and articles, take this into consideration to avoid any lagging upload or stability issues.
- Design Limitations:
If you aren’t making use of a professional web developer, you may discover that the theme choices available through WordPress are limited in their unique appearance, even premium themes that come at a cost. Drupal is known for offering a greater amount of freedom in developing site design.
- Complexities in Design:
What your website looks like isn’t the same thing as how it operates and how flexible it is with respect to innovative response designs and modular architecture concerns. When comparing the two side by side, Drupal performs on a significantly higher level than WordPress in handling these kinds of complexities.
- CMS Capabilities:
The importance of having an effective content management system (CMS) in place can’t be overstated. This is the tool that informs you, through various reports, how you’re connecting with your intended audience and if your efforts are working. If you’re not achieving your goals, your CMS will tell you what you need to do to better concentrate your efforts. Drupal offers a variety of functionalities you simply don’t get with WordPress, including DrupalCommons, OpenPublish, OpenAtrium and Openscholar.
Although it’s not nearly as widely used as WordPress, Drupal hosting pulls in a respectable percentage of usage from websites around the world, ranking as one of the most widely used CMS system and hosting services. Companies with large projected growth can take advantage of a hosted Drupal service and benefit from Drupal’s stability, powerful SEO capabilities and developer-
friendly flexibilities that can tackle the daunting task of scalability as a business grows.
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