A deciding factor on which to choose could be how easy it is to use. If you know you have limited knowledge of website development and you need to get to grips with your CMS straight away, put simply there’s no point in choosing Drupal. Its back end is a lot more complicated than WordPress’ user-friendly one. With WordPress, you can start blogging in minutes using the WYSIWYG editor.
Another advantage of WordPress is the brilliant community who are there to help you with queries. Such passionate people want to give others advice based on their own experience, which is great for learning how to make your website better. Drupal has a community too and it’s in no way small; it’s just smaller than the one WordPress has.
When it comes to upgrades – which WordPress does every 3-4 months – WordPress does this seamlessly without you needing to worry about a thing. Drupal’s upgrades don’t include the code. So again, you’ll need the developer knowledge to handle this. Some upgrades require a whole redesign.
If editing on the go, WordPress has a brilliant mobile app, which lets you write, edit, and post articles as easy as if you were on your laptop or PC. Drupal’s interface is responsive, so it’s also really easy to use; it just doesn’t have an app.
Customizing Options
The easiest way to customize your website is through themes and plugins. Adding these takes it from being a blank canvas to something that fits your individual needs. WordPress is the winner here, as it has nearly 37,000 plugins and a variety of free and premium themes. The premium themes let you change almost every aspect of the website, making this is highly customizable option. Check out the themes we offer at Elegant Themes here.
The reason why there are so many plugins is because the huge open-source developer community has developed them for their fellow WordPress friends. It’s these plugins that make WordPress so flexible. You can use WordPress if you want to run a simple blog, have a portfolio to share, showcase your business, or host an e-commerce store.
Drupal offers this flexibility on page types without the need for plugins. However, if you want the convenience of using a plugin, Drupal uses modules instead of plugins and the good ones don’t come for free. Plus, there are limited themes available, so you’ll need to seek out a designer to help you turn your site into something pretty.
A developer can create something that’s unique and data-rich through Drupal, whereas there’s always the possibility that your website can look like your neighbor’s (or competitor’s) if you opt for a free theme from WordPress. This can be the easy route – it’s customizable, but is it enough?
Cost
Drupal developers are less easy to get ahold of than WordPress developers and can therefore charge a lot more. They will have had to go through the steep learning curve of getting to know Drupal and they’ll be looking for payback. And remember, you’ll very likely have to fork out this expense unless you’re a technical whizz yourself and are able to build your own website.
They’re both free to download, but the premium plugins and themes for Drupal cost a lot more than WordPress, whereas there are a lot of free options on the WordPress market.
Bear in mind that if your website grows, you’ll need significant server resources to hold it up if using WordPress.
Security
Drupal wins this round. WordPress’ many plugins can have vulnerabilities and be easily hacked, particularly if the website owner doesn’t update to the latest version or the plugin gets old. Or simply, hackers target WordPress because it is so popular. However, there is a paradox solution: install third-party plugins that increase your security.
Drupal has enterprise-level security and provides in-depth security reports, hence why you’ll find governments using it.
Drupal security
The Size Issue
Drupal can support anything from a one-page static site to something that has thousands of pages and thousands of readers reading those pages simultaneously.
As WordPress was originally designed as a blogging platform, its ability to handle really large volumes (1,000’s of pages) of content has been affected and can create a slower experience.
excerpted from an article by Brenda Barron