Drupal vs WordPress Comparison 2023: Security, Flexibility, Plugins, CMS Market Share

Do you want to know about the Drupal vs. WordPress comparison? Or want to know which CMS is better for creating a website for your next project? Then you have come to the right place, this is a completely unbiased review of Drupal vs. WordPress.

Choosing the right CMS for your website is extremely important. WordPress is taking the web industry by storm, whereas, Drupal are less. But, as I said I won’t be biased. Besides, there are several criteria to consider while choosing the best CMS platform, rather than merely looking into the percentage of users. Without any doubt, Drupal and WordPress are two of the most popular website-building platforms. Both platforms allow users to set up and manage their websites quickly and easily. Both these platforms offer essential features that will help you efficiently create a website and manage it properly. But if you are struggling to choose between these two, then we are here to help you out.

Certainly, WordPress vs. Drupal is a never-ending battle between the CMSs. And we have to keep in mind that every CMS is built with some unique features intended to serve some specific purposes. I will analyze the key components associated with Drupal and WordPress to help you decide which CMS is best for you to start with.

Apparently, Drupal and WordPress both are comprehensive in their respective zones. They have their set of pros and cons. But, the question is what are the benefits of using a content management system CMS? The answer is really simple. A CMS is an easier and more effective approach to organize things online. And the selection entirely depends on the purpose of your website creation.

Here at the TemplateToaster website maker and WordPress theme builder, this comparison post between Drupal vs. WordPress 2023 will give you a clear idea.

Alright then! Let’s get things underway.

Drupal vs WordPress: Which is an ideal choice for you?

It gets way easier to create and manage a website with a CMS. With the range of available CMSs options, anyone with or without technical skills can create a website. However, it totally depends on the CMS you are using and the kind of features a CMS is offering.
Drupal and WordPress are a popular CMS choices, As both CMSs allows you to set up a website and publish your content. Both these platforms have the necessary features to run a website, and easily manage content. But which one is suitable for you highly depends upon your website goals, type of business, and requirements. Various factors are involved that make the best choice. Let’s begin with WordPress first.

What is WordPress?

WordPress is a powerful dynamic CMS platform and is a great tool for anyone who wants to create a website, blog, or any other web application without any coding skills or much web development knowledge. You can use its templates and plugin framework to customize the websites. With 63% of market share WordPress has evolved as the most widely used CMS platform. Thanks to the ease of use and user-friendliness of this platform. And when it comes to premade themes WordPress is way ahead of Drupal.

Benefits of using WordPress:

• WordPress is comparatively easy to use, especially for beginners and non-developers.
• The CMS offers more unconventional solutions. And WordPress developers are more common and much more affordable than Drupal developers.
• WordPress offers great extensibility with third-party themes and plugins, which makes it easier to extend the functionality of a WordPress site, without the need for custom development.
• WordPress has a huge community support, which means it is easier to find support and get help.

What is Drupal?

Drupal is a free and open-source CMS that helps you build complex websites, enterprise-level websites, and web applications. Drupal is suitable for both beginners and professionals. However, It takes a while to get used to Drupal’s taxonomies. But it’s a cakewalk for professionals who are fluent in coding and web technology to get started with Drupal. They know how to use Drupal extensions to solve their purpose. It is easy to install and run Drupal. There are several free Drupal themes available in the TemplateToaster repository to make your first step seamless with Drupal. You may read about how to add Recaptcha in Drupal.

Benefits of using Drupal:

• Although WordPress also offer custom post types, Drupal provides more flexibility with the content types.
• WordPress single site offers 5 basic user roles, Drupal provides a built-in access control system which allows you to create new roles with individual permissions.
• Drupal offers a more flexible taxonomy system which makes it easier to manage huge content.
• With Drupal 8, multilingual function is core, whereas with WordPress you require a third-party plugin.

Let’s take a look at the comparison table and get a brief about the two.

Drupal vs. WordPress Comparison 2023

Now let’s dig a bit deeper and check out the comparison in detail.

Drupal Vs. WordPress Comparison: Let’s discuss the key differences & compare the features

Choosing the best CMS between Drupal and WordPress mainly depends on the level of skill set and the specific requirements. WordPress is simple and easy to use. On the other hand, Drupal is simple for those who have pretty good technical skills. So, let’s dig deeper into this discussion for clear understanding:

1. Drupal Vs. WordPress: Which has a higher Cost and Expense?

Notably, Drupal and WordPress are both free platforms. You can easily download them from their official websites. But then what do you have to pay for? What is the other cost involved with both of them? Well, there are two primary things i.e. web hosting and domain name that might cost you a little.

A Domain name is the name by which your website will be known as, for instance, “www.yourwebsitename.com” where yourwebsitename is the name of your website. It can be anything you like. And you need to buy a domain name.

Web hosting is your space on the internet where your website sits. And this is how your visitors will find you over the internet. However, there are many best WordPress hosting providers out there to choose from. Whereas professionals never go with free web hosting, they mostly choose some premium plans from some of the biggest hosting giants like Bluehost, Kinsta, Siteground, WPEngine, etc.

Bluehost is one of the most widely used web hosting servers around the world. And one of the top-recommended WordPress providers by WordPress.org. They provide the best in class features and customer support to get you through.

2. Drupal Vs. WordPress: Which is Ease to Use?

Drupal

Talking about the ease of use, Drupal isn’t hard to use. However, it may seem hard to learn how to use Drupal for some users when compared with WordPress. Drupal user needs to be technically proficient, it requires some basic knowledge of HTML, CSS, and PHP to manage the website. Thus, may not be suitable for beginners. Any skilled user can effortlessly create advanced sites with Drupal theme builder.

To keep your website updated you need to have technical knowledge. All the elements should be compatible with the version being used to keep your website running.

WordPress

If you have limited technical knowledge or you’re a beginner, then WordPress is an excellent choice to start with. Or if you wish to get your website up and running in as little time as possible then also you should choose WordPress. WordPress is user-friendly and you start blogging with WYSIWYG editor. Many Free WordPress Themes are available to download

The remarkable community is always there to answer your queries. The members of this community are the WordPress enthusiasts who answer every question as per their knowledge and experiences. WordPress can be a great start for your blogging site. And it may also interest you to know about Blogger vs WordPress if you are particularly looking for a blogging platform. You may also read Drupal vs Joomla 2023 Compared.

3. Drupal Vs. WordPress: Which provides more Security?

Drupal

I am sure you haven’t heard of any news that a Drupal site has been hacked. Did you? It is true that Drupal does not power as many websites as WordPress but when it comes to security Drupal is a clear winner. Security is a significant feature of Drupal. Your website is incredibly secure with Drupal. It is coupled with regular monthly updates.

However, nothing on the internet is 100% secure but Drupal provides you with the highest level of security possible. You may use the Drupal theme builder to create Drupal themes or websites.

WordPress

WordPress websites are more likely to get hacked. Hackers find it easy to hack a WordPress website with a malicious script. The third-party extensions and themes are highly vulnerable. Due to its huge popularity, people try to hack WordPress sites more often. But, as we say every action has an equal and opposite reaction, the WordPress developers have created ways by which you can easily recover a hacked WordPress website.

You can overcome these vulnerabilities so, don’t let this thought scare you. Because while working with WordPress you will get to use a massive storehouse of themes and plugins. And chances are you might encounter a theme or a plugin that is coded awfully. However, you can get back to your WordPress admin after being hacked. But, you should always try not to get to that situation. Take full security measures and reduce the chances of any security vulnerability. You can also use WordPress brute force protection plugins to keep your site safe and secure.

4. Drupal Vs. WordPress: Which offers more Themes & Plugins?

Drupal

Although Drupal is not as popular as WordPress still it offers a great number of extensions. However, searching for the required and available extensions can be a bit tough task for any beginner. People with experience and technical knowledge can easily find the right extensions for their projects. So, all and all it’s a bit time consuming and effort demanding thing to get an extension as well as Drupal themes for your Drupal website. However, with the right knowledge, it isn’t that tough to create a Drupal theme from scratch with the TemplateToaster offline website builder.

WordPress

WordPress is a widespread CMS and it offers tons of themes and plugins to boost the functionality of your site. Even those who are non-technical can install and use the extensions. There are heaps of free themes that you can use for your website with amazing functionalities. However, if you wish to have more premium features then you can go for tons of paid themes.

On the other hand, you can easily create a WordPress theme from scratch that too without any coding. WordPress is full of opportunities. And you can never go out of the trend with WordPress.

5. Drupal Vs. WordPress: Which is Faster?

Drupal

When it comes to speed Drupal has an advantage. It can generate high-speed websites in no time. Drupal does not involve many resources at a time and this results in blazing fast server communication. You can easily manage your website no matter how many pages are there on your website. You can use the extension to help you with the speed. Keep this ultimate Drupal SEO guide handy to always have a grip over the SEO of your website. SEO is the key to attracting more leads.

WordPress

If we consider all the factors then speed is the only factor where WordPress lacks. It’s obvious that if you know what to do to achieve a specific result, then it’s not going to take much of your time. Whereas, if you have to learn something before you can actually employ it to your website, then it can take little more than the actual time.

SEO plays an important role in website performance so, if you know the simple and practical strategies to boost your WordPress SEO, then you can never go wrong with your site’s ranking. And always try not to overload your site with plugins to keep up the speed and performance.

6. Drupal Vs. WordPress: Which is more Flexible?

Drupal

There are various modules to do the customizations in a Drupal website. The only disadvantage is that to make the customizations you should be well-versed with coding. The extensions you get with the Drupal are required to locate and installed manually and if you are not fluent with coding then it might be quite difficult for you to get there. Here is our list of Essential Drupal Modules. On the other hand, if we talk about WordPress, it offers an intuitive interface to get through all the tough process.

A Drupal website can be hard for a novice user to manage because it involves technical skills.

WordPress

Being an initiator, you would need themes and plugins to extend the functionality of your website. Unlike professional developers who code themselves to achieve whatever functionality they want on their website. Though they also use themes and plugins in order to save time. WordPress is flexible enough that gives you the freedom to create a website of any size and for any purpose. Here is our list of must-have plugins for a WordPress website.

The flexibility of WordPress lets you build your dream website without much effort.

7. Drupal Vs. WordPress: Learning Curve

Drupal

It has a steep learning curve. You may find it complicated and complex to understand the Drupal interface. You have to have some basic technical knowledge to create a Drupal website. In fact, to manage a Drupal website you need to be aware of the technical things so that you can handle the technical stuff on your own.

WordPress

WordPress gives you a fully functional website even if you don’t know anything about coding. The intuitive interface does everything for you. You can easily find a theme related to your business from its rich repository and create your website in no time. All novice users can create a WordPress website with ease by using WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editor.

If you are using a WordPress website builder that offers you easy access to free WordPress themes then that would be no less than a cherry on the cake.

8. Drupal Vs. WordPress: Multilingual Sites

Drupal

If you wish to have your website in more than one language due to your largely expanded business, then you require a CMS that supports multilingual functionality. When you create a website with Drupal, it lets you manage a multilingual website effortlessly. There are modules present that will help you translate the site to a preferred language you want.

WordPress

WordPress will always ask you at the time of the WordPress installation to select the language for the WordPress admin. A WordPress website created in the English language can further be changed into another language manually as well as with the help of plugins.

You will find numerous plugins to transform your WordPress website into multilingual. Although you can use free plugins, however, for further premium services, you might have to reach your wallet to purchase premium plugins.

9. Drupal Vs. WordPress: Publishing Content/Blogging

Drupal

Drupal provides a WYSIWYG editor for publishing content which makes it super easy to post and publish content. The editing pages are simple and clean, which makes writing content smooth. While pasting content from Google Docs or MS Word is also clean, which can be quite a pain in WordPress. All of the features are present on one screen and are easy to navigate. You can also customize the categories and taxonomies, under the Structure menu.
However, Drupal’s publishing tools are not as advanced as WordPress. But Drupal does offer you a concise, clean, and smooth publishing experience. Also Drupal is not specifically a blogging platform. So you need to install a module before writing and posting content. Although you do get a text editor to write and add media files, it isn’t as good as WordPress.

WordPress

When it comes to publishing content on WordPress, whether it is a post or page, or product on an eCommerce store, the CMS provides two options i.e. Classic Editor or Block Editor. It provides unlimited meta boxes, and custom fields as custom post types. All of these can be extended using the plugins. You can also distinguish the content with the help of parent/child taxonomies and tags.
Additionally, WordPress is known as a powerful blogging platform, and the best part is you do not even have to learn how to code. You can easily install WordPress and start posting content within minutes. With Visual Editor, you can easily write the content, and manage media. The Text Editor will let you edit the HTML/CSS code as required. Overall, WordPress is an easy user-friendly CMS platform for blogging and publishing content even if you are a beginner.

10. Drupal Vs. WordPress? Which One Provides Better Support?

Drupal

Drupal is a popular CMS platform, so needless to mention it has a huge active community. So you can expect in-depth documentation, support forums, online discussions, user groups, chat rooms, and other helpful resources. You can use these to gain information and knowledge, and for help and support.
Drupal is also known for its marketplace that helps establish communication between users and developers. So if you need help from a professional you can easily get it here. However, if you want to hire a Drupal developer it will cost you more than hiring a professional for WordPress tasks.

WordPress

Notably, WordPress also have a huge active online community where you can seek help at any time. When you start creating a website, it is always good to join forums, and official support groups for information and help. WordPress also provides several online resources, tutorials, videos and guides, and podcasts that you can refer to use WordPress effectively and even seek support. In addition, WordPress also offers live chat which is available 24/7/365 days, localized email support, community forums, and contact forms.

So, Who Wins the Battle Drupal vs, WordPress?

Choosing the right CMS is an absolutely important factor that plays an essential role in the long run for your business website. Your website will be your online identity therefore, it should be as easy to handle as possible. However, based on the above-discussed points, we can say that Drupal is a strong CMS equipped with tons of features. On the other hand, WordPress is a powerful and reliable CMS that also offers you an array of features with a multitude of themes and plugins. WordPress is comparatively easier to use and more user-friendly, while Drupal is more like for professional users.

In Conclusion

Needless to say, instead of judging the CMSs, you should look for the one that can serve you better in your particular project. Isn’t it? It’s pretty obvious when you think about it. Moreover, it doesn’t matter how good or bad a CMS is, as long as it fits in your requirements and serves your purpose. Indeed, you can make a choice on the basis of your specifications.

So, if you require a blogging platform which allows you to manage your website without much coding knowledge and expertise, then WordPress is the best option for you. The platform is suitable for creating small websites, easy to customize with thousands of readily available plugins and themes. Also, it is easier to hire professional WordPress developers if you need help.
On the other hand, Drupal is a perfect choice for those who want to build a more complex website, along with other web projects that are difficult to manage on WordPress. However, to use Drupal you must know HTML, CSS and PHP. If you are a professional developer who wants to create a complex website then Drupal is a good option for you. However, hiring Drupal developers is costlier than WordPress developers.

Mere CMS can’t give you a successful website you need a great website builder software as well. However, there are plenty of website builders available in the market but you won’t find any better than TemplateToaster WordPress theme generator. Now it’s your turn. Use the comments section below and let me know about your experience and above all, which CMS out of Drupal and WordPress, you chose to work with. Stay tuned for more updates. Check out open source cms.