It’s easy to get your first website up and running. Choose a beautiful template, then open it on a leading open-source platform and start the business. But how do you enlarge your online sales arena? and how to create a website, blog and online store.
To help you make decisions on a changing platform, we’ve reduced it to two trusted and powerful self-hosting options: WordPress and Drupal.
These big winners have extra points and shortcomings – your final decision relies on the definite requirements of your business. The ongoing conflict between WordPress and Drupal, two powerful leading open source platforms, continues in the e-commerce space.
WordPress is recognized as the most widely used CMS, it is not the only content management system available out there. Drupal is another one that has been giving it a tough competition.
Though both the platforms are big players in the web industry and widely used for WordPress E-commerce Website development. WordPress has still managed to gain a lot of popularity and a 10 times bigger user base.
But is it worth all the popularity and hype?
Or you are better off with Drupal?
Well, to answer all your questions, we have compiled the benefits and drawbacks of these content management systems.
To make things easier, we offer a comprehensive review by conducting an unrestricted report of both platforms.
Table Of Content
WordPress Or Drupal? Which One Is Better?
| 1. Ease of use | |
| 2. Themes and extensions | Drupal |
| 3. Support | |
| 4. Customization options |
WordPress Or Drupal? Which One Is Better?
1. Ease Of Use
How easy it is to use a particular content management system is the first and foremost deciding factor especially if you are not familiar with programming languages and developing.
Drupal
Drupal comes with easy installation and a pre-packaged bunch of configurations and modules to make specific types of sites. Drupal doesn’t have easy customization as well. Beginners will find it difficult to add different elements, change the appearance and work on other areas of it. Drupal was launched for developers which means it has a complicated user back end and features.
WordPress
On the other hand, the major reason for the popularity of WordPress is its ease of use and user-friendliness. There is no need to get yourself familiar with any programming language or the basics of HTML or CSS to get started with it, though if you know these languages it’s a bonus. It also lets you start building an e-commerce website with the help of the WYSIWYG editor. It also comes with a 5-minute installation that allows you to install it in a matter of 5 minutes.
Winner: WordPress
2. Themes And Extensions
Themes and extensions play a crucial role in choosing the CMS for your website requirements and needs. Drupal, as well as WordPress, comes with many themes and extensions to extend a website’s functionality and customize its appearance.
Drupal
Drupal does come with templates and add-ons. There is a wide range of templates and extensions available to choose from that can be used to do just about anything from managing email to building an e-commerce store. However, the amount of these themes and extensions are not as high as WordPress which makes it difficult for users to find the most relevant solution to their problem. Ubercart is one of the compelling features with which you can build interactive catalogs and product listing with ease. Drupal has an amazon store with which you can sell the products on Amazon.
WordPress
Since WordPress offers a huge support community, it is quite easy to find the most appropriate theme or extension for your website. Also, it comes with a few built-in free themes for you. It offers many free and premium themes to choose from to change the appearance of your website. And plugins are no exception. WooCommerce is the best e-commerce plugin with the finest features to transform your website into an extensive multinational eCommerce store.
WooCommerce has a 10% share of the e-commerce technology market. Jigoshop allows more than thirty customization themes with almost a hundred extensions to make you an outstanding e-commerce website.
Winner: WordPress
3. Support
Choosing a particular software becomes a lot easier when you know there is a reliable and trustworthy source of help provided.
Drupal
Drupal has certainly dedicated a community of users and fans. Just like any other content management system, Drupal also comes with community support options to help you find solutions to your problems. There are various good places to get help including IRC chat rooms, user groups, mailing lists, support forum, and extensive documentation.
WordPress
More than 34% of the websites are being powered by WordPress today which is indeed a huge number. This is only possible because of the strong community of users it has. WordPress is so popular that you can find help on almost every forum which is all about web development and design. Moreover, a majority of technical websites focus completely on WordPress and its issues. WordPress has a team of technical support specialists.
Winner: Both
4. Customization Options
A content management system is only as good as its customization options. The easier the customization option, the reasonable the learning curve.
Drupal
Drupal comes with modules instead of plugins and the best of them are not available for free. Drupal only offers the flexibility of customizing the options on e-commerce websites without adding any modules. However, to customize the appearance of the website, you still need to hire a designer or developer to get the job done because of the steep learning curve it has.
WordPress
WordPress comes with plenty of options to customize the e-commerce website look and functionality of your website in the form of plugins and themes. Several themes come with theme options to allow the webmaster to make small to major changes on the website without having to mess with the code.
Winner: Certainly WordPress
Final Words
WordPress and Drupal both have their benefits and drawbacks. Both are powerful open-source CMSs with advanced modules to meet your e-commerce needs. It all depends on your personal choice and preferences. Think carefully about how you want your online store to work today and tomorrow. Remember: Keeping your goals, your abilities and your actual business requirements a reality is what drives a successful e-commerce site.
Author Bio:
Emily Johns is a WordPress Developer by Profession and Writer by Hobby. She is associated with Wordsuccor Ltd., Experts in providing Custom WordPress Development Services to global clients. You can connect with them on Google+, Facebook, and Twitter.
