WORDPRESS AND THE ALTERNATIVES.
This article takes a closer look at the most popular alternative CMS platforms and how they compare to WordPress.
It goes without saying that WordPress websites dominate the online content marketing world, but this does not necessarily mean that this popular platform offers users a one-size-fits-all solution, which is why this article highlights the main differences across the various publishing tools.
WordPress has been causing a sensation for almost 20 years and therefore needs no introduction. It has grown in popularity since its release in the early 2000s and today more than seventeen percent of all websites out is powered by WordPress.
Due to its tremendous popularity and impressive functionality, WordPress finds its way into most of the conversations about content management and understandably most people recommend using it to build websites for this very reason.
However, it would be unfair to only concentrate on WordPress when talking about CMS technology, since there are many other similar platforms which offer a host of additional advantages, which aren’t necessarily available on WordPress. And, as strange as it may sound for some, they are able to compete even with our popular giant.
Let’s take a look at other noteworthy CMS out there that are forming the competition.
JOOMLA
Joomla celebrated its 10th birthday last year and was released a few years after WordPress. Since then it has grown into a multipurpose strong CMS with an impressive reputation. The user community of Joomla includes thousands of developers and website owners (around 3.3 percent of all websites are powered by this CMS).
The functionality of Joomla is nothing to scoff as the platform not only features all things WordPress but also has templates and extensions, which makes Joomla a worthy competitor.
Popular Sites Using Joomla include: Harvard, Notre Dame, The Hill, the UN, Linux
DRUPAL
Although Drupal is not as fierce as Joomla, with only 2.2 percent running it (that’s 4.7 percent of all websites with CMS), it has grown in popularity since the release of the latest version which includes comprehensive functionalities.
Drupal does not feature a lot of templates or themes, due to its module approach to content creation, which is why it is widely regarded as a complex system most suited for those who have experience in web development.
Popular Sites Using Drupal include Rush University Medical Center, Tesla Motors, Los Angeles City, University of Oxford, the White House, and Emmy.
MEDIUM
Medium is a publishing platform that has been in the shadow of WordPress since the beginning. However, it has a number of great functionalities, including a remarkable import tool that makes publishing easy, a built-in audience that automatically connects with the user thanks to the Medium social media feature and the platform tells users how many people have viewed the publications and how many have read it to the end. Last but certainly not least, it doesn’t require original content to be published.
JEKYLL
Jekyll is another competitor that has been disregarded by many due to its complexity. For example, this static site generator is written in Ruby and requires NodeJS to run. However, the functionality of Jekyll is amazing: it can generate HTML pages by just having a text without the database requirement.
Like Drupal, however, the complexity of Jekyll means that its audience is limited to web developers and other people with a web-related background.
SQUARESPACE
Last but not least is Squarespace, which is a hosted site builder that was developed by a New York-based company. It works like Weebly, but has a richer functionality, that includes fully customised templates. This makes it possible for anyone to build a pretty decent website quickly and painlessly. The main advantage of Squarespace is their beautifully designed out-of-the-box themes.
SHOPIFY
Shopify is a Canadian multinational e-commerce company headquartered in Ottawa, Ontario. It is well known as an e-commerce platform for online stores and retail point-of-sale systems. This platform comes with simple tools to help you set up an online store like, delivery, customer service complaints and many more others and it also has apps and templates which are useful. However, one of the main downsides of this platform is the restrictions involved, which means that the user has very little control over it.
BLOGGER
Blogger is a simple blogging platform developed by Google. Even though only 280 000 sites run on Blogger it is a very easy platform for bloggers looking for a simple online writing service. The platform is quick to set up and comes with a drag and drop builder to create custom looks for a blog.
To summarise. . . .
While competitors are labouring to tip the scales in their direction, no-one has come close to matching a WordPress website in terms of functionality and customisation. This does not mean we should disregard the alternatives but rather appreciate the diversity of the industry. The future looks bright for Joomla, Drupal, and others, so watch this space to see what happens next.