Joomla vs Drupal - Comparision

[Spiral]

[Only Registered users can see links . Click Here To Register...]VS [Only Registered users can see links . Click Here To Register...]- Comparison

I have seen lots of members asking this question again and again, that which one is better, Joomla or Drupal. So I finally decided to write a review to help people choose a CMS which satisfy their needs.

Which CMS is better for you?
If I am required to answer this question in one line, I will say The one which satisfy your needs, without lots of tweaks.
Download and try few alternatives and see if they satisfy most of your needs, without needing too much customization.

I will review Joomla and Drupal based on their architecture, support, documentation, Learning Curve, available themes, modules, security, ease of administration, SEO, flexibility, Performance, ease of integration with other applications.

1. Architecture
   When it comes to architecture, Drupal wins. Architecture is the building block of any CMS, If you have right architecture, you can build almost any thing. Here's a comment from Deane Barker
   
   
   If you are a developer I will recommend Drupal to you, there's almost nothig that drupal can not do. Some features that you need may not be available out of the box. But developing your custom modules will be quite easier than Joomla.
   
   
2. Support
   Joomla wins. You can get both commercial and free support, forums are very active, joomla has bigger community than drupal so getting answers to your questions would be easy.
   
   
3. Documentation
   It's difficult to say who wins here. With joomla 1.5 documentation has improved significantly, on other side drupal API is also very well documented. You will find lots of good tutorials.
   
   
4. Learning Curve
   Joomla wins. Joomla is one of the very easiest CMS to learn. Drupal can be little difficult to learn initially.
   
   
5. Available themes
   Joomla wins by a huge margin. Joomla has lots of good templates to choose from, However recently nice themes are coming up for Drupal 6 also.
   
   
6. Modules
   Drupal has more free modules than joomla, But its difficult to find a good (and cheap) commercial developer. With joomla you have choice to get commercial support if you need some specific feature.
   
   
7. Security
   Drupal wins by a huge margin. you will seldomly hear some one saying that my drupal site was hacked. There are lots of big enterprizes using drupal, so there would be reason behind that.
   
   
8. Ease of administration
   Joomla wins, Drupal administration can be confusing, especially for newbies
   
   
9. SEO
   Drupal wins by a huge margin. It has built in support for SEO friendly urls, You can create url aliases and have whatever url you want. Other modules like metadata, page title, pathauto helps in creating a good SEO friendly site.
   
   
10. Flexibility
    Drupal is one of the most flexible CMS, There's alsmost nothing that you can not do with drupal, possibilities are unlimited. Drupal has built in support for Custom content types. Module like CCK, Content template and Views, when used effectively can satisfy most of the needs.
    
    
11. Performance
    Drupal wins, With joomla 1.5 performance has improved but still drupal blows away joomla.
    
    
12. Ease of integration with other applications
    Currently drupal wins. With plenty of available hooks, you can integrate it with almost any external application. There are tutorials available which explains how to integrate drupal with some of the popular applications.
    
    
13. Internationalization
    - Drupal wins, Its can be accomplished easily using i18 module, lots of tutorials are available
    
    
14. Multisite management
    - Drupal wins, It has built in support for managing multiple sites with one installation. Joomla does not support it out of the box, but it can be accomplished with some commercial modules.

Which big corporations are using Drupal
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Which big corporations are using Joomla
- Honestly I don't know any, Some might be using and I may not have noticed. If you know any post in this thread.


Summary

Joomla and Drupal both are good CMS, The choice depends on you requirements.
- If you have totally no experience, and want to start a nice looking site quickly joomla can be a better choice for you.
- If you want flexibility, if you are a developer and ready to get your hands dirty, if you want better security and performance, Drupal can be a choice for you.


Personally I prefer Drupal