Why WordPress (and not Joomla, Drupal, or something else)?

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First, you need to know the difference between a content management system and a blog. “A content management system (CMS) is a computer system that allows publishing, editing, and modifying content as well as site maintenance from a central page” [Wikipedia.org, “Content Management System,” accessed 4 July 2012]. It provides a collection of procedures used to manage workflow in a collaborative environment. These procedures can be manual or computer-based. The original purpose of a blog was as an individual’s online journal. While the purpose of CMS’s has not changed, some blogging platforms, i.e., WordPress, have evolved to the point that they can now be considered a CMS.

Joomla and Drupal are two of the most widely used open-source (free) CMS platforms. Most web developers will strongly favor one or the other. Joomla has been around since 2000. There are over 200,000 community users and contributors. It is friendly for designers, developers and administrators. The user community is known as being very helpful and is one of its greatest strengths. It can be confusing for a new website developer and isn’t perhaps as powerful as Drupal.

Drupal has over 350,000 subscribed members in its user community. It is a great platform for developers and designers who love to write code. Because of this, it can take a long time to master. Conversely, this also makes it more powerful and flexible than either Joomla or WordPress.

So why WordPress? According to Resource Nation, the world’s one million biggest websites use WordPress. It is extremely easy to use and very search engine friendly. WordPress has many resources (free and premium) as well as a large community of users and developers willing to lend a hand.

While each of these platforms has strengths and weaknesses, WordPress is the best solution for most small business users.