Comparative Study: Drupal Vs Joomla? Which CMS to use?

Drupal is more flexible and powerful in comparison with Joomla for
Complex website. We can build our own Content types for Web 2.0 and
community functionality, including group blogs and user submitted
content. It is also easy for our content administrators to find and
update content in comparison with Joomla or WordPress.

• History

Drupal has existed as an open source project since 2001 and Joomla
originated in 2005 as a continuation of another open source CMS, Mambo,
which existed as an open source project since 2001.

• Time to Install

In Drupal time of installation and hosting completes in less than 30 minutes.

• Default Setup on Installation

In Drupal installation for a simple site there is a blank slate with
six themes to choose from and some text for configure the system and
add content. In Joomla a set of sample data with a blank slate with
three themes.

• Completeness

In Drupal if user has no knowledge of HTML he/ she add any image or
do any text formatting of any kind. He will need to install a
What-You-See-Is- What-You-Get (WYSIWYG) editor as an add-on module but
not in Joomla.

• Ease of understanding

In Drupal complex configuration requires for how to work with 30
different configurations section. Some of these sections are quite
straightforward, while others have a substantial learning curve, but
this feature is not in Joomla.

• Information about Modules

In Drupal for finding modules
Drupal
And for review and ratings
Drupal Modules
But in Joomla list of modules and rates are on
Joomla

• Pasting from Word

In Drupal text cannot be easily pasted from Microsoft Word without
adding an add-on module to handle text formatting. As there are a
number of different text formatting modules, we were unable to test how
these modules handle text pasted in from Word.

• Adding a Section to the Navigation Bar

In Drupal to add a new navigation bar section, the administrator
follows the process for adding a new page, and then defines where in
the menu the page should go using the “Menu Settings” section of the
page editing interface without any training but without training for
user it is not possible in Joomla.

• Accessibility of Admin Interface

In Drupal it is possible to theme the administrative tools so that
they are compliant with the ADA 508 accessibility standards, but the
default administrative interface are not but not in Joomla because
tools are not compliant with ADA 508 accessibility standards.

• Structural flexibility

In Drupal Structural flexibility is excellent and in Joomla it is good.

• Levels of Hierarchy

Pages can be arranged into a hierarchy with as many levels as user
like but in Joomla core system only supports a maximum of three levels
of hierarchy: Sections, Categories and Articles.

• Related Items

In Drupal Taxonomy and Views modules to create a “related items”
feature on a page. This will automatically display links to site
information similar to that shown but not in Joomla.

• Sharing Content across a Set of Affiliated Web sites

In Drupal user can use different themes for different site sections,
and define what data can go in each section using a variety of criteria
but not in Joomla.

• User Roles and Workflow

In Drupal user roles and workflow is good but in Joomla it is fair.

• System Roles

In Drupal we can create an unlimited number of users but in Joomla only limited number of users can be created.

• Notifications

In Drupal there is no notification system to flag and forward
content. However, a popular add-on module is available to provide this
functionality but in Joomla there is no module for notification.

• Roll-Back Functionality

In Drupal content administrators can track prior versions of each
page and content item, and revert back to them as necessary but in
Joomla no prior versions of pages or content items are stored;
published changes cannot be rolled back.

• List of System To-Dos

In Drupal user can create a”dashboard”—a list of items that need
attention but in Joomla no dashboard or list of content items that need
attention is available.

• Community/Web 2.0 Functionality

In Drupal community/ web 2.0 functionality is excellent but in Joomla it is good.

• Comments

In Drupal content administrator can allow site visitors to post
comments for any piece of site content but this feature is not in
Joomla.

• Blogs

In Drupal Blogs, including multi-author blogs are supported but in Joomla only blogs are supported not multi-author blogs.

• Displaying Others’ RSS Feeds

In Drupal a popular add-on module allows you to pull in and display
other RSS feeds on your site, and moderate which of the items from
those feeds you would like to display but not in Joomla.

• User-Submitted Content

In Drupal public site visitors can submit and publish content which
can be managed by content administrators like any other site content
but in Joomla public site visitors can submit but not publish.

• Upgrade Frequency

In Drupal there have been two major upgrades, and 25 security and
bug-fix releases in the past two years but in Joomla one major upgrade
and nine security and bug-fix releases in the past two years.

• Notification of Out-of-Date Version

In Drupal CMS includes a notice to the administrator when they are using an out-of-date version of the system but not in Joomla.

• Options to Not Upgrade

In Drupal CMS maintains legacy branches, one version behind the
current, so those who choose not to make a major update but in Joomla
the CMS does not maintain legacy branches, to get security updates, you
must upgrade to the latest major version.

• Community Support

Drupal community is governed by the nonprofit Drupal Foundation and
Joomla community is governed by the nonprofit Open Source Matters
foundation.