Struggling to grasp the difference between WordPress vs Drupal? We may be a WordPress hosting provider, but that doesn’t mean we think that WordPress is the only way to build a website (even though there are lots of good reasons to use WordPress).
We already compared Squarespace to WordPress. Now, in this post, we’ll dig into Drupal, another popular content management system, and see how it stacks up with WordPress.
WordPress vs Drupal: Introduction And What The Numbers Say
Before we dig into some more nitty-gritty details, let’s have a quick introduction to the two players in this comparison. Obviously, both are content management systems. That means they give you a self-hosted solution to create and manage all of the content on your website (as the name would suggest!).
So how do they stack up as content management systems?
WordPress is the world’s most popular content management system. Originally launched as a blogging platform back in 2003, WordPress now powers 43.5% of all websites and controls a massive 62.5% of the known content management system market.
Some notable examples of famous entities using WordPress for all, or part, of their web presence are:
- Whitehouse.gov
- Sony Mobile
- University of Washington
- Mercedes Benz
- TechCrunch
- The New Yorker
Drupal has been around for even longer than WordPress, though it lacks WordPress’ gaudy market share. Originally launched in 2000, Drupal powers 2.3% of all websites and has a 4.6% share of the content management system market.
Some notable websites running on Drupal are:
- University of Colorado
- State of Colorado
- The Economist
- Dallas Cowboys
- Nasa.gov
Looking at Google Trends back to 2004, we can see that both had a pretty quick rise in fame but are now simply kind of in a slump. But these are simply trends. Looking at the market share growth, both WordPress and Drupal have grown over the years.
What Are Some Of The Commonly Touted Advantages Of WordPress And Drupal?
If you browse the web for discussions of WordPress vs Drupal, you can find plenty of devotees on each side. Here are some of the most commonly cited reasons for choosing one platform over the other:
WordPress Advantages
- Ease of use – WordPress is significantly more user-friendly, especially for non-developers.
- Extensibility – WordPress’ third-party theme and plugin communities make it similarly easy to extend WordPress without the need for custom development. Some people even claim that, with the right extensions, WordPress can do anything that Drupal can do.
- Ease of getting help – WordPress’ massive global community means that it’s easy to find support for any issues that you run into.
- Lower development costs – WordPress offers more “out of the box” solutions and WordPress developers are usually more affordable than Drupal developers.
Drupal Advantages
- Custom content types and views – while WordPress does offer custom post types, most people consider Drupal’s custom content types to be a bit more flexible.
- Access controls/user permissions – whereas WordPress single-site ships with 5 basic user roles, Drupal has a built-in access control system where you can create new roles with individual permissions.
- Core support for multilingual sites – in Drupal 8, multilingual functional is baked into the core, whereas WordPress sites need to turn to third-party plugins.
- Taxonomies for handling lots of data – Drupal’s taxonomy system is more flexible than WordPress, which can make it ideal for handling lots of content.
How Easy Is It To Get Up And Running With WordPress And Drupal?
When it comes to how easy it is to build a website with each platform, WordPress is the clear winner.
WordPress Ease Of Use And Learning Curve
WordPress makes it significantly easier to go from “zero” to “fully functioning website that looks good.”
With WordPress, it’s possible to find a niche-specific theme and have a working site all in an afternoon’s work (obviously more complex projects are unlikely to be completed in an afternoon).
What’s more, the WordPress interface is simple for even most casual users to quickly grasp. And tools like the WYSIWYG Theme Customizer and the upcoming Gutenberg editor only make it even easier for casual users to create meaningful and unique content.
Drupal Ease Of Use And Learning Curve
With Drupal, you’re looking at pretty much the opposite. While Drupal themes do exist, most Drupal websites sport a custom-coded theme, or at least a highly customized theme. That means you’re usually going to need a developer just to get something that looks good.
Beyond that, the Drupal interface is incomprehensible for most casual users (and many developers!), at least at first glance. This isn’t an opinion – Drupal itself has a usability page that says, in reference to the Drupal authoring experience:
In general people expect a much richer user experience around content creation than Drupal offers, much of the functionality that people consider standard for a CMS is simply missing.
For example, here’s what the core editor looks like in Drupal 7:
While it’s functional at a very basic level, it’s not exactly the most user-friendly content creation experience, especially compared to the WordPress TinyMCE Editor (and the upcoming Gutenberg Editor).
How Can You Extend Your Website With Drupal And WordPress?
You can extend both WordPress and Drupal with add-ons that affect both:
- Functionality: WordPress calls these plugins, while Drupal calls these modules.
- Aesthetics: Both WordPress and Drupal call these themes
How Many Plugins And Themes Does WordPress Have?
While the raw number of extensions doesn’t inherently mean WordPress is better, it is a good indicator of the size and importance of the third-party WordPress ecosystem.
WordPress has:
- 53,000+ free plugins, plus thousands of more premium plugins.
- 5,000+ free themes, plus thousands of more premium themes.
How Many Plugins And Themes Does Drupal Have?
At its official directory, Drupal lists:
- 39,000+ modules
- 2,500+ themes
With that being said, if you only include modules that are compatible with Drupal 8.x, those numbers drop to:
- 4,000+ modules
- 250 themes
Are WordPress And Drupal Equally Secure?
In a perfect world, both WordPress and Drupal are secure systems. But in the real world (with real people’s update habits and penchant for third-party solutions), Drupal often ends up being more secure.
It’s worth noting that this advantage really does stem more from human error than it does flaws in the WordPress core.
WordPress Security
While the WordPress core itself is secure, WordPress’ massive third-party ecosystem introduces a ton of wildcards that aren’t as prevalent in Drupal sites.
According to a survey from Wordfence, plugin vulnerabilities accounted for a massive 55.9% of all known entry points for malicious actors. And overall, WordPress was the content management system used by 74% of the hacked websites that Sucuri analyzed.
While WordPress’ number should naturally be higher because of its popularity, WordPress’ market share is only 59.8%, so the fact that WordPress accounts for 74% of hacked websites in Sucuri’s analysis is still higher than you’d expect.
Done right, WordPress is secure. But the fact that WordPress relies so heavily on third-party extensions does make it more vulnerable than Drupal.
Drupal Security
One of Drupal’s selling points is its lockdown security, which is why it’s a popular content management system for government institutions and other large, security-conscious players. In contrast to WordPress, Drupal only accounted for 2% of the hacked websites that Sucuri looked at, which is well under its market share of 4.7%:
Beyond its enterprise-level security, Drupal also publishes detailed security reports and is generally more transparent about its security than WordPress.
Migrate From Drupal to WordPress
If you’re currently using Drupal and are looking for an easy way to migrate to WordPress, we recommend checking out WordHerd. They are an official Kinsta partner and provide full-service website migration services to move data from any CMS (Drupal) platform into WordPress.
WordHerd handles migrations of all sizes, from small businesses to large enterprises. In addition to CMS migration, the WordHerd team is also well-versed in assisting with CRM data migration.
If you want a more DIY method, you can check out the following plugins:
WordPress vs Drupal: Which Is Better?
This is probably the question you came here looking for…but it’s also a flawed question because it’s impossible to say whether WordPress or Drupal is “better”. Instead, a more helpful question to ask is “which is better for this specific website that I’m building?”.
That is – you should focus on choosing the right tool for your specific project, not looking for a proclamation that one is always better than the other.
At Kinsta, one of our main solutions is WordPress hosting – so it would be easy to say that WordPress is always the best solution. But that wouldn’t be a fair conclusion for our readers. If you’re building a site with complex data organization that needs to be customized and flexible, Drupal may well be a better choice. Just be aware that it’s unlikely to be accessible unless you:
- Are a developer
- Are willing to hire a developer
In the end, this is probably a good rule of thumb:
WordPress should be the default tool for most people to create a website because:
- It’s user-friendly and easy for non-developers to add functionality.
- You can quickly create an attractive and functional website.
- It’s easy to find both free and professional help.
That doesn’t mean WordPress is the best tool for all situations – just that it’s the best tool for most situations. Unless you already know the specific reasons why you need what Drupal offers, sticking with WordPress will likely make your web journey much easier.
Do you agree or disagree when it comes to WordPress vs Drupal? Let us know in the comments!
Drupal™ is a registered trademark of Dries Buytaert.
Brian has a huge passion for WordPress, has been using it for over a decade, and even develops a couple of premium plugins. Brian enjoys blogging, movies, and hiking. Connect with Brian on Twitter.
Hi Brian, This is a nice comparison and goes into more depth than many. A couple more differences:
WordPress:
-Automatic updates and update core from the admin
-More backup options via plugins
-Much easier to create plugins and themes
-Embraced the idea of premium plugins and themes
Drupal:
-Has focused more on enterprise sites
-Discouraged premium plugins and themes
This is a great article that articulates well why Drupal, despite being a robust CMS, is a mess: http://matthewgrasmick.com/compare-php-frameworks
Ultimately, you’re stuck with confusing documentation, a high learning curve, less options for modules, slow adoption rates for Drupal 8 (including module development), and the overall cost to develop a Drupal site. It’s as if the developers of the CMS stacked its difficulty in their favour to become niche providers.
Wow, that really was a great read Jonathan. Thanks for sharing. Being a hosting provider, we can tell you that users have a hard enough time learning WordPress (even Enterprise and agencies). Drupal like you said has a very high learning curve and is very focused on developers, and that’s it. This is one reason why WordPress continues to grab more of the market share.
Great article, well done
“But in the real world (with real people’s update habits and penchant for third-party solutions), Drupal often ends up being more secure”
I disagree (https://www.drupal.org/forum/support/upgrading-drupal/2017-01-20/drupal-8-maintenance-is-a-terrible-nightmare). It is apparent that keeping D8 projects up to date is difficult, and therefore people won’t bother. I’ve just taken over a D6 website, where the developer didn’t bother updating it!
WordPress is easier to update, and it includes security plugins. I’ve created WordPress websites, where IPs are temporarily or permanently blocked when people try to hack the website. I also have two-factor authentication set up, and a GEO block on the admin login page. I reckon my websites will be far more secure than most Drupal setups.
Hi Brian, thanks for sharing this wonderful insight about wP and DRU.
I would be really interested to know why it is difficult to update DRUPAL while updating WordPress is just a click of a button? Does this contribute to Drupal being more secure than WordPress. Would be interested to see some insights on this. Thanks once again!
Hey Chris! Drupal also has a similar update feature. Although it takes a few more clicks, you can update modules by going into your “Available updates” panel.
Drupal is pretty well known for being more transparent about security issues than WordPress. Also, WordPress having such a gigantic part of the market share, makes it a lot more susceptible to attacks.
What would you recommend for a news website with more than 80,000 pages and daily updates?
A good comparison between WordPress and Drupal. It would help people who are going to develop their website in WordPress or Drupal. Great job!
Excellent article with some really useful info. Thanks for that!
Can you please clarify how Drupal’s taxonomy system is more flexible than custom taxonomies in WordPress?
No one is better if the client or even your employee expect the CMS can do anything.
Well written! One thing you missed was accessibility which is mandated by law (WCAG AA) for most governments. Neither are perfect, however, Drupal has been leading on this for quite some time, WordPress is just starting some a11y activities now.
Drupal core is now decoupled from front end. You can use drupal core without front end like an api service. Now you can use drupal api with other front end like mobile app, iot devices, video games or a simple webpage.
Great article
that’s a wonderful comparison b/w WordPress vs drupal
Interesting article. I am using Drupal for my website. I do like Drupal and find it very easy to add features using modules. The main thing I don’t like about Drupal is updating its modules. On many occasions when I update one of the modules it creates an error on the code and I have to use the backup. I have also used WordPress. If you are a beginner it’s easier to WordPress but in terms of putting a website together Drupal is easier. WordPress is better if you want to purchase a theme and use that. Both Drupal and WordPress both work okay on shared hosting.