The Basics of Drupal v. Joomla, Part 1: Introduction

As we usually tell our non-profit partners, both Drupal and Joomla have their pluses and minuses. We recommend each of them for particular types of websites and for particular functional and content-related requirements. That said, we thought it might be worthwhile to start a new series on our blog describing some of the parallels between them as well as highlighting in more depth some of the differences.

To start off, the basics. Both of them are content management systems, both are open source, and both have vibrant and committed communities behind them, constantly improving the software and producing add-on functionality to achieve specific tasks.

Content Management System:

A CMS gives you the ability to log in through a web browser such as Firefox or Internet Explorer. You can use the administrative interface to add new content or edit existing content on the site and when you save it, the site updates immediately. This allows you to keep the site current and keep your stakeholders informed. You could even spread the responsibility for the website across a number of staff people if you don't have one person dedicated to it.

Open Source:

Open source software is produced by a collaborative community and is usually released at no cost, including the source code. This means that the software has generally been tested by a diverse group of people, won't break your budget, and that if necessary, the source can be modified or extended to achieve a particular requirement. Periodically security updates to an open source project will be released and can be easily applied to an installation.

Community involvement:

Active open source projects usually have a passionate following -- users who continuously improve the code, produce add-ons that extend its functionality, or who provide help and who collaborate with other users in the forums. Both Drupal and Joomla have such communities.

Questions? Suggestions?

If you have any particular questions you'd like answered in regard to Drupal and/or Joomla, please leave a comment below and we'll add it to our list of things to post about over the next weeks or months.