Drupal vs Wordpress

The Choice is YoursDrupal vs. Wordpress

Webinar via Webinar Jam April 12, 2016

@constr_ctive

Designing a New Way Forward

https://twitter.com/constr_ctive

Ian Mariano Beth Jacobson Quinton Mosley

Constructive are a boutique branding and interactive design firm in NYC focusing on nonprofit and higher education institutions. We do extensive

work with both Drupal and Wordpress.

Learn more about Constructive and the work we do at https://constructive.co

Drupal vs. WordPress / April 11, 2016 - Webinar / constructive.co

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OR

You’ve probably heard buzz surrounding both Content Management Systems, Drupal and WordPress. You might have even heard of other options.

It’s a confusing topic of discussion for those unfamiliar.

You have questions, but you need answers


An Overview• Initial release January 2001

• Started life as a community news portal and message board

• Powers ~6% of the top 10,000 websites and ~3% of the top 1,000,000


Developed by a community of developers• Modules can have commercial sponsors, but

no commercial entity controls Drupal core development or direction

• Contributed modules are shared, not sold

• Module developers encourage collaboration over competition


An Overview• Initial release May 2003

• Started life as a blogging platform and fork of b2/cafelog

• As of April 2016, WordPress powers ~26% of the top 10,000 websites and ~24% of the top 1,000,000


Developed by Automattic and the dev community• Automattic owns WordPress.com and related

properties

• Ecosystem allows commercial WordPress products to be sold

• You can purchase nearly all the parts needed to build a WordPress site from various marketplaces


Community climate makes a big difference

• Dedicated to quality of core software

• Focus on security and longevity

• Initiatives to mentor and on-board new contributors

• “Proudly found elsewhere” philosophy encourages building on tools

• Mix of core software and commercial product contributors

• Community somewhat fragmented by core vs. plugin authors and contributors


Secure by nature• Not as widely used as WordPress – less likely

to be targeted

• Secured by the Drupal community and a dedicated team of security experts

• Government and education institutions trust Drupal due to its track record and valuable security reports


Only as secure as WordPress plugins installed• Library of plugins a source of security

weakness historically

• WordPress security team deals only with WordPress core

• Vetting a site before deployment is almost always a requirement due to its track record and valuable security reports


Contributed Modules versus Plugins

• Over 20,000 Drupal 7 modules

• More emphasis development tools than plug ‘n play

• Produced and maintained by dedicated individuals and institutional sponsors

• Over 40,000 plugins officially listed on their plugin directory

• More available in commercial marketplaces

• Many are built as complete products that are ready for deployment


Strengths of either platform

• Great tools for filtering and searching complex data

• http://www.economist.com/

• http://www.catalyst.org/

• http://www.nhsa.org/

• https://www.whitehouse.gov/

• Developed more quickly and at a lower cost when building brochure style sites and blogs

• http://izod.com/

• http://time.com/

• http://fortune.com/

• https://constructive.co/

http://www.economist.com/

http://www.catalyst.org/

http://www.nhsa.org/

https://www.whitehouse.gov/

http://izod.com/

http://time.com/

http://fortune.com/

https://constructive.co/


Drupal isn’t a one-trick pony• Drupal can do brochure style, blog and even

Ecommerce

• https://www.drupal.com/case-study/timex

• http://www.jnj.com/

• http://prattcenter.net/

https://www.drupal.com/case-study/timex

http://www.jnj.com/

http://prattcenter.net/


WordPress can also do content heavy sites• Misses some of the techniques that Drupal is

capable of

• https://vip.wordpress.com/2013/07/02/kaiser-family-foundation-bringing-20-years-of-data-into-wordpress/

• http://www.climatecommunication.yale.edu/

https://vip.wordpress.com/2013/07/02/kaiser-family-foundation-bringing-20-years-of-data-into-wordpress/



http://www.climatecommunication.yale.edu/


Cost of ownership between the two platforms

• Development relies more on custom developed code

• More time and expertise needed to keep it running well

• Maintenance can be much more straightforward

• A great place to start for a entry level web presence and has room to grow


Keeping your web presence up to date

• Updating and upgrading Drupal is not as straightforward as staying up to date with WordPress

• Major version updates require rewriting of custom code and some content migration

• Keeping a WordPress site up to date can be as easy as clicking a button

• Same pitfalls as any sort of software update are still present

• Testing is a requirement before deploying updates


How do they scale as traffic increases?

• Built-in caching system

• Optimized for efficient loading and rendering

• Drupal 8 can employ BigPipe for efficient caching even with dynamic elements

• A fairly static WordPress site can be made to scale quite well

• Adding dynamic content to the mix, things can slow down quickly

• Leveraging caching proxies and object caching can even the playing field


Backed by industry support• There is significant industry support for the

Drupal platform

• Acquia enhances the Drupal community and deployment

• https://pantheon.io/ (by the way, we’re a Pantheon partner)

• https://www.acquia.com/

https://pantheon.io/

https://www.acquia.com/


WordPress also has industry support• A host of industry standard tools for

deployment and maintenance

• Popular cloud hosting platforms and hosting control panels include one-click installations

• https://pantheon.io/ (we really like Pantheon)

• https://wpengine.com/


https://wpengine.com/


A glimpse into the future• Drupal 8’s built-in REST api can power

decoupled websites and apps

• Improved admin user experience with “outside-in” UX

• Growing pool of front-end developers with Twig theming


Making steps towards the future of the web• The WordPress REST API is now part of core

• Used to power a Fortune 500 company’s web presence

• Part of app architectures as well

• https://wordpress.tv/2014/11/03/k-adam-white-wordpress-in-weird-places-content-management-for-node-using-rest/

• https://simmerwp.com/

https://wordpress.tv/2014/11/03/k-adam-white-wordpress-in-weird-places-content-management-for-node-using-rest/



https://simmerwp.com/


Resources

WordPress - Open Source Project https://wordpress.org/

Drupal - Open Source Project https://www.drupal.org/

Pantheon https://pantheon.io/

Acquia https://www.acquia.com/

Wikipedia: Automattic https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automattic

Wikipedia: Acquia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acquia

https://wordpress.org/

https://www.drupal.org/


https://www.acquia.com/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automattic

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acquia

If you’re unsure what the best choice is for you and your project, you may need to take a closer look

with qualified professionals. Hint: That’s us!

We’d like to help!

[email protected]

212-925-6460

Sometimes the choice isn’t obvious


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Drupal vs Wordpress

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