How Drupal is different from WordPress depends on who is asked, but there are fundamental differences. Below explains the differences and advantages of each platform.
The Basics
In the beginning, WordPress was a simple blogging platform, but its functionalities have gradually expanded through a community of web designers who continually contribute their own plug-ins and themes. WordPress is now an efficient and user-friendly way for users to manage online content without having a strong development background. On the other hand, Drupal is a robust system that is best for website developers who want enhanced functionality and taxonomy systems. Drupal is noted for having a flexible taxonomy that helps users to tag and categorize content in complex websites. Drupal is not recommended for novices because extensive training is needed for basic systems building and content management.
Security
Security performance is one of the biggest differences between Drupal and WordPress. That is, Drupal comes with enhanced and advanced security, which is why most government websites, such as the Whitehouse’s, are built with Drupal. At the opposite end, Worldpress has embedded system vulnerabilities that allow hackers to easily target a weakly designed plug-in and destroy mountains of data and hundreds of websites. Because of these concerns, WordPress community members have created various security applications that minimize the security risks, such as WP Engine and MediaTemple. Most people use the Drupal security extensions Acquia and Pantheon.
Mobile Design and Development
Because the majority of consumers use their mobile devices to access the Internet, both Drupal and WordPress offer user-friendly mobile themes for website owners. Most Drupal mobile starter themes are available for download off of the Drupal website, and WordPress users can download the popular WPTouch solution. One basic difference is that Drupal provides website developers with extended content fields on every page. Another notable difference is that almost all of Drupal’s mobile themes should be run off a sub-domain, which may create potential mobile indexation and search engine challenges. WordPress offers a very convenient mobile app for content editing.
Search Engine Optimization
There have been ongoing debates about the superiority of WordPress over Drupal for years. However, SEO algorithms historically do not prefer one content management system over the other one. There is a lot that can go wrong on Drupal sites if the developer has limited experience because of the advanced options and complex extensions. Because WordPress is simpler, there is less room for design errors. When website owners are maximizing their on-page optimization, they must consider the page load times because Drupal offers excellent caching features and WordPress only offers limited caching plug-ins.
How are They Similar?
Drupal and WordPress are both open source software under GPL licenses. This means that they are free and open to adjustment by anyone. Because of this, each platform has their own devoted online community of supporters and technicians. Both programs are mostly written in PHP, which is a server-based scripting language that is used for web development and programming software. Drupal and WordPress both support MySQL as their database management system. Oracle’s MySQL is one of the most popular open source database programs available. Each one uses standard themes, plug-ins, templates and extensions.
Related Resource: Why Search Engine Optimization is Important
In the end, how Drupal is different from WordPress depends on the technical needs and preferences of the user.
