Wordpress vs Joomla?

[GAC05]

Hi,
so from reading the "websites on an iPad" thread I can put it off no longer and want to get a website up and running.
I noticed Wordpress thrown around and looked it up, from there a quick check of the top 10 CMS apps and Wordpress Joomla and Drupal are the top 3.
I've read the reviews and would like to know what people here think who have used one or more of them.

I am sure most would recommend having someone who knows what they are doing do it and I write the check, but that can't happen right now.

I'm not going to be overly ambitious to start out and figure I will try to break it down into 3 or 4 phases - ending up with a simple, clean website with an online store/catalog (for our automotive/truck retail parts).
Something I can have the front counter update after it is up and going.

I'm thinking a shared server will be more than enough as traffic is never going to be very high. We are pretty much a closed loop here and the main objective is to get our name & services out there for the military and off island contractors that are beginning to arrive.


thanks

wayne k
guam usa

 

[signswi]

I prefer WordPress by a mile but you should find a developer you trust and let them choose the platform to fit your needs, once they figure out what those are via client interviews and such.

 

[GoodPeopleFlags]

I just took a class on Joomla and I really like it. No code knowledge necessary but I'm sure it would help. I don't know the first thing about code. I've never tried Wordpress. I couldn't have just jumped into Joomla and figured it out myself. I definitely needed the class.

 

[Dave Rowland]

I am a Joomla dev as well as a printer but I have to say for user simplicity the Wordpress is certainly worth looking at.

But for features and extensions, I look @ Joomla

 

[Jim Doggett]

WordPress. More widgets and free stuff. Also much easier to use than Joomla.

Joomla if you're a developer and want to stay looped-in to the site's management. Not as easy for the end-user to take over, as WordPress is since it's super easy-to-do / learn.

My $0.02,

 

[lknmedia]

Wordpress all the way. We used to do everything in Joomla but switched to WP about a year and a half ago and haven't looked back.

 

[GAC05]

Thanks for the feedback so far.
It's getting close to 1am here & I'm going home for a while.
Will check back in the morning.

thanks again
wayne k
guam usa

 

[Vinylman]

Wayne;
IF you are running a pc, you might want to look into this.http://www.xara.com/us/products/designer/
I am just getting ready to upgrade from Designer Pro6, and can tell you from someone who has been using Illustrator since 1988, and more recently learning Photoshop [both on a Mac based computer system]this program has MORE BANG for the buck than ANY other graphic design program I have ever laid my hands on.

You NEED to take a serious look a XARA.

 

[royster13]

I have looked at Joomla and WordPress......Starting by building a couple sites with both but at the end of the day Joomla won out.....It is a lot like the Illustrator / Corel discussions....Pretty much a personal preference....

 

[bigben]

I've practically used every platforms. But I love wordpress.

 

[CoCut USA]

+1 for Wordpress. Used it to build www.cocutusa.com, with help from www.elegantthemes.com, which with some coding know-how are super easy-to-tweak templates.

Cheers,

Mr. CoCut (Jim)

 

[Mike F]

Wordpress is pretty nice, you may want to check out Mambo as well if it's still around, I remember it being pretty good a few years back.

edit: scratch that, looks like Mambo died.

 

[iSign]

wordpress!

(Joe Diaz did my blog site there: www.islandsignmaui.com )

 

[Jon Aston]

Every marketer I know (and I know many) will tell you Wordpress. I already mentioned a number of other reasons in the "iPad" thread.

That stated - regardless of platform - it's really not enough to "get a website up and running". You've got to attract qualified prospects to it, and persuade them to take action. If this is going to be a "DIY" effort, I hope you are prepared to learn a whole pile of new stuff.

 

[GAC05]

Thank you all for the feedback & info.
Looks like WP is the clear leader in this group.

Vinylman, I also own Dpro6 - like it OK, but not as much as the older Xara line, not sure that it will pass as a CMS app even with it's web options.

Jon, this has to be DIY for now.
Learning piles of new stuff is one of the few things I have to look forward to in this economy..... out into the PHP minefield I go.

wayne k
guam usa

 

[Rooster]

Wordpress is fantastically easy to use but feature limited compared to Joomla.

Both will be much easier if you understand some basic HTML and CSS.

If you want to run a store then Joomla has the best options for store integration, but wordpress is getting there slowly.

There's also Drupal and Magento as well that have gotten good reviews.

 

[signswi]

WordPress really isn't feature limited, if you can use Joomla you probably can program PHP and there's no limit to what you can do with the WordPress hooks if you know PHP.

WordPress > Drupal > Joomla for my money, Drupal a slight edge over WordPress in extremely high-load static site situations (whitehouse.gov for example is Drupal), WordPress for absolutely everything else.

That said, it's easier to gunk up a WordPress install as there are a lot of crappy plugins (and themes) out there, so if you aren't active in the community and know what's what you may get tripped up. However the good stuff is REALLY good.

 

[CoCut USA]

"That said, it's easier to gunk up a WordPress install as there are a lot of crappy plugins (and themes) out there."

That's a risk with any Web site or platform. Animated GIF-nightmares, Java mouse-pointer and scroll-bar gimmicks. Music that plays onLoad!!!! (Ahhhhh!) The "it's cool because we can without regard for should" has been going on since the dawn of WWW.

Less is more. Add only what makes getting to you or buying your stuff easier and more intuitive. And choose a theme or template that is the perfect container for your content/strategy in an appealling way -- and not because it looks cool and does neat stuff. Mission focus!!!!!! IMHO :^)

And Wordpress shortens the dev-time, dramatically. It's REAL easy to learn and manage. And it has unmatched, free, feature-adds that are very slick and elegant, I think. I'd choose it over any other dev platform, for 99.999% of DIY sign or other companies, who aren't listed on Nasdaq.

My $0.02,

Jim

 

[Graphics2u]

I've only used Joomla and I like it but I can't compare to others.

 

[signswi]

"That said, it's easier to gunk up a WordPress install as there are a lot of crappy plugins (and themes) out there."

That's a risk with any Web site or platform. Animated GIF-nightmares, Java mouse-pointer and scroll-bar gimmicks. Music that plays onLoad!!!! (Ahhhhh!) The "it's cool because we can without regard for should" has been going on since the dawn of WWW.

Less is more. Add only what makes getting to you or buying your stuff easier and more intuitive. And choose a theme or template that is the perfect container for your content/strategy in an appealling way -- and not because it looks cool and does neat stuff. Mission focus!!!!!! IMHO :^)

And Wordpress shortens the dev-time, dramatically. It's REAL easy to learn and manage. And it has unmatched, free, feature-adds that are very slick and elegant, I think. I'd choose it over any other dev platform, for 99.999% of DIY sign or other companies, who aren't listed on Nasdaq.

My $0.02,

Jim

I was more referring to the fact that the plugin repository isn't culled and has a lot of crap in it that is non-functional or buggy. Lots of abandoned code. It's super easy to slow your site way down by using a plugin with poor code standards.

I'm a huge, huge WordPress fan, I do WordPress consulting and theme development, but it's the truth--because it's the most popular, easiest platform, it's also the platform with the most chaff. Themes can get you in trouble too, I've seen way too many themes with customized backends or functionality that cause performance hits (or worse). Again though it's by far my platform of choice.