Drupal or Joomla for Web Design ?

I've only worked with both for a little while, probably not long enough to make this decision for you. But I recommend checking out this blog post comparing the two:

http://www.alledia.com/blog/general-cms-issues/joomla-and-drupal-which-one-is-right-for-you/

That might help you base a decision. But, if all else fails, there certainly isn't harm in leaning both!

You need to look both over and see which one meets your needs better.

Note that the link above is from 2006! Drupal has gone through 2 full revisions since then (I am not sure about Joomla) and a lot has changed.

I personally like Drupal. its a huge community, well supported, and used by several high-profile sites...

at this time, I would say use what is best for the job, i.e. want exactly are you trying to do, they both have large user communities out there, but at present I would say drupal was getting more attention.

cytefx said:

at this time, I would say use what is best for the job, i.e. want exactly are you trying to do, they both have large user communities out there, but at present I would say drupal was getting more attention.

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Agreed. There is now a flood of Drupal books. Packt publishing has at least 12 new titles on different areas of Drupal development.

http://www.packtpub.com/drupal-books

Joomla was pretty straightforward to set up. Installing plugins is as simple downloading the zip with the contents of the plugin in it and selecting the zip with the mod in it. then the software installs it. Then you go configure it (which is just selecting stuff from a list if the mod is done right) and enable it.

The SEO is good right out of the box if you set it up. On an Apache server you just rename the htaccess.txt to .htaccess and change 3 settings in the admin interface and you get urls without the index.php in it. In fact if you have a menu item linking to the article with the spaceless short name in it it will be article-name.html if you want it to be. The only thing I have added to my joomla site is yvcomment.

I've worked with both

I've worked with both and I would recommend Drupal. You'll have a higher learning curve but you'll run into far less road blocks than you will with Joomla. Make sure you at least use the Content Creation Kit (CCK) and Views modules. Get your head around taxonomy (it's just a way of setting up categories basically) and you can rule the world.

Drupal 7 is going to have some major improvements in usability and templating. The Oreilly book "Using Drupal" is the best book for getting started. Google for the "Get Drupal" website, there are several videos, also Google "Drupal Views Video", it's using a version behind however it's great for getting a handle on views, especially if you are more of a visual learner.

There are several high profile sites built on Drupal, The Onion being one of them.

+1 for Drupal

I've been using it on several sites. Learning curve is steep, but the community is extensive and very helpful. Tons of sites out there with tutorials, videos, etc. Don't hack the core, have fun with it.

Since you mentioned, "or something else", I'll hit on that point.

For comparison, please visit opensourcecms which has all the popular PHP based CMS's available for demonstration use online. Play around and compare much more easily than downloading each and installing, etc.

On a side note, they have a rating thing there and after 7000+ votes Joomla is slightly better rated than Drupal - but of course rely on your own testing when making the final decision. FYI.

-jim

SrWebDeveloper said:

Since you mentioned, "or something else", I'll hit on that point.

For comparison, please visit opensourcecms which has all the popular PHP based CMS's available for demonstration use online. Play around and compare much more easily than downloading each and installing, etc.

On a side note, they have a rating thing there and after 7000+ votes Joomla is slightly better rated than Drupal - but of course rely on your own testing when making the final decision. FYI.

-jim

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Excellent site, Jim! Thanks for the link.

Drupal JOOMLA wars....

fab5freddy said:

I am going to learn either Drupal or Joomla
for starting a small web design company
to offer small businesses an E Commerce website
with some functionality.

What is better for this ? DRUPAL or JOOMLA ?
or maybe something else ?

thanks !!

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i had that very same question a few months ago and did some research...first impression is that the preferences that each have is more personal that objective for each person....and once they learn them, the one they know better or is closer to their own way of thinking is the one they prefer...

my choice in the end? wordpress...because SEO was very important and i prefer to work on my mac.....

To be honest with you, it would be better for you to learn php and create your own cms, or better yet use a better 'off the shelf' cms such as Expression engine. Joomla and Drupal is very complex to do some of the simpler things. Thats just my opinion.

sirinalot said:

To be honest with you, it would be better for you to learn php and create your own cms, or better yet use a better 'off the shelf' cms such as Expression engine. Joomla and Drupal is very complex to do some of the simpler things. Thats just my opinion.

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Maybe ExpressionEngine is easier than Joomla, I don't know because I've never used it but I put my site together very quickly. It's a simple Joomla site and it took no time at all. Yes, I really like Joomla. Get the order right, Sections, Categories, Menus and Articles and you're away in a hack.

The url is: http://carraigeen.com/, if you'd like to see it.

BTW, can anyone recommend a good, attractive, free template that would suit the site?