From a survey we found on W3Tech.com (May 2016), WordPress and Joomla are the most popular web platforms globally, ranking number 1 and 2. For over 5 years, we have been studying both of these platforms for our Web Development services for clients. Here are the key takeaways from our learning:

1. Ease of Use

This is one of WordPress’ strongest points… its ease of use! With the plugins and features WordPress offers today, we once trained one of our designers, and in just one day, a non-IT person was able to create a professional website. This is different from Joomla, which feels more complicated due to its modular platform concept, which is more advanced.

2. SEO

When it comes to SEO (Search Engine Optimization) or ranking in the top 10 Google search results, neither Joomla nor WordPress has a clear advantage. This is because Google uses various factors to rank sites in the top 10. If we look at the setup process, WordPress is slightly easier, but when it comes to SEO impact, both platforms do not have much influence on ranking results.

Read More: How Important is SEO? Here are the Benefits of SEO for Businesses and UMKM

3. Site Performance

Speaking of performance, this is where WordPress users pay the “price.” Out-of-the-box, WordPress sites that use “All-in-one” templates allow anyone to design using drag-and-drop without needing a programmer. However, many WordPress sites suffer from poor plugin management, memory usage, and slow loading speeds. Ultimately, you still need a technical team to optimize the site.

4. Security

In terms of security, WordPress is the most attacked platform due to its popularity. According to a famous website security blog (Sucuri), 78% of site attacks target WordPress.

Is WordPress insecure? Well, this is not an issue of being secure or insecure because all websites, regardless of the platform, can experience hacking attempts. However, as a WordPress site owner, you need to make extra effort to enhance site security. What we typically do is perform regular backups and filter through a Web Application Firewall to protect our sites, and so far, this method has proven safe from attacks.

Conclusion

What’s best for your site? Here are some recommendations from us:

If you need a simple company profile site or an online catalog, go for WordPress. Although you’ll need to make some effort to achieve good performance (a slow website is never liked by visitors), regular backups are key for security. You might also want to use a Web Application Firewall or security plugins for WordPress, as we have done. You can ask your developer, or if you want to consult, feel free to contact us.

What about Joomla? For sites that need more features like marketplaces, e-commerce, or if your product catalog structure is complex, Joomla is the answer. Joomla is purely built as a CMS (Content Management System), while WordPress was originally built as a blogging platform. From this perspective, Joomla is designed for building feature-rich, long-term websites.

When it comes to Online Marketing, there is actually no clear winner between Joomla and WordPress. Essentially, your visitors (and Google) prefer user experience (UX) and a well-structured information layout rather than the platform used for your site.

These are our thoughts—what about yours? We look forward to your comments and discussion in the section below.

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