Which is better? Joomla or Wordpress?

WaftyCrank · Oct 4, 2008

OK I wouldn't call myself a web designer by any stretch of the imagination.
I want to start using Joomla or Wordpress to create mini sites and some fully business related sites (no shopping cart sites though).

For someone new to both Wordpress and Joomla (and PHP come to that matter), which would you say offers the most flexibility and useability for a beginner to create decent looking sites?

Are they both fully customisable? You see I don't want to create blogs, I'm needing websites for a purpose.

Any advice would be gratefully received

stender · Oct 4, 2008

I personally prefer joomla but would say wordpress is easier to learn. Looks too blog for me though.

GreyWing · Oct 4, 2008

I thought joomla was hard at the beginning and tried wordpress the other day, couldn't get my head round it.

What I would say is that make your choice and specialise in it because it's a head screwer to flip between the 2.

I like joomla, my business partner hates it, loves wordpress.

rjs_essex · Oct 4, 2008

It all depends on what you want to achieve....

The plugins available for Wordpress are very focused and mainly designed for small personal blogs / websites... They serve a specific purpose.

The extensions for Joomla on the other hand are vast and encompass many varied uses... They can be adapted to create much larger, interactive websites.

So it really does depend on your goal... Wordpress for simpler, smaller sites that aim to deliver content articles or the odd feature or Joomla for larger sites that may encompass an integrated community, forum, classifieds, link directory, or user content submission of videos, music, documents etc etc.

If you want to create a blog, Wordpress wins hands down, the blog components for Joomla are pretty poor unless you want to pay.

Hope this helps,

Rich

P.S. I use both and for beginners Wordpress is far easier to get your head round. Having said that Joomla 1.5 is far more streamlined than its predecessor but still requires a good understanding to create professional looking sites.

WaftyCrank · Oct 5, 2008

Thanks everyone, i think Joomla is going to have to be my way to go.
Anyone know of a good "idiots guide" or "beginners tutorial" for Joomla?

I've recently found this but would appreciate some user feedback as to how good it would be for a beginner.

Thanks

itrends · Oct 5, 2008

To be honest, if you are the only one who is going to be working with the sites etc and need nothing fancy then wordpress is one way to go. You can get or create templates that look nothing like a blog.

Alternatively, load up mac os and use iweb.

Finally, before you do anything you should have a look Build a Website - Create a Blog - Squarespace as that may help you too

Watch the video on the homepage to see what you can get up to with it

Either way, good luck. personally, I dont bother with joomla (what used to be mambo before it was forked).

Maybe even sitex.bjsintay.com may do what you need?

Good luck!

GreyWing · Oct 5, 2008

For joomla templates go to rockettheme.com

Very good value and templates aren't copyrighted to hell.

monaghan · Oct 5, 2008

BANNEDfromTV said:
Thanks everyone, i think Joomla is going to have to be my way to go.
Anyone know of a good "idiots guide" or "beginners tutorial" for Joomla?

I've recently found this but would appreciate some user feedback as to how good it would be for a beginner.

Thanks

Look on the Joomla forum for Anna's Tips. This started as a Mambo document many years ago, but covers all the basics and should help you get to grips with the system quite quickly.

WaftyCrank · Oct 5, 2008

Thanks everyone. Much appreciated

Deltrus · Oct 5, 2008

Another one to consider is Drupal. It is a bit more involved but much more powerful.

The URL system is more flexible for one.

Also it is especially better for larger websites as it is much more scalable than either Joomla or Wordpress, both of which I have used.

For mini-sites it may be overkill but you don't have to use all the the fancy features.