Drupal Vs WordPress - Which CMS to Choose for Website Development in 2021?

These days, website development is not a tough task to perform. Anyone can design a website with the support of online tools and technologies offered in 2021 without coding knowledge. Content Management System (CMS) allows building fully-functional websites without the need of coding. The platform is perfect to create and manage websites without any troubles. But there are multiple CMS available for development job. Drupal and WordPress are the most popular ones. This explains why making a selection between the two is important.

When it comes to website development, people get confused which CMS they should prefer. Many people find it difficult to make a selection. Then in this blog, we will be comparing the two CMS and understand whether you should Hire Drupal Developers for website development or not.

Introduction to Drupal

Drupal is old CMS serving from last two decades but it has same importance in 2021 too. It’s observed that over 5% of the global websites are powered by Drupal CMS. Currently most people are using Drupal 8 but in next few months Drupal 9 is going to be released for users.

Introduction to WordPress

Many people consider WordPress for blogging purpose. While it was started as a blogging tool, but today it is build as per your requirement from scratch. Released in 2003, WordPress is used by 35% of the top 10 million websites as per latest reports.

Now, let’s break down the differences between Drupal Vs WordPress CMS.

1. Ease of Use

As compared to WordPress, Drupal seems confusing due to a complicated interface. Furthermore, installing Drupal is quite easy as different hosts offer the option to install multiple CMSs as well as Drupal in the backend. With this platform, you will need to consult Drupal Development Company to build a customized theme as building a custom theme is difficult without professionals.

2. Website Security

Drupal is known for its advanced security and is more secure than WordPress CMS. Security is a crucial feature for Drupal CMS and is updated on regular basis by the community. This makes it more powerful in terms of data security. But there is some vulnerability that needs to be resolved.

3. Speed

When it is about user experience and higher ranking of website on search engine, a fast-loading feature is a must. Your website is not of any worth if it lacks fast speed. This feature is important in old days and in 2021 it has become a necessity. Drupal enables development of fast-loading and high-performing websites. Speed is a major shortcoming of WordPress CMS. Using too many plugins, third-party themes, and lack of optimized websites are the key reasons for slow websites.

4. Development Cost

While both Drupal and WordPress are open-source, there are costs required with website development on both platforms. If you need Drupal 8 development it will tend to be more costly than the WordPress development simply because there are less of them.

Drupal has made a range of efforts to include frameworks including Symfony that are very common in the PHP community. This opens up the market for Drupal developers, making it more useful and simply reduce the costs required for website development.

Conclusion

Choosing the right CMS for E-commerce development is an important task, which will have a big impact on your business. Once developed, the website will be a great venture on the internet. Even a small problem with website might hamper its performance. Thus, selecting a CMS is an important step to build a successful website. Based on the points above, we can easily see that Drupal is a secure, fast and robust CMS having several excellent features. In addition, Drupal module development team is present to assist users in case of any emergency with the website. 

What to do when Drupal 9 big Release is Available for Website Development?

As we know Drupal 9 is available for installation and it is a concern for Drupal 7, 8 users to know their official support is ending soon. On June 3 2020, Drupal 9 was released for general usage. It is the latest version of the popular open-source content management system.

In November 2021, Drupal 7 and 8 will be officially ended. These versions won’t get any more updates, bug fixes or patches from the community. If you’re running Drupal 7 or 8, you’ll need to migrate to Drupal 9, by November 2021, to ensure your website remains secure.

Why are Drupal 7 and 8 being withdrawn?

Drupal 7 was a huge hit since its release ten years ago. But it’s now showing its age and it needs to retire. Drupal 8 depends on well-established third-party PHP frameworks. This Drupal 8 development builds better & robust products. One of the frameworks, Symfony 3, is reaching end-of-life. It’s Drupal 8’s biggest dependency. This ultimately caused Drupal to be using Symfony 4 or 5. That’s where migration to Drupal 9 comes in.

How to Upgrade to Drupal 9 from Drupal 7 or 8?

The upgrade from Drupal 7, 8 is significant. At Drupal India, we advise breaking it down into four key stages:

1. Audit

The audit is important. It identifies what functionality your Drupal 7, 8 website uses and how that functionality is provided in Drupal 9. This stage is crucial to review your website and content and check if it meets your users’ current requirements.

2. Recommendation

The audit describes the recommendation for the new website. This comprises the technical spec for the new website, in addition any changes you decide to make to UX, information architecture and content.

3. Migration

The next step is migration of all custom modules, along with your content. Alternative modules will need to be identified or developed from scratch. This is a crucial step and need assistance of Drupal development services for desired business results. Your website’s front-end presentation will need to be completely rewritten, because of the structural changes.

4. Review

Once migration is done, there’s a robust testing method to ensure the performance is optimized and successful.

Get Drupal Expert Assistance

Most people face risk and the change from Drupal 7 is a huge one. But there’s also a huge opportunity. If you start planning your upgrade now, you’ll have time to consider what website improvements can be done, to carry out proper user research and usability testing, and no pressure is present regarding end-of-life deadline.

If you migrate now, you can benefit from improved platform sooner, with a website that’s in a stronger position, and you’ll be able to move to Drupal 9 in good time, too. You can hire Drupal developers for the similar cause to turn this stressful situation into a positive.

Drupal is a flexible, powerful CMS, every website’s risk is unique. From the expert experience, custom-coded modules, third-party integrations and data migration are risky affair. But it’ll depend on your website setup.

Wrapping Up

To sum it all, the key objective to avail of smooth transition to Drupal 9 CMS is to build a strong migration plan within proper deadlines and secure from any unnecessary hassle at later stages. Drupal India is the Best Drupal migration company working with top-rated enterprises to help in migration of their website to Drupal 9 for an enhanced user experience. If you are also looking for a smooth migration process for your enterprise’s website, we ready to assist you.