Joomla vs WordPress: What’s the Best CMS for Your Website?

Joomla and WordPress are two of the most widely used content management systems.

They’re only similar at first look: each offers distinct features and benefits, and the differences between both Joomla and WordPress become more visible as you dive deeper into functionalities and website-building features.

While WordPress is known for its user-friendly interface, extensive library of plugins, and massive community support, Joomla provides more advanced customization options and flexibility for managing complex websites.

In this article, we’ll compare Joomla and WordPress to reveal their strengths, weaknesses, key differences and best use cases, so you know which platform suits your website best.

About Joomla 

Joomla is a popular open-source content management system known for its powerful functionality and flexibility. Launched in 2005, Joomla has been widely adopted by web developers and businesses looking to build complex websites, including portal-like websites, eCommerce businesses, and sites requiring advanced user management.

Unlike WordPress, which prioritizes ease of use, Joomla offers a somewhat steeper learning curve, but provides extensive customization options and more control over user permissions.

One of Joomla’s standout features is its multilingual functionality, allowing users to create multilingual sites without the need for third-party plugins. Joomla also includes basic SEO features such as meta tags and user-friendly URLs, which are crucial for improving a site’s search engine visibility.

Additionally, Joomla offers robust security features and a well-maintained extension directory, making it a strong choice for businesses that prioritize website security. The platform also includes a built-in page builder and supports advanced SEO features, including search engine-friendly URLs and comprehensive content categorization.

However, Joomla’s advanced system may not be as user-friendly as WordPress, making it more suited for experienced developers and those with technical expertise.

About WordPress 

WordPress is the world’s most popular CMS.

Originally launched as a blogging platform in 2003, it has evolved into a full-fledged website builder capable of supporting everything from simple blogs to complex business sites and eCommerce platforms.

Its key strengths lie in its user-friendly interface, extensive plugin ecosystem, and vibrant community.

WordPress offers an official template library filled with free and premium themes, making it easy for users to customize their site’s design. The platform’s admin dashboard is intuitive, allowing even casual users to create and manage content with ease. Users can easily create and manage content through the platform’s straightforward navigation, allowing them to add a new blog post with just a couple of clicks.

One of the biggest advantages of WordPress is its extensive support for third-party SEO plugins and built-in blogging tools, making it an excellent choice for content creators and businesses looking to improve their search engine rankings.

WordPress is generally considered more accessible for beginners due to its simplified installation process and active community support through Facebook groups, forums, and tutorials. A combination of a small learning curve and powerful features make it an excellent choice.

If you want to keep looking, take a look at these WordPress alternatives.

Joomla vs WordPress: a detailed comparison

To make a detailed comparison of Joomla and WordPress, we’ll assess both WordPress and Joomla according to these important criteria:

1. Creating a website
2. Ease of use and learning curve
3. Page builders, design and customization
4. Extensions, plugins and integrations
5. Search engine optimization
6. Website maintenance costs
7. Hosting and security

1. Creating a website

Building a website with Joomla

To build a website with Joomla, users need to acquire a domain name, choose a hosting provider that supports Joomla, and download the latest version of the software from the official Joomla website. Many hosting providers offer one-click Joomla installations to simplify the setup.

Users should have a basic understanding of web hosting, databases, and content management to effectively use Joomla. Familiarity with PHP, HTML, and CSS is beneficial for advanced customization.

Here’s a brief overview of creating a site with Joomla:

1. Install Joomla on a hosting server via a manual upload or a one-click installer.
2. Configure database settings and complete the installation process through the Joomla installation page.
3. Access the Joomla admin dashboard and choose a template from the official template library or third-party sources.
4. Install necessary extensions from the Joomla extension directory to enhance functionality.
5. Create categories and static pages to structure the website’s content.
6. Customize user permissions and manage users according to the site’s needs.
7. Optimize for SEO by configuring search engine friendly URLs and meta descriptions.

Building a website with WordPress

To get started with WordPress, users need to purchase a domain name, select a web hosting provider, and install WordPress. Just like with Joomla, many hosting companies offer managed WordPress hosting and one-click installations.

No prior coding knowledge is required to set up a WordPress site, but familiarity with themes, plugins, and page builders can help users maximize customization options.

To build a website with WordPress:

1. Install WordPress via a hosting provider’s one-click installation or manually upload files.
2. Complete the setup through the WordPress installation page and log in to the admin dashboard.
3. Choose a theme from the WordPress theme directory or purchase a premium theme.
4. Install essential plugins, such as SEO plugins and security extensions, from the WordPress plugin repository.
5. Use the built-in page builder or third-party page builder extensions to design and customize pages.
6. Create and manage blog posts, static pages, and navigation menus.
7. Optimize SEO settings using tools like the Yoast SEO plugin.

2. Ease of use and learning curve

How easy (or hard) it is to work with Joomla?

Joomla offers extensive flexibility, but its interface can be overwhelming for beginners.

The admin dashboard has multiple menu layers, and managing extensions, templates, and modules requires some technical knowledge. Learning Joomla takes time, and non-tech-savvy users may struggle with concepts like user permissions, module positions, and custom content structures.

The hardest part of Joomla is understanding how different components interact within the system.

However, Joomla has a dedicated knowledge base, forums, and documentation. Users can learn through the Joomla Community, official Joomla documentation, and YouTube tutorials.

Despite the learning curve, those willing to invest time will find Joomla’s flexibility rewarding.

How easy (or hard) it is to work with WordPress?

WordPress is widely known for its simplicity.

The admin dashboard is user-friendly, allowing users to create blog posts, manage pages, and install plugins with minimal effort. The drag-and-drop page builder extensions make customization straightforward, even for non-tech users. Managing updates, security, and SEO is also easier with WordPress because of its extensive plugin ecosystem.

The hardest part of WordPress is dealing with plugin compatibility issues, theme limitations, and occasional security vulnerabilities.

WordPress also has a vast learning resource library, including forums, official documentation, and YouTube tutorials.

With minimal training, a beginner can grasp WordPress fundamentals within a few hours.

3. Page builders, design and customization

Joomla

Joomla offers extensive customization capabilities for those who need a more hands-on approach to designing their website.

Its template system allows for deep modifications, making it ideal for developers who prefer granular control over the design. Joomla’s Template Manager lets users edit CSS and HTML directly, offering flexibility but requiring technical knowledge.

For users looking for a more streamlined experience, Joomla supports third-party page builder extensions such as SP Page Builder and Quix, which introduce drag-and-drop functionality similar to WordPress page builders. These extensions allow users to build custom layouts without touching code, though they require installation and setup.

Joomla’s module-based layout system is another powerful feature, enabling users to create and assign different elements to specific sections of a webpage.

The downside to Joomla’s customization is its complexity.

Unlike WordPress, which offers an easy way to preview and apply theme changes, Joomla requires a deeper understanding of how templates, modules, and menu items interact. Customization is highly flexible, but it takes time to master.

WordPress

WordPress provides a much more user-friendly approach to design and customization.

With thousands of free and premium themes available in the WordPress Theme Directory, users can quickly set up a visually appealing site with minimal effort. The WordPress Customizer allows live previews of design changes, making it easy for beginners to tweak colors, fonts, and layouts.

A major advantage of WordPress is its extensive support for drag-and-drop page builders, including Elementor, WPBakery, and Beaver Builder. These tools let users create professional-looking layouts with ease, even if they have no prior design experience. Many premium themes come with built-in compatibility for these builders, further simplifying customization.

Additionally, WordPress plugins like Advanced Custom Fields (ACF) enable further site customization by adding more flexible content fields.

However, WordPress’s simplicity comes at a cost—some highly customized designs may require third-party plugins or custom coding, which can slow down the website if not managed properly.

Despite this, WordPress remains the better choice for non-technical users who want extensive design control without dealing with complex configurations.

4. Extensions, plugins, and integrations

Joomla

Joomla offers a vast extension directory that allows users to expand their website’s capabilities beyond the core CMS functionalities. Unlike WordPress, which primarily relies on plugins, Joomla uses “extensions,” which are divided into components, modules, and plugins. Each serves a distinct purpose, from adding eCommerce functionality to integrating social media features.

• Extension directory – Joomla’s official extension directory provides thousands of free and premium extensions, categorized into business, eCommerce, social networking, and site management tools.
• Advanced user management – Many Joomla extensions cater to websites requiring complex user roles and permissions, making it ideal for membership-based or multi-user sites.
• eCommerce capabilities – Extensions like VirtueMart, HikaShop, and J2Store allow users to build fully functional eCommerce stores with features such as product catalogs, shopping carts, and payment gateway integration.
• Third-party service integrations – Joomla supports external service integration through API connectors, enabling users to link CRMs, marketing automation tools, and analytics software directly with their website.

While Joomla extensions provide powerful functionality, they often require manual configuration, and compatibility between different extensions can sometimes be challenging. Users should ensure that extensions are actively maintained and compatible with their Joomla version to avoid potential security risks.

WordPress

WordPress is renowned for its extensive plugin ecosystem, making it easy for users to add virtually any functionality to their website. The WordPress Plugin Directory contains over 50,000 free and premium plugins, covering everything from SEO optimization to security enhancements.

• SEO optimization – WordPress SEO plugins like Yoast SEO, Rank Math, and All-in-One SEO help users improve search engine rankings through on-page optimization, keyword analysis, and sitemap generation.
• eCommerce functionality – WooCommerce is the most popular eCommerce plugin for WordPress, allowing users to create online stores with ease. It supports multiple payment gateways, inventory management, and advanced sales analytics.
• Drag-and-drop builders – Plugins such as Elementor, WPBakery, and Divi Builder offer intuitive page-building capabilities, enabling users to design custom pages without coding knowledge.
• Security enhancements – WordPress security plugins like Wordfence and Sucuri provide malware scanning, firewall protection, and brute-force attack prevention to help secure websites from cyber threats.

WordPress plugins are designed to be beginner-friendly, with most offering one-click installations and minimal setup.

However, excessive plugin usage can lead to performance issues, so users should carefully select and manage their plugins to maintain website speed and security.

5. Search engine optimization

SEO in Joomla

Joomla provides a variety of built-in and external tools to help optimize websites for search engines.

While Joomla is search engine friendly, optimizing a site requires manual configuration and additional extensions to achieve the best results.

• Built-in SEO features – Joomla includes several SEO-friendly settings, such as the ability to create search engine friendly URLs, customize meta tags for individual pages, and manage canonical URLs to avoid duplicate content issues. Users can enable mod_rewrite in the Global Configuration settings to improve URL structures, making them more readable for search engines and users.
• SEO extensions – Joomla’s Extension Directory features multiple SEO-focused extensions, including EFSEO (Easy Frontend SEO) and sh404SEF, which provide advanced control over meta descriptions, Open Graph data, and automated canonical tags.
• Sitemap and indexing – Joomla does not have a built-in XML sitemap generator, but users can install extensions like OSMap or JSitemap to create and manage sitemaps for better indexing on search engines like Google.
• Content optimization – Joomla offers a built-in article manager, allowing users to structure content effectively with categories and tags. While Joomla does not have an equivalent to the Yoast SEO plugin found in WordPress, extensions like SEO Boss help with keyword optimization and metadata management.
• Mobile optimization and speed – Joomla’s template system allows users to choose or create responsive designs to improve mobile-friendliness, which is an essential ranking factor. Speed optimization extensions like JCH Optimize help reduce page load times by compressing CSS, JavaScript, and images.

SEO optimization in Joomla is highly customizable, but it requires technical knowledge and the right combination of extensions. Unlike WordPress, where SEO is easier with plugins, Joomla users must manually configure settings and test different SEO extensions to achieve the best results.

SEO in WordPress

WordPress is widely regarded as one of the most SEO-friendly CMS platforms, offering built-in SEO tools along with powerful third-party plugins to simplify optimization for users of all experience levels.

• Built-in SEO Features – WordPress offers essential SEO settings, including the ability to customize permalinks, create categories and tags for content organization, and structure heading tags properly within the Gutenberg editor.
• SEO Plugins – The biggest advantage of WordPress is its extensive library of SEO plugins. Yoast SEO, Rank Math, and All-in-One SEO provide features such as automatic XML sitemap generation, real-time keyword analysis, schema markup, and SEO scoring for blog posts and pages.
• Sitemaps and indexing – WordPress automatically generates an XML sitemap, making it easy for search engines to index content. Plugins like Google XML Sitemaps and Yoast SEO offer advanced customization for sitemap settings.
• Content optimization – WordPress is an ideal blogging platform, and its SEO plugins assist users with content readability, internal linking suggestions, and keyword density analysis. The traffic light system in Yoast SEO provides an intuitive way to optimize content by giving real-time feedback on how to improve SEO.
• Page speed and mobile optimization – WordPress themes and plugins enable mobile-friendly design, while performance optimization tools like WP Rocket, W3 Total Cache, and Autoptimize help improve loading times. Image optimization plugins like Smush ensure that media files do not slow down the website.

WordPress simplifies SEO for all users, making it accessible even to beginners. With an extensive plugin ecosystem, automatic sitemap generation, and user-friendly content analysis tools, WordPress offers a more straightforward and effective approach to search engine optimization compared to Joomla.

6. Website maintenance costs

The costs of using Joomla

Joomla is a free, open-source content management system, meaning there are no licensing fees associated with using it. However, website owners must consider costs related to hosting, premium extensions, templates, and ongoing maintenance.

• Hosting – Joomla requires a reliable hosting provider, with shared hosting plans starting at around $5–$10 per month, while VPS or dedicated hosting solutions for larger Joomla sites can cost $30–$100 per month.
• Domain name – A domain name typically costs $10–$20 per year, depending on the registrar and domain extension.
• Templates and design – Joomla offers free themes, but premium templates from providers like JoomShaper, RocketTheme, and TemplateMonster cost between $40 and $100.
• Extensions – While Joomla provides free extensions, many advanced features, such as security extensions, ecommerce capabilities, and SEO tools, require premium versions that range from $20 to $200 per year.
• Security and maintenance – Since Joomla does not have built-in automatic updates for third-party extensions, users may need to manually manage updates or hire a developer, costing around $50–$100 per month for maintenance services.

Overall, Joomla is budget-friendly for basic sites but can become costly for advanced websites requiring premium extensions and ongoing support.

The costs of using WordPress

WordPress comes in two versions: WordPress.org (self-hosted) and WordPress.com (managed hosting). The self-hosted version is free, but website owners must pay for hosting, themes, and plugins, while managed WordPress hosting plans have different pricing tiers.

• Hosting – Self-hosted WordPress sites require hosting, with shared hosting starting at $3–$10 per month, while managed WordPress hosting from providers like Kinsta, WP Engine, and SiteGround ranges from $25 to $100 per month.
• Domain name – Similar to Joomla, WordPress domains cost around $10–$20 per year.
• Themes – WordPress provides thousands of free themes via the WordPress theme directory, but premium themes from ThemeForest, Elegant Themes, or Astra cost between $50 and $200.
• Plugins – While WordPress plugins offer extensive functionality, many premium ones, such as advanced SEO plugins, security plugins, and WooCommerce extensions, can cost between $50 and $300 annually.
• Security and maintenance – WordPress provides automatic updates, but some users may still require backup solutions, security monitoring, and performance optimization services, which can cost an additional $50–$150 per month.

WordPress can be cost-effective for simple blogs and small business websites but may become expensive for larger sites requiring premium themes, plugins, and managed hosting services.

7. Hosting and security

Joomla

Joomla requires a reliable hosting provider that supports PHP and MySQL or MariaDB.

Shared hosting plans start at around $5–$10 per month, but larger Joomla sites may need VPS or dedicated hosting, which costs $30–$100 per month.

In terms of security, Joomla offers strong built-in security features, such as two-factor authentication and access control levels for managing users.

However, security extensions like Admin Tools and RSFirewall! are recommended for enhanced protection.

Since Joomla does not automatically update third-party extensions, users must manually manage updates to prevent vulnerabilities. Regular backups and SSL certificates are essential for securing Joomla sites against potential cyber threats.

WordPress

WordPress can be hosted on a wide range of providers, from budget-friendly shared hosting starting at $3–$10 per month to managed WordPress hosting services like Kinsta and WP Engine, which cost between $25 and $100 per month.

Managed hosting includes automatic updates, improved security, and performance optimization.

Security is a major concern for WordPress users due to its popularity.

While the core platform receives frequent updates, third-party plugins can introduce vulnerabilities. Security plugins such as Wordfence and Sucuri help protect WordPress sites from malware and hacking attempts.

Enabling SSL certificates, using strong passwords, and keeping plugins up to date are essential practices for maintaining a secure WordPress website.

Joomla vs WordPress at a glance

These are the benefits of using Joomla in comparison to WordPress:

• Advanced user management – Joomla offers more granular control over user permissions, making it an ideal choice for membership sites, online communities, and portals that require different access levels.
• Built-in multilingual support – Unlike WordPress, which requires plugins for multilingual functionality, Joomla allows users to create multilingual websites natively, making it more efficient for international businesses.
• More flexible content structure – Joomla uses categories and nested categories to organize content more effectively, offering better structure options for websites with a lot of varied content types.
• Greater security out of the box – Joomla has stronger built-in security features like two-factor authentication and access control levels, reducing reliance on third-party security extensions.

On the other hand, here are the reasons you might want to opt for WordPress instead:

• Easier for beginners – WordPress has a more intuitive admin dashboard, making it easier for users with no technical experience to build and manage a website.
• Larger plugin ecosystem – The WordPress plugin directory offers over 50,000 plugins, allowing users to add a wide range of functionalities without extensive coding knowledge.
• Better blogging platform – Originally designed as a blogging platform, WordPress provides superior tools for managing blog posts, categories, tags, and SEO optimization for content-heavy sites.
• Wider theme selection – The WordPress theme directory and premium marketplaces provide thousands of themes, offering more design flexibility for users looking to create a visually appealing website quickly.

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