Joomla vs WordPress
Undecided between Joomla and WordPress? In this honest comparison we cover all aspects: ease of use, flexibility, costs, security and more.
Joomla vs WordPress at a glance
The key differences summarized
| Aspect | Joomla | WordPress |
|---|---|---|
| Ease of use |
|
|
| Flexibility | Very flexible | Very flexible |
| Security (default) | Strong | Good (with plugins) |
| SEO capabilities | Excellent | Excellent |
| Extensions/plugins | ~8.000 | ~60.000+ |
| Community & support | Good | Excellent |
| Market share | ~2-3% | ~43% |
| Ideal for | Complex sites, portals | Blogs, simple sites |
Detailed comparison
Ease of use
Joomla
Joomla has a learning curve. The admin panel is more powerful but also more complex than WordPress. You need to get used to the menu structure and how extensions work.
WordPress
WordPress is famous for its user-friendliness. Within 5 minutes you've written your first post. The Gutenberg editor makes content creation visual and intuitive.
Verdict: WordPress wins on ease of use. If you want to start quickly without technical knowledge, WordPress is the better choice.
Flexibility & capabilities
Joomla
Joomla is built for complex sites. Built-in user groups, access control levels and advanced menu options make it perfect for portals and membership sites.
WordPress
WordPress is originally a blog platform, but with plugins you can extend it to virtually anything. The flexibility lies mainly in the huge plugin library.
Verdict: Both are very flexible. Joomla wins for complex sites with advanced user management. WordPress wins through its huge plugin ecosystem.
Security
Joomla
Joomla has good security features built-in by default. Two-factor authentication, force HTTPS and an active security team that quickly releases patches.
Check out our Joomla security guide for more tips.
WordPress
WordPress is the most popular CMS and therefore a bigger target for hackers. The core is secure, but many plugins have vulnerabilities. Security plugins are essential.
Verdict: Joomla has better security by default. WordPress has more vulnerabilities due to plugins, but can be well secured with good security plugins.
SEO & performance
Joomla
Joomla has good SEO features built-in. SEF URLs, metadata, XML sitemaps - everything is included. Performance is good with caching.
Check out our Joomla SEO guide and speed optimization tips.
WordPress
WordPress SEO is excellent with plugins like Yoast SEO or Rank Math. Performance depends on your setup and plugins.
Verdict: Tie. Both are excellent for SEO. Performance depends more on your hosting and optimizations than the CMS itself.
Costs
Joomla
- CMS: Free (open source)
- Hosting: €4.95-€15/mo (compare hosting)
- Templates: €0-€60 (many free options)
- Extensions: Most free, premium €20-€100
- Total: €60-€300 per year
WordPress
- CMS: Free (open source)
- Hosting: €3.95-€12/mo
- Themes: €0-€60 (huge amount free)
- Plugins: Many free, premium €30-€200/year
- Total: €50-€400 per year
Verdict: Comparable costs. Both are free to use, costs are in hosting and premium extensions/themes you may purchase.
When do you choose which CMS?
Choose Joomla if you:
- Are building a complex site with advanced user management
- Need a membership site or portal with different access levels
- Want a multilingual site without extra plugins
- Want more control over permissions and content structure
- Find better default security important
- Have technical knowledge or want to learn
Choose WordPress if you:
- Want to start a blog or news site
- Are building a webshop (WooCommerce is the standard)
- Want to start quickly without technical knowledge
- Want access to 60,000+ plugins
- Want to easily create visual content (Gutenberg)
- Find lots of tutorials and community support important
Frequently asked questions about Joomla vs WordPress
WordPress is much easier to learn. You can write and publish your first post within an hour. Joomla has more features but also a steeper learning curve - expect a week to master the basics. For beginners without technical knowledge: start with WordPress.
Both are excellent for SEO. Joomla has more SEO features built-in (metadata, SEF URLs), but WordPress has better SEO plugins (Yoast, Rank Math). In practice it makes no difference for Google - good content and technical SEO are more important than the CMS you use.
Yes, but it's not plug-and-play. You need to manually export and import your content (posts, pages), and rebuild your design. Expect several days to weeks of work depending on your site size.
Tip: Choose well from the start. Migration is possible but labor-intensive. Test both CMS with a demo site before you decide.
Joomla has better security features by default (2FA built-in, fast security updates). WordPress is a bigger target for hackers due to its popularity, but can be well secured with good security plugins (Wordfence, iThemes Security). Both are secure if you keep updates current and use strong passwords.
Yes both can, but WordPress with WooCommerce is the standard for webshops. WooCommerce is free, has a huge community, thousands of plugins and is used by millions of webshops. Joomla has VirtueMart and HikaShop as alternatives, but these are less popular and have fewer features. For webshops: choose WordPress + WooCommerce.
With good caching both are equally fast. WordPress can be slower if you install many plugins - each plugin adds overhead. Joomla's performance is more consistent because many features are built-in. In practice it depends more on your hosting and optimizations than the CMS itself. Check out our Joomla hosting comparison for fast providers.
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