Drupal? Joomla? What to choose?

Content Management Systems, or simply said Drupal, Joomla, WordPress engines are one of the most widespread CMS among webmasters. If we take CMS Drupal and Joomla separately, both these engines have their ardent proponents, who state their engine is better. Nevertheless, this dispute can never end, until a definite web-project development objective is put and you have to make the right decision.

Comparing to Drupal the strong points of Joomla are easy installation and simpler interface. Thus, creating sites in Joomla it is easier to edit, add and publish the content. Also, Joomla has multilanguage components support and lots of various versions. Joomla functionality extends easily with the help of a big amount of free modules. Moreover, there isa huge number of visual themes in Joomla that allow you to pick the design needed and to get individuality for your site.

CMS Drupal is more difficult to install and to manage, has weaker support of free modules and fewer visual themes.At the same time, after installing all the necessary components and their proper configuration, Drupal site acquires powerful functionality with flexible settings that allow performing almost any task.
It is worth noting that Drupal engine is used in sites of such TV-channels as MTV, BBC and in the NASA site which is a big plus for the CMS.

Search systems are more friendly to Drupal sites than to Joomla ones which allows faster information indexing on such sites. With the help of Joomla you can manage only one site at a time, when with the help of Drupal it is possible to operate several web-sites simultaneously. Many Joomla modules have a commercial or nominally free purchase basis, while almost all Drupal modules are free.

CMS Drupal has a strong support of multimedia applications that allows its usage in creation of social networks or forums. Drupal contributes to more effective document management system, has clear users roles distribution and almost unlimited choice of module additions that can be used in your site functionality extension. Hence, when it comes to development of well-established sites with a number of functions, it is better to choose Drupal.

Speaking about personal web-sites or web-sites for a small business promotion that are not calculated for big traffic, the choice is Joomla. Webmasters, who lack technical peculiarities knowledge, will get a sense of Joomla with ease. Though in fight with Drupal, Joomla wins only in creating simple web-pages.

Drupal is dedicated mostly at experienced web-developers and allows creating unlimited number of categories and tags. Drupal has a possibility of creating several types of content with different peculiarities, for example, news, articles, notes etc. Every content type can be managed correspondingly.

A big Drupal minus is lack of commercial themes and templates. In this respect Joomla provides much wider choice. As for developers community, Drupal community is more dynamic and less business-oriented than Joomla one. Although when it comes to Drupal studying, installing and configuration, you will have to hack upon the support forum to find the right solution. Joomla, on the other hand, provides easy of use, training and settings.

Thus, the choice of Drupal or Joomla undoubtedly depends on the web-site type you’re planning to choose. Anyway, taking into consideration pros and cons of each variant, it is essential to choose the more effective solution.

I wonder, which CMS you give preference to and why. Tell me about pluses and minuses of your favorite CMS!