When I am approched by someone who wants me to create a CMS (Content Management System) website for them, I listen carefully to their requirements and then I choose between Joomla, Drupal or WordPress. In my previous workplace, they only had experience with Joomla and I don’t blame them…Joomla is excellent. But that said, I still believe these open source softwares are slightly different from one another so it’s worth considering using them depending on the type of website you are looking to create.
When To Choose Joomla
I choose Joomla if the site will be full of different articles, article sections and categories, features e.g. downloads, contact form, photo gallery, etc., and if the administrator might want to work at things from a backend. This is because Joomla is the software for you, if you want these types of sites. You can place any module of any extension, anywhere. They also come with parameters that are customizable. Theming is also quite fun, especially with a theme framework which cuts the time of completion in half.
When To Choose Drupal
Drupal is in tough competition with Joomla, but I’ve always been a big fan of Drupal. I’ve actually created most of my client sites using Joomla, however if I were to build my own site I would choose Drupal (and I have done so many times). Drupal’s core modules are ‘perfect’: a forum, blog, contact form…these are the core features of most CMS. These core modules have been integrated into the software so well, it’s just absolutely beautiful and everything works perfectly. Modules are easy to install, and most great modules are available for free (very unlike Joomla).
The issues I have encountered with Drupal however, is that it’s not as easy to theme as the other CMS freewares, especially if the designs are extremely elaborate because of the way the system has been designed (e.g. nodes). Sometimes the modules prove difficult to customize also, and you will notice this if you have developed a site with lots and lots of modules…sometimes the settings or options are not too easy to indentify. Drupal also tends to have too many updates all too frequently (constant ‘run cron’ notifications). If you are looking for an instant CMS however, that you can easily modify content from the frontend, then Drupal is definitely the way to go.
When To Choose WordPress
Many people think that WordPress is just a blog software because well, that’s how it started out. In fact, it is still indended to be a blog software. However, if you add more and more features to WordPress you can obtain a very modern CMS, there are so many plugins and extensions for WordPress that there is almost an infinite number of possibilities. A few years ago when I was developing my graduation project (a virtual city directory and networking site) I actually decided to go for WordPress. I find WordPress ‘lite’ compared to both Joomla and Drupal. It’s just simple and straightforward. With clients, I’ve used WordPress if they wanted a site with articles only and a menu, with perhaps a contact form. Not that WordPress is limited to that, but with clients it’s important to consider user-friendliness. WordPress has a good balance of front-end and back-end admin use. It’s incredibly user-friendly and no clutter, it’s very easy to find which settings affect which feature.
If you need help in choosing a CMS with your website, feel free to ask and I’ll advise you as much as I can. 
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WYSIWYG! I'm a simple person trying to live the simplest life possible - it seems to be the most difficult thing to achieve! I'm an internet enthusiast and I've been a webmaster since early 2007. I like: blogging, developing sites using open source software, social media, computer games, '80s music, comedy & horror, animals, crunching on M&Ms peanut and Smarties!
