The debate on which CMS is better goes on. There is a good number of people who are pro-Joomla and an even more aggressive number who vouch for WordPress. There is no direct answer to which theme is better. It all depends on what you plan on doing and the platform you are used to. To help you decide whether to use Joomla or WordPress themes, this post reviews the differences between the two objectively.
You can either use WordPress or Joomla to create an amazing website. The two are popular CMSs that can be expanded with the use of plugins, most of which are available for free. In both, you can make use of templates or themes to change the way your website looks. What is more, is that they can both be installed on your server so you don’t have to subscribe to hosting services. In addition to that, they are both free with Joomla being offered under the GNU Public License and WordPress under the GPLv2 License. Both platforms have their fair share of active communities that help with the design, build as well as support.
Simply put, the two CMSs have numerous similarities. Even so, they also have a great number of differences. These are the differences that will help compare Joomla vs. WordPress themes. To begin with, you need to understand the two platforms.
WordPress
This is definitely the most popular content management system in the world. It was built primarily as a blogging system but it can now be used for virtually any website. Being a blogging platform, it is the perfect platform for people who want to update their web content fast. No coding is required. It is the perfect platform for beginners and experts alike.
Joomla!
This is a remarkable CMS ideal for building virtually any kind of website including corporate, non-profit, and business as well as blogs. The notable difference from WordPress is that Joomla is not ideal for beginners. It has a complex structure that takes time to master.
Now that you understand the two CMSs, it is time to take a closer look at their features. The following information will help you decide on which themes you need to use.
Templates and Themes
Joomla and WordPress make work easier for developers by providing them with themes and templates. This will help change the way your website looks easily.
WordPress Themes
There are over 3023 themes available for use in the WordPress directory. A Google search will return over 31.5 million more results. With this many results, you have a better chance of finding the theme that works best for you. There are countless premium and free themes available for use on WordPress.
You can even search for themes through the themes tab and install them quickly by uploading or clicking on the install button on individual WordPress themes. Thereafter, you can edit the themes to your liking using the theme editor. Each element of these themes can be edited too. You can modify the CSS whenever you like.
Joomla Templates
With Joomla, there are two types of templates: front-end and backend. There is no template directory on Joomla. You have to find the themes elsewhere. You will find more than 16 million results when you search for ‘Joomla templates’ using Google. The themes are all from third parties. Most of them are available for free. After you find the theme you need, you upload it into the template directory in your account. You can later set it as the default template. The templates can be edited using the template manager.
As you can see, both systems offer their fair share of the premium and free themes and templates. With both, you can find the theme you need for your website needs.
Plugins and Extensions
Themes and templates are not the only things you should consider when evaluating Joomla vs. WordPress themes. You need to consider the expandability of the platform. In this case, you need to consider the plugins and extensions.
WordPress Plugins
When compared to Joomla, there are more WordPress plugins and extensions. These plugins and extensions are supplied by the WordPress community and Automattic. The WordPress plugin directory has more than 36,000 plugins. You will also find countless other free and premium plugins with simple Google searches. You can either subscribe or buy the plugins and use them on your website.
There is a lot that you can do with WordPress plugins. You can use them to transform your website into a school or a membership portal, a forum or an online store and so much more.
Installing plugins on WordPress is easy. You just click on the ‘Add New’ button located within the plugins tab. Search for the plugin or simply upload it if you had downloaded it. Install and activate it. Everything is intuitive. The code of the plugin can be edited with the WordPress plugin editor.
Joomla Extensions
In the Joomla extensions directory, you will find a whopping 8,634 extensions. 4,353 are free and 4,530 are paid extensions. The extensions are placed into 33 categories. You can browse through the categories using the search filters. The categories include e-commerce, languages, mobile, contacts, communication, and more.
The best thing about the extensions is that you can tell what each one will do. It is easy to tell if the extension will be compatible with your Joomla version as well as what it includes. Scores, reviews, and ratings are also available. To install the extension, you can download and upload it to the extension manager or insert its URL for the location of the extension.
Conclusion
Both WordPress and Joomla have their fair share of merits. It is your duty to select the system that will work best for your web development needs. If you are not a skilled developer, you might want to go with WordPress. This is because it has a user-friendly platform. WordPress is also a good choice if you want a large number of themes to pick from.
Author Bio
Rick Davis is a veteran web developer who has created websites on both Joomla and WordPress. He recommends the Divi theme review for developers who are stuck on whether to use Joomla or WordPress.