Let’s back up a bit before answering this question! If you are a webmaster by profession, skilled in the design and development of a myriad of websites and blogs, you have already answered this question for yourself. You probably use Joomla, WordPress and Drupal, depending upon the specific projects you have and the current and potential future needs of your clients. You can ignore this post, because you understand the right fits for your projects. If you are not a designer by profession, however, but have enough skill to design and build your own site(s) and blog(s), then you may want to understand a bit more about CMS before selecting Drupal for your needs.

How Much Content and How Many Functions do You Need?

Hopefully, you have spent a good deal of time evaluating your needs. And, hopefully, you are realistic about your level of experience. If your site, blog, and content exchange needs are pretty basic, and if you are comfortable with your current CMS (most likely, Joomla or WordPress), then you will want to remain with it. Why? Because it serves your need, has easy methods for adding plugins and themes, and can be quickly updated. You will have all of the media functions you want, and you will stay in your comfort zone! Certainly, WordPress is so user-friendly that anyone with basic technical skills can use it successfully.

So Why Would I Switch?

Good question! Here are the many benefits of Drupal, if you are willing to extend your learning curve.

1. It is free and really heavily supported by so many developers. If a developer should “move on,” there are many others to assume his/her role.
2. Customization is at its height with Drupal, if you take the time to work with it and are willing to accept a longer learning process. There are great tutorials, and the tech-savvy will soon learn that Drupal is wonderfully expansive.
3. Web design is rapid – a matter of hours – and Drupal sites are search engine friendly.
4. Drupal is cross-platform, it runs on any operating system.
5. Unlike WordPress and Joomla!, Drupal is a Content Management Framework.
6. It is preferable for complex projects with huge amounts of content and intricate designs, although all of the functions tend to slow it down a bit.
7. If you currently have a basic, straightforward site and/or blog, and anticipate maintaining it with rather simple updates and changes, stay where you are. If, however, you envision a future of design that will be more complex and that will entail significant content and lots of users that must be organized in multiple ways, and if you want truly stunning functions, you will want to migrate to Drupal.