Choosing a Content Management System (CMS) is like deciding on a pet. You’ve got your dogs (friendly and loyal), cats (independent and slightly mysterious), and birds (beautiful, but a little hard to understand). In the world of CMS, we have WordPress (user-friendly), Joomla (powerful but fading), and Drupal (robust, but can be tricky to navigate).
As your faithful Indianapolis web design guide, I’m here to help you decide which pet…err, CMS, suits you best.
Now, before we proceed, let me confess: I’m a bit of a WordPress fanboy (it is in fact, the only CMS we use for building out websites for our clients). But don’t worry, I’ll give Joomla and Drupal their fair shake as I’ve used them both and they can do some great things. So, let’s dive in.
WordPress
First up, WordPress. Used by over 43% of all websites on the internet and holding roughly 63% of the entire CMS market, it’s the golden retriever of CMS. Friendly, loyal, and most everyone loves it (with a few caveats). It’s easy to use, boasts a vast array of themes and plugins, and has the largest community of any CMS on the planet for support. It’s a solid choice whether you’re a newbie or a seasoned pro. But, like even the most lovable golden retriever, it might not be the best choice for a pet if you’re not a dog person (read: in this case, you are a massive multinational company with many divisions that need to be inter-connected).
But let’s take a deeper dive. WordPress isn’t just popular because it’s user-friendly. It’s also incredibly powerful and versatile. You know those custom-built page builders like Squarespace that allow you to drag and drop elements to create a website? WordPress offers that too, but without the limitations. When built well, modern WordPress websites are like having a Lego set with unlimited blocks. Your only limit is your imagination, and better yet, no code is necessary.
WordPress has also matured significantly on the editing front. The block editor (Gutenberg) and Full Site Editing have come a long way, giving site owners more control over their layouts and templates than ever before. And for agencies like ours that use professional theme frameworks, the design and functionality possibilities are essentially limitless.
And here’s the best part: with WordPress, you’re in control. Unlike hosted platforms like Squarespace, Wix, and their ilk, WordPress lets you host your website wherever you want and move it whenever you wish. It’s like having your cake and eating it too. That ownership matters. We’ve seen what happens when companies build on platforms they don’t control (Google shut down over 21 million Business Profile websites in 2024 with just a few months’ notice). When you own your WordPress site, that can’t happen to you.
However, there is a slight hiccup. WordPress has historically suffered from a bit of an image problem. Some folks who used it in its early days, 15-20 years ago, remember it as a limited blogging platform. And some web designers, especially those who fancy themselves as “purists,” might look down on WordPress because it makes web design accessible to the masses.
But let’s clear up this misunderstanding. WordPress has evolved significantly over the years. Today, it’s a fully-fledged CMS, capable of powering anything from personal blogs to enterprise websites. Major brands, universities, and government agencies run on WordPress. The ecosystem of themes, plugins, and developer tools dwarfs anything else available, and it isn’t even close.
Yes, like a golden retriever, WordPress might not be the best choice for multinational corporations (I hear those corps like geckos). But for most website needs, WordPress is a robust, flexible, and user-friendly option.
Joomla
Next, we have Joomla, the cat of CMS. It used to hold about 11% of the CMS market back in 2011, but those days are long gone. As of 2026, Joomla has dropped to under 2% of the CMS market. That’s a massive decline, and honestly, it tells a story that’s hard to ignore.
Joomla is still powerful, still flexible, and still has a certain allure to it. It’s a bit more complex than WordPress, but it offers more built-in functionalities out of the box. The problem is that “more complex” has become less of a selling point and more of a liability as the rest of the CMS world has gotten easier to use.
The learning curve is where Joomla can be the biggest struggle for most of the clients we work with. Organizations often need a CMS that allows them to make regular updates easily, whether it’s adding new blog posts, updating product information, or announcing upcoming events.
This is where Joomla can prove challenging. While it boasts more out-of-the-box features than WordPress, its interface is not as intuitive. It’s like the difference between a car with manual and automatic transmission. Both can get you from point A to point B, but one requires more skill and understanding to operate.
The complexity of Joomla’s interface can be a significant downside for organizations looking to make ongoing updates. It can lead to a greater reliance on developers, which could result in higher costs and longer turnaround times. It’s like needing a chef to make your morning toast.
Moreover, Joomla’s community has been shrinking alongside its market share. Fewer users means fewer readily available resources, tutorials, plugins, and forums to troubleshoot issues or learn new tricks. Finding a Joomla developer in 2026 is harder than it used to be, and the ones who remain tend to charge more since the talent pool is smaller. It’s like trying to find a book in a library that’s slowly closing its branches.
Here’s the bigger concern: when a platform’s market share is in a sustained, years-long decline, the ecosystem around it starts to thin out. Plugin developers move on. Theme creators stop updating. Hosting companies stop optimizing for it. That doesn’t mean Joomla is dead, but it does mean the trend line is not encouraging for anyone considering building something new on it.
Honestly, as a developer, I like Joomla in a lot of ways. But as a marketer and a business owner, I can’t recommend building your business on a platform that’s been losing ground for over a decade.
Drupal
Finally, we have Drupal (now used by roughly 1% of websites), the exotic bird of CMS. It’s robust, secure, and highly customizable. It’s a great choice for complex, high-security websites. It handles things like multilingual content and granular user permissions better than just about anything else out there. But, like taking care of an exotic bird, it requires serious technical expertise and can be daunting for anyone who isn’t a developer.
From a marketer’s perspective, we need tools that make our lives easier, not more complicated. Here’s where things can get tricky with Drupal.
While Drupal is powerful and flexible, it has a steep learning curve that can be intimidating. Imagine being handed a cockpit control panel when all you’ve driven before is a bicycle. That’s what the Drupal interface can feel like to marketers who are new to it.
Unlike WordPress, which offers an intuitive and user-friendly interface, Drupal is built with developers in mind. This means that even simple tasks like updating content or adding images can become a technical endeavor. It’s like needing an engineering degree to operate a toaster.
Plus, while Drupal offers a plethora of modules (akin to WordPress plugins), installing and configuring these can be complex. It’s like trying to assemble a piece of IKEA furniture without the instructions.
Drupal’s market share has also declined significantly, dropping over 30% in just the last couple of years. Like Joomla, this shrinking user base means a shrinking ecosystem. Fewer contributed modules are being actively maintained, and finding Drupal developers is becoming more expensive.
That said, Drupal still has a real niche. It powers a notable percentage of the world’s top 1,000 websites and remains a go-to for government agencies and large institutions that need enterprise-grade security and content workflows. If you’re NASA or the White House, Drupal might be exactly what you need. If you’re a mid-size business in the Midwest, it’s almost certainly overkill.
For marketers who need to react quickly to changes and manage various aspects of a website without always relying on a developer, Drupal’s complexity can be a real bottleneck. It’s like trying to drive in the Indy 500 with a learner’s permit.
What About Wix, Squarespace, and Shopify?
It’s worth mentioning these three because in 2026, they’re actually the platforms most commonly compared against WordPress, not Joomla and Drupal. Shopify holds about 7% of the CMS market (making it the clear #2), and Wix and Squarespace have both grown significantly over the past few years.
These platforms are appealing because they’re simple. You sign up, pick a template, and you’re off. But that simplicity comes with real trade-offs. You don’t own your site. You’re limited to what the platform lets you do. You can’t move your site to a different host. And if the platform changes its pricing, its features, or its policies, you’re stuck dealing with the consequences. For e-commerce specifically, Shopify is a strong tool. But for a general business website that needs to generate leads, rank in search engines, and grow with you over time, WordPress is still the better foundation.
So, Which One Should You Choose?
If you ask me, I’d say go for WordPress. It’s the most beginner-friendly, yet powerful enough for most web design needs. The market share numbers tell the story: WordPress has been dominant for over a decade and continues to power nearly half the internet. Joomla and Drupal are both in sustained decline. The hosted platforms like Wix and Squarespace are growing but come with fundamental ownership limitations.
Plus, WordPress is what we use. Hey, I told you I was a WordPress fanboy :) But I chose WordPress for good reason, for our clients. I never wanted any of our clients to feel like they are being held hostage and need a developer if they just want to make simple updates on their own.
But remember, the best CMS for you depends on your specific needs, expertise, and the time you’re willing to invest in learning and maintaining it.
If you’re feeling overwhelmed by all these choices, fear not! Sharp Guys Web Design is here to help.
