Always a Drop never a Lake
I have given Drupal a few looks over the years. Every time though effectiveness and usability has made me just use Wordpress instead.
Recently I have gone as far to actually install Drupal on my VPS, and suffered through the setup for it using MariaDB and Nginx. At every step I just had to remind myself that I have to do it or no coffee.
So I got it done and well , I guess it is ok-ish.
Most Drupal developers with the operative word being developers, will discount the comparison with Wordpress in any which way. However with Drupal now working on a core module to provide an integrated page builder their protests are for naught.
It is fair to say that Drupal is at minimum 10 years behind Wordpress. Since they are really the only 2 CMS Platforms worth building anything remotely general purpose it is the only comparison worth making.
It is rather baffling that there aren't any other contenders though. Sure you can try say ModX or Joomla still exist but honestly those are so niche as to be in death throws just waiting for it to finally end.
Then people like to say but Wix, Squarespace, [Some Site Builder], Shopify? ? Really...
All those are grand I am sure, and something like Squarespace and Webflow them will let you make pretty little flashy sparkly , did I say pretty? Sites. However they cost to for any reasonable functionality, but are good options for eternal monthly instalments.
I am not interested in those for my purposes. I want something I can turn to that will be up in an hour, themed, and by the end of the weekend have all the foundational functionality I require. Not to mention I want it on my server. I do not want to pay anyone a cent after installing it.
So back to Drupal, since Wordpress has always begrudgingly been my go-to I have been a bit hype about their little page builder.
Spoiler alert, the stupid thing has still not launched so I guess Drupal is well interested in being 11 Years behind at this point.
I did install Drupal though. So I am learning more about it regardless. From the outside it really does seem that any hope of having a good layman's experience, everything relies on Drupal releasing their "Experience Builder" as they call it. Side note: They are horrible at naming things.
One thing that I discovered is that Drupal has support for Gutenberg which is the hated builder from Wordpress. I can admit it is not the nicest for managing sections but it is worlds apart from what you would get in any other CMS really.
So Drupal technically has a few page builders as we might know in Wordpress. The problem then is, that they hide it behind overly complex systems of custom content creation workflows and just general bullshit.
Page Builders do though walk hand in hand with the Theme, in Wordpress this is evident through almost all proper themes having integration with Gutenberg or other free layout builders like Origin.
This is another place where Drupal is so far behind they feel archaic.
The theme options from the few I have tested is only one step removed from only allowing someone to change the background colour of a page. This is also why the majority of Drupal sites look just like a Drupal site. I think the main reason is because Drupal peeps are a bit lofty, and they go and custom build themselves into a wall.
To be fair that is a lot more honourable than the majority of Wordpress agencies who force customers to use ACF and Divi then call themselves designers for removing a clients ability to access the most basic features in Wordpress. All in the name of "Custom".
So the lack of available themes for Drupal seems to just be inherent if you consider who uses it. They are obviously trying to change this now but before even that they need to have a hard look at the friction caused when installing.
Aside from it requiring quite a bit of experience to set up a Drupal site for local or prod, it only gets worse once you think you are done and can continue to click buttons.
Drupal does not allow themes or modules to be installed from the interface , this has to be done server side, given you follow their official instructions and install via composer.
It is abhorrent requirement which again shows just how disconnected Drupal is from their goal of appealing to the layman.
I am bored writing now so it is not all bad though, Drupal is still plenty powerful and just from basic functionality you do save the need to hunt down about 10 plugins that are staple in Wordpress.
I think I will keep banging at Drupal and it should be worthwhile if only to have a better choice than Wordpress for more niche applications.
Used to use Joomla but that was years ago. At the time Wordpess was simple to use but laggimg Joomla. Times change. I'm interested to know the "essential" plugins for wordpress and the the ones I should never use as they cause issues. It was the issue causing ones on Joomla that made me give up on it. They just created security holes and so even a complete muppet could hack the sites.
Sorry about picking your brain so much it's just that the stuff you write about coincides with what I'm relearning or trying to do.
One of my first jobs I got hired as a web developer for, wholly unqualified but likely foreshadowing, was using Joomla only, I got an ick in Joomla from then because the owner closed shop on us over a weekend. I never used Joomla again and after that when I got my first decent project a couple years later I dove into Wordpress and for client work which I prefer to build hand over and not be bothered with again it really is a bit of a swiss army knife.
I think one of the biggest things with Wordpress is to really start with a good theme, the one I currently use for almost every site is Virtue from Kadence and although it is now being phased out since they are working on better themes with more features the cost was just $45 a year for unlimited sites. Their new pricing model is a bit irritating since things like Elementor and Divi theme which are basically entire site builders charge plenty for limited sites. So seems the market is looking at about $150+ a year for a solid theme page builder. Depending what it is for that can be worth it or not.
I have not needed to but I am sure there are still some solid free options available, especially if you aren't trying to be all super fancy and shit. A good starting theme will help you avoid stupid plugin requirements that add bits and bobs. Mainly if a plugin has some decent downloads it should be fine, and I think the only ones to be wary of are ones that really affect the system. Something like one I needed recently to allow epub uploads it affects how wordpress handles files, the first plugin fucked with my interface so I quickly got rid of it. Other than that the ones that are very useful can also be a bit detrimental, like the supposed optimization ones, they can hurt your workflow and just make it irritating to constantly have to clear cache etc.
It all comes down to compromise, always just ask do I really need this feature this way or can I accomplish it with something already available from what I have. Barebones, you should be fine running an entire ecommerce setup with a good theme, woocommerce, and about 5 other convenience plugins.
honestly hacking is also many times going to come from your server setup, if you are using shared hosting , ie like "we offer wordpress hosting" for $5 all good and well usually since they do config things pretty well in the back, I host mine on a VPS I rent so I run multiple sites with my own php,mariaDB and Nginx setup, I need to isolate those pretty well and each has their own passwordless account with no priveleges etc etc.
The other reason unless it truly is a malicious plugin, is usually people not maintaining updates, or choosing plugins which have shown no activity for the longest time. I have only ever seen 2 Wordpress hacks the one was server backdoor with a shit host and the other I honestly have no clue but restored the backup and all good again.
Yep, that was a really great reply. When I was using Joomla I was on VPS's and bare metal and having issues. Things have changed now I'll be doing stuff from home using sh*t low wattage servers but on a decent line. That's the plan anyhow.
I'll take a looK at the woo plugins and template makers you suggested. I might put some stuff on Autonomi too. That'll take care of all the regulatory BS, spiders and privacy issues.