[Nfb-web] Drupal versus WordPress

[E.J. Zufelt]

Good afternoon,

My experience with Drupal is much greater than that with Wordpress, but I have used both.

Drupal is more complex and can do far more than Wordpress, but it is harder to learn and understand as a beginner.  Wordpress is more limited in its extensibility and flexibility, but it is far easier to start using than Drupal.

That being said, Wordpress 3.0 was released this week and has narrowed the functionality gap a bit with Drupal by allowing for new features like custom content types.  Drupal 7, to be released later this summer, will be narrowing the gap in terms of usability.  Improving ease of use for administrators was a huge goal of Drupal 7.

I have not evaluated the accessibility of of Wordpress in a very long time.  I am the Drupal 7 core accessibility maintainer.  There are a number of accessibility problems in Drupal 6, many of which will be fixed in Drupal 7.  For users of Drupal 6 it is possible to correct the majority of these problems through custom theming.  Drupal allows for almost every piece of content to be themed in a custom way.  For example, you can theme an entire page, a menu, a menu item, a button, etc, or you can just leave the system with the default theme, or use one of the many contributed themes.

The best way to determine which system is best for your needs, as with everything else in systems design, is to decide exactly what your functional requirements are and ten to look to see which system will best meet your needs.  One system is no better than te other, they each are very good and can only be evaluated as being better or best at filling your specific implementation need.

HTH,
Everett Zufelt
http://zufelt.ca

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On 2010-06-18, at 12:04 PM, Mika Pyyhkala wrote:

> I am also trying to gather information about Drupal vs. Wordpress in
> Massachusetts.  We have Wordpress which is good for content, but so
> far we don't have I think as robust form tools that you might be able
> to get via Drupal.
> 
> A report from anyone that has used both would be helpful.
> 
> Thanks,
> Mika in Massachusetts
> 
> On 6/18/10, Drenth, Joe <Joe.Drenth at jbtc.com> wrote:
>> Hello,
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> I am new to this list and about to embark on a web site development
>> project that will use either Drupal or WordPress as the framework.
>> Although I haven't worked directly with either yet, I have extensive
>> experience with XML, HTML, CSS, C#, ASP.NET, ADO.NET, and others, and
>> from reading the development documentation for WordPress and Drupal, I
>> don't think I'll have any trouble with the technology itself in either
>> direction.
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> My question to this list is whether one is noticeably better from the
>> accessibility perspective during development and end use.  I know there
>> are differences in how the hosting site allows access to the control
>> panels and interfaces to the frameworks, but ignoring that, are there
>> any pitfalls to recognize before choosing a direction that could
>> influence the decision of which to use?
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> Also, I heard of an NFB Drupal template/theme but have not been able to
>> track it down - Can anyone please  direct me to where I can download it
>> and whether there is one for WordPress, too?  (My project could lead to
>> a replacement for a state affiliate web site.)
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> Thank you very much,
>> 
>> Joe
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> Joseph Drenth
>> R&D Software Engineer
>> JBT Corporation
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> Automated Systems
>> E: <mailto:joe.drenth at jbtc.com <mailto:joe.drenth at jbtc.com> >
>> joe.drenth at jbtc.com <mailto:joe.drenth at jbtc.com>  | P: 215 822 4457 | F:
>> 215 822 4553
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> JBT Corporation
>> 400 Highpoint Drive
>> Chalfont, PA  18914, USA
>> www.jbtc-agv.com <http://www.jbtc-agv.com>  and www.fmcsgvs.com
>> <http://www.fmcsgvs.com>
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
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