Which CMS should you choose: WordPress, Joomla or Drupal?
Choose by who will edit the site, what it has to connect to and how long you can keep it upgraded, not by feature lists. All three are free, open source and written in PHP, so the real differences are the size of the ecosystem, how much structure the content needs and how much developer time the site will take each year.
- Choose WordPress if non-technical staff will publish often and the site mainly needs pages, posts, forms and a connection to your CRM
- Choose Drupal if the content is large and highly structured, with many content types, roles and permissions, and you have developers on hand to run it
- Choose Joomla if you already run it well and it does the job: it is maintained, but rarely the best place to start a new site
- Choose none of them if the site is a small brochure or a store, where a hosted builder, a store platform or a static site is less to maintain
What changed since this was first written
This post began in 2022 as three short profiles of WordPress, Joomla and Drupal. It described what each one was, but it did not help anyone decide between them, and some of what it said about versions and support has since moved on.
This version is a decision guide. It compares the three on the points that decide running costs, adds the option of using no traditional CMS at all, and uses support dates checked against each project's own pages on 2 November 2026.
WordPress vs Joomla vs Drupal, side by side
The three share a lot: PHP, a database, themes and an extension directory. Where they differ is who they are built for and how much they ask of the people running them.
| Point | WordPress | Joomla | Drupal |
|---|---|---|---|
| Share of all websites (W3Techs) | 39.5% | 1.1% | 0.6% |
| Current version | 7.1.4, released 28 October 2026 | 6.2.0, released 13 October 2026 | 11.4.11, released 21 October 2026, with 11.5 and 12.0 in beta |
| Best suited to | Marketing sites, blogs and lead capture edited by non-technical staff | Existing Joomla sites and teams that already know it | Large, structured sites with many editors, roles and content types |
| Editing for non-technical staff | Easiest of the three, with the block editor | Workable, with a busier admin | Depends on how the developer configured it |
| Ready-made integrations | The widest choice of plugins, including form and CRM connectors | Fewer extensions, so more integrations are custom work | Modules exist, but most integrations are configured or built by a developer |
| Developer time to run it | Low to moderate | Moderate | Highest |
The usage figures are from W3Techs' content management survey, read on 2 November 2026. Market share is not a quality score, but it does decide how easy it is to hire help, find a maintained extension and get an answer when something breaks.
Start with who will edit the site
The person publishing every week matters more than the person who builds the site once. A CMS your team avoids using ends with every small change going back to a developer, which is the most expensive way to run a website. If WordPress is the front runner, the pros and cons of WordPress for a business website sets out what it asks of whoever runs it.
- Marketing or office staff publishing pages and posts are best served by WordPress, where the block editor is close to a word processor
- Several departments with their own sections, approval steps and permissions are where Drupal earns its complexity, because roles and content types are part of its core design
- A developer making most changes narrows the gap between the three, and makes a static or headless site worth considering as well
Then check what the CMS has to connect to
For most businesses the website is where a lead starts, not where it is handled. The form has to reach a CRM, trigger a reply and start follow-up, so the question is how easily each CMS hands that data on.
WordPress has the most ready-made connectors, and how to connect WordPress to your CRM walks through the handoff. On Joomla and Drupal the same job is usually a webhook or a small module, which then feeds workflow automation built on Zapier, Make or n8n.
Whichever CMS you pick, keep contact records and follow-up out of it. CRM setup and management, GoHighLevel first, holds the pipeline, so the website can be rebuilt or even replaced without losing a single lead.
Support lifecycles and upgrade costs
Every CMS needs upgrading, and the cost of a site over five years is mostly upgrades, not the build. The table shows where each project stood on 2 November 2026, from each project's own release pages.
| CMS | Supported now | What it means for you |
|---|---|---|
| WordPress | 7.1 is the current branch; 7.1.4 shipped on 28 October 2026 | Small, frequent updates rather than big migrations, but plugins and the host's PHP version still need testing |
| Joomla 6.x | Released 14 October 2025; bug fixes until 17 October 2028, security fixes until 16 October 2029 | A clear runway for any site started or upgraded now |
| Joomla 5.x | Bug fixes ended 13 October 2026; security fixes only until 12 October 2027 | Plan the move to 6.x within the next year |
| Drupal 10 and 11 | 10.6 and 11.3 onward listed as supported branches; the newest stable release is 11.4.11, from 21 October 2026 | Regular minor upgrades, each worth a developer's test pass |
| Drupal 7 | Marked unsupported in Drupal's own update feed | A Drupal 7 site is due a rebuild, and that is the moment to reconsider the platform |
Sources: the Joomla project roadmap, the WordPress release archive and Drupal's update feed for core, all read on 2 November 2026. Drupal 12.0 was in beta on that date, with beta 2 published on 14 October.
The server matters as much as the CMS, because all three depend on the host's PHP version. What happens when your host upgrades PHP covers the WordPress case, and the same checks apply to Joomla and Drupal.
When no traditional CMS is the better choice
In the W3Techs survey 32.2% of websites run none of the content management systems it tracks, and hosted builders such as Shopify, Wix and Squarespace each sit ahead of Joomla and Drupal. For some businesses that is the sensible answer, not a compromise.
- A store is usually better on a dedicated store platform than on a CMS with shop extensions added on
- A small brochure site that changes a few times a year can be a hosted builder or a static site, with nothing to patch
- A web application with logins, dashboards and account data is not a CMS job at all, and belongs in AI web and app development as its own product
If you are still deciding between a ready-made design and a bespoke one, custom website design vs a template covers that choice. For a WordPress site that keeps needing features no plugin covers, custom WordPress development, and when to build it sorts what to install, build or move out.
Where AI fits in the CMS decision
AI writing and design tools work with all three, so they rarely decide the choice. What matters more is where the useful AI features live: an assistant that answers visitor questions, or a step that summarises each enquiry before it reaches your CRM.
Those features are best built as AI automation connected to the site rather than as CMS plugins. They then keep working through a redesign, a version upgrade or a change of CMS, which is exactly when plugin-based features tend to break.
Work is quoted per project, and the CMS choice is one of the inputs. What a WordPress website really costs explains what moves the number, and our answers to common buyer questions cover timelines and who owns what we build.
Common questions
Is Joomla still supported in 2026?
Yes. Joomla 6.x is the current series, with bug fixes until 17 October 2028 and security fixes until 16 October 2029, while Joomla 5.x receives security fixes only until 12 October 2027, according to the Joomla project roadmap checked on 2 November 2026.
Is Drupal harder to use than WordPress?
For editors, it depends on how the site was configured; for whoever runs it, usually yes. Drupal is built for structured content, roles and permissions, which takes more developer time to set up and upgrade than a typical WordPress site.
Can a Joomla or Drupal site be moved to WordPress?
Yes. Pages, posts, images and users can be migrated, and the work that matters most is keeping URLs the same or redirecting each old address so search rankings and links survive. Custom content types and extensions need mapping one by one, which is what decides the size of the job.
Which CMS is best for a small business website?
WordPress, in most cases, because staff can edit it easily and help is easy to find. If the site changes only a few times a year, a hosted builder or a static site can be cheaper to keep running than any CMS.
Does the choice of CMS change how leads reach a CRM?
It changes how the form data is sent, not where it should end up. WordPress has ready-made connectors, while Joomla and Drupal more often use a webhook, and in every case the CRM should hold the contact records and run the follow-up.
