I have been working with Drupal longer than WordPress but I have learnt and achieved much more as a WordPress developer. WordPress is easier to use but Drupal does have some great features and may be the right platform for your site particularly if you’re more technical.
Security updates
WordPress has auto-update functionality, Drupal 7 does not. It is obviously slightly risky to leave the WordPress auto-update feature enabled as there is a chance that your theme and plugins my not be compatible. If you choose not to leave this feature enabled then WordPress still has the option of a 1 click update unlike Drupal where the process is much more complicated.
Drupal does not have an auto-update feature. It’s quick to update modules and this can be done in the admin area but I dread the emails that say Drupal core has a new release and you must update immediately due to security risks.
My process:
-
- Holding my breath
- Download the latest version of Drupal 7
- Back the site up, database and files
- Update the local version of the site so that I know everything is working OK incase I need to rollback
- Put site it in maintenance mode
- Delete the whole site except /sites and it’s sub-folders using Filezilla
- Copy all the folders and files except /sites from inside the extracted Drupal package
- Generally I don’t copy over .htaccess, settings.php, robots.txt or the favicon
- Run /update.php
- Follow on-screen instruction to update the database
- Check everything is OK and breath
Please don’t use these instructions to update your Drupal site. Follow these ones https://www.drupal.org/docs/7/update
My record for updating Drupal Core is about an hour but it can take longer, I know there are time saving tools like Drush but I’m not a command line expert. WordPress therefore wins the updates test.
Content types vs custom post types
Drupal has content types and WordPress has custom post types they definitely have similarities. Both can have bespoke templates if the correct naming conventions are used and both can have specific fields associated with them. When using WordPress custom post types the Advanced Custom Fields (ACF) plugin is required to enable this feature.
When Drupal’s content types are combined with views it’s very easy to manipulate data and display content without the need to write any PHP.
Using ACF the developer will need to code the ACFs into the templates and use php within “The Loop” to display data.
I have found using custom post types with views more powerful when it comes to displaying fields within the database.
Themes, plugins and modules
WordPress has a much bigger community and many more themes and plugins to choose from. There are however many plugins that have features that can only be unlocked by purchasing the premium version, searching for themes and plugins can be very time consuming as there so many. Drupal’s modules are all free are not repeated, deciphering the options is much quicker.
Conclusion
For smaller sites WordPress is perfect for larger more complex sites Drupal may be a better option.