Why I choose Joomla over WordPress

Why I choose the technical quality of Joomla for my clients, and not the popularity of WordPress

Popularity is not a technical strategy

Yet the choice for a CMS is often based on that. WordPress “is used by everyone”, so it must be good. But just like with McDonald’s: popularity says nothing about quality or suitability. For small, fast projects WordPress can be a good choice. But for clients who want to build a website that must last for years, remain technically healthy and stay manageable, I deliberately choose Joomla.

Not because Joomla is trendier. Quite the opposite.
But because it technically fits better with how professional websites should work.

Popularity does not solve technical problems

WordPress dominates the market. That is a fact. But market share says nothing about:

• code quality
• scalability
• maintainability
• long-term security

WordPress is optimized for speed of starting: quickly create a page, quickly add a plugin, quickly go live. Joomla is optimized for structure: first think, then build, then grow.

For my clients, that difference is crucial.

Joomla is built as a CMS, not as a blog

WordPress started as a blogging platform. Everything in its architecture still shows that history:

• one central database table for posts, pages and revisions and one central table for categories and menu items
• a lot of logic handled via metadata
• strong dependency on plugins
• hardcoded hyperlinks

Joomla was designed from day one as a content management system:

• a clear separation between articles, categories and menus
• a clean MVC architecture
• a logical database structure

This makes Joomla less “magical”, but much more predictable. And predictability is gold when it comes to maintenance.

Structure enforces discipline (and that is an advantage)

A common argument is: “WordPress is easier for editors.” But in practice, that is only partly true. WordPress feels easy because:

• you can start immediately
• you do not have to choose a structure
• everything seems fixable later

But that is exactly what becomes a problem once a site grows.

Joomla forces you from the start to:

• think about categories
• separate content from navigation
• use reusable content structures

This feels stricter at first. But it prevents chaos later. For clients, this means: less rebuilding, fewer workarounds, less frustration.

Fewer plugins, less risk

The WordPress core itself is fine. That is not the issue. The issue is that you always need plugins:

• for multilingual support
• for permissions
• for custom fields
• for workflows

And plugins vary greatly in:

• code quality
• maintenance
• security

Every extra plugin increases the attack surface and the complexity. The WordPress core is reasonably secure; the problem lies mainly with the numerous WordPress plugins. In 2025, 11,334 new security vulnerabilities were discovered in the WordPress ecosystem (around 31 new vulnerabilities per day!)

Joomla provides much of this functionality out of the box. That means:

• less dependency
• fewer updates
• fewer surprises

From a technical perspective, this is simply a healthier foundation.

Better performance through smarter loading

An underestimated technical difference: what gets loaded per page. In WordPress, almost all active plugins are initialized on every request, even if they do nothing on that page. That is convenient, but not efficient.

Joomla loads:

• only system plugins always
• other plugins depending on context

This reduces overhead, especially on larger sites. Performance problems often do not come from “not enough server power”, but from structural inefficiency.

Database design matters (even if you do not see it)

For small sites, database architecture does not matter much. For large sites, it matters a lot. Joomla uses a classic, logical relational model. WordPress uses a historically grown model that relies heavily on meta tables. Different types of information, such as menu items and categories, are stored in a single table. That works for WordPress, but:

• queries become more complex
• optimization becomes harder
• maintenance requires more knowledge of internal tricks

For clients who build content over many years, I prefer clarity over clever hacks.

Media management: control instead of automation

WordPress stores uploads by default in year/month folders. That is convenient, until you need to find something. Then it becomes a messy archive cabinet.

Joomla gives full control over the media structure. This makes it possible to:

• group logically
• keep projects separated
• manage media sustainably

For organizations with a lot of content, this is not a detail, but a requirement.

My choice is technical, not ideological

This is not a “WordPress is bad” story. WordPress is excellent for:

• simple websites
• fast marketing pages
• temporary projects

But for clients who invest in:

• long-term lifespan
• security
• structure
• performance
• professional manageability

I choose Joomla.

Why I choose Joomla

WordPress is optimized for creating individual pages and immediate ease of use.
Joomla is optimized for structure, technology and long-term manageability.

And when technical quality is more important than popularity, that choice is clear to me.

Do you want to work more effectively with Joomla and build a technically strong website that will last for years?
Feel free to get in touch and discover what is possible for your online communication.