Drupal vs. Movable Type and WordPress

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January 29, 2007

Now that I've worked on a few projects with Drupal v4.7, I have to say that I'm impressed as all get-out with it. Personally, I can't think of any reason not to use it on a majority of projects. But Drupal is my personal preference, and I'm not sure it would be the best one for everyone. Movable Type and WordPress are two of the most popular blogging systems. Although they can be used for other types of sites, they were specifically designed for weblogs. Their functionality and features are limited. But what they do, they do very well. For simple sites or weblogs, MT and WP are fairly quick and easy to set up. On the other hand, Drupal is a powerful publishing platform that can be used for everything from e-commerce sites to portals to intranets. It can also be used for blogging—in fact, multiple user weblogs are a default option. I have to admit that running a one-person blog with Drupal is a bit like going after a gnat with a bazooka. But some people like that kind of firepower. For them, the complexity and difficulty of running Drupal is more than rewarded by its versatility. Indeed, for some Drupaliers, developing the necessary skills is a reward in itself. At present, MT and WP are the "point-and-click instamatics" of weblogging software—Drupal is more for those who have their own darkroom in the basement. And this is unfortunate. Drupal is far superior software, and the lure of cool new features could make developers out of a whole generation of otherwise uninitiated users. In addition, the funding that comes with popularity wouldn't hurt Drupal, either. But Drupal will never be widely used outside the development community until it becomes easy enough to install to appeal to the "point-and-click" crowd. I've heard rumors that more custom distributions like CivicSpace and DrupalED may be coming from Drupal developers. With more preconfigured distributions with very good documentation, Drupal could well give MT and WP a run for their money.