Joomla, WordPress, SSG

[mikey3times]

First, I hope we can keep this discussion from devolving into "why would anyone anyone use _____, it sucks." Second, I've gone back through a bunch of 2017-2019 posts about Joomla and WordPress and I know both of them break on major updates so I'm not about to jump in with version X.0 of anything. Third, I've thought about the non-revenue-generating activity discussion so we can skip that because this is more of a rip the band-aid off now vs. I don't need a band-aid discussion. OK, caveats checked.

I started my forever project back in 2009 on Joomla. I made the best decision at the time based on zero knowledge. I honestly haven't regretted it. I've built other sites on WordPress and I'm fine with it as well. I'm no developer, but I'm solid with HTML and CSS, plus I can hack my way through PHP. I do pretty well getting things set up with Google searches and YouTube tutorials. I enjoy doing it myself for the most part, but I also have some aspirations to add features that will take me above my knowledge level, but I'm also nervous about hiring developers since I can't really check their work.

Joomla is getting close to releasing 4.0. Looks like the Release Candidate will come out in the next few weeks. Of course, all of their developers are volunteers so 4.0 is more than a year late at this point. When they finally get to the stable release, I will have to start looking at updating my site and potentially reworking my template (theme).

Get to the question already...

Since I have to do work to get my site Joomla 4.0 ready anyway, I've been thinking about whether I should bite the bullet now to switch over to WordPress (or, less likely, a SSG). I've considered this in the past, but it was always a procrastination method. With this change coming, I'm rethinking it again.

Considerations:

• Moving 250 articles is going to take a lot of time, but it will take more time later when I have more articles.
• I don't really need a theme/template refresh, but it wouldn't hurt and I enjoy building those.
• I'm monetized now with a display ad network.
• I want to start selling downloads/courses. I haven't decided if I will host that myself or use something like Teachable or Podia. Maybe I'll have a community, but doubtful.
• I want to eventually build out a freemium business directory: more here. I want it to be integrated well with my informational content rather than a standalone website. I can build the directory myself with custom categories/posts, but need a developer to integrate a user dashboard and payments.

I've read a bunch of "Wordpress vs Joomla vs Drupal 2021" articles. I've also read "Is Joomla Dead" articles and I just can't sort through whether Joomla 4.0 is delayed because of a lack of development volunteers (i.e. it is dying) or because they are making sure it doesn't break when they release (i.e. they don't want to emulate the Wordpress 5.0 rollout). Wordpress has more backing, more tutorials, but they also break things a lot, too.

I would probably go with Wordpress if I was starting today. I would stay with Joomla if I was confident in its future. I would MAYBE learn how to use a SSG if I wasn't going to add the business directory or host my own digital products.

So what does everyone think: Is Joomla going to die or should I keep my site there?

 

[cactus]

I'd say go with the biggest and most actively developed platform - right now that's WordPress.

I'm biased based on my personal experience with Joomla 9 years ago - absolutely hated working with it.

I think the process of moving over would be a good time to go through and overhaul your content - make sure the technical SEO parts are up to snuff.

I love and use SSGs for my personal site and some new sites I'm building. There are a lot of advantages but also a lot of drawbacks depending on which one you use.

I personally use 11ty and host on CloudFlare Pages for sub-50ms TTFB. I am obsessed with page speed and I love the combination for that, and I like not worrying about the hosting side of things. I migrated 220 posts from WordPress and it wasn't too bad, I did have to go through and remove a bunch of broken images/links, but a lot of that was from just how old some of the content is.

I'm still working out my new article process though, since I don't use a CMS I have to do some copy-pasting of the markdown frontmatter for my articles (stuff like title, date, tags, excerpt, etc).
I'm working on a script to automate this, however this is just on my personal blog, if I was making an articles site I'd probably hook 11ty up to Sanity or some other service to make content management easier.

 

[CCarter]

Long term - if something "hints" of dying it's probably dead, or just on life support. On the other side WordPress has a nice healthy eco-system and a lot of "computer people" are somewhat used to WordPress - think interns, employees that need to update content, developers, etc.

Long term - there is a less learning curve for future employees, contractors, editors, etc - due to WordPress's size and reach.

I'm assuming SSG means static site generator, again long-term maintenance etc - it sounds fun but if you have to hand this off to an employee or outsource that SSG means a narrower window of who can operate it property.

If the project is serious and long term no point in going off on an "adventure" with experimental software and setups. But if it's just a hobby then try SSG to have some fun.

 

[mikey3times]

Thanks, guys. This was the confirmation I was looking for.

I’m still interested in anyone who can talk to the health of Joomla from the inside. I spent too much time digging into the situation yesterday and it says a lot that there are a bunch of people trying to get the status of Joomla 4, but communication from the development team is terrible. There is no doubt that there are dedicated people working on it, but the users are left in the dark.

It is a bummer because Joomla has some features that I use OOTB that Wordpress needs a plugin to achieve. I actually like J! a lot. But I guess I can learn Wordpress at the same level I know Joomla.

People have been saying Joomla is dead for the past 5+ years and it is still around. But, I agree with CCarter, it is probably on life support. I need to think long term.