WordPress vs Joomla
Written by Connor Blake ·
Edited by Sebastiaan Smits ·
Fact-checked by Mateus Rocha ·
Published September 30, 2026 · Updated September 30, 2026
Both are free, open-source, self-hosted CMSs with paid hosting and add-ons around them. WordPress has the far larger plugin ecosystem and hiring pool; Joomla builds multilingual content and user access levels into its core. Most small businesses and blogs land on WordPress. Associations, membership sites and multilingual organizations have a real reason to pick Joomla.
Side by side
 WordPress |  Joomla | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | Open-source CMS powering a large share of the entire web | Open-source, community-governed CMS between WordPress and Drupal |
| Best for | Small businesses, blogs, agencies and anyone wanting the largest plugin ecosystem | Multilingual sites and organizations wanting built-in access control |
| Headquarters | United States | United States |
| Pricing model | Open source + paid tiers | Open source + paid extensions |
| Pricing | The core software is free and open source to self-host; hosting, premium themes and plugins are paid separately, and WordPress.com offers a separate managed hosting product with its own free and paid tiers. | The core software is free and open source under GPL to self-host; hosting, extensions and templates are paid separately through a marketplace of third-party developers. |
| Free option | Open source | Open source |
| Place in our CMS (content management system) software ranking | #4 of 14 | #9 of 14 |
| Website | wordpress.org | joomla.org |
Both are reviewed in full in Best CMS (Content Management System) Software in 2026. Position in that ranking can be paid for; the wording of a review or of this comparison cannot. Placement disclosure.
Which one to choose
Choose WordPress if
you want the widest choice of plugins, themes, hosts and freelancers, and your site does not depend on multilingual content or fine-grained user permissions in the core.
WordPress, #4 in the ranking · Visit WordPress →
Choose Joomla if
your site is multilingual or membership-driven and you want language handling and user access levels native to the core rather than supplied by whichever add-on you happened to choose.
Joomla, #9 in the ranking · Visit Joomla →
Where they differ
Languages and permissions without add-ons
Joomla manages multilingual content and user access levels in its core, which is why associations and membership sites still use it. WordPress's strengths lie elsewhere: its feature list covers custom post types, taxonomies and multisite networks, and gaps are normally filled from the plugin catalog. If languages and access rules are central, Joomla starts closer to finished.
Edge: Joomla
Extensions and people who know the system
WordPress has tens of thousands of plugins and themes, a large hosting market and more developers and agencies who already know it than any rival. Joomla's market share and extension ecosystem have both shrunk relative to WordPress over the past decade, leaving fewer actively maintained extensions and a smaller hiring pool. For finding help or a ready-made add-on, WordPress is ahead.
Edge: WordPress
Learning the admin
WordPress's block editor covers most marketing-site and blogging needs without any plugins, and it sits at the simpler end of this pair. Joomla's admin interface is more structured but has a steeper initial learning curve. A small team without a dedicated web person will be productive sooner in WordPress; Joomla's structure pays back on sites with many user roles.
Edge: WordPress
Governance and upkeep risk
Joomla is governed by the nonprofit Open Source Matters, so its roadmap answers to a community, at the cost of slower feature development. WordPress is open source too, and its popularity makes unpatched installs a common attack target, with plugin quality varying widely. Joomla's risk is a thinner ecosystem; WordPress's is patching discipline. Pick your problem.
Edge: even
Tally: WordPress 2, Joomla 1, even 1.
When neither fits
If the content model is large and security-sensitive, as in government or higher education, Drupal is the open-source CMS built for that weight. If content must feed an app and other channels from one structured source, open-source Strapi is the headless alternative, with a developer required.
See Drupal and Strapi among the 14 products in Best CMS (Content Management System) Software in 2026.
Questions and answers
Is Joomla better than WordPress for multilingual sites?
Joomla has the more direct answer: multilingual content management is built into its core, along with native user access levels. WordPress can be extended in many directions through its plugin ecosystem, but our data does not describe its multilingual handling, so it does not settle how the two compare in practice.
Are WordPress and Joomla both free?
The core software of each is free and open source to self-host, Joomla under the GPL. In both cases hosting is paid separately, as are premium themes and plugins for WordPress and extensions and templates for Joomla. WordPress.com also sells managed hosting with its own free and paid tiers.
Which is easier to hire for, WordPress or Joomla?
WordPress. It has a very large pool of developers and agencies who already know it. Joomla's share has shrunk relative to WordPress over the past decade, which means a smaller hiring pool and fewer actively maintained extensions to choose from.