WordPress vs Joomla: Which CMS Should You Choose?

When businesses first start researching content management systems, two names come up again and again: WordPress and Joomla. Both are open-source, both have been around for more than two decades, and both can technically power anything from a simple brochure site to a complex web application. The similarity ends there. WordPress has grown into the dominant platform on the internet, powering roughly 43 per cent of all websites globally. Joomla, once a serious rival, now accounts for a small fraction of that figure — and the gap has widened every year for the past decade.

Choosing the wrong CMS can mean years of unnecessary complexity, a smaller pool of developers to call on, and a harder time finding plugins that solve real problems. This guide looks honestly at both platforms: where Joomla still has genuine strengths, where WordPress wins comprehensively, and how UK businesses should think about the decision when commissioning a new website.

Market share, ecosystem, and plugin availability

The most important single fact about WordPress is its scale. More than 43 per cent of the web runs on WordPress, which means that the ecosystem around it — themes, plugins, hosting optimisation, developer training, SEO tools, security monitoring — is incomparably larger than anything Joomla can offer. The WordPress plugin directory contains more than 60,000 free plugins, and the commercial plugin market adds thousands more. Whatever a business needs — e-commerce via WooCommerce, membership gating, booking systems, CRM integration, multilingual support — there is almost certainly a mature, well-supported WordPress plugin for it.

Joomla has its own extension directory, but the catalogue is far smaller and the update cadence of many extensions is inconsistent. More critically, when something goes wrong — a conflict between extensions, a security patch, a compatibility issue after a PHP upgrade — the pool of developers who can diagnose and fix it is dramatically smaller. In the UK, most experienced web development agencies work predominantly or exclusively in WordPress. Finding a Joomla specialist at short notice is genuinely difficult, and that scarcity has a direct impact on support costs and response times.

Usability, content editing, and long-term maintenance

WordPress has invested heavily in its content editing experience over the past five years. The Gutenberg block editor, now mature and stable, gives non-technical users a genuinely intuitive way to build and update pages without touching code. Third-party page builders such as Elementor and Bricks extend that flexibility further. The result is that most UK business owners can manage their own content comfortably after a short handover session — which reduces ongoing agency costs significantly.

Joomla’s administration interface is more technically demanding. Its terminology — articles, modules, components, menu items — follows a logic that makes sense to developers but creates a steeper learning curve for the business owners who actually need to use it day-to-day. Joomla also requires more hands-on technical management: updates are less seamless, and the separation between the core CMS and third-party components can lead to compatibility friction over time. For businesses without an in-house technical resource, that friction typically translates into higher ongoing maintenance costs.

Which CMS should UK businesses choose — and where does Xpose fit in?

For the vast majority of UK businesses, WordPress is the right choice. It has the largest ecosystem, the most accessible editing experience, the broadest developer community, and the best long-term track record for security patching and platform evolution. Whether you need a five-page brochure site, a multi-thousand-product WooCommerce store, or a complex membership platform with custom integrations, WordPress can handle it — and you will never struggle to find a developer to help.

Joomla still has a place for organisations that built on it years ago and have invested heavily in custom Joomla components, or for specific use cases — such as complex user permission hierarchies — where Joomla’s native access control system is genuinely stronger. But for a new build in 2025, choosing Joomla means accepting a smaller talent pool, a thinner plugin ecosystem, and a steeper editorial learning curve without a compensating advantage for most projects. At Xpose, based in Norwich, we build on WordPress and develop bespoke solutions for clients whose requirements go beyond standard plugins. We have migrated sites from Joomla to WordPress many times and can carry out that transition cleanly, preserving content and improving SEO structure in the process.

Our view on Wordpress vs Joomla

We are a Norwich agency established in 2015, and we have worked with businesses on both sides of this comparison over the years. Our honest view: the right choice depends on your business, your team and where you want to be in two years — not on which platform is currently the most talked-about.

If you would like a straight opinion on which makes more sense for you — or whether you should leave the decision alone entirely and focus on something that will move the needle more — a free, no-pressure conversation is always available.