Drupal vs Joomla for publishers: documented depth or built-in parts?

The short version

Pick Drupal if you want the better-documented core and have developers. Its documentation describes Content Moderation with a default Editorial workflow, four multilingual modules in core and JSON:API in core. The cost is a heavier build: installs and updates go through Composer, and URL aliases, meta tags, sitemaps and schema.org output come from contributed modules.

Pick Joomla if you want a bundle. Its repository ships Workflow, Languages, Associations, Redirect, Scheduler and Content History components, plus schemaorg, sef and redirect plugins and a web services API. Our caveat is real: docs.joomla.org refused our automated requests, so we saw that these parts exist, not how well they work. Joomla sits closer to a conventional PHP host; Drupal expects Linux and the command line.

Both are GPL version 2 or later with no licence fee. Read the full profiles for Drupal and Joomla, or the comparison index. Everything here comes from vendor documentation and repository listings, not installs of our own.

At a glance

Editorial workflow

Drupal’s Content Moderation module builds workflows from states such as Draft, Published and Archived and the transitions between them. A published version can stay live while a working copy is reviewed, and enabling the module creates a default Editorial workflow. Roles and permissions are yours to define. Scheduling is a separate contributed module that handles content, media and taxonomy terms, and we have not verified how it combines with moderation states.

Joomla’s repository has a Workflow component and a workflow plugin group, plus Users and Content History components, and a Scheduler component with a task plugin group. These are plausible building blocks for stages, version history and timed publishing. Without user documentation we cannot say how stages and transitions are set up, or how revisions are restored.

For a newsroom with a sub-editor and a publisher, Drupal’s route is the one we can describe. Joomla’s may be just as capable; verify on a staging copy.

Search, structured data and feeds

Drupal’s answer is contributed modules. Pathauto generates URL aliases from patterns (its project page reports 470,202 sites using it). Metatag supplies titles, canonical URLs, descriptions, Open Graph and Twitter Cards, with schema.org and JSON-LD handled by a separate Schema.org Metatag module. Simple XML Sitemap generates multilingual sitemaps with hreflang and image support. We did not verify Drupal’s feed behaviour.

Joomla’s system plugin directory includes schemaorg, sef, languagefilter, redirect, httpheaders and cache plugins, and the repository has a Redirect component and a Finder component. We have not verified which schema types the plugin outputs, whether core publishes your own RSS feed, or whether it creates XML sitemaps.

The trade-off is plain. Drupal makes you assemble the SEO layer from named, documented modules. Joomla appears to ship more of it, with less documentation we could read. Test either against Google’s structured data documentation and our features checklist.

Hosting, performance and security

Drupal 11.x requires PHP 8.3.0 or later. It lists MariaDB, MySQL, PostgreSQL and SQLite, works on Apache, Nginx and other web servers, recommends Linux or similar for hosting and supports Windows only for development. Composer is needed for installation and updates. Drupal 10.6.x has security support until December 2026.

Joomla 6 recommends PHP 8.4 with 8.3.0 as the minimum, and lists MySQL 8.4 (8.0.13 supported), MariaDB 12.0 (10.6 supported), PostgreSQL 17.6 (14.0 supported), Apache 2.4, Nginx 1.29 (1.26 supported) and Microsoft IIS 10. The manual labels 6.1 Current, 6.2 Upcoming, 5.4 Legacy and 4.4 Archived.

Both therefore ask you to watch branch support dates. We did not benchmark either; Joomla has a cache plugin and Drupal’s User Guide describes cache types such as render and views. For a high-traffic news site, ask your host about page and edge caching.

Cost of ownership

Neither has a licence fee: Drupal.org says its software is licensed under GPL version 2 or later, and Joomla’s README says the same of Joomla. The cost is in people. Drupal usually needs a developer or agency to model content types, roles and moderation, build the theme and run Composer updates. Joomla’s costs are hosting that meets its PHP and database requirements, paid extensions or templates and developer time.

We have not verified public prices for hosts, extensions, templates or agencies, so we give no figures, and we did not verify the size of either extension library. See the cost guide and licence guide.

Migrating between them

We did not open an official migration module or guide for either direction, so we make no claim about one. Plan a content inventory first: content types, users and roles, categories or taxonomy, media, language versions and redirects. Joomla has a Redirect component, and Drupal’s redirect handling was not verified in the pages we opened. Our demo page explains what we have run ourselves.

Which should you choose?

• Formal moderation states and a developer on staff: Drupal.
• Content as structured data, feeding an API or app: Drupal, with JSON:API in core.
• A multilingual site that wants fewer contributed modules: Joomla is worth a trial; Drupal’s four core modules are better documented.
• A conventional host and no command-line skills: Joomla, though check its PHP requirements with your host first.
• A small desk wanting the quickest launch: neither is the obvious pick; see WordPress vs Drupal and WordPress vs Joomla.

For a larger, framework-style alternative to Drupal, see Drupal vs TYPO3.