Loading...
 

A web project is like a house — would you prefer yours to be:

Built with Fragile Modules & Hard to Manage?

Maison Croche

...that's what you get with Plugins!
Built on Strong Foundations & Easy to Manage?

Maison Droite

...that's what you get with Integrated Solutions!

What is a plugin? Code which is not part of the base package of software, with the purpose of extending functionality. Plugins are also called add-ons, extensions or modules. In most cases, using plugins leads to a phenomenal amount of complexity, fragmentation, duplication and overlap. They evolve each in their own way and create many issues and instabilities. WordPress, Drupal and Joomla! all work with plugins that are a hassle to choose from, integrate and update.

How do web applications compare?

WordPress Drupal Joomla! Tiki
Web site Yes Yes Yes Yes
Social Networking Different project: BuddyPress, which has its own plugins Many plugins to choose from Many plugins to choose from Built-in and configurable
Forums Different project: bbPress, which has its own plugins Many plugins to choose from Many plugins to choose from Built-in and configurable
Shopping cart Many plugins to choose from Many plugins to choose from Many plugins to choose from Built-in and configurable
Wiki They use MediaWiki Many plugins to choose from They use MediaWiki Built-in and configurable
Long Term Support (LTS) WordPress doesn't offer an LTS version because the project leader is "philosophically opposed" to LTS versions. No, but several years between major releases At least 4 years 5 years

WordPress Drupal
Web site Yes Yes
Social Networking Different project: BuddyPress, which has its own plugins Many plugins to choose from
Forums Different project: bbPress, which has its own plugins Many plugins to choose from
Shopping cart Many plugins to choose from Many plugins to choose from
Wiki They use MediaWiki Many plugins to choose from
Long Term Support (LTS) WordPress doesn't offer an LTS version because the project leader is "philosophically opposed" to LTS versions. No, but several years between major releases
Joomla! Tiki
Web site Yes Yes
Social Networking Many plugins to choose from Built-in and configurable
Forums Many plugins to choose from Built-in and configurable
Shopping cart Many plugins to choose from Built-in and configurable
Wiki They use MediaWiki Built-in and configurable
Long Term Support (LTS) At least 4 years 5 years

Frequentpluginproblems

Meet thebuilt-insolutions
Feature duplication and abandoned plugins Plugins can die off because the developer gets bored, or not enough people buy the "premium" version. Or perhaps the core app changes so much that the developer doesn't have the energy or time to port over the plugin. No need to research, choose, download and install additional plugins. There is no feature duplication. All the features are built-in and collaboratively maintained by the community, so you avoid the consequence of abandoned plugins.
Incompatibilities between plugins Plugins are often incompatible with each other, and it's tricky to get support because each plugin works OK separately. It's just so complex with thousands of plugins. Everything works with everything The whole community collaborates on the features instead of having plugins which may have incompatibilities. Turn everything on and it will work.
Dependency hell and slow release cycle You can't upgrade the core software until all plugins are available, and even then, upgrades are notoriously difficult. Quick, timely upgrades When a new version of Tiki comes out, you can upgrade right away and all the features are available.

View all problems & solutions

Has your website ever exploded on you because you updated a plugin?

Horror stories

This was a while back, but it exemplifies the problem site managers have to deal with. Postnuke has a security vulnerability and required an urgent upgrade. However, since PostCalendar didn't support this version, proceeding to the upgrade would break the calendar.

I was amused to find i had to pick and install a plugin (from about 50 available) for WordPress so i could add a simple meta viewport tag to a site a few months ago - amazed to find i couldn't just type it in somewhere!
Wordpress has thousands of plugins and when we installed more than 20 plugins to perform different tasks and build functionality, the site became extremely slow. It was a new website on shared hosting and after many discussions with the hosting server support team and online research I came to know working on a Wordpress website with a lot of plugins is quite difficult on standard hostings available.
While it's easy to setup a Wordpress site it became difficult to maintain some plugins which conflict or were abandoned by the developer. In the longer run we had to change plugins and had issues with data compatibility between different plugins we used and changed.
All the real features are paid and not much is available in the FREE version. I would rather go for an integrated system which has key features all websites needs without the need of any 3rd party plugins.



Share your storyView all stories