TYPO3 vs. WordPress: How to find the right CMS

Setting up the CMS

WordPress clearly has the edge when it comes to installation. The free CMS can be set up in just a few minutes without any prior knowledge. With some hosters, you can carry out the installation with one click and then immediately log into the WordPress backend to start building your website.

Setting up TYPO3 is more complicated. You need technical know-how here. That's why it's best to have your TYPO3 CMS set up by a professional service provider. A specialist will set up the system for you in just a few minutes and adjust it optimally to your individual needs.

Themes and responsive web design

The layout of a website should be contemporary, user-friendly and functional. WordPress provides a variety of ready-made designs, the so-called themes. Most of them are already responsive, i.e. optimized for different screen sizes and meet the requirements of modern web design. All you have to do is choose from one of the numerous templates. The finished themes can be customized to a greater or lesser extent. Colour and font adjustments are standard, but the templates quickly reach their limits when it comes to further optimizations. Free themes in particular often only offer limited functions.

TYPO3 also comes with some ready-made design templates. However, the selection is not as large as with WordPress. TYPO3 is designed for individual solutions and is therefore ideal if you want a unique design and want to hire a design agency, for example. This way, you end up with a website that is perfectly tailored to your needs.

Extensions

Both WordPress and TYPO3 offer a wide range of extensions with which you can expand the functions of your website and customize your theme. At first glance, WordPress offers a significantly larger number of extensions, but TYPO3 already provides many useful functions in the standard version. This has one advantage: the website performs better and runs more stably. On the other hand, installing different plugins with WordPress often leads to technical errors, as the extensions interfere with each other. Troubleshooting is then extremely time-consuming, especially for inexperienced WordPress users.

Have you created a blog with TYPO3 and would like to know which extensions are worthwhile? Read our article on the topic of TYPO3 blogs: The top 9 extensions.

User-friendliness and operation

Both content management systems score with a user-friendly interface. With WordPress, even CMS newcomers can easily manage the content of their website. The user interface is clearly laid out and can be operated intuitively. This is ensured by a visual editor with which the individual contents can be put together simply by drag-and-drop or with a few mouse clicks.

But even with TYPO3, you can easily edit the content of your website after a brief introduction. The user interface is somewhat more complex than that of WordPress. However, TYPO3 makes up for this with its wide range of setting options and functions. If you know what is possible and how to work with the CMS, you can fully exploit its potential.

ERP interfaces

Would you like to link your business software with your website? With Typo 3 you can easily connect your ERP programs. Even large amounts of data are no problem for the CMS. WordPress, on the other hand, does not come with any interfaces as standard - plugins are required here.

Multilingualism

Managing multilingual websites is much easier with TYPO3. The open source CMS is designed for international and more complex web projects. Accordingly, the TYPO3 CMS already includes all functions for multilingual websites. With WordPress, you need to purchase a plugin for this.

Security and updates

Regular updates are a must for both content management systems in order to close security gaps. Updates for both WordPress and TYPO3 can be carried out free of charge and with a simple click. As WordPress websites make up the majority of the market, they are increasingly becoming the target of hacker attacks.

In terms of security, TYPO3 is undoubtedly the better choice. Due to its small market share, TYPO3 is considered the most secure open source CMS in the world. The system reports security vulnerabilities and provides you with a detailed description and suggested solutions. The developers of TYPO3 regularly check the security of their software and are constantly working to eliminate security gaps.

User rights and profiles

Several people usually work on a website at the same time. However, not every person should have access to all content. This is why you need user profiles with individual rights management.

With TYPO3, you can manage all users conveniently. To do this, you assign different rights and roles to the contributors. Here you can choose between read and write permissions and define these for page areas, modules and data records. User groups simplify administration immensely and make it possible to transfer or merge user rights with just a few clicks. TYPO3 is unbeatable here.

WordPress requires plugins for user administration. However, these do not offer such detailed setting options.

Management of multiple subdomains

TYPO3 is the winner if you want to manage large web projects with many domains and subdomains in one system. Thanks to the intelligent user management, you can assign each employee the appropriate rights to different websites.

With WordPress, on the other hand, you first have to create the technical conditions for managing multiple websites in one backend. To do this, you install an extension and add a few lines to the source code of the WordPress installation file. The handling here is therefore more complicated and in most cases only possible with external support.

Search engine optimization

The most beautiful website is useless if it cannot be found. That's why both WordPress and TYPO3 offer tools for search engine optimization (SEO). Some functions are included in the standard version. If you want to use advanced SEO options, we recommend installing a plugin. Both CMS solutions offer good extensions for this.

Costs

TYPO3 and WordPress are basically available free of charge as open source software. However, TYPO3 mainly incurs additional costs for the initial installation, development and maintenance. In return, however, you receive a content management solution that is optimally tailored to your needs. In the long term, it is usually worthwhile for medium-sized companies to invest a little more budget in an individual website. This saves you valuable time and therefore also costs. You will also stand out from your competitors with a unique design and functions that offer added value.