TYPO3 versus other systems Drupal, Wordpress, Joomla [closed]

Question

I started with TYPO3 and I read so many superlatives about it. But for me it looks quite chaotic and much more difficult then the other systems.

I found some books about it but I do not know if it is worth to buy them because they are quite old.

I tried to find some tutorials but I was not much successful.

So my questions are: Is it so better than the other systems that I should try to manage it? If so, are there any good examples for beginners in TYPO3?

Answer 1

There are many pros and cons but the first question that you should answer yourself to find out what to use is... Are you looking for an universal content management framework on which you intend to build several websites?

1. If YES, then keep considering TYPO3. It has some great benefits, e.g.:

   • Strict separation of core and site-specific files which greatly easies the management of several websites on one server because you can have one core only which you symlink from several websites. Applying a security update to all the websites is then a matter of minutes.
   • Tree-like structure with pages resembling folders of a filesystem and various content records resembling files within them and the backend that supports working with those elements in a way resembling the work with folders/files - copying and moving content records, pages with content records and even whole trees of pages and records. There's also functionality that resembles symlinking (both for pages and content records) which simplifies management of content on large websites.
   • UNIX-like permission system for pages with the option to have finer permission system using the be_acl extension.
   • A configuration (using its own configuration language called Typoscript) that is stored in a single field of one or more template records, that can be edited using a text editor of your choice (I use Notepad++ with Typoscript syntax highlighting + "It's All Text!" extension for Firefox), that cascades down a page tree, that can be overridden on any page and that can be also stored in a text file on the filesystem which means that you can have configuration files shared by all the websites on a server thus allowing you to quickly change/fix/modify behavior of all of them at once.
   • Ability to handle multilingual websites with both one-tree structure (all the language versions have the same structure) or multi-tree structure (every language version has different structure).
   • Ability to host several websites/domains from within one installation of TYPO3.
   • A development program where there are no changes of functionality within a branch (e.g. 4.5.x) of the system and yet with some of the branches having "long term support" (3 years) and thus receiving security updates - this allows you to have up-to-date websites for a significant period of time without having to do an update that would possibly change/break their functionality.

2. If NO and you want to use some system for one project only, then... Is there a single specific functionality that the website is supposed to achieve?

   • If yes, look for a system which is best adapted for that task. If you want to build a blog or a photogallery, use a system which was designed with this specific task in mind. TYPO3 would not be your best option. Not that you cannot build a blog or a photogallery with it but it would take you more work.
   • If no and you are just building a casual website, then think whether there is some other good reason to invest the time into learning TYPO3 to make it worth it. TYPO3 (from the point of view of a webdeveloper) is rather hard to learn and for one project might not be worth the effort.

Answer 2

About the comparison to other CMSes:

Drupal

• I hear it's even more confusing than TYPO3 and has made many a developer sigh
• No backwards compatibility

Joomla

• It has made big progress in the last years, code is lightweight and modern
• Hackers DO love it (as it's so widespread)
• Multilanguage support is not great
• Editor Backend is definitely more confusing than TYPO3 (no pagetree out of the box)
• You have to pay for many extensions
• Configuration is tedious, as it happens mostly via mouse clicks (enormous button lists)

Wordpress

• It's an own world – WPers say it's for all kinds of uses, not just blogs – but it's still a blog
• Extreme backwards compatibility, messy architecture (I hear)
• Hackers love it
• If you're a webdesigner (i.e. you don't use pre-built templates and have basic php knowledge), try Perch from http://www.grabaperch.com instead of wordpress - it's great for smaller or bloggy/newsy sites.

TYPO3

Use if one of these criteria are met

• Multilanguage
• Larger number of pages
• ACL to easily provide different access rights in the pagetree
• Flexibility in image handling (strong tools for generating and modifying images on the fly, e.g. changing aspect ratios or resolution later)
• Strong community, extendability, support

To master TYPO3 integration fully, quite some time of practice is required.

Answer 3

Actually, TYPO3 is not so complicated. As it has some history, there are lots of stuff, so it's easy to be lost, but we will help You to find the way !

I like TYPO3 bootstrap a lot !

It uses some modern techniques, as Fluid, Fedext etc. There are lots of examples.

You could get it from github, install and play with it.

And TYPO3 Neos will be available quite soon. It's a successor of TYPO3 CMS, which is amazingly simple and powerful, as it bases on TYPO3 Flow framework.

As for me TYPO3 is very interesting in cases, when we need to manage big amount of data / content. Other CMS are more specific, as for me. Drupal I like especially for social sites. Wordpress is great for simple sites.