WordPress vs TYPO3 – Which CMS Is the Best Choice for You?

A website is a marketing channel, business card and revenue generator. In short: an important success factor for companies. If you want to maintain your online presence without programming knowledge, you need a performant content management system (CMS). We introduce the two best-known and, in our opinion, best CMS and explain when each is the right choice.

What to expect in this article

• WordPress and TYPO3: the key facts
• 7 important decision criteria: how WordPress and TYPO3 perform
• CMS comparison: strengths and weaknesses at a glance
• Conclusion: clear winners in their disciplines

WordPress and TYPO3: the key facts

Many CMS on the market promise intuitive usability and flexibility but fail to deliver. Their interfaces are cluttered and the options for designing website content limited, so sooner or later a service provider has to be hired after all. That’s doubly annoying, because it costs companies time and money.

The exceptions: WordPress and TYPO3. Both are among the few CMS that are genuinely usable by non-technical people, produce professional web presences and scale with business success.

WordPress

WordPress is currently the most widely used CMS in the world. Launched in 2003 as pure blogging software, the system has since evolved into a solid enterprise CMS and is used by major corporations too.

Some prominent brands that rely on WordPress: Sony Music Entertainment, the Walt Disney Company, Mercedes-Benz and BBC America.

TYPO3

Unlike WordPress, TYPO3 was conceived as an enterprise CMS from the start in 2007. As free software it is, like WordPress, continuously updated, extended and improved by an active developer community.

Various large websites are based on TYPO3, for example those of the German Football Association (DFB), the Technical University of Berlin, Air France and Greenpeace.

7 important decision criteria: how WordPress and TYPO3 perform

At first glance, the differences between WordPress and TYPO3 are small: both CMS are open source, both are known for their simple usability and their professional results. Each system boasts top references and can be adapted flexibly.

On closer inspection, however, there are clear differences, and indeed clear recommendations can be derived for when to bet on WordPress and when on TYPO3.

1. Operation, maintenance & care

WordPress is simpler to operate than TYPO3. A page is easy to manage and edit via graphical editors, even for non-technical users. TYPO3 has graphical editors too, but pages are broken down into individual elements — it takes a bit more familiarity with the system’s logic to handle it confidently.

Creating new pages and making larger visual changes is usually harder with TYPO3, and at least basic programming knowledge is often required. In WordPress such changes are easy for any user.

WordPress also has slight advantages over TYPO3 in maintenance and care: at least routine maintenance can be handled by trained internal staff, while TYPO3 calls for external professionals. Those costs need to be factored in with TYPO3.

2. Extensibility

One of TYPO3’s strengths is its high degree of customisability. As a rule, however, this requires a TYPO3 developer who either integrates one of the more than 1,000 available extensions or makes individual adjustments. Online shop systems can be connected, but so can complex applications and ERP systems such as SAP. Almost anything is possible.

With WordPress, the number of available free and paid extensions is considerably higher than the number of TYPO3 extensions. Many customisation wishes can thus be implemented in-house without programming knowledge — though with varying quality. WordPress cannot match TYPO3’s customisability.

3. Security

In the past, WordPress was, due to its market share, far more frequently the target of successful hacking attacks than TYPO3. WordPress’s security standards have since improved, the community reacts quickly when vulnerabilities become known, and the security level is good even in the standard setup. If you install complementary security measures from the start, WordPress is a CMS that meets high business security requirements.

TYPO3, due to its smaller footprint, is less interesting to hackers. A slight advantage. In addition, the system ships with stronger security precautions by default.

Both TYPO3 and WordPress require regular updates to guarantee security.

4. Search engine optimisation

The best website is useless if search engines don’t rank it for relevant keywords. WordPress makes search engine optimisation easy: various SEO plugins are available that help users achieve high findability for their website even without programming knowledge.

For TYPO3, SEO was long the Achilles heel. The system has caught up in recent years. SEO extensions now exist, but installation again requires expert help, and configuring and adapting the extension is more complicated than with WordPress.

5. Online shop

If you want to integrate an online shop into your website, both CMS can do it.

With WordPress it’s easier and cheaper: via plugins, even small companies can set up all the processes without external support and build an appealing, scalable shop.

TYPO3 is not specifically designed for setting up online shops. Connecting shop software therefore requires an external developer. Since no plugins are involved, however, online shop processes with TYPO3 can turn out far more individual: the design can be more appealing and the functionality more efficient.

6. Multilingualism

For multilingual websites, TYPO3 offers simpler handling out of the box. Pages can be managed very comfortably in different languages with a few clicks. Companies with an international focus often choose TYPO3 for this reason alone.

In WordPress, multilingualism can be achieved with a plugin. However, the administration is less practical and easily causes frustration with frequent switching.

7. Performance

How stable does the website run as load increases? A CMS should guarantee strong performance even with growing data volumes.

When many plugins are integrated into WordPress, the system becomes prone to crashes and errors. Under high data load, the website also loses speed. WordPress developers can counteract these drawbacks by intervening in the code, though.

The system’s stability is a clear TYPO3 strength. The websites are designed to remain performant even with large data volumes. Fast-growing companies and corporations in particular therefore like to rely on TYPO3.

CMS comparison: strengths and weaknesses at a glance

TYPO3

WordPress

Conclusion: clear winners in their disciplines

TYPO3 is the obvious choice above all for larger companies whose websites have to handle a high data load — the website runs fast and stably. Add the wish to connect the website to complex ERP systems via various interfaces and to stand out from the crowd in design and function, and recommending TYPO3 becomes even easier.

WordPress is ideal for small and growing companies with a limited budget, since many maintenance tasks and extension wishes can be handled in-house without touching the code. The websites meet high standards in function and design, and page performance stays strong as long as not too many plugins are needed. For straightforward websites and small online shops, WordPress is the CMS of choice — entirely apart from any cost considerations.