WordPress vs Django

Differences Between WordPress vs Django

WordPress is an open-source content management system for building dynamic websites and blogs. Content Management Systems is software that stores all data such as text, photos, music and is made available on a website. It helps in editing, modifying and publishing the content of the website. Django is a web development framework that helps in building and maintaining websites. It is a high-level Python web framework that helps in eliminating repetitive tasks making web development easy.

WordPress

WordPress comes in two main versions as WordPress.com and WordPress.org.

WordPress.com

• For building simple websites, when you are not concerned about what technology it is using.
• I started a blog service and developed over the years for building websites.
• There is no ongoing maintenance for WordPress.com, hence no need to update the software. Also, all data is backed up, so no issue of data loss.

WordPress.org

• org is completely customizable.
• Any of the predefined themes can be used that are available in WordPress.org.
• Websites that run on WordPress.org need to be updated by a user.
• A user is also responsible for backing up data.

Steps to get started with WordPress

• Open link https://wordpress.org/download/ to download the latest version of WordPress.
• WordPress requires an MYSQL database. Create an account in the database, where all the website data will be stored.
• Extract the downloaded WordPress folders and upload it to localhost.
• Open a browser and navigate to a path of localhost.
• Select the language you want and click on continue. The next screen will have database details for WordPress. Click on Let’s Go.
• In the next screen, you need to configure a database for your website. For this, enter the database name, username and password for the MYSQL account, database host, which is localhost by default and table prefix.
• WordPress checks the database settings; if correct, it takes you to the confirmation screen. Click on the Run the install button.
• Enter administrative details such as Site Title (name of your website), username (for logging in into the website), password (enter password two times for to protect your site), e-mail (helps in password recovery) and click on privacy (search engine indexes the site)
• Once the installation is successful, the website asks you to log in with you’s username password combination.

Django

Django is robust enough to be used by the world’s largest websites – Instagram, Pinterest, bitbucket, etc. Django also comes with an inbuilt lightweight web server for developing and testing applications on the go. It also supports Apache and other popular web servers.

Installing Django

• Django is written in Python. Hence you need to install Python first. The latest Django version required Python 2.6.5 or higher. You can download the latest version of Python from http://www.python.org/download.
• You can install Django from the link http://www.djangoproject.com/download
• Assuming you are installing Django on windows, the first step after installing python and downloading Django is Path Verification
• Verify if the Path system variable is set to Python version and point to a Django archive file bin.
• Then on the command prompt, change the directory to the folder where Django exe is present. Assuming it is on c:

C:\>cd c:\Django-x.xx

• Install Django by executing the following command

C:\Django-x.xx>python setup.py install

• To test your installation, open the command prompt and type the following command

C:\>python  –c  ”import  Django;  print(django.GetVersion())”

If you see a current version of Django printed, then Django is installed successfully.

• Django supports many databases. Any of the following databases can be set up.
  • MySQL
  • PostgreSQL
  • SQLite3
  • Oracle
  • MongoDB
  • GoogleAppEngine Datastore

Once the installation is done, go to the command prompt and navigate to the path you want to create your project and write it.

$django-admin start project myproject

After a project is set up, some important settings to be done

DEBUG = true

This mode helps you navigate project errors. This mode is set to be true only in development mode.

DATABASES = { ‘default’ :
{ ‘ENGINE’ : ‘      ’,  ‘NAME’  :’       ‘ , ‘USER’ : ‘         ‘ , ‘PASSWORD’ : ‘            ‘ , ‘HOST’ : ‘         ‘, ‘PORT’: ‘                ‘,}}

Set the database before starting with any new website.  Now the project is created and configured, and ready to work on.

Head to Head Comparison Between WordPress and Django (Infographics)

Below is the top 4 difference between WordPress and Django:

Key Differences Between WordPress and Django

Below is the list of points that explain the key differences between WordPress and Django:

• Both WordPress vs Django is open-source software.
• Django comes with multilingual support through its built-in internationalization system. While WordPress translated the entire content into a language preferred by a user.
• WordPress comes with several plugins which help in customization as per users need. Django has built-in support for Ajax, RSS, Caching and various other frameworks making it lightweight.
• Django is written in 100% Python; hence, you will need to download Python first for running Django. Once it is downloaded, you can now install Django.
• WordPress has a social login that provides an easy way to integrate functionality for your website’s social media logins. Something which you have code manually in Django.
• WordPress has SEO features already in place. You can install SEO and site speed plugins to help you rank on top Google searches.

Head to Head Comparison Between WordPress vs Django

Below is the Top Comparison Between WordPress vs Django

WordPress	Django
Ease of Use To create a website using WordPress, a user doesn’t need to have any coding skills.	Django is building websites from scratch. A user needs to have knowledge of Python and MVC.
Look and feel The look and feel of a WordPress website can be configured easily by just selecting available themes.	For a rich look and feel, a user needs to code accordingly.
Plugins WordPress supports a very large collection of plugins. This makes integrating any functionality very easy.	With Django, anything you want, you should code it. Django supports a very limited number of plugins.
Popularity WordPress is more popular.	Django is less preferred as it requires technical knowledge.

Conclusion

• If you want to create a website with any knowledge of underlying technology, use WordPress. Django requires learning and takes time to create a website with a beautiful look and feel.
• For some WordPress websites, a user needs to pay a minimal fee for hosting.
• If the creation of a website needs to be done in very less time, then WordPress is the option.
• WordPress provides a very large collection of plugins. Using a lot of plugins on your site may make it heavy and slow.
• Both Wordpress vs Django platforms are free, but Django is expensive in order to develop and maintain.

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