The basic differences between ModX and WordPress from a user's perspective
This blog will outline the main differences between WordPress 4.1.2 and ModX Revolution 2.3.3 Content Management Systems (CMSs) from an administrative perspective and will compare the differences in changing website content and in blog writing of these two ystems. (If you dont know what CMSs are, please follow this link).
It must be noted that the adminstration side of websites are highly customisable. Not all websites will be this similar to the examples we have tested in this article.
Both ModX and WordPress can be modified using plugins and code. This blog will consider two fully operational websites, one using ModX and the other WordPress.
The lists below represent the additional third party plugins that are installed on each site:
ModX Plugins |
WordPress Plugins |
Ace - Assists in coding |
Akismet - Checks against comments |
GetResources - Assists incoding |
Contact Form 7 - Contact Forms |
TinyMCE - WYSIWYG Ease of use for users |
Fancy Image Show - Image rotation (Homepage Images) |
PHP to Page - Ease of use for Coding |
|
WordPress SEO by Yoast - Meta Tag and XML Sitemap Creation |
Both have the same sort of login by extending the website URL.
WordPress = radianweb.com.au/wp-admin
ModX = radianweb.com.au/manager
To edit pages in ModX, select Resources tab on the left. This will show you a list of all the pages and sub-menus (folders).
To edit pages in WordPress, select Pages on the left.
This will display an overview of all the pages with a bit of information about each page.
Summary
Editing Pages is very simple in each CMS. The WYSIWYG editors make it a breeze to type up text and add images. So this makes them very much the same.
Changing the pages URL is done in WordPress by Permalink whereas in ModX it is done by Alias.
WordPresss SEO By Yoast allows you to create Meta Descriptions and Titles whereas ModX has a built-in Meta Description creation using the Description box and Page Title.
One advantage SEO By Yoast has is the ability to focus keywords whereas ModX has to use outside third party tools such as Seorch.
XML Sitemaps are created by Yoast whereas in ModX it is created by GetResources or an outside third party program.
MODX:
ModX uses pages to create blog pages. To do this, users create a page using the Blog template and add it to a sub-menu (usually called Blog).
WordPress:
As WordPress was originally developed to be a blogging platform. It has its own blog section called Posts. It also allows users from outside your admin section to comment on your blog posts natively without much additional coding.
ModX has a function called Template Variables which allows the developer to create unique postings for each page. For example, if the user wanted to update a Google Map embedded API they can adjust this easily using a Template Variable.
Wordpress can do the same thing using an additional plugin. However, this can cause additional issues.
Both have a large platform for support. However, Wordpress is the current status quo so a lot more information is provided. Being the status quo can also cause difficulty with viruses. This can be negated by always keep your WordPress version and all plugins as up-to-date as possible.
ModX websites tend to have less updates as most functions are developed by the website developer (rather than a 3rd party plugin) and tends to be more secure due to a different system structure and less reliance on 3rd parties.