5 Reasons why you Should Migrate from Drupal to WordPress

There are two myths Drupal developers might believe are true when they consider whether they want to migrate from Drupal to WordPress.

First, that the process of moving your website is slow and painful.

Second, that WordPress does not have the flexibility and extensibility of Drupal.

The good news is that both are wrong.

Migrating from Drupal to WordPress is actually a lot easier than you think if you follow the right steps. Using Toolset’s guide on how to migrate from Drupal to WordPress will help you get there.

Additionally, thanks to Toolset, Drupal users will see that many of the features they enjoy are also available on WordPress. However, on WordPress, they will take much less time to add and next to no complex coding.

Before we explore what these elements and features are, let’s briefly outline what the common problems developers might encounter on Drupal are and how Toolset and WordPress improve on them.

The common problems with Drupal and how Toolset/WordPress solves them

While it boasts a number of impressive features, building websites on Drupal is a far more complex, expensive and time-consuming prospect than on WordPress.

Drupal websites are not forward-compatible which means you will have to rebuild them from scratch each time you upgrade. If you are still on Drupal 7 you will ask yourself if it is worth the significant cost and time to move to Drupal 8. On the other hand, upgrading on WordPress is possible without an entire rebuild.

Building websites on Drupal, in general, is a much more painful experience than on WordPress. Drupal’s infrastructure is far more complex than WordPress’ – regardless of how detailed a website you require. It means you could be spending hours pouring over books and complex coding to create what you want on Drupal. Meanwhile, you can build advanced websites on WordPress without any PHP at all thanks to Toolset.

We have established that it is easier to add features on WordPress than Drupal, now let’s see what these features are.

1. Custom types, fields and taxonomies with relationships

Just like in Drupal, using Toolset on WordPress lets you create custom content for your website with relationships between them.

By using Toolset Types you can build “Drupal-like” custom post types without needing to use any complex custom coding. Just like Drupal and the Content Construction Kit module, you can use Toolset to build on the two types (Posts and Pages) offered by WordPress to create sections such as “Testimonials”, “Products” and “About Us.”

Thanks to Toolset you can create post relationships on WordPress in a similar way to how Drupal developers use Entity Reference. Toolset Types gives you the opportunity to create connections across all post types in one to one, one to many and many to many configurations.

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Toolset Types also lets you add custom fields just like on Drupal. Custom fields allow you to add pieces of information to your templates such as the price, size and number of bedrooms for a property.

custom fields

Drupal’s Vocabularies can also be replicated on WordPress with Toolset’s taxonomies which can also contain the same relationships including hierarchies.

2. A custom search with multiple filters

One of Drupal’s most popular features is its customized search with “exposed filters” which is also available on WordPress thanks to Toolset.

Toolset’s approach to custom search, known as “parametric search”, allows the user to update its results as it applies its filters.

For example, if you were looking for a personal trainer you might need the custom search which Toolset offers on WordPress. In our search below, we have a number of filters – “Trainer name,” “Price”, “Degree”, “Specialty.” If we add our price budget ($15-$25) it will only display those results within that price range.

custom search

3. Custom interactive maps to display results

Toolset and WordPress let you add interactive maps which display whatever content you require in a much quicker time than on Drupal.

Drupal users may have wasted valuable hours trying in vain to map their views using the GMap module. Some maps on Drupal could take weeks to implement – especially if you are hoping to customize markers, clusters or any other styles.

On the other hand, creating interactive maps on WordPress and Toolset populated with Views data is a far more enjoyable experience. Within hours you can display any sort of information you require on Google or Azure Maps on the front-end. Not only that but you can set your location from the map and even filter your results by distance to show the ones closest to you.

Toolset maps

4. Front-end forms for creating content

WordPress and Toolset lets you build front-end forms for creating content with just as much flexibility as on Drupal without any of the hassle.

Drupal’s front-end forms come with a great number of features. The problem is you need to spend valuable time messing around with hook_form_alter and other custom code. Why do that when you can use Toolset and WordPress without needing any of it?

By using Toolset and WordPress there are a number of features you can add to your front-end forms without any PHP:

Decide whether the forms update content or add new content
Add custom fields for users to fill in which will appear as part of the content template
Hide unnecessary fields from users (“Reviewed by admin”, for example)
Notification emails when a form is submitted
A limit on the number of forms a user can send

custom forms

5. Easily control who can access your pages

Just like on Drupal, when you use Toolset and WordPress you can limit who sees which pages but without the complications that come with a Drupal website.

Using modules such as Content Access on Drupal will allow you to perform demanding requirements but at a cost. Drupal forms will require a load of custom coding which ends up with thousands of unique permission booleans in your database.

access

Meanwhile, Toolset Access handles the many different demands without the need to maintain thousands of permissions. With Access, you can perform complex restrictions including controlling who can see individual content items. Furthermore, Toolset fine-tunes the Drupal permissions to customize the “read”, “edit” and “delete” permissions for all types of content. All of this without the annoying checkboxes to maintain.

Toolset Access

It couldn’t be simpler to Migrate from Drupal to WordPress

WordPress offers you the most important features you enjoyed with Drupal and migrating to it is now easy.

Check out Toolset’s complete guide on how to migrate from Drupal to WordPress which will take you through all the steps until your new WordPress website is ready for the world.

Have you got any thoughts on WordPress compared with Drupal or have you recently migrated your website? Let us know in the comments below!

About Joe Lobo

Joe is a content creator at OnTheGoSystems. Joe is an explorer of WordPress plugins, such as WPML and Toolset, and of countries. He can be found on Twitter.