Usability differences between WordPress and ModX

Overview Outline

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.

Plugins used in the comparison test

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:

Login to secure backend

Both have the same sort of login by extending the website URL.

WordPress = radianweb.com.au/wp-admin

ModX = radianweb.com.au/manager

Editing Pages

MODX:

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).

WORDPRESS:

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.

SEO Abilities (Meta Descriptions, XML Sitemaps and Keywords).

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.

Editing Blogs

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.

Adjusting Content

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.

Support

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.