History: Tiki vs Drupal
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Similar
- Both are full-featured free and open source web applications with which you can realize a very diverse variety of projects.
- Both are written in PHP and use a database such as MySQL
- Both can run on standard, inexpensive hosting.
- Both use jQuery
- Both are community-run projects
Different
- Tiki uses Zend Framework and the Smarty Template engine while Drupal has its own code.
- Tiki has a 6-month release schedule, with Long Term Support versions, while Drupal is released "when it's ready". Between Drupal 6.0 (Feb 2008) and Drupal 7.0 (Jan 2011) (nearly 3 years)
- "Any feature that we add to Drupal core needs to be good enough to last us at least 3 years in a relatively unchanged state"
- In Tiki, we want things in core as soon as possible, because that is how they get better. Unstable features can be tagged as "experimental".
- Drupal is more of a Content Management Framework, whilst Tiki is more of an out-of-the box Content Management System with all the features built-in. Because of these design choices, Tiki has more features out-of-the-box. With Drupal, you can add tons of features via modules.
- As you can see in this case study, Tiki code is much simpler (more like standard PHP), vs Drupal's multiple abstractions.
- Tiki is more centralized. Tiki is the all-in-one model while Drupal (like Joomla!) is the small-core-and-add-what-you-need model. Each model has its pros & cons.
- In Drupal, there can be more than one "contributed module" for the same feature so they have different names. Whereas in Tiki, there is only one and thus, the name is descriptive.
- Tiki has all the features built-in (and you just activate/deactivate features), thus, every Tiki instance of a given version has the same code base. This makes it easier for a hosting company and for upgrades. In contrast, if you maintain dozens of Drupal sites, they will have different modules installed (and thus, code base) depending the use case.
- When Tiki is upgraded, all the features are supported and the upgrade is smooth. In Drupal, some of your plugins/extensions may have become abandoned or be incompatible with the new version.
- In Drupal, there is a clear distinction between core and contributed modules developers. In Tiki, everyone works on the core.
- While Tiki is a very large and popular project (over 250 contributors to main code base), Drupal is several times larger when you count the contributed modules.
- Tiki is Wiki-centric, whilst Drupal is node-centric. Please see (if) Why Wiki Syntax Is Important to your project.
- The Wiki engine in Tiki is mature, very powerful and versatile and has features hardly any wikis have such as the cross lingual wiki engine, whereas, the Wiki modules (and again the problem of choosing which one) for Drupal are more modest and less actively developed.
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Drupal has modules for features that Tiki doesn't have, ecommerce for exampleTiki5 now has a basic shopping cart. - Drupal is GPL, Tiki is LGPL. The main difference between the GPL and the LGPL is that the latter can be linked to (in the case of a library, 'used by') a non-(L)GPLed program, which may be free software or proprietary software.
- Drupal has a requirement that all code hosted on Drupal.org be GPL. Whereas Tiki will routinely re-use code of any license that is compatible with the license used by Tiki.
CMS Match
http://www.cmsmatch.com/compare/content-management-systems/11+1073
CMS Matrix
Compare them at http://cmsmatrix.org
Number of commits
Number of contributions to the project source code each month.
Tiki is in red, Drupal (core) in green
Number of contributions to the project source code each month.
Tiki is in red, Drupal (contributions) in green
Active contributors
Number of contributors who made changes to the project source code each month.
Tiki is in red, Drupal (core) in green
The charts above don't take into account the huge activity for contributed modules. As it's almost always the case with extension-based systems, there are vast numbers of contributed modules (which shows activity and diversity), but they often overlap if not outright duplicate each other or can be abandoned. See Tiki all-in-one model for more information. Also, in Drupal, contributions are suggested by a larger number of people but the commits are done by a smaller number of people. Thus, the chart above is skewed.
Related links
- DrupalCon DC 2009 - Why I Hate Drupal (James Walker). Note: Drupal is a hugely successful project. He describes the challenges of the Drupal model. Each model has strengths & challenges.
- Product, Framework, or Platform? What They Mean, And Why You Should Care -> This talk highlights the challenges of attempting to be many things at once.
- Seducido por Tiki Wiki: estoy siendo infiel a Drupal - Great article about how long-time Drupal supporter has been "seduced" by Tiki. (in Spanish)
- How CMS architecture affects dev communities - A case study of Drupal, Tiki Wiki and XOOPS
- Interesting Features from other Web apps