Which one is better: Movabletype or WordPress?
This is in response to Parag’s query, and is strictly my opinion. If you forgive my child-like enthusiasm, here I go:
Before I begin, I’d like to point out that both Movabletype and WordPress are robust blog-systems. I have enjoyed using Movabletype in the recent past for over two years as my main blog-cms and whatever I’m going to say is not meant to discredit Movabletype in any way. Also, as I speak, Movabletype is slightly more mature product than WordPress, but WordPress is getting there—and fast.
It all started when Movabletype’s parent company SixApart announced their licensing policy to the blogging world on May 13, 2004. It appears that, that number just proved unlucky for SixApart. For ardent fans of (until then free) Movabletype, that news wrecked havoc. Overnight, outcries of bloggers and Movabletype users from all over the world started echoing on that infamous post via comments and trackbacks. The reasons for those outcries were obvious. People were following developments of Movabletype for almost a year and even when SixApart invited beta testers, it appeared to everyone that the next version would also be free, since SixApart was running a commercial blog-hosting and managing service called TypePad for those that were unwilling to get their hands ‘dirty’ in installation, code and customization. SixApart never hinted that the next one would be a commercial-only version and that their free offering would be a highly limited one in terms of features.
Free against paid The scramble began over the next couple of weeks to find alternative blog systems that were free to use and those that did not clamp on features. Most of them found Textpattern and WordPress to be GNU licensed (meaning free for life). I’d like to highlight one particular user—Scriptygoddess’s take here as an example, who has developed a good number of plugins for Movabletype and shared them alike.
Server-side scripting Movabletype is built on Perl and provides backend database system as an option (for faster performance). Where as Textpattern and WordPress are built on PHP and MySQL. To anyone that is vaguely familiar with these will know that PHP and MySQL represent the might of open-source in today’s internet world. Yes, that’s an intended pun(ch). While Perl is also essentially an open-source system, it is slowly giving away to a more modern, highly customizable and enormously powerful PHP. It helps when Zend and those behind PHP are developing it like driven people (PHP5 was released recently with a lot more punch and a built-in light weight database system SQLite). In short, PHP is rising like Phoenix in the free internet world. And rising with great strength.
Tags In Movabletype, there are custom tags, whereas, WordPress uses the built-in PHP functions and much less custom functions to get the same job done. Also, Movabletype generates static pages where as WordPress outputs everything from a MySQL database, so virtually no pages cluttered on your server. In addition, WordPress team have addressed MySQL query load by plugins and system tweaks and caching. WordPress interests me because it’s built on PHP unlike Movabletype. You can as well use Movabletype with PHP by saving pages as .php, but the system itself runs on Perl. Also, since Movabletype saves static pages, it requires rebuilds (known as ‘chugging’ as in a steam engine-train) everytime a post is written or a change in layout has been made. WordPress instead is dynamic (as in electric or magnetic traction). It parses updated blog, templates and stylesheets directly without the need of any rebuilds.
Comment spam After email SPAM, comment-spam is the most hated scum of the internet. As Movabletype’s popularity began to rise, blogs powered by Movabletype started getting hit by comment-spam. In tons. Even until now, the only known kind of defense is a third-party plugin by Jay Allen. In contrast, WordPress has some basic functionality on comment moderation. And it’s not via another service (as Movabletype uses TypeKey). In WordPress, it’s in-built. In addition, there’s a comment shutdown plugin after a certain number of days. Normally, it is noticed that comment spammers target old posts (way back in the archives to gain popularity on search engines like Google). By shutting off commenting after certain number of days, that problem is averted. Simple and sensible.
Multiple blogs This is where Movabletype is mature, in a sense. It provides a centralized admin control to multiple blogs that you may have on a given host (or site). In WordPress, it is possible to emulate this by multiple installations at the moment. But very soon, that is set to change since this is one aspect that is driving the WordPress team to achieve a complete blog-cms title. By the way, this site makes use of multiple installations as this blog and about pages are actually two different blogs, but utilize just one MySQL database (simply by pre-fixing a nametag to table names like blog_ and about_ ).
The cult There is a cult following with WordPress, especially after 6A’s licensing fiasco. We play by our rules and no one elses. It belongs to us and no one else. We use it where we want. We customize the way we like. We add users as we like. Sounds like a rhetoric isn’t it? It is, believe me and it sounds great! WordPress just received a dozen shots of steroids with so many people switching to WordPress from Movabletype thus accelerating it’s development.
As I mentioned before, WordPress to me is a freedom of expression.
Update—I forgot to mention that one of the primary reasons for my switch also has something to do about privacy. WordPress let’s you password protect certain posts that you choose, and via a plugin by Carthik, you can password protect the entire blog as well.
Thanks, Chetan! That is a really comprehensive answer, way beyond my expectation. I have been maintaining 3 blogs with MT and is currently happy with it. If for some reason that changes, I’ll definitely give WP a try. It seems quite user-friendly, which is a requirement for someone like me who is not very proficient with computers.
Jul 30, 04 at 01:47Parag I enjoyed that myself
If you’re happy with MT, I don’t see any reason to shift. It’s good to know that there are alternative systems available when you need’em. When WordPress implements a true multi-blog system, that’s when I’d expect another whole new wave of movers probably much larger than we’re seeing now.
Jul 30, 04 at 10:07i don’t get it ..where did my comment disppear ??? :((:((
Jul 30, 04 at 12:45swne - I was simultaneously tweaking some files in the background on server. During that process if your comment was lost, then I’m truly sorry.
Jul 30, 04 at 17:34