Since both these Content Management Systems are highly competent on individual basis, it is necessary to go a step deeper to analyse their differences. The comparison is briefly detailed below:
Technical Expertise: Though Drupal is a Content Management System that is developer friendly, it requires certain level technical expertise to handle it. While on the other hand, Joomla does not expect a particular standard of technical expertise.
Standard of Sites: Though Drupal requires you to either spend time in understanding it or needs you to hire a person with enough expertise, it is known to construct and deliver the most advanced websites possible. While on the other hand Joomla is easy to understand and can construct sites that are just complex.
Highlights: Drupal has a special set of taxonomy and tagging features along with organizing and categorizing the content while Joomla is a community driven platform best suited for social networking sites.
Best-Suited Cases: Drupal is best suited for the sites that are very complex in nature with a huge number of users and for e-commerce needs. On the other Joomla is best suited for social networking and e-commerce with a comparatively less flexibility with regards to content and structure.
Caching: Drupal has a free downloadable plug-in called �Pressflow� that performs caching and enhances the performance and scalability of your site. On the other hand, Joomla comes along with a system cache plugin by default that improves the speed of page loading.
Versions: So far Drupal has come up with seven versions and the eighth version is awaited for release while Joomla has come up with six different versions.
Security: Drupal is compared to the most secure Content Management System when compared to the security system present in Joomla.