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Drupal

Drupal

Overview

What is Drupal?

Drupal is a free, open-source content management system written in PHP that competes primarily with Joomla and Plone. The standard release of Drupal, known as Drupal core, contains basic features such as account and menu management, RSS feeds, page layout…

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Recent Reviews

TrustRadius Insights

Drupal has been widely used in a variety of industries and situations, proving itself as a robust and extensible platform that can fulfill …
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Drupal! You beauty!

10 out of 10
February 09, 2023
  • To develop content oriented and transaction oriented sites
  • Non technical users can easily build sites using Drupal
  • Drupal 8 and above have …
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Awards

Products that are considered exceptional by their customers based on a variety of criteria win TrustRadius awards. Learn more about the types of TrustRadius awards to make the best purchase decision. More about TrustRadius Awards

Popular Features

View all 16 features
  • Page templates (67)
    9.5
    95%
  • Admin section (68)
    9.5
    95%
  • Code quality / cleanliness (66)
    9.1
    91%
  • Publishing workflow (67)
    9.1
    91%
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Pricing

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What is Drupal?

Drupal is a free, open-source content management system written in PHP that competes primarily with Joomla and Plone. The standard release of Drupal, known as Drupal core, contains basic features such as account and menu management, RSS feeds, page layout customization, and system administration.

Entry-level set up fee?

  • No setup fee

Offerings

  • Free Trial
  • Free/Freemium Version
  • Premium Consulting/Integration Services

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Product Demos

Drupal Glazed Theme Tutorial 1: Basic Drag and Drop Controls

YouTube

Drupal Demo

YouTube

Drupal Paragraph Blocks Demo

YouTube

JSON:API demo

YouTube

Drupal Link Intelligence Getting Started Demo

YouTube

Drupal Content Optimizer SEO Module Demo Video

YouTube
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Features

Security

This component helps a company minimize the security risks by controlling access to the software and its data, and encouraging best practices among users.

10
Avg 8.0

Platform & Infrastructure

Features related to platform-wide settings and structure, such as permissions, languages, integrations, customizations, etc.

9.5
Avg 7.7

Web Content Creation

Features that support the creation of website content.

9.3
Avg 7.6

Web Content Management

Features for managing website content

9.5
Avg 7.3
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Product Details

What is Drupal?

Drupal is a free and open source content management system written in PHP that competes primarily with Joomla and Plone. The standard release of Drupal, known as Drupal core, contains basic features common to content management systems. These include a dashboard with a menu management system, RSS feeds, page layout customization and themes to aid this, and system administration tools. Drupal offers access statistics, more advanced search features, caching and feature throttling (to improve performance if needed), descriptive URLs, multiple users with controllable privileges, access control and restrictions, and workflow tools (triggers). There are over 30,000 addons or modules to expand Drupal's functionality.

Drupal Video

Why Drupal?

Drupal Competitors

Drupal Technical Details

Operating SystemsUnspecified
Mobile ApplicationNo

Frequently Asked Questions

Drupal is a free, open-source content management system written in PHP that competes primarily with Joomla and Plone. The standard release of Drupal, known as Drupal core, contains basic features such as account and menu management, RSS feeds, page layout customization, and system administration.

Joomla!, Kentico Xperience, and Plone are common alternatives for Drupal.

Reviewers rate Role-based user permissions and Mobile optimization / responsive design and Form generator highest, with a score of 10.

The most common users of Drupal are from Small Businesses (1-50 employees).
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Comparisons

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Reviews and Ratings

(378)

Community Insights

TrustRadius Insights are summaries of user sentiment data from TrustRadius reviews and, when necessary, 3rd-party data sources. Have feedback on this content? Let us know!

Drupal has been widely used in a variety of industries and situations, proving itself as a robust and extensible platform that can fulfill specific needs. For example, Ericsson is leveraging Drupal to develop an internal application for accessing company policies and documents, including a news and events section. This showcases Drupal's capability to serve as an efficient tool for knowledge management within organizations. Similarly, Commercial Progression takes advantage of Drupal's integration capabilities with CRM and ERP systems to develop websites for various industries, demonstrating its flexibility in meeting diverse business requirements.

Another key use case for Drupal is creating uniform intranet sites across different operating units, enabling organizations to convey their identity and provide basic information consistently. This allows companies to maintain a cohesive brand image while providing essential resources to their employees. Additionally, non-technical staff can easily create and manage content using Drupal, addressing marketing web presence needs efficiently without extensive coding knowledge. This user-friendly aspect of Drupal makes it accessible to a wide range of users within an organization.

Furthermore, Drupal proves invaluable in the realm of website development, offering a quick and flexible solution for building test sites or serving as a content management system for clients who require rapid website development with built-in control. Its ability to handle large volumes of content makes it suitable for managing customer service articles, translation services, and industry-standard features like views and revisioning. The platform is also chosen by developers specializing in Drupal due to its ease of use in quickly getting sites up and running for clients.

In the educational sector, the University of Edinburgh's Web Interfaces team has utilized Drupal to develop bespoke web solutions with a focus on security and scalability. This use case highlights Drupal's suitability for academic institutions seeking reliable and customizable solutions for their web development needs. Moreover, Drupal has proven its worth in the online education space, with approximately 95% of websites designed to market and recruit online degree programs being built with this platform.

Overall, Drupal offers a versatile range of use cases, from powering corporate intranets to supporting website development across various industries. Its capacity for customization and its ability to handle diverse content needs make it a compelling choice for organizations of all sizes.

Extensibility and Customization: Users highly appreciate the extensibility and customization options provided by Drupal's wide range of contributed modules. Many reviewers have stated that this flexibility allows them to tailor the software to their specific needs, enhancing the overall value of the platform.

Cost-effectiveness: The open-source nature of Drupal is seen as a major advantage by users, with many stating that it eliminates ongoing licensing costs. Reviewers mention that this cost-effectiveness makes Drupal an attractive option for those on a tight budget.

Strong Community Support: Users highly value the fantastic open-source community surrounding Drupal. Several reviewers have mentioned that they appreciate the community's readiness to help and provide solutions to any problems encountered. This support system is seen as invaluable, ensuring users have necessary assistance and resources to overcome challenges while using the software.

Intuitive User Interface: Some users have mentioned that the user interface of Drupal is not intuitive and requires technical expertise to use effectively. They feel that the platform lacks a WYSIWYG text editor, making it necessary to have a basic understanding of HTML and CSS style sheets to customize the site.

Complicated Development Process: Several users have found the development process in Drupal to be complicated and difficult to learn, even for experienced developers. They express that development is hard to learn and complicated, which can be challenging for those with prior experience in web development.

Time-Consuming Maintenance: Users have expressed that maintaining Drupal websites can be time-consuming due to frequent updates and patches that need to be installed. The continuous need for maintenance can become burdensome as it requires allocating additional time towards keeping the website up-to-date.

Security Concerns with Plugins: Some users have raised concerns about the security of Drupal websites, attributing it to the large number of plugins available from numerous developers. They find it harder to ensure site security due to this vast variety of plugins, often requiring careful vetting and monitoring.

Resource-Intensive Infrastructure Requirement: Users mention that compared to other content management systems (CMSs), Drupal requires a more powerful infrastructure. This makes it more resource-intensive in terms of hardware requirements, potentially increasing costs for hosting and server resources.

Steep Learning Curve with Drupal 8: The learning curve associated with Drupal has been highlighted by users as a challenge, particularly concerning its eighth version. They perceive Drupal 8 as significantly different from previous versions, complicating the learning process further.

Confusing Back-end User Interface: Some users find the back-end user interface of Drupal confusing and clunky. They express difficulties navigating through menus or locating specific settings within the interface, leading them to consider it less user-friendly than desired.

Configuration Changes Hidden in Menus: Users mention encountering certain configuration changes hidden within menus where they may not expect them. This can make it challenging for users to locate and modify specific settings, potentially causing frustration or inefficiencies.

Time-Consuming Setup and Configuration: The process of setting up and configuring Drupal has been mentioned as time-consuming by users. They express that it requires technical skills and knowledge, making the initial setup a potential pain point. Additionally, some changes may require IT assistance and might not be applied immediately.

Limited Ease of Use: While Drupal is generally considered relatively easy to use, some users note that it still requires development skills. They advise that installation and upgrading processes should be handled by someone with technical expertise to avoid potential troubles during these procedures.

Users have made several recommendations based on their experiences with Drupal. Here are the three most common recommendations:

  1. Start with a theme if you don't have much time to learn the system.
  2. Avoid using too many plugins and have someone on-site for day-to-day maintenance.
  3. Consider other options for CRM or shopping cart functionality.

Overall, users believe Drupal is a robust CMS platform but recommend starting with a theme for quicker setup, limiting plugin usage, and considering alternative options for CRM and shopping cart functionality. These recommendations aim to optimize the user experience and ensure efficient management of websites built on Drupal.

Attribute Ratings

Reviews

(1-25 of 77)
Companies can't remove reviews or game the system. Here's why
February 09, 2023

Drupal! You beauty!

Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
If you have a team that comprises a less number of developers and large number of content writers than Drupal is a must.
It is written using PHP which almost all developers habe experience with or can get easily accustomed to.
Multilingual functionalities of Drupal are exceptional.
Last but not the least, if you are looking for content management systems then look no where Drupal is your answer.
Sohail Lajevardi | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Reseller
Well, I'm definitely biased, I've been working with Drupal for 12+ years, and I can say it's appropriate for any size/scale of a project, whether it's a small catalog website or a huge corporation.

If I want to dial it down to a specific use case, Drupal is best what most customers/clients that have high-security standards, and need to have extensive editorial experience and control over their website's architecture. Due to its core design, Drupal can connect with each part of its own and any external third-party resources quite easily.

For a less-suited scenario, I might say that if you don't have enough budget to get proper work done, sometimes just using WordPress with a pre-designed theme might sound better to you, but if you have the budget and the time, always go with Drupal
Dominik Ras | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
In my experience, Drupal is an excellent CMS with advanced features that offer powerful content management. It has guaranteed security to back up data and is constantly being updated with new features. It also allows you to customize your websites the way you want.
Fernanda Ministerio | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Drupal is suitable for design or development professionals looking for a more robust platform than Joomla or WordPress. It has many better features. With a little thought and creativity, Drupal allows you to do many amazing things. The possibility of integration with PHP modules is really the limit for customization. However, Drupal is not suitable for amateurs; someone who wants to make just one website for themselves; or a professional on a tight deadline. The learning curve can be a very big obstacle and is sometimes not worth it.

I have been working for some time and sometimes give up on some projects and choose another tool. It is definitely not a technology for those in a hurry, it is necessary to have time and dedication. The newer versions of Drupal are more friendly and intuitive and allow the construction of many cool things.
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
On my sense, it is by far the best enterprise Content Management System, at a time when security and scalability are highly required. But consider another way if you can't afford a robust 3rd party IT provider or a specialized/dedicated IT team that can provide support for non IT users.
Chris Kerry | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 6 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
For universities and historical societies, [Drupal] is an excellent tool to showcase your institution's different departments and capabilities. I would not recommend this software for smaller organizations with smaller IT departments since it is a lot for a single developer to do by themselves. Excellent enterprise software for no cost.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
In the instances where a business (small, medium, and even potentially large/enterprise) have the following requirements:
  • Content management
  • Frequent content additions and/or updates
  • Scalable framework
  • Functional requirements that can't be met/managed by WordPress
  • Multilingual and/or multi-regional
  • Centrally managed multiple-website management
  • Varying user types with configurable permissions
  • Integration with other platforms, such as SSO authenticators
  • Preferably not e-commerce (typically better handled with a hosted solution, such as Shopify)
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Drupal is very well suited for creating blogs, and websites for people like music artists, authors, and universities. It is very easy to customize and the deployment is not a hassle at all as the changes are reflected instantly. It is very scalable too. Scenarios where Drupal is less suited are when it comes to security or having your own video player or media player. Though it has robust support for images, the support for video could use some work.
Fred Bals | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 5 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Our experience with Drupal is for in-house websites ranging from relatively simple blogs to enterprise-level collaboration sites. In our case, we use it to develop content among an internal audience. I'd recommend it for any team that has a technical bent or has developer support (we have both). Drupal can power any number of websites, from extremely complicated to simple portfolios.
Bobby Donohue | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Drupal is well suited for design or development professionals looking for a more robust platform than Joomla or WordPress. With a little thinking and creativity, there is nothing Drupal cannot do. And if you can create your own PHP modules, then the sky is really the limit for customizability. Drupal is not well suited for a hobbyist; someone looking to make just one website for themselves; or a pro under a tight deadline. The learning curve may be too big a hurdle, and sometimes not worth it.
I joke it took me nearly 2 years to get "pretty good" at Drupal. It was a commitment I made to learn it and use it for my entire business in the long term. If you need something easy and quick for right now, then don't start learning Drupal. It requires time and patience. When I started I was proficient at HTML but had never used a CMS before. If you already use other CMS's with MySQL and PHP, then you will already know how all that works. So it probably won't take you two years. Plus, I learned on Drupal 5, which was not at all designer-friendly. That was put together by coders and it showed. Today, Drupal 7 and 8 are much more user-friendly.
Richard Davies | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Drupal is a good choice for large, complex websites. Because it was designed with structured data in mind, it works will with data-rich websites where you need to reference data in different ways and on different pages. For example, a website acting as a music library containing a database of artists, albums, and songs. Or a large corporate website or government website.
Drupal is probably not the best choice for smaller, simpler websites. For example, it's probably overkill for a small brochure website with only a handful of pages that rarely change.
Josh Howe | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
For large scale businesses Drupal is a trusted and secure platform to build on. Security is probably the biggest factor for large companies and Drupal has a well thought out solution to this problem. WordPress is great for smaller sites - Drupal is for global and large companies. I look forward to every update that they release.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
It was great to be able to easily and seamlessly show our content from different mobile platforms, different web browsers, and different sized screens and that suited our business. I feel Drupal is appropriate for all of our needs and the needs of most businesses.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Drupal is a highly used product among developers to create different types of websites, blogs, e-commerce sites. It includes shopping carts, help desks, live chat features, and inventory management. Drupal has a very strong community, so it's easy to get your problem solved. It can be connected with other tools like facebook, twitter, chat systems etc.
Features :
Advanced User Management
Open Source
Plugins
Support
Collaboration with other tools etc.
Akande Davis | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
If you are a corporate entity with multiple websites that need to be managed with a robust team of developers, Drupal is likely the platform that you need to use. If you are looking to develop a quick and easy to use website for a small business or a business that does not have a dedicated developer, I would not recommend Drupal.
Kyle Reichelt | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
It is great if you're a medium to large-scale operation that is heavily reliant on always having fresh content deployed to your web properties. It is particularly great if you need to localize your website in different countries (landing pages, languages, etc). It can save you a lot of time that would otherwise be spent maintaining separate websites, and deploying often redundant content to the different websites. Every human touchpoint has the potential for error.

It is not great if you just need a static website, and you aren't deploying more than just a simple blog. It's not great if you don't have senior-level developers to maintain the site. If you're the type of company that needs your website to be "done" then you've come to the wrong place. A Drupal 8 website is itself a living organism that requires an ongoing commitment.
Dr. C. Michael Sturgeon | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
If I have a colleague that is technically sound, I would recommend Drupal for web development. I would particularly do this if they are short of time to keep there site up to date. If they lack the time or willingness to put much effort into the updates or any type of changes after the site goes live. In addition to the matter of content management, the language(s) and development of Drupal help it to be a more expedient page load. Of course, at times, the theme could factor on this matter.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Drupal is well-suited to pretty much any web project requiring a CMS-like experience or a lot of admin control. If you need a CMS, I would strongly encourage you to evaluate the latest version of Drupal for your needs.

On the other hand, if all you need is a small static site, and you don't need to let people edit content or control the site on the web, then Drupal might be overkill. Simply utilize a code framework or a static site generator, and you can save time and money in that case.
Matthew Deakyne | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Drupal is very good for basic content that can be managed by the end user. It's less suited for interactive content and does require training for end users to be effective. There are other products that are more beautiful, or easier to use - but it scales well for an organization of our size (~10,000 employees, many more students).
Nicholas De Salvo | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 6 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Drupal offers powerful content administration, tiered user accounts, and modular content building. It is a good step for an organization who has started to outgrow WordPress, is managing a lot of content, or can build content types administration into views they’re looking for. The downside is that it’s not really an intuitive experience-- site administration requires technical skill, and it can take a long time to learn how to do things.
Jimmy Mack | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 5 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Drupal is a good basic CMS for people who are looking to have more advanced features that a CMS like WordPress but aren't looking for an enterprise level CMS. In my experience, Drupal has worked great for small or mid-sized companies, non profits, etc. The recently released Drupal 8, which I have not yet used, looks to be a big improvement in user experience.
Nate Dillon | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Drupal is well suited for websites that need a large amount of customization, such as several different types of content. It also works well for sites that will require a large amount of control over users and permissions. It would be less appropriate to use on smaller, simpler sites. Also, you should be cautious using it on shared hosting servers, as it can tend to use quite a lot of server resources.
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