This is part of a series designed to help businesses discover the best content management system (CMS) for their website’s needs and goals. We will break down broad CMS concepts as well as review specific CMS platforms over the course of this blog series.

Last month we dove into Magento for ecommerce sites, but what about sites that don’t necessarily have that focus? When exploring CMS options Drupal should at least be included in the discussion. While its popularity has stagnated, it does have a very strong following of developers and loyalists who firmly believe that Drupal is the best solution for building any website. Drupal is a very extensive open source content management system with over 30,000 modules available for customization—so there may be some credibility to this assertion. While some believe it’s the best CMS for any website, we all know your individual business’ needs are unique. Let’s take a look at what makes Drupal tick, and if it would be a good fit for those needs.

Where did Drupal come from?

As with many open source content management systems Drupal was originally meant to be something else. In its first iteration it was written to be a message board by the Dutch programmer Dries Buytaert. As the program expanded it was released in an open source format way back in 2001 and since has grown to a huge following and an extensive CMS.

Drupal is actually a derivation of the Dutch word “druppel” meaning “drop”—as in a drop of water. According to Buytaert, it all stemmed from his inability to slow down while typing. When registering the domain dorp.org, “dorp” being the Dutch word for “village”, Buytaert mistyped the name and registered the domain drop.org. Preferring the mistaken name he kept it and ran with it. An interesting story if true. If not, what does it really matter? In 2008 he made MIT’s Technology Review TR35 as one of the most influential people in the tech industry under 35. I think he has earned the right to make up whatever origin story he prefers.

HOW IS DRUPAL USED ONLINE CURRENTLY?

Today, Drupal is used extensively across the web. As of July 27^th, Drupal is used as the CMS for 9.77% of the top 100k websites tracked by builtwith.com.

Even though Drupal has a huge following, and still stands as the chosen CMS for a very high volume of websites, its popularity has plateaued over the last 3 years. Drupal had a period of unprecedented adoption beginning in 2008 when Dries founded Acquia, a software-as-a-service company, dedicated to supporting the Drupal platform. Acquia is well run and has consistently grown since its founding 7 years ago to surpass $100 million in revenue in 2014—not too bad for a company selling free open source software! Even with the support of this thriving software company, Drupal’s adoption has slowed. The variety of quality CMS options is likely the culprit, as some other platforms have caught up to and even surpassed Drupal’s capabilities.

Why Drupal might be the CMS for you

I’ve written a lot about Drupal so far without getting into the details of its capabilities, so let’s focus there. As an open source solution Drupal has a huge selection of modules (what WordPress would call a plugin). According to Drupal’s homepage, the CMS lays claim to over 30,000 modules that gives Drupal users one of the most extensive add-on libraries available. From ecommerce shopping carts to calendars with scheduling capabilities, there is likely something to fulfill any functionality from your wish list.

Pros of the Drupal CMS

• Robust set of pre-developed options – I’ve mentioned the high number of modules available to Drupal users already but it is worth mentioning again. You’ll be hard pressed to find functionality that hasn’t been developed already. The downside is, when you do find what you’re looking for, it might come with a high price tag.
• Quick development time – A good Drupal developer can get a website into a prototype phase faster than with most other CMS options. Working prototypes are not always a necessity, but for those who like to be agile with their development process it can be very accommodating. A small Drupal site can go from ideation and development to deployment very quickly. A Minneapolis Drupal developer (who will remain nameless) likes to tout his ability to think of an idea with his morning coffee on a Tuesday and have the site live before he leaves the office on Friday. Disclaimer: results not typical—or even encouraged.
• Great admin features – Drupal has strong built-in administration features right out of the box. From user account creation to analytics and reporting tools, Drupal really hit the nail on the head here. Most content management systems have portions of these included but require additional development or plugins to match Drupal’s default dashboard. For first-time users, this can be a double-edged sword however as many find the backend user interface too complex.
• Multi-site functionality – Drupal has the ability to support multiple websites off of a single code base. I mentioned this last month in my article about Magento as well. It is a feature I think any business with multiple websites needs to be aware of. This makes the management of multiple properties easier and is a huge time saver for any webmaster.

Why Drupal might not be the right the CMS for you

You’re probably ready to sign up to redesign your website with Drupal at this point. Take a breath, count to ten, and read on for some of the downsides associated with Drupal. To start, Drupal is not nearly as user-friendly as many of the other solutions available today. This is one reason why many in the industry believe its market share has plateaued. Ease of use is almost always the number one concern for webmasters who aren’t master coders. And, if you don’t believe me, go ahead and ask yourself why almost half of the web as we know it is comprised of WordPress websites.

Cons of Drupal

• Ease of use – In comparison to many of its open-source brethren, Drupal is far harder to learn. This is true for both its developers and users. PHP developers who work with Drupal on a regular basis have all had to look up Drupalisms which are just quirky pieces of code that need to follow Drupal best practices. A PHP developer may find themselves in hot water with a portion of a Drupal site that would be simple for them in WordPress, Joomla, Concrete5 or many of the other PHP based CMS options. This makes it hard to find or train really good Drupal developers. Not only is it harder to use for developers but also non-technical staff often find it confusing and counter intuitive to learn and manage.
• Slow load times – Drupal has issues when it comes to quickly calling and displaying information. This is in part due to the flexibility and size of Drupal. Other instances of slow load times come with the modules. Even one or two poorly optimized modules can be enough to drag down the speed on the entire site. As is the case with most sites, load times can be addressed through caching options, choosing a quality hosting environment and code optimization to bring down the amount of unnecessary resources presented to the end user.
• Large sites and custom applications – If bloated code can make a Drupal site slow, imagine how quickly that magnifies when the modules or features start adding up. Many will debate this point because Drupal can be successfully used to develop a large site with many features, but don’t expect to be able to get there without a lot of custom development. As modules are added one after another, coding conflicts become common—leading, again, to slow site speeds, bad user experiences, crashes and a number of other glitches and errors. This isn’t to say a large site or custom application can’t be built in Drupal but you’ll need a roadmap set out from the start with a lot of custom code to make sure the site won’t fall into these issues long term.

In Conclusion

Drupal is a solid option for many businesses to be considered for your next website redesign. There is little this CMS does the best. But, conversely, there is little it does poorly—it’s a steady content management system. With flexibility and module options, Drupal is a great solution for businesses that are looking for a variety of options and customization. Remember that a Drupal site needs to be well planned out to avoid its pitfalls that will require that you don’t skimp on development costs. Foregoing on the quality of a Drupal developer in favor of price will be a huge mistake likely leading to long-term costs that outweigh any perceived upfront savings.