What is drupal?

Drupal is a free, open‑source content management system (CMS) that lets you build and manage websites without needing to write a lot of code. Think of it as a toolbox for creating blogs, business sites, online stores, community forums, and more, all powered by a flexible framework that can be extended with modules and themes.

Let's break it down

  • Core: The basic part of Drupal that provides essential features like user accounts, content editing, and page rendering.
  • Modules: Add‑ons that give Drupal extra abilities, such as e‑commerce, SEO tools, or multilingual support.
  • Themes: Templates that control how a Drupal site looks, letting you change colors, layouts, and fonts.
  • Content Types: Pre‑defined structures (e.g., article, page, product) that tell Drupal what kind of information you’re storing.
  • Taxonomy: A system for categorizing content with tags and vocabularies, making it easier to organize and find.
  • Configuration: Settings you adjust through the admin interface to control site behavior, permissions, and performance.

Why does it matter?

Drupal is built for scalability and security, making it a popular choice for large, complex sites that need to handle many users and high traffic. Its modular design means you can start small and add features as your site grows, while its strong community continuously improves the platform and patches vulnerabilities.

Where is it used?

  • Government portals (e.g., whitehouse.gov)
  • Universities and research institutions
  • Media and publishing sites
  • Large corporate websites and intranets
  • Non‑profit organizations and community forums
  • E‑commerce stores and marketplaces

Good things about it

  • Highly customizable through thousands of free and paid modules.
  • Strong security track record and regular updates.
  • Excellent for multilingual and multi‑site deployments.
  • Scales well from small blogs to enterprise‑level applications.
  • Active global community offering support, documentation, and events.
  • Built on modern PHP standards, making it developer‑friendly.

Not-so-good things

  • Steeper learning curve for beginners compared to simpler CMSs like WordPress.
  • Can require more server resources and careful performance tuning for very large sites.
  • The abundance of modules may lead to compatibility issues if not managed properly.
  • Custom development often needs experienced Drupal developers, which can increase costs.
  • Upgrading between major versions (e.g., 8 to 9) sometimes involves significant migration work.