Drupal Reviews

Configuration API: Makes features configurable and easier to design custom applications. We were able to build several websites that utilize many custom content types. In other words, content that has many unique fields within the type. Drupal’s extensible nature allows me to easily integrate with third-party hosted systems and pull or push data to those systems.

Developing in Drupal is like constructing a custom-designed building from scratch, using all the raw materials and knowing how to put it all together.

Drupal 8 includes Twig for theming. Twig is PHP-based, flexible, fast, and secure. It's much easier to create more functional Drupal websites using Twig, as its templates are written in a syntax that's less complex than a PHP template or others while being more secure. Still, knowing how to tweak the core with PHP is a big advantage.

• Easier to develop custom applications by customizing the code to build and manage websites that require custom content types and workflows.
• It provides built-in, GUI-based, functionality for creating content types, workflow rules, and other custom content management requirements.
• Drupal has a strong built-in user management system that is more of a framework of GUI-based tools that allow you to quickly extend it for your requirements.
• Drupal also offers a well-developed API for extending the system. It's add-on ecosystem is also better managed then some other CMS.
• Powerful command line tools are also available to make operational management tasks.
• Using DRUSH as a command line to update and upgrade modules and security is a big plus.

This depends on whether Drupal wants to become user-friendlier toward non-developers. The GUI is still not as intuitive as WordPress. This is not an issue if you are comfortable with coding in PHP, JavaScript, CSS3, HTML 5, and have a basic understanding of Object Oriented Programming.

Migration of Drupal 7-based modules to Drupal 8 is still lagging behind. Many of your favorite D7 modules may not be completely migrated to a D8 format. On the plus side, the Drupal community is working hard to migrate D7-based modules to D8.

I used Drupal 7 for three years, and Drupal 8 for one year.

I did not encounter any issues with stability.

I did not encounter any issues with scalability.

I would give technical support a high rating.

I used WordPress. I switched because I learned how to code in HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and PHP. Drupal made it easier to customize a website by working directly with the API and the code.

The initial set up was challenging as Drupal has a very steep learning curve. Drupal 8 is easier and a little more intuitive, but it is still a steep learning curve. With Drupal 8, you also have to be somewhat familiar with Object Oriented Programming if you want to understand how to extend its functionality beyond simple plug-and-play systems. This may not be the case with people not oriented toward programming or coding. In that case, OOP and the new structure of D8 will prove overwhelming.

Drupal is open source. There is no pricing and licensing.

• MODX (PHP-based)
• Rails (based on Ruby)

Go for it! If you know how to code in PHP, CSS3, and HTML 5, your experience will be much easier and you will appreciate Drupal much more. For anyone thinking of switching to Drupal, I would recommend finding a developer or designer who is already familiar with Drupal 7 and particularly version 8.

I would rate it higher, but I also use Ruby on Rails, and MODX (PHP-based), which provide a more flexible, more code hacking, development framework. Drupal is a favorite and I will continue to support its development and will use it in situations where I feel that it will benefit a client over other solutions.

• I appreciate the free software.
• This gives us the possibility to search deep in the core of the system in case of bugs.
• In addition, it enables you to improve the core functionality. This feature also helped the framework to be more secure because the Drupal community around the world is always checking, verifying, and fixing bugs in the Drupal core and in the contributed modules and themes.
• I am also grateful to the extensible framework. In some cases, just the Drupal and the contributed modules are not enough to build the client requirements.
• Drupal has provided us with a modular framework that we can enhance, where we can develop our own modules to give a required feature to the client.
• We can also contribute back with our module to the wider Drupal community.
• We also really value API documentation because if we need to develop some custom functionality or simply understand what Drupal is doing, we can go to the Drupal API documentation page,
  (https://api.drupal.org/api/drupal), or do a simple search in Google.
• The Drupal community is one of the biggest free software communities around the world. It is so valuable because it is responsible for organizing events around the world, training new developers, providing maintenance to the core, and contributed modules. We have a popular saying in the Drupal community, ”Come for the software, stay for the community”.

We use Drupal to develop most of our clients' sites because the CMS features and the development framework give us the possibility to expend less time in the repetitive functionality, such as the user login or in the content management administration/creation.

We now have more time to focus on crucial features that our client needs, like custom mail notifications, statistics, or other features that can give our clients business value.

I think Drupal has to improve the UX for some administrative pages, such as the modules list page.

When I talk about improvements in user experience of the administration page, specifically in the modules list page, I mean that this page is annoying. It is annoying because the default interface gives us a list of all the modules in the site, uncategorized, and without the possibility to filter by text and to complete the activation of one specific module. Instead, we have to scroll down the whole page.

This is a problem because in live sites, the average number of installed modules is around 30 for mid-complex sites.

A module filter would resolve this problem. It would improve the Drupal modules interface, but an optimal solution would be to add UX improvements to the Drupal core.

I have used this product for around four years.

I have not really experienced any stability issues with the Drupal core. In some cases, we found some issues in the contributed modules. However, these bugs usually already have a patch available. If a patch doesn't exist, then we try to fix it and contribute back.

I did not encounter any scalability issues. The scalability/modularity is one of the principle features of this CMS.

The Drupal community gives excellent support to the Drupal core. Usually a reported bug does not last more than a week before it is attended to.

This is very relative. If you are using other contributed projects like the DrupalVM or Kalabox, the initial setup is less complex, because you don't have to configure all of the web stack (which is usually LAMP).

On the other hand, if you want to have your custom environment self-configured, you have to organize all the system requirements to run Drupal properly. This will include a web server (Apache, Nginx), a SQL database (MySQL, PostgreSQL), the PHP language, and helper tools like Drush.

As I said before, Drupal is free software and is covered by GNU General Public License, version 2 or later. You can find more information here:

https://www.drupal.org/about/l...

Every time prior to commencing a new project, we always evaluated the viability of the development of the project with Drupal. In one case, Drupal did not meet the requirements for the front-end of the site, but it met the backend requirements.

In that case, we developed two products, one front end developed in Angular JS and one Drupal as backend with custom web services to feed the Angular App.

I think the best advice is to be patient and persevering. Drupal is a very large tool and you will need to read a lot documentation and view some examples to start with it.

I have been convinced since the start that Drupal's greatest asset is its community. Drupal's motto is "Come for the software, stay for the community".

But the community has, from the start, created modules that are now a deep part of Drupal core. They continue to innovate in a lot of different areas.

The web moves fast. Having a big community allows the software to be on top of things in a lot of different areas, such as technical and marketing areas.

By using the open source and free modules provided by the community, you can jumpstart a website project really quickly.

You can concentrate on developing the business part specific to the client, bringing the most added value as fast as possible.

By having a large base of available functionalities, we can guide the client to align his needs with what the product can offer directly.

There is a lot more collaboration between the development team and the client.

The main complaints of the clients or newcomers to Drupal are about the UX of the admin interface.

Compared to WordPress, Drupal is hard to use. It is a lot more powerful as a site building tool.

In Drupal 8, the UX is now a clear focus with a dedicated team (https://www.drupal.org/communi...-initiatives/drupal-core/usability). Each major version adds a lot in this regard.

I'm really enthusiastic to see what Drupal will become in one year or so. I have already seen what has been made in Drupal 8.

I have used Drupal for almost 10 years. I started using Drupal, Version 4.7, and have consistently used every version since.

The Drupal core is really stable. Depending on the community modules you are using, you may encounter some stability issues.

As a free product, you have to look for a solution to an issue yourself. The community is big. You often see that someone else has found the solution and posted it publicly. Everything is integrated into the product very fast.

Drupal, especially the recent versions, is built to easily integrate with systems like Varnish. Scalability is not an issue, provided that you know how to use this kind of setup.

Drupal 8 goes further. It uses a new cache system which allows integration with a lot of existing performance techniques:

• BigPipe from Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/notes...-engineering/bigpipe-pipelining-web-pages-for-high-performance/389414033919/): Now bundled into the Drupal core
• Turbolinks from Ruby on Rails (https://github.com/turbolinks/turbolinks): Can be integrated using a community module

It entirely depends on what modules you are using for building your website. Some are well-maintained, but a few are less well-maintained. But there are issue queues for each module where you can find solutions and often patches.

You may also find a lot of Drupal developers in IRC channels at any hour of the day, willing to help for free in a lot of cases.

Some companies, like Acquia, offer full-time support, provided by experienced site builders and developers.

I was a Java developer, developing mostly backend stuff. I switched when the company I was in at the time switched. Drupal was getting some traction in 2007, and it was time for us to try it for building websites.

We are talking 10 years ago, and the product was not what it is today, especially regarding the UX. It was a bit complex. It had no integrated rich text editor, nor native media handling. It is easier today.

Drupal is absolutely free of charge, as are the community modules. So the price entirely depends on the functionalities you want on your website.

I was not involved in the choice.

The first website you build with Drupal will have a lot of mistakes. I would recommend a training session to grasp the basic principles. Use Drupal, Version 8, when you are starting.

The UX keeps getting better and better. Drupal is now a lot easier to start with than a few years back. You will need help to build complex websites, especially regarding what community module you choose and for what situation.

Drupal is currently working on "workspaces", which allow for the revisioning of a whole website. This means having a draft version of the website and a live one. They plan to add that to the core in about a year.

A team is working on allowing deployment of content and configuration from one website instance, like staging, to another instance, such as production. This is based on this workspace feature.

Once both these features are in, Drupal could be chosen not only for its adaptability and ability to tackle big website projects, but for its core functionalities. They are unmatched in the free software CMS world. This is providing that Drupal continues to evolve like it has been doing these past months regarding the UX, especially media integration and the ease of contribution.

The new component-based content management is very helpful. It is cludgy at first, but maintenance is very nice among many content contributors.

It makes it easier for multiple people to contribute content and handle who has access to what. Very few CMS systems have such granular, controllable access permissions.

I liked the configuration being more database oriented. The file-based configuration is nicer for deployment and makes it quicker. However, the other 99% of the time, it's a pain in the butt.

They drew the line between what is "config" and what is "content". What is config is file passed, is exported, pushed to the server and imported as configuration.

This make a large deployment much easier, quicker and cleaner. However, when you want to add a permission to a user role, something as simple as that checkbox, forces a config push, which annoys me.

At a certain point that takes away from what a CMS should be. I get the
file based for some basic config storage, but at a certain point it really
gets in the way of productivity.

I've been using Drupal for many years, starting with, I believe, version 5. I used version 6, for sure, and now I am getting into version 8. I am about ready to take some certification courses.

There have been no stability issues.

There have been no scalability issues.

There is no support other than the user community, which tends to be far better than most paid support.

I've used many solutions over the years. Some are easier, but they tend to be less scalable. Drupal is a great balance.

It is pretty simple to install, but more complex to configure and get going.

I have no advice. It's free!

We've always looked at many alternatives and Drupal always rises above for a large scale contributor base, general security, and lack of vulnerabilities.

Educate yourself and take your time.

• Content type definitions: One of the best features of Drupal, and maybe the key differentiator to other solutions, is the way that content is structured and managed. In Drupal Version 8, this was improved. The global process of creating a content type with fields, relations, and translations is more refined and advanced than before.
• Views: In the Drupal Core, views are a quick and advanced way to create listings of content. When using the UI, it is possible to query contents and have the results sorted and filtered by any element. Combined with the template engine, the output can be easily transformed into whatever is required from the design.
• Inclusion of symphony framework: Drupal Version 8 shifted to a full OOP API. The inclusion of pieces from the symphony framework provided some modern patterns in the Drupal core.
• Configuration management: A CMI was implemented for Drupal Version 8, a centralized place to handle and store configurations. This is a huge improvement when compared to Drupal Version 7.
• Content moderation: This wasn’t included in the original 8 version but was incorporated later as an experimental module and will be released as stable on Drupal 8.3. The possibility to have custom workflow around the contents and different states (e.g. draft, published, pending, etc..) is critical for any medium/big website.

My organization sells services around Drupal Version 8.

The admin interface could be improved. Compared to Version 7, it was a huge improvement. I think it is not enough for current user needs. Creating complex content types (involving translations), is still a very slow and painful process.

I believe that a new admin interface that stands up with modern UI patterns is critical. A good example is what WordPress did by replacing the old admin interface with a JavaScript based one.

All API functionality is covered by the documentation, but in most cases, it is very limited and lacks good examples. Mostly, it is required to debug into the core of the CMS to understand how to solve some more complex issues.

Drupal 8 lacks a media manager where all assets like pictures, videos, and other media files, can be managed. This is present on other solutions and is a core need for any CMS. There are some contributed solutions but they are unstable or do not meet all the required functionalities. In such case the community is aware and the media initiative (https://www.drupalmedia.org) is in progress with the promise to solve that soon in next updates of Drupal.

I've been using the solution for six months.

Drupal Version 8 is a more or less mature product, since it was launched more than one year ago.

However, when combined with custom implementations and contributed modules, some things seem not stable. Being an open source solution with a large community, it is easy to find a patch or a workaround. However, this requires some knowledge.

Scalability is something that can be related to many factors, depending on your needs and the budget you have. It is also related to the way you architect your solution and therefore how you implement your Drupal website. A bad architecture, in terms of content, can drastically reduce it.

Drupal Version 8 is based on a typical PHP + MySQL/MariaDB + Apache/NGiNX stack. These have been in the market for some time. They are hosting providers who are selling Drupal cloud services with promises of scalability.

Drupal version 8 is an open source solution, so the support is focused on the Drupal community itself.

In most cases, help is present in the form of forums, discussion groups, chats, etc. However, when entering enterprise grade, it is recommended to obtain support from a Drupal specialized company.

There are several available in the market. Some include people who are involved in maintaining the core of Drupal.

I worked in the past with different CMS solutions. Perhaps Vignette was the most relevant. I believe, at that time, it was the most complete and advanced CMS. However, It faced the same issues as many other solutions. It was heavy, lacking in flexibility, and slow to adopt new tech trends.

Drupal is the opposite, since it is not closed software and it does not rely on only one company.

The Drupal Version 8 setup is pretty straightforward. You can do it on the cloud without any technical knowledge or you can do it on your local environment.

To test on the local environment I recommend using:

• Docker (https://www.docker.com) by using Drupal customised containers (https://github.com/wodby/docker4drupal)
• Kalabox (http://www.kalabox.io) - Docker based but with nice UI.

• DrupalVM (https://www.drupalvm.com)

For a quick test, you can use https://simplytest.me. (You can virtually test any version and most of the main modules.)

There is no cost regarding licensing. Costs should be calculated based on the required support and training efforts.

I started with Drupal in 2009. I was working with Vignette and investigated other open source solutions, such as WordPress, Joomla!, and TYPO3.

First invest in internal knowledge and your way to handle strategic decisions, and then find a good provider/partner who can support you when you need it.

Free your mind from other concepts that may be related. This is mostly relevant for people who are quite accustomed to SharePoint and/or other commercial solutions. This is a shift in the paradigm. Embracing Drupal while trying to achieve similar results as these other solutions will never work.

Its ability to style the article module is the most valuable feature. It gives the developer the flexibility to show the articles the way he/she wants.

When developing a site, it's important to have flexibility for displaying the contents the way you want. You do not have to depend on the default layouts that the theme provides. It improves the site's readability and sense of professionalism.

It has to improve the speed of the admin section. Sometimes you will get stuck while updating the configurations, especially because it uses AJAX in the interface.

I have used this solution for more than three years.

There were only JavaScript conflicts. This is especially the case if you use lots of modules that utilize JavaScript.

There were no scalability issues. This product can be scaled as much as you want.

I would give technical support a rating of 9/10. When you post on the Drupal module's page in the support section, you always get helpful answers from the various developers out there.

We did not use any other solution before.

The initial setup was straightforward. However, you still need to read the documentation and watch the tutorials, so you will be able to configure, use it properly, and utilize most of its features.

This product is free.

We did look at other options, but there's no better solution than this module.

Try it. Find out its full potential by first watching the tutorials and then think how you can implement it with your own website or project.

Drupal is one of the most robust content management systems. My favorite features are:

• The ability to create content types using Drupal's field system
• A robust categorization tool provided by Drupal's taxonomy system
• Access control using the user roles and permissions
• Extensibility using thousands of contributed modules

• Admin Interface: You'll often hear that Drupal has a pretty high learning curve. I attribute that to its admin interface. New users can find it pretty difficult to understand. It's rarely intuitive and lacks hints/suggestions.

• Example Content: Drupal doesn't come with any default content. When you set up and start using Drupal, you'll find that it's pretty empty. With the addition of the example content (preferably with guides/tours), it would be possible to make Drupal easier to understand.

• Lack of good and ready-to-use themes: Drupal.org provides thousands of themes, but most of the time, they are not ready-to-use. Most of these themes are what we call "base themes", i.e., you need to extend (using sub-themes) or modify (in code) to get exactly what you need.

I have been using Drupal for the past five years.

Until now, we have not experienced any stability issues. Drupal has regular security, feature updates, and the Drupal community is always there for any kind of support that you might need.

Verbatim from Drupal.org (https://www.drupal.org/docs/7/managing-site-performance-and-scalability):

Drupal is a complex application. A well-configured Drupal site can be highly performant and can scale to many millions of visitors per day. Conversely, a poorly optimized site can be frustratingly slow for its users.

In our project, we've followed guidelines from drupal.org as to how to optimize its performance for scalability. It has helped us to serve our site from tens to thousands of regular users.

Drupal has pretty good documentation for reference. You can always find support from the Drupal community via drupal.org, drupal.stackexchange.com, or on Drupal IRC channels, if you're into that kind of thing.

I started my career in Drupal. I didn't use any other solution before.

To set up Drupal, you need a web server with PHP and DBMS. This is supported by Drupal. MySQL is the most common one, but Drupal supports others as well.

There are various tools for local setup (Acquia Dev Desktop), for hosting services and for the cloud setup (Pantheon, Platform.sh). These are preconfigured for Drupal and are really easy to set up.

In case you want to setup Drupal from scratch, you need basic information about the servers and file permissions. In that case, you'll find that Drupal is pretty easy to set up.

Drupal is a free and open-source product, which is always a plus point in my opinion.

Drupal is a fantastic tool for content management, but it has a pretty high learning curve.

For very simple solutions, such as for setting up a blog or a static informational website, you might find that Drupal is overkill. There are other, better tools available for such tasks. However, if you want something robust and secure, Drupal is a good choice.

• The robust API and the large number of contributed modules created by the community
• The API uses a consistent hook system to allow you to build custom modules which "hook" into Drupal seamlessly. For example, these could be used to add new user permissions, page blocks, or to simply alter the text on a form button.
• The Drupal contributed modules are those that are built and maintained by the community members. There's a saying in the Drupal community "There's a module for that." Quite often, there is already a module for the functionality that you need, or one very close to it.
• The key contributing modules are views, panels, Ctools, token, and Pathauto. A number of key contributing modules have ended up in the Drupal core in recent years.

It has cut down the development time and given us a great base to build out any type of site that is needed.

The admin interface has been lacking in usability. They have made improvements in the new versions.

In the previous versions of Drupal, the admin UI was confusing to non-technical users. This has improved, but it probably isn't as user-friendly as WordPress, for example.

I have used this solution for over ten years.

Drupal, Version 8, which was released a few months back, still has some blocking bugs. However, the stability of Drupal, in general, is very solid.

Drupal may require a lot of resources for certain types of sites, but hosting and well-architected codes can get around this.

The technical support is entirely community-based, i.e., via Stack Overflow or Drupal.org. It could be better.

I worked with the Joomla!, but the product reached its limits. We switched to Drupal.

The initial installation process is much more improved and relatively straightforward. It’s still a bit developer-orientated, which can be confusing for non-developers.

Drupal is open source software, so it can be used for free.

We looked at Joomla!

Be patient and expect a learning curve. In the end, you’ll have a solid CMS platform with which to work.