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DockerWhy Drupal
Drupal is an open-source CMS known for flexible content modelling, granular permissions, multilingual capabilities and strong security practices. It is widely used by governments, universities, nonprofits and large organisations whose websites have many editors, content types and approval workflows.
Modern Drupal (versions 10 and 11) is built on Symfony components, supports headless use through JSON:API and GraphQL and offers a much better editing experience than earlier versions.
When Drupal is the right choice
| Details | |
|---|---|
| Great fit | Large organisations, complex content and permissions, multilingual sites, government and education |
| Consider alternatives | Small business sites where WordPress is simpler and cheaper to run |
What we build with Drupal
Enterprise websites
Many content types, editors and workflows.
Multilingual sites
Built-in translation of content and interface.
Drupal 7 migrations
Moving off the end-of-life Drupal 7 to modern Drupal or another CMS.
Headless Drupal
Drupal as a content API for Next.js front ends.
Our Drupal toolkit
Leaving Drupal 7
Drupal 7 reached end of life in January 2025, so sites still running it no longer receive community security updates. Migrating to modern Drupal is a significant project — the architecture changed substantially — but Drupal’s migration framework moves content, users and taxonomies reliably. For some organisations, the move is also a good moment to consider WordPress or a headless CMS. We help you weigh the options.
When Drupal is the right CMS
Drupal is a powerful choice for complex, structured content: large organisations with many content types, editorial workflows with approvals, multilingual sites, fine-grained permissions and integration with other systems. It is widely used by universities, government agencies and enterprises for these reasons. For a small business marketing site, WordPress or Webflow will usually be faster and cheaper to build and manage; for a fully custom application, a framework is often better. Drupal sits between them as a content management framework.
Moving off Drupal 7
Drupal 7 reached end of life in January 2025 and no longer receives community security updates. Because modern Drupal is architecturally different, moving from Drupal 7 is a migration rather than an upgrade.
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Content audit
Identify which content types, fields and modules are still needed — often a chance to remove years of clutter.
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Rebuild the structure
Recreate content models and configuration in current Drupal, replacing obsolete modules with core or maintained alternatives.
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Migrate content
Use Drupal’s Migrate API to move content, users, files and URLs repeatably, with redirects to protect SEO.
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Theme and launch
Build a modern, accessible theme, test thoroughly and switch over with minimal downtime.
Headless and decoupled Drupal
Drupal’s JSON:API and GraphQL modules make it a capable headless CMS. Editors keep Drupal’s workflows while a Next.js or Nuxt front end delivers fast pages. We recommend decoupling only when the benefits — performance, multiple front ends, a modern developer experience — outweigh the loss of some built-in features such as in-place previews and layout building.
Keeping a Drupal site secure and current
Drupal has a dedicated security team that publishes advisories for core and contributed modules, usually on a predictable weekly schedule. Sites that apply updates promptly are well protected; sites that fall behind become targets. We manage Drupal with Composer, keep configuration in version control, run automated tests and visual regression checks before each update and deploy through CI/CD rather than editing production directly. Major version upgrades between modern Drupal releases are far smaller than the old Drupal 7 jump, provided deprecated code is cleaned up along the way — a routine part of our maintenance plans.
Structuring content in Drupal
Drupal’s real strength is its content model. Content types, fields, taxonomies, entity references and paragraphs let you describe content as structured data rather than pages of formatted text. Done well, the same article can appear on a listing page, in a related-content block, in an email digest and through an API without anyone copying and pasting. Done badly, editors face dozens of confusingly similar content types and fields nobody remembers the purpose of.
We design the model before building any theme. Typical decisions include:
- Which content types genuinely differ, and which should be one type with options
- Where reusable components (Paragraphs or Layout Builder blocks) give editors flexibility without breaking the design
- How taxonomy terms drive navigation, filtering and related content
- Which fields need translation, revisions or editorial approval
- How media is stored, cropped and reused across the site
Editorial workflow and governance
Large Drupal sites are usually run by many editors across several departments. Core modules such as Content Moderation and Workflows provide draft, review and published states, while role-based permissions decide who can create, approve or publish each type of content.
| Need | How Drupal handles it |
|---|---|
| Approval before publishing | Content Moderation with custom workflow states |
| Department-level editing | Roles and permissions, or Group module for sections of the site |
| Scheduled publishing | Scheduler module or workflow transitions with dates |
| Multilingual content | Core multilingual modules with per-field translation |
| Audit trail | Revisions with log messages on every change |
We configure only the workflow your team will actually use. An approval step that everyone bypasses adds friction without adding control.
Performance and hosting for Drupal
Drupal performs well when caching is configured properly. Its cache tags let pages be cached aggressively and invalidated precisely when the underlying content changes. For high-traffic sites, we combine the internal page cache, Redis or Memcached for object caching and a CDN in front of the site.
- Composer-based builds with locked dependencies
- Configuration managed in code and deployed through environments
- Separate development, staging and production environments
- Automated backups and tested restores
- Security advisories monitored and patched promptly
- Uptime and error monitoring
Drupal runs on specialist platforms, mainstream cloud providers or your own infrastructure. We recommend hosting based on traffic, compliance needs and who will operate it day to day.
Questions to ask before choosing Drupal
- Do we have complex content relationships, permissions or multilingual needs that justify Drupal’s power?
- Who will maintain the site, and do they have Drupal skills or a support partner?
- Will we upgrade regularly — Drupal’s major versions now arrive on a predictable schedule?
- Would a simpler CMS such as WordPress, or a headless CMS such as Strapi, meet the need with less overhead?
If Drupal is more than you need, we will say so. Compare it with WordPress development and Strapi development, or see maintenance and support for keeping an existing Drupal site healthy.
Typical Drupal engagements
- Drupal 7 to Drupal 10 or 11 migrations, rebuilding the theme and moving content with the Migrate API
- Accessibility and performance audits of existing Drupal sites, followed by prioritised fixes
- Custom modules for integrations with CRMs, search services, single sign-on and internal systems
- Ongoing support retainers covering security releases, minor version updates and small enhancements
Budgets vary widely with content volume and integrations; we confirm scope and a written estimate after a short discovery call.
Handing over a Drupal site
At launch, your team receives an editor guide written around your own content types, an administrator guide covering users, roles and configuration, and developer documentation describing custom modules, deployment and the upgrade path. We walk through each guide in a live session and record it for future staff.
Work with us
Part of our CMS development services. See also WordPress and headless websites.
This page is part of CMS Development Services — see the full overview for related services, approach and pricing.