What is Drupal?
Drupal is an open-source content management system (CMS) used for building websites, landing pages, and even web applications.
If you wish to gain a more in-depth understanding of this concept, check out the FAQ section below:
Question #1: What are the benefits of using it?
The four major benefits of using Drupal are:
- Flexibility
- Extensibility
- Top-notch user experiences
Let us take a closer look at each one:
First, Drupal has all the tools you need to build fast, secure, robust, and beautiful websites, landing pages, web apps, and everything else in between for virtually any industry you could think of. And on the off chance that you cannot find the tool your project requires within the platform, you can always just get it from an external source—which brings us to the next benefit on the list: extensibility.
Drupal allows you to easily integrate powerful third-party APIs and plugins into your projects so you can build the exact product you need with the exact features you want.
For example, if you wanted to build an online store, Drupal has a lot of built-in tools and features that would allow you to do just that. In fact, even companies such as Tesla, Puma, Motorola, IBM WebSphere Commerce, and Magento use Drupal for this exact purpose.
Of course, building an online store is just one part of the equation. You also need to be able to connect it with your email marketing tool and CRM—which Drupal also allows you to easily do.
The third major benefit of using drupal is that it is designed to help you create top-notch customised user experiences through personalisation modules such as:
- Fivestar Recommender
- Commerce Recommender
- Browsing History Recommender
- Personalize
- Context: Menu Block
- Personalization
Question #2: Is Drupal right for me?
Considering you can use Drupal to build virtually any type of website, landing page, or web app you could think of, then yes, there is a big chance that Drupal is right for you. But this is especially true if you satisfy the following conditions:
- You have a massive base of authenticated users who need to perform complex tasks
- You have complex requirements
- You require extensive customization
- You require complex integrations
Let us take a look at each one in more detail:
First, if you have a massive base of authenticated users who you need to be able to perform complex tasks such as uploading, editing, and removing their own content—and commenting on and sharing other people’s content—then Drupal is perfect for you. The platform has all the tools you need to handle such requests and so much more.
Second, if you are looking to build something that can handle things such as multiple user roles, different permission levels, gated content, and any other requirement that a typical informational website would have, then Drupal would definitely be a great choice for you.
Third, if you want to be able to create customised experiences for your users, then Drupal is definitely right for you. As we have seen in the previous section, it has a host of personalisation modules you can use to do just that.
Finally, if you are looking for a CMS that you can truly customise to suit your specific needs, then you will definitely enjoy using Drupal. Aside from having a host of powerful built-in tools, it also allows you to quickly and easily connect all the third-party APIs and plugins you could ever need to build the exact product you want.
Question #3: Is Drupal better than WordPress?
The short answer is no, Drupal is not necessarily better than WordPress. It depends on two main factors:
- What you are looking to build
- Who is going to build it
Let us take a closer look at each one:
First, while you can use Drupal to build truly complex websites, landing pages, and web apps you could think of, it requires way more technical knowledge to use than WordPress. So, unless the project you are working on actually has a high level of complexity, you are better off using WordPress.
Second, if you are not going to hire someone else to build your website and you have very little to no programming knowledge, then WordPress would also be the better choice for you. Otherwise, you can go with either platform.