Drupal powers 14% of the top 10,000 websites
Drupal is an open-source content management system (CMS) that enables professionals and teams with web development skills to create more ambitious websites that cannot be created with no-code website builders. Drupal currently powers over 14% of the top 10,000 websites on the internet. It is a powerful CMS with a track record of rapid innovation, thanks to its large community of enthusiastic developers.
The question we want to answer in this blog post is whether Drupal is still the leading CMS platform in 2022 and beyond. If you have been thinking of trying out Drupal, this article will help you decide whether it is still worth it in 2022. Let’s jump right in!
About Drupal
It is a free and open-source CMS that targets teams with professional web development expertise to enable them to build robust websites and web applications.
With Drupal, developers can build different types of websites, including blogs, personal or corporate Websites, portals, forums, e-commerce sites, Intranets, social networking websites, portfolio websites, and many more. Drupal has all the necessary tools to get the job done regardless of the type of website you want to build.
Why Drupal is among the leading CMS platforms in 2022
1. It has a huge community
One of the significant assets of any open-source software platform is its community. Drupal has a large community of developers that makes it easy to find solutions in case you encounter challenges while using this platform. Having this kind of community support is why many individuals and businesses still consider Drupal as their number one CMS platform.
The Drupal community also includes many developers, software engineers, and other professionals in different tech fields. A good number of developers in the Drupal community are building the thousands of Drupal modules that you can get from Drupal’s module library and other third-party vendors such as Packagist (The PHP Package Repository).
2. Drupal integrates with most of the popular marketing tools
Marketing is among the crucial factors you need to consider while choosing a CMS platform. If you build your website with Drupal, you will have access to several marketing tools that you can use to boost the visibility of your website and increase sales. Some of the popular marketing platforms that integrate with Drupal include Mailchimp, HubSpot, Salesforce, Google Analytics, Crazy Egg, Social Auth Google, and many more.
These platforms make creating and optimizing email marketing campaigns, social media ads, and Google Ads much easier. Most of them have marketing automation features, which can significantly improve the productivity of sales and marketing teams. Overall, the marketing experience of a website built with Drupal is one of the best.
3. Highly extensible via APIs
In this era, almost every website relies on a couple of integrations or APIs to enhance its functionality and the user experience. According to a study by Cloud Elements, 83% of respondents consider API integration a critical part of their business strategy. Drupal supports several APIs that could significantly impact your website’s performance and UX.
APIs allow different pieces of software to interact with one another
Some of the most crucial APIs that Drupal offers include the following:
- Render API: This API separates presentation logic from business logic. The render API includes caching which significantly enhances the user experience of website visitors. The presentation layer makes use of the twig template-language and allows for component driven design (for example with Storybook or Tailwind CSS).
- Translation API: This API enables Drupal websites to adjust their language based on the location of the website viewers.
- JSON:API: This API enables serialization and communication via JSON whereas Drupal acts as the backend in a decoupled architecture.
- REST API: It complies with the constraints of REST architectural standard and allows for interaction with RESTful web services. Very useful when Drupal must read from and write data to external systems.
You can learn more about the Drupal APIs in this book.
4. Prioritizes personalized user experience
Most customers prefer websites that offer them a unique and personalized user experience. A study by Slideshare found that over 80% of consumers are more likely to buy from a company that provides a tailored experience. Drupal serves website designers and developers with all the tools they need to create personalized experiences for their website visitors.
5. Customization
Another crucial factor that most users consider while choosing a CMS solution is how much flexibility they have in terms of customization. Drupal gives developers way more freedom to change things around compared to other CMS platforms, including WordPress and Joomla. Drupal allows developers to alter the available modules and also has several built-in capabilities for creating custom content types, altering content taxonomy and much more.
6. Drupal websites are easier to scale up
Scalability is one of the main reasons several businesses and professionals choose Drupal over other CMS platforms. Any business building a website or application in this era should seriously think about the possibility of having to handle millions of users at some point. Scalability is one of the aspects where Drupal excels.
With its flexible API structure, websites or apps that run on this platform can efficiently manage countless data contents in real-time without affecting the individual user’s experience while on the site.
Final thoughts
Drupal is still among the leading CMS platforms you can rely on for your next web project. Its flexibility in customization, scalability, robust personalization tools and the huge community are the reasons this CMS platform is still ahead of the competition in 2022. If you are a developer or business owner searching for a reliable CMS platform to build your website, Drupal is one of the most reliable options out there.