Drupal Review – Advantages and Disadvantages

Drupal is a free and open source content management system (CMS) used by over a million websites. It is most effective in the hands of advanced web designers who create powerful websites capable of handling large quantities of visitors and content. However this comes at a cost as it is less user friendly for beginner web designers. In this article we summarise the pros and cons of Drupal and why you would choose it over other CMS systems.

Advantages

Wide range of content types

With Drupal, you really could create any website type imaginable. This makes it the best CMS for advanced developers creating complex projects and is its main advantage over other systems.

Flexibility

Drupal is perhaps the most flexible CMS out there. This makes it great for growing businesses with constantly changing website needs.

Availability of resources

As a free open source CMS, pretty much everything you could want to do with the system has already been perfected and is available to you.

Strong community and support

Drupal prides itself in a thorough documentation and excellent access to support personnel through social media, discussion boards, mailing lists, etc.

Disadvantages

Not very user-friendly

Drupal is tailored to advanced web designers. This comes at a cost as it is less user-friendly than other systems. This means novice web designers may find other CMS systems easier to use.

Time consuming

If you are used to other web developing software, it may take a lot of time to get used to. It takes more time to setup certain sites on Drupal than other CMS systems. For example a blog page would be much easier and less time consuming to set up on WordPress.

Requires advanced knowledge

The script requires an advanced knowledge of PHP, HTML and CSS to install and maintain it. This also makes it harder for beginners to use.

Summary

Drupal is an extremely flexible CMS which can be used for just about any website you can think of. It is also extremely efficient and convenient for complex projects as it is tailored to the pros. Although Drupal is effective when designing advanced projects, it is not always the most convenient choice of CMS for some simpler websites. For example if you were making a blog it would usually be more efficient to use a more simple and user-friendly CMS such as WordPress as these are easier to set up.

Why choose Drupal over other CMS systems?

• If you are an experienced web designer interested in creating a complex website, we highly recommend Drupal. It will almost certainly be the most efficient and capable CMS for this type of project.
• If you are a growing business with constantly changing demands, the flexibility of this system will fit perfectly.
• If you are looking for a new, unique CMS and are happy to dedicate time in learning a potentially excellent system.