Drupal is a powerful and flexible content management system (CMS) for building virtually any kind of website. What do you need Drupal to do? The following are some areas in which Drupal excels:

  • Custom Functionality: Are you frustrated with the limitations of CMSs like Wordpress? Drupal may be the answer. Drupal is highly customizable and even allows the integration of web applications and mashups using third party APIs.
  • Flexible Implementation: Drupal allows your website to evolve in any direction. For example, you may start with a blog but then want the option of adding other features like a wiki, electronic commerce, forums, and multiple content types. Drupal effectively facilitates your site's unique growth.
  • Complex Components: Complex forms, workflows, multilingual sites, and multi-sites can be set up easily with Drupal. Over 16,000 Drupal modules are available to add functionality to your website, from commerce to directories to image galleries.
  • Configurability: Drupal can be easily configured to interact with other sites or technologies. If you want, you can even configure it to interact with another Drupal site!
  • Custom Content Types: With Drupal, you can create your content types. For example, you can create a custom format for directory listings or add custom fields to your pagea. Custom content types enable you to use Drupal as a database management system with a web front-end. This is one of the most used features of Drupal.
  • List, Sort, & Search Information: You can quickly organize and display lists of information using Views.

On the other hand, for certain limited uses, Drupal may not be the best choice. If your only requirement is to:

  • Write a personal blog: You may want to consider a specialized blogging platform like WordPress or a hosted blogging solution like WordPress.com. Although Drupal can serve as a blogging platform out of the box, blog-specific software may have a less technical administration interface and allow for simpler customization and posting.
  • Create a wiki: For a wiki site, consider using dedicated wiki software like MediaWiki or a hosted wiki solution. You can configure Drupal so that anyone can edit content, but it may be simpler for you to use a more specialized solution.
  • Host discussion forums: If all you want is a discussion forum, consider a system such as SimpleMachines, phpBB, or Vanilla. These all have a mature set of forum features and many plug-ins. If you need a custom forum, however, Drupal's forum module with forum enhancement modules like Advanced Forum may be worth considering.

Important note: When evaluating any software, always do their due diligence and ensure that the software is properly maintained with regular security fixes and updates. Drupal.org is not responsible for any of the above software hosted on external websites. Read more about Drupal security and how to get involved.

With every release, Drupal is becoming easier to use. However, like most powerful tools, it will always have a learning curve. Drupal takes time and commitment. If you or your organization are not prepared to invest the time learning how Drupal works (or if you are not able to hire Drupal expertise), you may want to consider a different option.

Comments

DhirendraGrazitti’s picture

Thanks for the post
Yes, we can use Drupal as CMS or as a Frameworks!