Is Drupal Development Outdated
There are several good reasons to choose Drupal over other CMS solutions. The main reasons behind its growing popularity are the security, SEO benefits, and management capability it offers. Drupal is an exceptionally powerful front-end development framework that can serve as a solid foundation for almost all types of websites and applications. But, is Drupal going to die? Is Drupal development outdated? Is Drupal still relevant in 2022? Keep reading this article to clear all your doubts and queries related to Drupal web development.
Going with the reality, Drupal 7 has reached its end of life in November of 2021. The Drupal community has ended its support for this project at the same time as Drupal 8. Moreover, Drupal 9 official support will also end in November 2023. Drupal 10 is estimated to be launched in December, 2022. So, if you are still running your website or application on Drupal 7, 8, or 9, you should partner with a Drupal development agency for ongoing support and maintenance. However, it’s recommended to go with Drupal 10 migration as early as possible.
Facts That Support ‘Drupal Development Is Not Outdated or Dead’
- Big Companies Are Still Relying on Drupal Development
Long-established companies like Tesla, Nokia, The European Commission, The City of London, Oxford University, UNICEF Innovation Fund, Wish, Rainforest Alliance, Grammy, NASA, White House, NBC, BBC, and MTV UK, to name a few, are still leveraging the Drupal CMS features to deliver an exceptional user experience.
2. Unmatched Drupal Development Advantages
When comparing Drupal vs WordPress in terms of content customization options, Drupal wins the battle. While WordPress does not provide custom post types, most developers prefer to choose Drupal’s custom content types to enjoy more flexibility. Drupal also provides access controls or user permissions. This built-in feature allows you to create new roles with individual permissions. WordPress, on the other hand, comes with 5 basic user roles only.
Another reason to choose Drupal is that the platform provides core support for multilingual sites. In WordPress, you need to integrate third-party plugins for multilingual sites. Also, Drupal’s taxonomy system is highly flexible than WordPress. Thus, it is ideal for handling lots of content.
3. Drupal’s Ease of Use
Although themes are available in Drupal, the majority of Drupal sites use a custom-coded theme or a highly-customized Drupal theme. Hence, you will always need to hire Drupal developers to create something that looks visually appealing and matches your unique needs.
Also, the Drupal interface might seem incomprehensible to newbies. However, once you learn and start using its tools, Drupal development will become a child’s play for you.
4. Drupal Makes Website Extension Possible
You can easily extend Drupal using add-ons that impact both functionality and aesthetics. Functionality can be extended using Drupal modules while aesthetics can be enhanced using Drupal themes.
There are over 39,000 modules and 2,500 themes available on Drupal’s official directory. However, if you only add modules that are compatible with Drupal 8, there are over 4,000 modules and 250 themes available.
5. Drupal’s Security is Unquestionable
Both Drupal and WordPress are secure CMS solutions. However, realizing the upgrade habits and a preference for third-party solutions of real people, Drupal is far more stable than WordPress. It’s worth noting that the exposure to security vulnerabilities and cyber attacks is usually the consequence of human error than the core flaws of the content management systems.
Drupal’s high-end security is unquestionable, and therefore, government agencies and other large-scale security-conscious firms prefer to invest in Drupal development companies. Compared to WordPress, Drupal accounted for only 2% of the hacked sites, according to Sucuri.
In addition to its enterprise-level security, the platform also published comprehensive security reports and is usually more transparent about its security, unlike WordPress.
6. Drupal Isn’t Just a Web-based CMS
You can not only use Drupal as a web-based content management system but also as the back-end for mobile app development. Yes, you can use Drupal for building native mobile applications as well. Drupal can contain your content, user management, business logic, and search functionality. So, your app can be an effective front-end that talks to Drupal with the help of the Services module. In addition, Drupal also allows you to build progressive web applications (PWAs) with utmost ease.
7. Drupal 10 Will Be Released in December 2022
Drupal 10 is planned to be released in December 2022. Of course, the latest version will be a refined version of Drupal 9. The tools and processes to use for Drupal 10 migration and upgrade will be the same as with the previous version upgrade.
8. New Drupal Modules Released in 2022
Some of the latest Drupal modules released for 2022 include:
- Migrate Tools
- Migrate Plus
- Location Migration
- Scheduler
- View Password
- Password Policy
- Two-factor Authentication
- Entity Save and Add Another
- Editoria11y Accessibility Checker
- Schema.org Metatag
- Search 404
Other Drupal modules releases, as of March 31st 2022, include:
- config_view 9.0.0
- allowed_formats 8.x-1.5
- reroute_email 2.1.1
- Pagebreak 8.x-2.0
- Filehash 8.x-1.11
9. Drupal is Helping Organizations Become a Million-dollar Business
Here’s is a list of top websites with high sales revenue:
- University of Westminster ($21M+)
- Paris Climate Action ($21M+)
- Queen’s University ($2.6M+)
- Wendys ($1.6M+)
- Clinical View ($1.8M+)
Drupal Usage Statistics
According to Built with, the total number of live websites on Drupal is 562,655. The platform holds 1.03% of the global CMS market share. And, the number of active websites in the USA is 249,778.
Also Read:
1. 8 Drupal Myths Busted
Conclusion
Above all, Drupal is an open-source content management system and is free to use under GPL. However, if you’re a beginner, you may struggle to use Drupal CMS features to build your website or application according to your business requirements. Therefore, it’s recommended to partner with a Drupal development agency for custom Drupal development services and solutions.
Drupal is an ideal development platform for complex, highly customizable websites and apps that demand scalability and the organization of large volumes of data. Be it Drupal web development, eCommerce development, or mobile app development, Drupal takes care of everything. When you hire Drupal developers, you get solutions that are tailored, effective, well-coded, and highly secured.
With millions of websites still running on Drupal and the Drupal community constantly making improvements to the platform, it’s clear that Drupal is NOT DEAD. Drupal will stay for many more years to come. So, do not hesitate to reach out to a Drupal development agency for your website or mobile application development.
