What is Drupal?

Drupal is a free, open-source platform for building websites and digital experiences. It is used by more than one million websites worldwide, from small community sites to the largest government, university, and enterprise platforms.

In plain terms, Drupal provides the structure behind a website. It handles content, users, pages, and workflows, and gives you the tools to customise how your site looks and behaves without building everything from scratch.

Drupal core and Drupal CMS

There are two ways to use Drupal, designed for different audiences:

  • Drupal core is the underlying framework. It is highly flexible and API-first, and is the foundation that developers, agencies, and large organisations use to build custom digital experiences. Drupal core is the choice when you need full control over architecture, integrations, and bespoke functionality.
  • Drupal CMS is the new, ready-to-use product built on Drupal core. Launched in January 2025 and updated to version 2.0 in January 2026, Drupal CMS is designed for marketers, content creators, and communications teams who want to build a modern website quickly, without writing code. It includes pre-packaged features, AI-assisted site building, and a visual editor called Drupal Canvas.

Both share the same open-source foundation and the same global community.

What is Drupal used for?

Drupal is built for organisations that need more than a simple website. Common use cases include:

  • Government and public sector websites that need to meet strict security, accessibility, and multilingual requirements
  • Universities and higher education platforms managing thousands of pages, departments, and user types
  • Healthcare, non-profit, and NGO sites that need to scale globally
  • Media and publishing platforms handling high content volumes and traffic
  • Enterprise digital experiences that integrate with CRM, ERP, marketing automation, and other business systems

If your site needs complex content models, large volumes of data, sophisticated workflows, or deep integration with other systems, Drupal is designed for that work.

What does Drupal offer technical teams?

For CTOs, engineering leaders, and developers, Drupal provides:

  • A secure, scalable, API-first architecture
  • Headless and decoupled deployment options
  • Open standards and no vendor lock-in
  • A mature module ecosystem with thousands of extensions
  • Long-term security support from the global Drupal Security Team
  • A modern development workflow with composer, automated testing, and CI

What does Drupal offer marketing and content teams?

For CMOs, marketers, and content teams, Drupal provides:

  • A visual site builder (Drupal Canvas) for building pages without code
  • Reusable content models for omnichannel publishing
  • Multilingual content management with support for more than 100 languages
  • Personalisation, workflows, and editorial governance
  • Integration with marketing automation, analytics, and CRM platforms
  • AI-assisted content creation and site building in Drupal CMS

What does open source mean for Drupal?

Drupal is open source. The code is publicly available for anyone to use, modify, and improve. Instead of being owned by a single company, Drupal is developed by a global community of contributors who collaborate on its ongoing evolution.

For organisations, open source means:

  • No licence fees. You can use Drupal without paying for the software itself.
  • No vendor lock-in. Your platform is not controlled by a single commercial provider.
  • Transparency. Anyone can inspect the code and verify how it works.
  • Community innovation. Thousands of contributors and agencies build new features and modules every year.

Who makes Drupal?

Drupal is built by a global open-source community of tens of thousands of contributors, including individuals, agencies, and large organisations. The project was founded by Dries Buytaert in 2001.

The Drupal Association is the non-profit that supports the project. It runs Drupal.org, coordinates Drupal security, hosts DrupalCon, and maintains the infrastructure the community relies on.

Is Drupal a Digital Public Good?

Yes. Drupal is a verified Digital Public Good, registered with the Digital Public Goods Alliance. Drupal has held verified status since 12 April 2023, and was re-evaluated and confirmed on 11 November 2025.

Digital Public Goods are open-source software, data, AI models, standards, and content that meet strict criteria for openness, privacy, security, and contribution to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

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