Since its appearance on the web, Drupal CMS has constantly evolved to emerge as one of the most complex content management systems. Its acceptability and popularity can be mapped to the fact that several top-tier sites are using the CMS as their support system: The Economist, The White House, MIT, Harvard, Popular Science, and Sony Music, to name a few. In fact, today 538,813 people use Drupal in 228 countries around the world in 182 available languages.

For those who are new to Drupal but have been using WordPress for a while, you’ll find some striking similarities between the two content management systems. However, due to its sophisticated and interactive programming interface, Drupal is considered more than just a CMS tool – it is considered an end-to-end development solution. The Drupal system displays advanced management options that are supported by detailed reporting tools. Basic use of the platform does not require any technical whereabouts, but more is put to use as you hire Drupal developers and advanced level companies.

While Drupal has become one of the easiest CMS platforms to use, it can be too unwieldy for some users. This post explores the various advantages and disadvantages of Drupal as a content management system.

advantages:

  • Drupal comes with all the basic features you may need to manage content effectively. The Core version of Drupal includes basic utility features such as RSS feeds, user registration, page layout customization, menu management, and system administration.
  • Drupal offers you great modules that can be used as building blocks of your website, allowing you to quickly create and manage content and rules. With the built-in themes and templates that Drupal offers, you don’t have to start building a site from scratch, no matter how complex your development business might be.
  • Drupal facilitates easy organization of content. It allows you to create custom lists, organize content via path URLs, create defaults, and associate content. This makes it easy to organize, find, reuse, and manage your content.
  • Drupal’s 7,000+ plugins allow you to add new capabilities to your development forte. The plugins are free to download and use, which means you can use as many plugins as you like to enhance the functionalities of your Drupal portal.

Disadvantages:

  • Drupal may offer great power and functionality, but it is not as easy to use as other CMS available on the web, due to its high learning curve. CMS like WordPress and Joomla may offer better usability, but they lack the power of Drupal.
  • In terms of performance, Drupal lags behind WordPress in two respects: scalability and loading. The expanded breadth of Drupal’s functionality is to blame for the platform’s slower speed. Also, the significantly large learning curve is sometimes quite time consuming.
  • Backwards compatibility feature is missing in Drupal CMS. This means that if you are used to some other content system or program, Drupal may not be the right choice of CMS.

Considering the advantages and disadvantages of the Drupal CMS, it can be said that the CMS is a perfect choice for those who are looking for powerful features to improve the performance and usability of their next content-based website.