Should We Be Using Drupal?

A few of us here at WDL have worked with Drupal before and there is generally a positive response when asked about the experience. However, even though we think it’s good, we don’t actively use or support Drupal as a CMS.

We use WordPress as our primary CMS because we’re experts using it and we know how to get the very best from it. Additionally, and the reason for us choosing WordPress as our primary CMS, is the ease-of-use for administrators – our clients. WordPress is extremely easy to use with a little training and support, whereas many other content management systems can be difficult to carry out simple content updates.

‘Difficult for administrators to use’ was the general negative response when I asked people around the office what their experience of Drupal was. Developers said they had to ‘turn a lot off’ to make it easier for an administrator to use.

Drupal is very feature rich. It can power a lot of website requirements and it does allow administrators to do a lot with content and in-system changes. However, this also means that it could, in some instances, do too much, hence requiring the need to ‘turn a lot off’.

Whilst the argument could be made that if Drupal does so much then why are we not using it, we’ve found that WordPress does enough. Many would say that enough doesn’t cut it these days but we’d disagree. According to W3Tech’s ongoing statistical review of CMS use on the Web, WordPress has a 58% market share as opposed to Drupal’s 5%. This would suggest that for now, enough is definitely suitable.

So, why is WordPress the leading content management system? Simply put, the Web is predominantly about publishing, sharing, obtaining and digesting information. WordPress was built as a blogging platform which was to do exactly this; publish, share, obtain, and allow for the digestion of information. Whilst the Web has certainly grown, and user requirements have become more complex, WordPress has evolved and kept up with demand. The market share is difficult to argue against.

Should we be using Drupal?

Yes, it’s very powerful. Yes, a lot of governments, charities, and large organisations use it. Yes, it is growing in popularity. Yes, a new release (Drupal 8) is coming out. But, call us crazy, the answer is a resounding no.

We’ll keep an eye on Drupal, as we do with many other content management systems, but we’ll be keeping a more interested eye on WordPress and how it will continue to develop.