it_user627036 - PeerSpot reviewer
Drupal Developer at a tech vendor with 51-200 employees
Vendor
Offers a wide array of modules to add functionality to a website. The community is a very passionate and helpful one.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable are the security features and a wide array of available modules, or extensions, that can be used to add functionality to a Drupal website.

How has it helped my organization?

Our website, debugacademy.com, was built in Drupal. We use it to review student applications to our Drupal Development Course.

What needs improvement?

It needs better and more themes available for download, like you have in WordPress.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have used this for 16 months.

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What do I think about the stability of the solution?

We have not had any stability issues. Another good thing about Drupal is that it gets a lot of updates.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

We have not had scalability issues. Drupal is designed for complex and large websites.

How are customer service and support?

I would give technical support a rating of 5/5. The Drupal community is a very passionate and helpful one.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We did not have a previous solution.

How was the initial setup?

The setup is definitely complex. In order to develop a Drupal website, you have to set up a local development environment or server.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

Drupal is free to use since it is open source software. However, Drupal developers are expensive.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We didn’t look at any alternatives.

What other advice do I have?

Make sure you know Drupal before getting into it. Take a Drupal course like the one we have.

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: The founder of my company works for the company that invented Drupal (Acquia). (You can find more information at debugacademy.com.)
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PeerSpot user
Web Administrator at a retailer with 1,001-5,000 employees
Vendor
It's your CMS if you're concerned with enterprise-level security, but the existing plugins don't cover all areas.

What is most valuable?

- Ease of Customization

- Expandability

How has it helped my organization?

- Company website build in Drupal

What needs improvement?

- Drupal Community and Forums not as easy and straightforward as Wordpress

- The number of areas covered by existing plugins should be larger

- Resource Hungry, compared to Wordpress

For how long have I used the solution?

2 years

What was my experience with deployment of the solution?

No issues

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

No issues

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

No issues

How are customer service and technical support?

Customer Service:

Not needed

Technical Support:

Not needed

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

Joomla, Wordpress. I typically use Wordpress for smaller websites, with less customization required and Drupal for larger websites that may need to expand in the future.

How was the initial setup?

Straightforward

What about the implementation team?

In house

What was our ROI?

-

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

Drupal is Free.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

Joomla, Wordpress

What other advice do I have?

Make sure you know what kind of website you want to build and who will be using it.

It is good to note the following:

- Drupal has enterprise level security. Numerous government websites are build on Drupal so if security is a number one priority Drupal is your CMS

- As far as SEO is concerned, things can go really bad for Drupal if the developer does not know what he/she is doing, or does not understand customer needs. If SEO is done correctly Drupal is as good for SEO as any other CMS

- Use Drupal if expandability is a must or if you are building a large website with various kinds of functionality. For smaller websites and blogs, Wordpress is king.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
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May 2024
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it_user798423 - PeerSpot reviewer
Developer at FFW
User
It is good for big projects
Pros and Cons
  • "It is good for big projects."
  • "It is a little bit simplified."

What is our primary use case?

I work with it.

How has it helped my organization?

It is good for big projects.

What is most valuable?

Module system.

What needs improvement?

It is a little bit simplified.

For how long have I used the solution?

One to three years.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
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it_user982032 - PeerSpot reviewer
Owner at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
Real User
A good product that helps me to manage complex digital solutions
Pros and Cons
  • "The feature I find most valuable is that Drupal is a framework and not only a CMS."
  • "I think the support needs to improve, as well as the integration with tracking and analytics systems."

What is our primary use case?

We are an agency so we created a Drupal website for our customers. Our primary use case is to put a Drupal website on our hosting web. So we use the solution on the cloud and then we also have one customer that uses it on-premise. 

What is most valuable?

The feature I find most valuable is that Drupal is a framework and not only a CMS. And I like that it's a good product to manage complex digital solutions.

What needs improvement?

I would like to see better pricing because Drupal is an open-source technology. And then I also think the support needs to improve, as well as the integration with tracking and analytics systems. Translation management should also improve.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using the solution for seven years now.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The solution is very stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

I believe the solution is scalable. 

How are customer service and technical support?

We haven't used this solution's technical support yet. I do, however, think that it is good. Whenever I need technical support from Drupal due to a bug issue or some other problem, I will always ask the community first before bothering the Drupal team. I understand that Acquia has a service level agreement to contact the supporter when we have a website in the mission-critical context. But I have never used it, until now.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup was easy and straightforward. It took us about an hour to deploy the program, but customization took a little longer.

What other advice do I have?

My advice to others would be that Drupal is not only a CMS, you need to learn the Drupal fundamentals before to start the project. Drupal is a handy tool whenever you work on a digital infrastructure broad project and not only a simple website. So if you have a big project, you can use Drupal. But if you have a small website, like a blog or simple website, my advice would be not to use Drupal, because Drupal is too complex and the cost to maintain the platform can be too high, related to the value of your website, for example. If you have a website with a big product catalog, for example, in many languages and in many countries in the world, then Drupal is good. But if you have a simple website, like a portfolio or five page-website, you can use many other technologies that'd be simple to maintain and implement.

On a scale from one to 10, I will rate Drupal an eight. In the next release, I would like to see basic page buttons and better integration with the analytics platform. A drag and drop function to create simple pages will also be handy. For example, if a customer wants to create a landing page, it should be easy for him or her to do so. I would also like to see better translation management.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
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PeerSpot user
Online Websites Advertising at a marketing services firm with 51-200 employees
Vendor
Its environment allows for rapid prototyping, but it needs a shorter learning curve.

Valuable Features:

  • It's extensible with so many modules.
  • The environment allows for rapid prototyping.
  • It provides security updates more often.
  • It has a huge community and support from all over the web.

Room for Improvement:

  • It needs a shorter learning curve.
  • It needs to improve resources usage.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
PeerSpot user
Senior IT Officer at a non-profit with 501-1,000 employees
Vendor
The themes and modules are valuable features. We can enhance the application's performance.

What is most valuable?

The themes and modules are valuable features of this product. We can easily enhance the application's performance.

What needs improvement?

The modules need to be improved. It would be great if we could add custom PHP codes to some regions on the template. This would be used for adding and retrieving data from the database.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have used this solution for about one year.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

We did not encounter any stability issues.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

We did encounter some scalability issues when I tried to add custom PHP codes. I searched Google for a solution, but I couldn't find anything.

How are customer service and technical support?

I would give technical support a rating of 8/10.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I was not using any other product previously. I started web development with Drupal, Version 7.

What other advice do I have?

I encourage others to use this product. It is a very powerful CMS tool with a lot of themes and modules. It is great for enterprise use.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
it_user685365 - PeerSpot reviewer
Drupal Developer at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
Consultant
Content management helps the end user to input or update the content on his own without approaching the developer.

What is most valuable?

  • Content management: It helps the end user to input/update the content on his own without approaching the developer, once the site is built.
  • Awesome community.
  • A large number of modules which help in extending the functionality.
  • An open-source solution.
  • It is a secure solution.
  • There is a constant development of new core features.

What needs improvement?

Since Drupal is not developed for any specific use cases, it has some learning curve and requires effort to learn. Thus, there is a need for good documentation.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have used this solution for more than three years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

There were no stability issues.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

There were no scalability issues.

How is customer service and technical support?

If you purchase Drupal-specific hosting vendors like Acquia/Pantheon/Platform.sh, then you get Premium Support or else you need to go for IRC, Drupal Slack or forums.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is easy and straightforward.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

It is an open-source product, so there are no licensing fees, vendor lock-in, etc. involved.

What other advice do I have?

If you need an open-source, scalable and secure CMS, then go for Drupal.

The Drupal project is an open-source solution and is supported by an awesome community of developers. It doesn't belong to any specific vendor.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
it_user674079 - PeerSpot reviewer
PHP/Drupal developer at a tech vendor with 1,001-5,000 employees
MSP
Useful solution to build web applications. It requires a lot of server resources.

What is most valuable?

Views, terms, panels, and entity conception. It is a very useful and fast solution to build successful web applications.

How has it helped my organization?

We built a few powerful applications on D7 and it was very fast.

What needs improvement?

It requires a lot of server resources. It should be optimized.

For how long have I used the solution?

We have been using this solution for seven years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

We had stability issues. I have a lot of 'Out of memory' issues.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

We had issues with scalability.

How are customer service and technical support?

Drupal has a very cool community, so the technical support is pretty high.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

To build more powerful apps, we switched to Symfony 3.0.

How was the initial setup?

The setup was easy.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

It's free.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

There are a lot of solutions 'in the sea'. At the time, we choose Drupal because of its flexibility.

What other advice do I have?

Try it! It's free and fun.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Drupal Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.
Updated: May 2024
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Drupal Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.