Today, every web developer has the choice of several open source content management systems, including WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, Magento, and Blogger. But the choice of content management system (CMS) differs from one website owner to another. According to the latest usage statistics published on various websites, WordPress and Joomla have a larger market share than Drupal. But Drupal is still more popular than several content management systems, including Magento, Blogger, TYPO3, and Bitrix.
Additionally, Drupal is currently used by popular and high-traffic websites such as the US Department of Energy, Taboola (content marketing platform), ABS-CBN News and Current Affairs, Infusionsoft (content marketing and sales platform), email), Box (cloud computing service and tool). provider) and Le Figaro (the oldest national newspaper in France). Data shows that many large companies prefer to build and run websites with Drupal. Also, the smartest web developers never select a CMS based on its global market share. They always assess the pros and cons of Drupal according to the precise needs of each project.
Why Drupal is one of the most popular content management systems
2400+ Themes
Like other content management systems, Drupal also allows you to customize the appearance of your websites with themes. Currently, web developers have the option to choose from over 2,400 themes. Most of these themes are contributed by members of the larger Drupal community. These themes make it easy for users to extend the core community features provided by Drupal Core. At the same time, each web developer can also create custom themes and share the themes with the community. Drupal 8 allows web developers to create custom themes with a PHP-based theme engine called TWIG.
36800+ Modules
Web developers can further take advantage of modules contributed by various communities to add functionality to their web applications without writing additional code. Currently, a user has the option to choose from more than 36800 contributed modules. A developer can create custom modules and make changes to contributed modules according to their precise requirements. Like themes, modules also make it easy for users to extend the core community features provided by Drupal Core.
Responsive Web Design Materials
Most of the developers nowadays adopt responsive web design to make their websites look good on both desktop and mobile devices with a single code base. Therefore, they often explore ways to make the website responsive and mobile-friendly by writing code with HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript. Drupal 8 makes it easy to develop responsive web applications by providing a number of built-in responsive themes. These built-in themes automatically adapt to the screen size of each device. Additionally, Drupal 8 makes it easier for developers to write code by natively supporting HTML5.
Robust multilingual features
The latest version of Drupal comes with built-in multilingual capabilities. The CMS administration interface also supports translation natively. Web developers can take advantage of the built-in multilingual feature to create web pages with language-based views. They can further filter and block website content based on the geographic location or cultural background of the user. Additionally, they can use the admin interface to seamlessly deliver website content in over 100 languages.
Quick content creation and modification
Despite being widely used for web application development, Drupal is basically a content management framework. Each new version of the CMS comes with new features to simplify the development, modification and distribution of content. In addition to supporting multiple languages, Drupal 8 also comes with a built-in WYSIWYG content editor called CKEditor. Web developers can use CKEditor to quickly and flexibly create drafts. At the same time, they can also take advantage of Drupal’s in-place editing capabilities to access and modify content almost immediately.
Make websites load faster
Website loading speed directly affects search engine visibility and user experience. Therefore, web developers test and improve the loading speed of a website throughout the development process. Drupal 8 makes it easy for developers to speed up websites by caching all entities. Also, it loads JavaScript only when it is needed. Therefore, a Drupal application retrieves and loads previously viewed content directly and quickly from the cache. A user can implement the cache automatically simply by changing the default settings.
A variety of APIs
A variety of application programming interfaces (APIs) are currently used by developers to enhance the website user experience when accessing various applications and services. Drupal 8 makes it easy for users to work with various technologies, applications, and services by providing many APIs. Based on their specific requirements, users can use Drupal APIs for authentication, caching, configuration, database, form, filter, registration, menu, plugins, routing system, and JavaScript.
embedded web services
Users can work with web services efficiently using Drupal as a data source. Drupal 8 is designed with native support for integrations. Drupal developers to efficiently build integrations with four built-in service modules: HTTP Basic Authentication, RESTful Web Services, Serialization, and Hypertext Application Language (HAL). Users can take advantage of these four service modules to make the web application seamlessly interact with various third-party applications and services. Furthermore, they can use the service modules to drive digital marketing campaigns directly from the website.
Complies with PHP 7 standards
In addition to being written in PHP, Drupal also supports the latest version of the popular server-side programming language. Drupal 8 supports the namespace, features, and other new language features provided by PHP 7. In addition, it allows users to work with a number of widely used PHP libraries and tools, including PHPUnit, Composer, Zend Feed Component , Guzzle and Assetic. These libraries and tools help users develop, test, and deploy web applications without spending additional time or effort. At the same time, they can increase the performance of web applications by taking advantage of key features of PHP 7, such as increased speed and reduced resource consumption.
In general, Drupal, like other open source content management systems, has its own strengths and shortcomings. But developers can still use Drupal to build and run a variety of websites efficiently. That is why; it becomes essential for web developers to evaluate the pros and cons of Drupal according to the precise needs of each project, regardless of its popularity and market share.
