There are now tons of articles all over the Net comparing, evaluating and testing different kinds of CMS platforms. Likewise, many users find themselves typing “best CMS” in the search engine hoping to get the ultimate answer and stop wringing in pain of making a selection for their website (either a start up or alternative solution to migrate to). However, there’s no ultimate correct answer to “what is the best CMS” question, and what is best for your friend might turn out the worst for you.
We are going to review Drupal as the CMS platform and give you the reasons why you might wanna start with it, or migrate to Drupal, if you are running a website already.
Why Use Drupal as a Platform for your Website?
Drupal is a widely known platform, but objectively it is not the most popular one, however its market share is impressive (you can get the numbers here).
It provides a scope for development – actually, Drupal is a CMF (Content Management Framework)- so this is not only a content management system, but also a framework, which allows you to develop applications on its basis (the fact that it’s PHP based makes it still more attractive). For a person with enough skills and desire to learn, it might be a good way to grow a website way far beyond the limits of a traditional CMS.
It’s timeless – in fact, starting out with Drupal means sky is your limit, as this platform can meet virtually any of your requirements and growing needs, however great an expansion is in store for your website.
It is flexible and endlessly customisable – thanks to the modular architecture, you build up your website using a combination of available modules that allow various functionality – from a simple text editor to sophisticated user management system. Again, there are plenty of modules available for free, some premium ones or, you can develop one yourself to be exactly what you need.
Customisation also refers to the ability to easily create custom post types – to your taste, like news, testimonial, forum post – including the fields and functions you need.
It looks unique – stereotypical or not, but many popular platforms are said to have all sites alike. If you choose Drupal, your web page could never be accused of resembling some other site. Drupal has a decent number of themes available, but since theming is rather simple, creating your own one would not be a problem.
It is secure and reliable – the common headache of all open source CMS-based websites is security. Not hard to guess – if anyone, including hackers, has access to the source code, the flaws can be asily found and used to break into a website. Drupal protection is not an easy target, and with frequent security updates keeping it safe is quite an attainable goal.
It is well documented – Drupal documentation is frequently put as a specimen to follow. It is done by developers, who are good at doing this job, so in spite of the steep learning curve, you can find tutorials and manuals, even some code snippets to help you out in mastering this CMS.
What’s the Conclusion?
Drupal is a platform with character (if one can say this about a CMS). If you’re able to tame it, you’ll be then able to do whatever you want and get great results from your website. “Taming” isn’t easy though. Drupal isn’t called a developer platform for nothing. You are going to have a steep learning curve to master before Drupal obeys to your wishes.
In case you’re planning a blog with no other features than commenting and sharing posts plus selling advertisements, Drupal might be an overkill and you should consider choosing another platform. However, for a project that has a prospective development and expanding opportunities, Drupal can offer a lot.
Your current platform is limiting you? Then, you can migrate your content to Drupal and get lots of space for further growth. aisite can make your Drupal migration fast and very simple task. This automated migration tool does all the heavy lifting and moves your data to Drupal safely and accurately. Words are not enough to describe the process – better start the free Demo migration right now and make your first step to getting a new Drupal website!
