Updated

Technology · Content

Drupal

drupal.org
Open source

Drupal is content management software used to build websites and applications. It is open source, modular and can be extended with add-on modules and themes.[1]

Drupal is a powerful, open-source content management framework known for its flexibility and scalability. It's favored by developers and large organizations for building complex, content-rich websites and web applications.

Drupal belongs toContent Management System (CMS)category.

What it is

Content management software[1]

Extensions

Modules add features and themes change presentation[1]

License

GNU General Public License, with no licensing fees[1]

Run by

A non-profit association administers Drupal.org[2]

70websites

use it — 2.7% of the 2,555 websites we scanned in the last 12 months

#4of 46

tools in its category seen in our scans (we recognize 503)

26public pages

on UptimeCard — open any of them to see how that site is doing

In short: a free, modular content management system for teams that want to build structured content on their own hosting. Hosting and development work are your own cost.[1]

2.39% of all websites we track run Drupal▲ 0.01 points since 20 Sep

Should you use Drupal?

The 10-second version, from the vendor’s own pages and what we see in our scans

Drupal fits if…

  • You need structured content that you shape with modules[1]
  • You want to integrate the site with other services in your infrastructure[1]

Look elsewhere if…

  • You want a publishing platform that you can start for free on a hosted service[3]WordPress points to a free website at WordPress.com.
The software is free, but Drupal.org lists separate experts for design, development, hosting and training[1]

Drupal next to its closest alternatives

Other open source content management systems. Statements come from each project's own page; website counts and speed are ours.

DrupalWordPressJoomla
What each one says it is
What it isContent management softwaremodular and extendable[1]A publishing platformopen source[4]A content management systemfree and open source[5]
LicenseGPLno licensing fees[1]GPLv2 or lateropen source[3]GPLfree and open[5]
What we see in our scans
Websites running it702.7% of 2,555 scanned sites46318.1% of 2,555 scanned sites2too few to compare
Typical page load time5.6 s24 public sites4.4 s✓197 public sites—
Typical page weight2.8 MB✓typical home page3.4 MBtypical home page—
Security grade B or better22%2 of 9 graded sites score B or better36%✓20 of 55 graded sites score B or better—

Scan rows count public pages only; a tool needs at least 5 measured sites to appear.

  • WordPress: An open source publishing platform[4]
  • Joomla: A free and open-source content management system[5]

Choose Drupal if…

  • You want structured content and integration with other services in your infrastructure[1]

Choose WordPress if…

  • You want a free hosted site as a starting point[3]

Choose Joomla if…

  • You want thousands of free extensions and templates to customize the site[5]

Support and help for Drupal

How the vendor says you can reach it, and the public help community

Stack Overflow

20,266 questions[6][7]

67% have an upvoted answer. [drupal] questions

What Drupal sites add on top

How many of the 70 Drupal sites we scanned also run each tool, grouped by what the tool does

Tag manager

Google Tag Manager
79%55 sites

Analytics

Google Analytics
70%49 sites
Linkedin Insight Tag
29%20 sites
Facebook Pixel
24%17 sites

Speed and caching

Varnish
47%33 sites

Cookie consent

OneTrust
21%15 sites

The full bar means every Drupal site. A site can run several tools for one job, so the shares of tools in one group can add up to more than 100%.

How Drupal sites protect themselves

Share of the 70 sites we scanned that run each protection

HSTS79% · 55 sites

HTTP Strict Transport Security (HSTS) informs browsers that the site should only be accessed using HTTPS

reCAPTCHA21% · 15 sites

reCAPTCHA is a free service from Google that helps protect websites from spam and abuse

Protections add up, they do not replace each other: a site can run all of them.

What sites use Drupal for

An estimate from UptimeCard's technology map of 20 public sites

Runs the whole site9 sites

365retailmarkets.com · acquia.com · axway.com

Runs the marketing site5 sites

box.com · egnyte.com · mindbodyonline.com

Hosts help, docs or support content3 sites

pantheon.io · posit.co · vertexinc.com

Publishes a blog or resources3 sites

altium.com · flexera.com · usertesting.com

Rough guide, not a measurement: each description is written automatically from the site’s technology stack and the site has not confirmed it. A site is counted once, in the first group its description fits (shop, help and docs, blog, marketing site; otherwise the whole site). Descriptions that only guess (“likely”, “may”) are left out.

At a glance

UptimeCard's own scans and tests of 2,555 websites · refreshed weekly

How Drupal sites scoreout of 100 · hover or tap a score for details

42PerformancePooraverage site: 5088AccessibilityGoodaverage site: 8979Best practicesFairaverage site: 9389SEOGoodaverage site: 92

Page load time

Loads about 30% slower than the average site

Drupal sites
5.6 s
All sites
4.3 s

Most Drupal sites load in 3.6–7.3 s. Home page weight: 2.8 MB vs 3.3 MB for all sites. 24 public sites measured.

Where are they hosted?

Mostly Fastly and Amazon Web Services

  • Fastly31%
  • Amazon Web Services27%
  • Akamai Technologies4%
  • Cloudflare4%
  • Other35%
United States 73%Canada 15%NO 4%

Who uses it?

Business Services sites use Drupal 1.6× more than average

Technology and Software42%
Business Services1.6× avg19%
Educational Resources15%
Software as a Service (SaaS)8%

Share of 26 classified public sites. “× average” compares with all 961 public sites.

How Drupal sites are built

Closest partners. The number says how many times more often the tool runs on Drupal sites than on an average website. Hover a partner for its share of sites.

Acquia Cloud Platform37×Drupal Multisite37×AddToAny26×MariaDB12×Pantheon12×Fastly10×Varnish8×jQuery UI4×Nginx3×

Stacks we see most. Tools that tend to run together with Drupal on the same websites. The percentage is the share of all 70 Drupal sites that run the whole stack.

9 stacks · swipe, drag or use the arrows
#1

Drupal + Varnish + jsDelivr

10%7 of 70 sites
#2

Drupal + Bootstrap + jsDelivr

10%7 of 70 sites
#3

Drupal + Varnish + Bootstrap + Fastly

7.1%5 of 70 sites
#4

Drupal + Varnish + DigiCert

8.6%6 of 70 sites
#5

Drupal + DigiCert + Akamai

8.6%6 of 70 sites
#6

Drupal + Bootstrap + AddToAny

7.1%5 of 70 sites
#7

Drupal + jsDelivr + AddToAny

7.1%5 of 70 sites
#8

Drupal + Varnish + cdnjs

7.1%5 of 70 sites
#9

Drupal + Bootstrap + cdnjs

5.7%4 of 70 sites

Similar tools in its category

Content Management System (CMS): 503 tools known, 46 seen in our scans

WordPress463 sitesAlternativeAdobe Experience Manager104 sitesAlternativeContentful89 sitesAlternativeHubSpot CMS Hub54 sitesAlternativeSanity28 sitesAlternativeCraft CMS20 sitesAlternativeSanity.io19 sitesAlternativeSitecore17 sitesAlternative

How websites combine Drupal with other tools

Relationships found on the websites that use it, from the same map status pages show.

Integrates with another 35Needs another tool 26Built on a platform 18Complements another tool 12Overlaps with another 1

Websites using Drupal

70 websites use Drupal: 2.7% of the 2,555 websites we scanned in the last 12 months. A selection is shown below.

Scores are out of 100: P Performance · A Accessibility · B Best practices · S SEO. Green 80+, yellow 65–79, orange 50–64, red below 50. The dot shows whether our last scan found the site failing (red) or not (green); Red, amber or blue: an active incident on the site's status page (outage, degraded, maintenance) or a failing scan; amber also means a certificate ending within 30 days. Hover the dot for details.

Who is behind Drupal

From its own pages and public records, with sources

Operated by

Drupal Association[2]

since 2001[8]

Questions about Drupal

What is Drupal?
Content management software that is used to make websites and applications.[1]
Is Drupal free?
Yes. Drupal is distributed under the GNU General Public License and there are no licensing fees.[1]
Who runs Drupal.org?
The Drupal Association, a non-profit organization, administers Drupal.org on behalf of the community.[2]
How many websites use Drupal?
We found Drupal on 70 of the 2,555 websites we scanned in the last 12 months (2.7%). 26 of them have a public status page.
What is Drupal often used with?
Among the websites we scan, Drupal is often found alongside Google Tag Manager (78.6% of its sites), Google Analytics (70% of its sites), Nginx (48.6% of its sites).
What are the alternatives to Drupal?
Other content management systems we recognize include WordPress, Adobe Experience Manager, Contentful, HubSpot CMS Hub.

Is your website built with Drupal?

UptimeCard checks it around the clock, tells you the minute it stops answering, and gives your visitors a status page.

Monitor my site freeCreate a status page