Drupal CMS: a comparison with the main alternatives

Choosing the platform to build your online presence is a strategic decision with long-term impacts for any organization. The arrival of Drupal CMS in the content management systems landscape represents a significant evolution that deserves in-depth analysis, especially when compared with the most widespread alternatives on the market.

In our recent in-depth analysis of Drupal CMS, we have already explored the innovative features of this platform in detail. In this article, we will focus on a direct comparison with the leading alternatives, aiming to help decision-makers evaluate which solution best fits their organization's specific needs.

The Current Enterprise CMS Landscape

Before diving into the specific comparisons, it's useful to outline the current landscape of enterprise CMS in 2025. We can identify four main categories of solutions:

1. Advanced Traditional CMS: Historic platforms that have renewed their offerings, such as Drupal CMS and WordPress.

2. Proprietary Digital Experience Platforms: Comprehensive but expensive solutions like Adobe Experience Manager and Sitecore.

3. Native Headless CMS: API-first platforms like Contentful and Strapi.

4. Visual-first Solutions: CMS focused heavily on visual experience, like Storyblok.

For an objective assessment, it is essential to consider several key parameters:

• Architectural Flexibility: Ability to adapt to different implementation scenarios

• Scalability: Performance under load and the ability to grow with the organization

• TCO (Total Cost of Ownership): Overall costs considering licenses, implementation, and maintenance

• Time-to-market: Speed of implementation, not just initially but especially for new initiatives in the long run

• Governance and Security: Control, compliance, and data protection

Now let’s examine how Drupal CMS compares to the leading competitors in each category.

Drupal CMS vs Competitors: A Comparative Analysis

When evaluating Drupal CMS against the most popular alternatives, substantial differences emerge that can significantly affect the success of enterprise digital projects.

Drupal CMS vs WordPress

We cannot begin without mentioning WordPress. A giant among the most widely used CMS worldwide, its widespread adoption is primarily linked to consumer contexts and does not necessarily mean it is the best solution for complex business projects, quite the opposite. When compared with WordPress, Drupal CMS offers substantial advantages that make it the superior choice for enterprise implementations:

• Native API-first Architecture: Drupal CMS is designed from the ground up with an API-first architecture that natively supports REST, JSON:API, and GraphQL, essential for modern multichannel and omnichannel implementations.
• Advanced Content Modeling: Drupal CMS offers a comprehensive system of entities and fields with complex relationships, hierarchical taxonomies, and customizable content types, allowing the modeling of even the most complex content structures according to specific needs.
• Enterprise-grade Security: Drupal’s Security Team manages a globally recognized security advisory process, addressing critical vulnerabilities in record time, offering superior security, particularly important for regulated sectors.
• Superior Scalability: Drupal CMS natively includes advanced caching systems, database clustering, and optimizations for high performance, ensuring excellent performance even with millions of monthly page views.
• Advanced Governance and Workflow: For organizations with complex editorial teams, Drupal CMS offers configurable approval workflows, granular permissions, and a complete audit trail, essential features for enterprise projects.

With its new user-friendly interface, Drupal CMS has eliminated the usability gap that historically existed, while offering clearly superior enterprise capabilities. For complex business projects, Drupal CMS is the optimal choice, combining power, flexibility, and usability in a single platform.

Drupal CMS vs Adobe Experience Manager

Compared to proprietary solutions like Adobe Experience Manager (AEM), Drupal CMS stands out as the superior alternative thanks to several strategic advantages:

• Excellent Cost-Benefit Ratio: Drupal CMS eliminates the annual licensing costs that characterize AEM, offering enterprise capabilities comparable to a drastically lower TCO. This translates into savings that can reach 60-80% over a three-year horizon – figures that are hard to ignore.
• Uncompromised Implementational Flexibility: Drupal CMS provides complete architectural freedom, perfectly adapting to the specific requirements of the organization without the limitations imposed by proprietary frameworks.
• Vibrant Open-Source Ecosystem: With over 10,000 active developers globally and thousands of available modules, Drupal CMS offers a dynamic ecosystem that ensures continuity, innovation, and access to specialized talent. This is a significant aspect that proprietary solutions like Adobe's cannot match.
• Accelerated Development Cycles: Drupal CMS’s modern architecture allows for significantly faster deployments and updates, resulting in an accelerated time-to-market and a competitive advantage in the market.
• Flexible Integration with Multivendor Ecosystems: Drupal CMS excels in integrating with solutions from different vendors, allowing “best-of-breed” architectures that can be perfectly adapted to the specific needs of the organization. Proprietary solutions are more limited in this regard.

For organizations looking for advanced enterprise capabilities with a higher ROI, Drupal CMS represents the strategically more advantageous choice, combining power and flexibility with a sustainable economic model.

Drupal CMS vs Headless CMS (Contentful, Strapi)

In comparison with pure headless platforms like Contentful and Strapi, Drupal CMS emerges as the superior solution due to distinctive characteristics:

• Optimal Hybrid Architecture: Drupal CMS offers complete headless capabilities while retaining the ability to implement traditional or hybrid implementations, ensuring maximum implementational flexibility without compromises.
• Complete Editorial Tools: Drupal CMS provides a superior editorial experience with advanced visual editors, real-time previews, approval workflows, and integrated collaboration tools that maximize content team productivity.
• Unmatched Module Ecosystem: With thousands of available modules, Drupal CMS offers ready-to-use solutions for virtually every functional need, significantly accelerating implementation times.
• Integrated Multichannel Preview: Drupal CMS allows real-time preview of the final experience across different channels and devices directly from the editorial interface, significantly improving content quality and easing editorial workflows.
• Proven Enterprise Scalability: With implementations handling millions of users and pieces of content, Drupal CMS has proven superior scalability in complex enterprise scenarios.

For organizations that wish to combine the benefits of the headless approach with the robustness and completeness of a mature enterprise platform, Drupal CMS represents the ideal solution, eliminating the typical compromises of pure headless platforms.

Drupal CMS vs Storyblok

When compared to with Storyblok, Drupal CMS stands out with superior features and system maturity that make it the optimal choice for enterprise implementations:

• Mature and Established Ecosystem: Drupal boasts an ecosystem of modules, integrations, and implementation partners unmatched by any other platform. Thousands of ready-to-use extensions accelerate development and reduce implementation costs, with tens of thousands of developers in the community always ready to develop (and maintain) new modules.
• Superior Architectural Versatility: Drupal CMS can operate in headless, traditional, or hybrid modes, offering maximum implementation flexibility and perfectly adapting to any architectural scenario, while Storyblok is focused solely on the headless mode.
• Native Enterprise Capabilities: For complex implementations, Drupal CMS offers configurable editorial workflows, granular permission management, advanced multilingual support, and a complete audit trail. Essential features for cross-team and multi-country enterprise projects.
• Optimized Cost Model: Being open-source, Drupal CMS eliminates ongoing licensing costs. Its TCO is therefore significantly lower even over a three-year period. The advantage is particularly evident for large-scale projects, where Storyblok’s maximum or custom plans become costly, especially for large teams requiring additional licenses.
• Limitless Customization: Drupal CMS offers virtually unlimited customization freedom, allowing organizations to adapt the platform to their specific needs without the limitations typical of SaaS solutions.

For enterprise projects with complex scalability, security, and customization needs, Drupal CMS is the clear superior choice, combining the power of a mature platform with the flexibility of open-source.

Considerations for choosing the right CMS Platform

Selecting the most suitable CMS requires thorough analysis beyond basic functionalities. Here are some key elements to take into consideration.

Long-Term TCO Analysis

When evaluating CMS platforms, it is crucial to consider not only initial costs but also maintenance and future evolution costs. The Total Cost of Ownership analysis should cover:

• License costs (absent in Drupal CMS), both fixed and variable for team members
• Implementation and customization costs
• Staff training costs
• Routine maintenance costs
• Future evolution costs

Drupal CMS presents a substantial advantage due to the absence of license costs and the presence of a vast ecosystem of implementation partners, contributing to a particularly competitive TCO in the medium to long term.

Evaluation of Available Skills

A frequently overlooked aspect is the availability of skills, both internal and on the market. With its new intuitive interface, Drupal CMS has significantly lowered the barrier for non-technical users, allowing marketing and communication teams to manage content, campaigns, and other initiatives autonomously.

At the same time, the availability of Drupal developers in the market remains high, with a certified partner ecosystem that ensures continuity and support even for complex projects. Additionally, the Drupal ecosystem is home to one of the strongest, most active, and collaborative open-source communities.

Flexibility and Integration Capability

Today, a critical factor in choosing the system to adopt is the ability to integrate into our increasingly complex technological ecosystems. Drupal CMS excels in this area thanks to:

• Native APIs for integration with any external system
• Predefined connectors for major enterprise platforms
• Modular architecture for developing custom integrations

This flexibility allows for implementing “best-of-breed” architectures, selecting the best solutions for each specific need and integrating them into a coherent digital ecosystem, rather than being limited to certain architectures imposed by other CMS.

Migration to Drupal CMS: Strategies and Approaches

For organizations using other platforms or previous versions of Drupal, migrating to Drupal CMS represents a strategic opportunity that needs careful planning. Based on our experience, three main approaches can be identified:

Migrazione completa

This approach involves migrating the entire digital ecosystem in one phase. It is particularly suitable for:

• Small websites
• Organizations requiring a radical overhaul
• Projects with defined timelines

The main benefits include faster implementation and the elimination of parallel system management, ensuring immediate consistency in the user experience.

Progressive Migration

Progressive migration involves gradually transferring sections or functionalities, temporarily keeping both the existing and new systems active. This is the ideal approach for:

• Complex digital ecosystems
• Organizations prioritizing operational continuity
• Projects with resource constraints

This approach allows for risk distribution and validation of the implementation on a smaller scale before proceeding with full migration.

Hybrid Approach with Integration Layer

This strategy involves implementing an integration layer (API gateway) that allows federating content and functionalities from both existing and new systems. It is particularly effective for:

• Organizations with multiple legacy systems
• Projects focused on user experience
• Long-term digital transformation strategies

The hybrid approach enables gradual renewal while maintaining full operationality and reusing existing components, offering greater flexibility in orchestrating the user experience.

Support for MigratinG to drupal cms from Drupal 7

With Drupal 7 now in end-of-life, organizations still using this version need to plan migration to Drupal CMS. To support this process, we have developed a free assessment tool that quickly estimates migration time and costs.

This tool analyzes the complexity of the existing site, considering elements such as:

• Number and type of content types
• Custom and contributed modules
• Theme complexity
• Integrations with external systems

In just a few minutes, you can get a preliminary evaluation that aids in the strategic planning of your migration project.

Success Stories: Drupal CMS in Action

The true test of a platform's value lies in its effectiveness in real-world projects. Here are some emblematic examples of Drupal CMS implementations across various sectors:

Financial Market: CNP Vita

CNP Vita implemented Drupal CMS as the core of its digital platform, integrating legacy systems and modern technologies. Results include:

• 60% reduction in content update times
• Significant improvement in regulatory compliance
• Increased customer satisfaction
• Accelerated launch of new products and services

The platform enabled the integration of prize calculation systems, CRM, and customer service tools into a unified experience, with Drupal CMS as the central hub.

Media Industry: Il Giornale

Il Giornale’s digital platform demonstrates Drupal CMS’s capabilities as an advanced editorial system with tangible results:

• 35% increase in editorial efficiency
• 28% increase in user time on site
• 40% reduction in publishing times
• Significant improvement in SEO metrics

The API-first architecture facilitated content distribution across web, mobile apps, and third-party feeds, greatly simplifying editorial workflows.

Education Sector: Bocconi University

Bocconi University's portal showcases the effectiveness of Drupal CMS in managing complex multi-site ecosystems:

• 50% reduction in publishing times
• Improved communication consistency
• 38% increase in lead generation for training programs
• IT cost optimization

The platform supports the university’s main site, departmental portals, and microsites for events, all managed with a centralized governance system.

The Future of CMS: New Trends

The CMS world is continuously evolving, with new trends redefining organizations' expectations. Drupal CMS is already well-positioned in these emerging trends:

Artificial Intelligence for Content Management

AI is transforming content creation and management. Drupal CMS is integrating AI features for:

• Assisted content generation
• Automated SEO optimization
• User behavior-based personalization
• Automatic categorization and tagging

These capabilities allow content teams to focus on strategic aspects while delegating repetitive tasks to AI.

A real example of these innovations is the integration of Typesense with Drupal, a module developed by the SparkFabrik team that enables AI-powered semantic search. This solution, now part of Drupal’s official ecosystem, drastically improves search quality on sites, as illustrated in the Typesense and AI integration talk presented at our Talks on my Machine event.

Composable Architectures

The concept of "composable architecture" is gaining ground as an approach to building adaptable digital ecosystems. Drupal CMS, with its API-first nature, enables:

• Content federation by integrating data from different sources
• Orchestration of multi-channel experiences
• Integration with specialized microservices
• Gradual evolution of ecosystems

This approach allows for avoiding vendor lock-in and adapting the digital presence quickly to evolving business needs. The importance of this approach is further explored in the talk comparing various architectures presented by Luca Lusso, where the pros and cons of different architectural solutions are analyzed and how Drupal CMS excels in composable implementations.

Integrated Design System

Another emerging trend is the adoption of integrated Design Systems that ensure visual and functional consistency across all digital channels. Drupal CMS offers advanced tools for implementing Design Systems, enabling:

• Consistent reuse of UI components
• Centralized governance of visual identity
• Simplified implementation of interaction patterns
• Gradual evolution of the user experience

To explore this aspect, we recommend the talk on building Design Systems in Drupal, which illustrates best practices and practical approaches for implementing effective Design Systems with Drupal CMS.

Conclusions

In the competitive world of content management systems, Drupal CMS emerges as the superior solution for enterprise projects, thanks to its unique combination of power, flexibility, and cost-effectiveness. The comparison with the leading alternatives on the market highlights how Drupal CMS offers significant advantages:

• Architectural Freedom to implement digital experiences without compromise
• Enterprise Scalability to support business growth
• Optimized TCO compared to proprietary solutions
• Robust Security with a dedicated team of experts

For technical decision-makers, Drupal CMS represents the ideal platform to build an organization's digital presence, combining enterprise capabilities with a modern and intuitive user experience.

Planning the Migration to Drupal CMS

If your organization is considering a digital presence renewal or is still on Drupal 7 (now end-of-life), we invite you to use our free assessment tool to quickly estimate migration times and costs. This tool analyzes the complexity of your existing site and provides a preliminary evaluation that helps in strategic planning.

To explore the full potential of Drupal CMS, we invite you to read our dedicated article on the platform’s features and benefits and contact our team of experts for a detailed assessment of your specific case.

Our Drupal Service Suite at SparkFabrik offers comprehensive support in all stages of the adoption journey, from strategy to implementation, and continuous platform management.

This article is part of our series dedicated to enterprise platforms. To explore more aspects of the Drupal ecosystem, we invite you to check out our other articles at Drupal blog posts by SparkFabrik.