When choosing a platform for web development, it’s crucial to understand how it compares to others in terms of features, functionality, and use cases. Drupal is often compared with other frameworks like Laravel, and content management systems like WordPress, both of which serve different needs. However, they cater and excel in distinct contexts and areas.

Laravel, built on the solid foundations of the Symfony framework like Drupal, provides a highly customizable and elegant framework for web application development. It focuses on simplicity and developer experience, offering tools like Eloquent ORM for database management, Blade templating for frontend views, and robust routing for building sophisticated web applications. It allows developers to create sophisticated applications with flexibility, but this often means building many features from scratch.

WordPress attracts many users with its ease of use and popularity among non-developers. It excels as a platform for blogging and simple CMS platforms, offering an extensive library of paid plugins to enhance functionality. However, Wordpress can be difficult to use for more complex projects and often requires significant customization to provide the advanced features that Drupal offers, particularly in content modeling, security, and multilingual support.

In contrast, Drupal offers a more feature-rich solution specifically designed for content management and complex websites, especially when compared to general web development frameworks like Lavarel and simpler CMS platforms like Wordpress. Drupal core comes with essential content management features, and its powerful ecosystem of contributed (contrib) modules provides even more functionalities and pre-built solutions for common requirements, such as e-commerce, advanced media handling, SEO optimization, and workflow automation. It also provides a sophisticated taxonomy system, making it ideal for sites requiring hierarchical organization. 

Additionally, Drupal’s built-in APIs make it possible to rapidly scaffold complex architectures. Here are some examples:

• Entity API: This API allows developers to create and manage fieldable content types that support a wide range of data and media types. It simplifies the process of defining and using complex data structures, making Drupal a powerful tool for content-heavy projects.
   
• RESTful Web Services API: Drupal can expose its data to web clients through a RESTful API, enabling it to act as the backend for decoupled applications or integrate directly with other platforms and services. This makes it an excellent choice for headless or hybrid CMS architectures.
   
• Cache API: Drupal’s Cache API helps optimize performance by storing reusable data and reducing the load on servers. It is particularly beneficial for high-traffic websites, ensuring faster response times and an improved user experience.
   
• Batch API: Managing operations on large datasets becomes efficient with the Batch API, which allows executing extensive tasks such as data migration or bulk content updates without hitting performance bottlenecks.

These core APIs highlight why Drupal stands out as a feature-rich platform and CMS compared to others. They provide the tools needed to deliver complex projects while maintaining scalability and performance, all without reinventing the wheel.

We created a guide to get you started with Drupal in your own local environment, using Lando. Check it out here: How to Install Drupal with Lando. For those of you who have already followed our guide, we have included the drush commands to install each contrib module.

With contributed modules, Drupal offers pre-built solutions that save time and deliver powerful, scalable features. These modules provide tools to address common needs, reducing the effort required to build websites. Drupal supports a rich ecosystem of solutions that can be adapted to your unique requirements. Let’s explore some of the most valuable contributed modules that make Drupal an excellent choice for building exceptional digital experiences.
 

Pathauto

Creating clean, user-friendly URLs for content is crucial for SEO and usability. Pathauto automatically generates URL aliases for different types of content like nodes, users, and taxonomy terms based on configurable patterns. For example, you can create custom patterns so that blog posts automatically receive URLs like "/blog/title-of-the-post".

drush en pathauto -y

Views

Although now part of Drupal core, Views deserves mention because of its importance in Drupal's contrib history. It allows you to create dynamic lists of filtered (category, author, etc) and sorted (date, alphabetic, price, etc) content without writing any SQL queries. From creating blogs to building filters for product listings, Views provides a user-friendly way to customize how data appears on your website.

Webform

Webform is the go-to solution for creating forms and surveys in Drupal. Whether you need a simple contact form or a complex multi-step application, the Webform module provides a flexible form builder interface with many customization options. You can manage submissions, create conditional logic, and even set up email notifications.

drush en webform -y

Devel

Devel is an essential module for developers working with Drupal. It provides a suite of tools that helps with debugging, generating dummy content, and inspecting variables. Devel's Kint integration makes it easy to inspect the structure of your data and variables. This module is a game changer when developing complex custom modules or theming.

drush en devel -y

Token

The Token module provides a set of placeholders to be used in various text areas throughout your Drupal site. Tokens are extremely useful for dynamically inserting data, such as user details or content fields, without requiring custom coding. The pattern will be automatically replaced with the dynamic data. It works with Pathauto, Webform, and many other modules to provide consistent data representation across the site. You can see an example of this in the screenshot for the Metatag module. 

drush en token -y

Redirect

Redirects are essential to ensure a good user experience and maintain SEO value. The Redirect module allows you to easily manage 301 redirects to avoid broken links when content moves or URLs change. It also integrates well with Pathauto to prevent duplicate content.

drush en redirect -y

CKEditor 5

Though a text editor is part of Drupal core, the contributed CKEditor 5 module provides enhanced functionality, making content editing more intuitive and versatile. It adds features like better table handling, improved accessibility, and the ability to add media directly through the editor, providing the user with a more modern editing experience.

drush en ckeditor5 -y

Metatag

For better SEO, the Metatag module helps manage meta tags for pages, including titles, descriptions, and Open Graph tags. This is essential for controlling how your site appears in search engine results and social media previews. With a well-configured Metatag module, you can improve your site's visibility and increase organic traffic.

drush en metatag -y

Paragraphs

Paragraphs provide a flexible way to create reusable content components. This module allows editors to add and organize text, images, videos, and other elements within a page. Instead of using one large body field, you can break content into more manageable pieces, giving content creators the power to create dynamic and visually appealing pages. Paragraphs is what we use to build Section and Components systems for our clients as discussed in this blog post: Simplifying Drupal with Sections & Components

drush en paragraphs -y

Commerce Core

For websites that require e-commerce functionality, Commerce Core is the go-to module in Drupal's contrib ecosystem. It provides a robust foundation for creating online stores, supporting features like product catalogs, flexible pricing rules, checkout workflows, and payment integrations. Whether you’re selling physical goods, digital products, or subscriptions, Commerce Core offers the tools you need to create a customized and efficient e-commerce experience.

drush en commerce -y

Drupal's contrib ecosystem sets it apart from other content management solutions and general frameworks. When you choose Drupal, you gain access to an extensive library of open-source contrib modules that accelerate development, reduce costs, and enhance the efficiency of your project. There are contrib modules that integrate with third-party services such as Salesforce, Mailchimp, Google Tag Manager, Twilio, CAPTCHA, and numerous payment gateways such as Moneris, Stripe, and PayPal.

Core and Contrib modules are impressive. But Drupal’s flexibility as a development platform means skilled developers like us can create custom modules to meet the unique needs of your business. Whether it’s integrating specialized tools, automating workflows, or building custom features, Drupal provides the foundation to bring your vision to life and respond to your unique requirements.

By using APIs, core modules and contrib modules, we can focus on delivering value to your users without reinventing the wheel. Choose Drupal for a powerful, scalable solution that grows with your needs.

Let’s discuss how we can make it work for you!