POV : the future of Drupal

Published on Friday, April 11, 2025

Who doesn't know Drupal, the CMS that powers 1-in-40 websites worldwide?

There's a saying: "If you don't know where you're going, look at where you're coming from."

Drupal's history isn't just a tale of technological advancement—it's a story of community, adaptability, and constant innovation.

In this article I’m trying to gather my thoughts and give you my perspective on the future of Drupal.

History of Drupal

Created in 2000, Drupal embodies the internet's core values: information sharing, digital freedom, and community. Since becoming open-source, it has evolved into a powerful, flexible CMS used globally.

Drupal's major releases have consistently improved its capabilities. Nine years have passed since Drupal 8's release, which marked a significant shift by integrating Symfony components.

The Drupal community often refers to it as a Content Management Framework (CMF) rather than a CMS. It's a versatile tool for content management, it is a Swiss Army knife.

From monolith to headless

Broader trends in software architecture have heavily influenced how digital platforms have been developed. The shift towards microservices and best-of-breed architecure now called composable architecture have reshaped the landscape of content management a few years ago.

Breaking down applications into smaller independent services, and emphasizing the creation of systems from interchangeable building blocks to create modular architecture has pushed CMS technologies to become more modular and flexible.

These architectural trends have culminated in the headless CMS approach. The Monolith was dead, long live headless CMS !

A headless CMS decouples the content management backend from the presentation layer, providing content through APIs instead of rendering it directly. It offers flexibility in frontend technologies, allows for omnichannel content delivery, and levers means for performance and scalability.

This shift represents a fundamental change in how we think about content management not only regarding the technical implementation but also how content should be managed inside companies to deliver an end-to-end experience in a digital world with more devices and more personalisation.

As a result, many traditional CMS platforms, including Drupal, have adapted to offer headless capabilities, while new players focused entirely on headless content management have emerged in the market.

The Competition landscape

With the shift to headless implementation, the CMS landscape saw a variety of new products dedicated to the needs for those modular architectures popup. Those solutions are seen as lightweighted compared to its “mammout’lithic” predecessor, they are business performance oriented because more focused to the use case of simpler content management without embarking for all the other tools needed to an end-to-end digital platform. The diversity of offerings in the low end of the "web" in the last few years has ABSOLUTELY eaten in to the market usage of Drupal.

Of course the cost of implementing those architectures are another discussion, with a rationale to weigh in regarding the return of investment. But this new CMS landscape pushed Drupal to adapt to the headless approach. By embracing API-first architecture and decoupled solutions, Drupal has positioned itself as a versatile content management framework capable of serving both traditional and headless implementations. It allowed Drupal to maintain its relevance in the evolving digital landscape, catering to the needs of complex, enterprise-level projects while also offering flexibility for modern web development practices.

There’s a hole in the racket

We have monolithic solutions, we have headless solutions, and we have hybrid solutions which in reality are monoliths with headless capabilities.

Facing all those new complex approaches new technologies have also emerged to fill something put aside: tools like square space, wix, and even Wordpress Guttenberg have made the ability to get a website running fast, REALLY FAST, and powerful. There is a battle roaming to define the standard for quick, cheap websites—suiting the needs of a large percent of businesses.

It's not the same landscape as it was when D7 was at the height of popularity. Need a website for a mom and pop business? Drupal is no longer the answer.

This shift towards more user-friendly, rapid development platforms has challenged Drupal's position in the market, particularly for simpler websites.

2024-2025 is the crysalis of Drupal

While Drupal is celebrated for its robustness, it can be challenging for newcomers, especially those with limited technical expertise.

Over time, there have been efforts to simplify the complexity of Drupal to make it easier to learn and adopt. Drupal is an amazing platform and CMS for enterprise DXPs, but the new features and technologies introduced by continuous innovation have outpaced the efforts to simplify.

Harnessing the full power and potential of Drupal requires specialized skills. The time has come for the Drupal project to take a significant leap forward in making the platform more accessible and easier to adopt.

Drupal CMS, a new version of Drupal

Initially called Drupal Starshot, Drupal CMS will be a new version of Drupal available next to Drupal Core to have a great out-of-the-box experience.

The objective are clear :

• enable Ambitious Site Builders without Drupal experience to easily create a new Drupal site and extend it with pre-packaged recipes, all using their browser.
• Set the standard for no-code website building

Drupal wants to address non-technical users, marketers, content creators, and site builders, to create digital experiences with ease, without compromising on the power and flexibility that Drupal is known for.

“Drupal Starshot is more than a technological leap; it represents a shift in how we think, innovate, and collaborate. It's about reaching for the stars and making the Open Web accessible to everyone.” says Dries Buytaert.

From an implementation standpoint a few innovations, among others, are in the mix:

• Recipes and Project Browser to allow users to browse “group of features” ready to install and deploy capabilities suited to different set of business needs
• Experience builder, a brand new out-of-the-box tool for content creators and designers, offering layout design, page building, basic theming and content editing tools.
• Trial experience to allow non-technical users to get starter : built with WebAssembly, it runs entirely in the browser – no servers to install or manage.
• AI for site building to accelerate the creation and configuration in backoffice
• AI-assisted content migration to crawl a source website and handle complex tasks of mapping structures to destination site
• A modernized backoffice UI based on React framework

The launch plan targets Drupal CMS's release on Drupal's upcoming birthday: January 15, 2025. It's also just a couple of weeks after the Drupal 7 End of Life, marking the end of one era and the beginning of another.

The future

Drupal's future lies in its versatility and adaptability. While standalone Drupal websites are becoming less common, it remains a powerful tool for complex enterprise solutions, particularly as a headless backend. Its strengths in content management, workflows, and integrations make it invaluable for large-scale digital experience platforms.

However, Drupal is at a crossroads. The platform's complexity often requires specialized skills, limiting its accessibility to non-technical users. The challenge lies in balancing its robust capabilities with user-friendliness, especially for marketers and less technical individuals.

Drupal's open-source nature means its evolution is guided by its community. As it continues to excel in areas where alternatives fall short or become costly, its future will likely be shaped by how it addresses the need for both power and accessibility in the rapidly evolving digital landscape.

AI AI AI AI

Drupal is integrating AI and GenAI to enhance its platform capabilities. The community is developing AI features for content management, site building, and user experience, keeping Drupal at the forefront of CMS technology. This effort aims to make AI more accessible and integrated into Drupal-powered sites.

Here are some concrete examples of how Drupal is harnessing AI power:

• Drupal AI Module: provides a framework for easily integrating Artificial Intelligence on any Drupal site using any kind of AI (from multiple vendors). The AI module aims to provide a suite of modules and an API foundation for generating text content, images, content analysis and more.
• Automatic Alt Text Generation: uses the Microsoft Azure Cognitive Services API or Alttext.ai to generate an Alternative Text for images when no Alternative Text has been provided by user.
• OpenAI Search: allows you to have a private chatgpt instance, and to have it searchable within Drupal. You basically can "GPT" chat with your own Drupal site, and you can add as many documents (pdfs etc) to the knowledgebase as well.

These tools, currently available, demonstrate how Drupal is already leveraging AI for improved content management, user experience, and site optimization. The Drupal community continues to develop and refine AI integrations, ensuring the platform stays at the forefront of technological advancements.

The Content Supply Chain

The content supply chain is a comprehensive process that encompasses the entire lifecycle of content, from initial ideation and planning through creation, publishing, analysis, and iteration. This integrated approach ensures a streamlined flow of content, optimizing its value and impact across various channels and touchpoints.

Drupal plays a crucial role in the content supply chain by serving as a robust content management system that can integrate with various tools and platforms.

Acquia and other providers offer several tools that enhance Drupal's capabilities in the content supply chain:

• Acquia DAM (Digital Asset Management): Integrates with Drupal to manage and distribute digital assets efficiently across the content supply chain.
• Acquia Personalization: Allows for tailored content experiences, optimizing the final stages of the content supply chain.
• Acquia Content Hub: Facilitates content sharing and syndication across multiple Drupal sites, streamlining content distribution.
• Bynder’s Content Workflow: While not an Acquia product, it integrates well with Drupal to streamline content planning and creation phases.
• Acquia Optimize (formerly Monsido): Provides content analytics and optimization tools to improve website performance, accessibility, and SEO, enhancing the effectiveness of content throughout its lifecycle in the supply chain.

These tools, when integrated with Drupal, create a comprehensive ecosystem that supports the entire content supply chain, from creation and management to distribution and personalization.

Conclusion

Drupal's journey has been one of constant evolution and adaptation. As we look to the future, it's clear that Drupal will continue to play a significant role in the digital landscape, particularly for complex, enterprise-level solutions. The introduction of Drupal CMS represents a pivotal moment, aiming to bridge the gap between Drupal's powerful capabilities and the need for user-friendly, accessible site-building tools. With its commitment to innovation, integration of AI technologies, and focus on enhancing the content supply chain, Drupal is well-positioned to meet the ever-changing demands of the digital world.