Comparing Craft CMS and Drupal in 2024

When selecting a Content Management System (CMS) for a project, developers often weigh various factors like flexibility, ease of use, scalability, and community support. Two popular options are Craft CMS and Drupal. While both platforms have their strengths, they cater to different needs and developer preferences. This ranking will compare Craft CMS and Drupal, highlighting their differences and discussing where each platform shines. Please note that this ranking is only my opinion, and your experience may vary.

Overview of Craft CMS

Craft CMS is a modern, developer-focused CMS designed with flexibility and user experience in mind. Created in 2013 by popular ExpressionEngine plugin developers, Pixel & Tonic - a dedicated team of more than 10 working on Craft CMS full time. Craft CMS is known for its:

• Intuitive user interface: Editors and content managers find Craft's control panel easy to navigate, reducing the learning curve and improving productivity.
• Flexible content modeling: With tools like Matrix and Super Table, Craft allows for highly customizable content structures, giving developers (and designers) the freedom to create complex and dynamic layouts.
• Twig templating: Craft uses Twig, a popular templating engine, making it easier for developers to design and manage front-end templates with clean and maintainable code.
• Developer-first approach: Craft CMS is built with developers in mind, offering a clean, well-documented API and a straightforward development experience.

Overview of Drupal

Drupal is an open-source CMS known for scalability and its ability to handle large, complex websites. Created in 2000, it’s long been a popular choice by enterprises, government agencies, and educational institutions. Drupal's key features include:

• Highly scalable: Drupal can manage large-scale websites with millions of pages and thousands of users. This makes it an ideal choice for enterprises and high-traffic sites.
• Robust community and ecosystem: Drupal offers a vast array of modules and extensions to extend its functionality. It has a large and active community of contributors.
• Advanced user management: Drupal's user management capabilities are impressive. They allow for complex roles, permissions, and workflows. This can be essential for large organizations.

• Multilingual support: Drupal offers extensive out-of-the-box multilingual capabilities. This can make Drupal a good choice for global organizations.

   

Ranking Craft CMS and Drupal

1. Ease of Use

• 📋 Criteria to Consider:
  • Content Editing Experience
  • Control Panel and Navigation
  • Onboarding and Training
  • Developer Setup and Configuration
  • Day-to-Day Maintenance

• Craft CMS: Craft has a very user-friendly control panel. It's intuitive and easy to use for both developers and authors. The content editing experience is seamless, with features like live preview, slide-in editors and an easy to understand field layout system.
• Drupal: While powerful, Drupal's interface can be overwhelming for beginners. It has a steeper learning curve, especially for non-technical users. The admin interface is functional but can feel cluttered compared to Craft.

🎉 Winner: Craft CMS Craft CMS' ease of use is hard to beat. For teams or projects where editors need a clear, efficient workflow this is crucial.

2. Flexibility and Customization

• 📋 Criteria to Consider:
  • Content Modeling Tools
  • Front-End Templating and Theming
  • Integration with Third-Party Services
  • Custom Field Types and Data Structures
  • Rapid Prototyping and Iteration

• Craft CMS: Flexibility is where Craft excels. It offers developers a blank slate to create custom content structures. Craft allows for complex content modeling through easy to use interfaces. Fields like Matrix and other third-party plugins offer flexibility without complexity. 
• Drupal: Drupal is also highly customizable. But, it requires more configuration and a deeper understanding of its core concepts. Customization in Drupal can be powerful but may need more time and expertise from experienced developers.

🎉 Winner: Both platforms offer flexibility, but Craft CMS is more streamlined. It makes it easier for developers to build and maintain custom solutions with a less steep learning curve.

3. Scalability

• 📋 Criteria to Consider:
  • Concurrent Traffic and Load Handling
  • Complex Content Structures and Database Size
  • Editorial Workflows and User Permissions
  • Multi-Site and Multi-Language Capabilities
  • Performance, Caching, and Infrastructure Requirements

• Craft CMS: Craft is highly capable and can handle a wide range of projects, but it's typically more suited to small to mid-sized websites. Craft allows 100 sites on a multi-site instance and unlimited fields. While it can scale, it may require additional effort in terms of performance optimization and infrastructure to achieve the same capacity for large, complex sites.
• Drupal: Drupal is built with scalability in mind. It can easily handle large-scale websites with complex user roles, permissions, and content structures. It's often the go-to choice for enterprise-level projects needing thousands of users and hundreds of pages.

🎉 Winner: Drupal takes the lead in scalability, especially for large organizations with complex needs.

4. Security

• 📋 Criteria to Consider:
  • Core Security and Update Frequency
  • Password and User Management
  • Third-Party Plugins/Modules
  • Security Support and Response Times
  • Regulatory Compliance and Hardening

• Craft CMS: Craft is known for its strong security practices, with regular updates and a focus on secure coding standards. The platform is less targeted by attackers due to its smaller market share compared to Drupal.
• Drupal: Drupal has a long-standing reputation for robust security, with a dedicated security team and a strong track record of protecting against vulnerabilities. However, due to its popularity, Drupal sites are more frequently targeted by hackers.

🎉 Winner: Both platforms offer strong security, but Drupal's larger community and dedicated security resources give it a slight edge in this area.

5. Community and Support

• 📋 Criteria to Consider:
  • Community Size and Diversity
  • Quality of Official Documentation
  • Availability of Third-Party Documentation and Guides
  • Plugin Store/Marketplace
  • Professional Support Options and Agencies

• Craft CMS: Craft has a growing community of developers and users, with excellent official documentation and responsive support from Pixel & Tonic, the company behind Craft. The plugin ecosystem is smaller but growing steadily with a diverse network of agencies, developers and training.
• Drupal: Drupal's community is one of the largest in the open-source world, with extensive documentation, forums, and a vast repository of modules. Community support is abundant, but navigating the sheer volume of resources can be daunting. Although a large number of modules exist, they can somethings be out of date or abandoned more often than Craft plugins.

🎉 Winner: Drupal leads in community size and resources, though Craft CMS offers strong, more personalized support, especially for smaller teams.

6. Front-end Development

When developing in a CMS, it’s also important to consider the cost of building the front-end. Theming and templating is a large part of building and maintaining a site so it’s important to consider how it is built. Both Craft and Drupal use Twig templating, making either a great choice.

• Craft CMS: Craft allows users to choose their own frontend framework and build system. At Viget, we typically use Vite and Tailwind. Craft gives us the freedom to use the systems we’re familiar with and well-versed in.
• Drupal: Drupal rolls its own front-end by default, making it harder to use a more familiar front-end build system. You can extend Drupal to add things like build tooling or twig extensions, but it can require more configuration.

🎉 Winner: Craft CMS offers more flexibility when it comes to front-end development. It doesn’t make assumptions about tooling, includes several useful additions to Twig and offers an easy interface for extending functionality.

6. Ownership Cost

When choosing a CMS, there's also a cost to consider. The cost of ownership—in terms of hosting and ongoing maintenance—can have a significant impact. The long-term budget and resources required for a project can vary between the two. Let’s break down the cost for both Craft CMS and Drupal.

• Craft CMS: Craft uses a one-time license fee for each project (along with optional annual fees for updates). This model can be more predictable and manageable for small to mid-sized websites. Hosting requirements are flexible; Craft runs on standard PHP and MySQL. Because of this, it can be hosted on a wide range of platforms. However, for optimal performance, many developers recommend using dedicated or managed hosting providers, which can add some cost. Craft does require routine updates and maintenance, though it typically involves fewer complex configurations, keeping maintenance fairly straightforward.
• Drupal: As an open-source CMS, Drupal has no licensing fees, which can be a good option for those needing a robust solution without upfront costs. However, Drupal’s hosting requirements can be more demanding, especially for larger installations. It performs best with dedicated or managed hosting, which adds to the overall cost. However, Drupal’s features and customizations often require more advanced technical skills. Those demands can add to development and maintenance costs. Frequent updates, security patches, and module management are necessary for Drupal sites. The complexity of these tasks may require a dedicated team or more technical oversight, adding to the total cost of ownership over time.

🎉 Winner: Craft CMS typically has a more predictable and manageable cost structure for small to mid-sized projects. Thanks to its licensing model and straightforward hosting requirements, it's a great choice for many. Drupal, while initially license-free, may incur higher ongoing costs due to the complexity of the platform and hosting needs, (particularly for larger sites).

Where Each CMS Shines

• Craft CMS is an excellent choice for developers who value a clean, flexible, and modern CMS that prioritizes ease of use and developer experience. It's ideal for small to medium-sized websites, creative agencies, and projects where custom content modeling and a user-friendly interface are essential. Craft’s developer-centric approach can create a nimble, flexible environment where changes are both rapid and a pleasant experience for the team. This often translates to a more cohesive and responsive team across design/development.
• Drupal shines in enterprise-level projects, especially those requiring complex user management, multilingual support, and the ability to scale. It's well-suited for large organizations with the resources to manage its complexity and take full advantage of its powerful features.

Which one is best?

While both Craft CMS and Drupal have their strengths, the choice between them largely depends on the project's specific needs and the development team's expertise. Craft CMS offers a more user-friendly and developer-centric experience, making it the preferred choice for many modern web projects. On the other hand, Drupal is unmatched in its ability to scale and handle the demands of large, complex websites. 

Here at Viget, we choose Craft for many of our projects. Craft aligns perfectly with our commitment to delivering high-quality, custom solutions. Craft’s flexible content modeling allows our team to rapidly create highly tailored structures. That flexibility gives us the agility to respond to new requirements without sacrificing quality or stability. Craft's intuitive control panel makes content management easy for our clients, which is key to empowering their teams. The powerful tools make it a clear choice for us to deliver the quality our clients expect time after time.

Additionally, we value Craft’s strong focus on security and thoughtfully curated plugin ecosystem. They enable us to build robust, secure websites without compromising speed. They also allow us to spend more time focusing on the features and customizations that make each project unique. With Craft, we can move from concept to launch smoothly, and deliver on what matters most for our clients. Consider your project's requirements, budget, and team when making your decision - or contact one of our client strategists to discuss your project’s needs.