What is Drupal?
Drupal is the number one platform for web content management among global companies, governments, higher education institutions, and NGOs. Flexible and highly scalable, Drupal publishes a single website or shares content across multiple languages and devices. Technology and business leaders turn content management into powerful digital solutions with Drupal... backed by one of the most innovative open source communities in the world.
Reasons to use
Drupal
Developers, engineers, and technology professionals look for reliability, security, and flexibility to build the solutions they want without heavy features they don't need.
Drupal provides a platform with a solid architecture that integrates with third-party applications, in line with their technical and business requirements.
Business leaders around the world drive digital innovation with Drupal as their platform. More than a million organizations use Drupal, including The Economist, Tesla Motors, The White House, Pfizer, Harvard University, the Government of Australia, and Time Inc.
Open source community: thousands of organizations build solutions with Drupal and also build Drupal.
From design to system architecture, Drupal experts contribute their real-world solutions back to the community, with modern web standards that support reliability and agility.
What is Drupal and what is it for in government and enterprise?
Drupal is a flexible, secure, and scalable content management platform. It's used by governments, universities, international organizations, and companies that need to publish information, manage permissions, integrate systems, and operate sites with a high level of control.
What makes Drupal different
Drupal lets you model content in a structured way, build editorial workflows, manage advanced roles, build information views, integrate APIs, and expose content to different channels. That combination makes it a strong foundation for institutional portals, GOV.CO sites, and enterprise platforms.
Drupal and technical SEO
A well-configured Drupal site can deliver clean URLs, per-content meta tags, XML sitemaps, canonicals, structured data, robots control, cache performance, and semantic HTML. Coresis works on these capabilities so content is discoverable by Google, Bing, and AI search assistants.
Use cases
- Public entity portals and GOV.CO experiences.
- Corporate sites with multiple editorial areas.
- Multisite platforms and institutional microsites.
- Intranets, integrations, forms, and search engines.
- Migrations to Drupal 11 and ongoing support.
Drupal isn't the best choice for just any small site. It's especially valuable when the platform needs to grow, integrate, be audited, and be maintained for years.
Drupal as a foundation for governable platforms
Drupal is especially strong when an organization needs to manage structured information, permissions, editorial roles, multiple content types, and integrations. Instead of relying on standalone pages, it lets you build an architecture that stays organized as the site grows.
For public entities, companies, and teams with mission-critical digital operations, that governance is key. A portal may need transparency, accessibility, search, forms, microsites, approval workflows, and a technical foundation ready to evolve. In those scenarios it's worth working with Drupal experts in Colombia who understand both the platform and the operation that follows.
If you're evaluating Drupal for a new project, also check out why Drupal can be a good decision and which Drupal services help you move from strategy to implementation.
Complete Drupal guide: contents
What is Drupal for?
Drupal is used to build digital platforms where content, permissions, and integrations are complex. Unlike a CMS built for blogs, Drupal models structured content: content types with fields, taxonomies, views, and editorial workflows that adapt to each organization's real process.
Typical Drupal use cases:
- Government portals: e-government sites, transparency, procedures, and portals aligned with GOV.CO.
- Education: universities and schools with multiple faculties, campuses, and microsites.
- Media and publishing: high volumes of content with review and publishing workflows.
- Corporate platforms: intranets, customer portals, and multisite, multilingual ecosystems.
- Headless content backend: Drupal exposes content via API for frontends in Angular or other frameworks.
Drupal 11: updates that matter
Drupal 11 is the current version of the platform and brings concrete improvements for organizations running mission-critical sites:
- Performance: on PHP 8.3, the core runs up to ~50% faster than previous versions, with further improvements in the 11.x releases.
- Recipes: predefined configuration packages that speed up setting up complete functionality without starting from scratch.
- New admin experience: redesigned side navigation, clearer for editorial teams.
- Modern code: object-oriented hooks and updated dependencies (Symfony 7), making the code easier to maintain and evolve.
The lifecycle also forces planning ahead: Drupal 7 and Drupal 9 no longer receive support and Drupal 10 LTS extended support ends in mid-2026. If your site is still on an older version, check out our guide to migrating to Drupal 11 in Colombia.
Drupal vs WordPress: which to choose?
This is the most common comparison when choosing a CMS. The honest answer: they're tools for different problems.
| Criteria | Drupal | WordPress |
|---|---|---|
| Ideal for | Government, enterprise, complex portals | Blogs, landing pages, small sites |
| Permissions and roles | Granular and auditable out of the box | Basic; requires plugins |
| Structured content | Native: types, fields, taxonomies, views | Limited; depends on plugins (ACF) |
| Multisite / multilingual | Included in core | Partial, with extensions |
| Security | Dedicated security team; preferred in the public sector | Good foundation, but larger attack surface from plugins |
| Scalability | High traffic and large content volumes | Adequate with optimization |
| Learning curve | Steeper: built for technical teams | Low: any user can publish quickly |
| Software cost | Free (GPL), no licenses | Free (GPL), frequent premium plugins |
Verdict: if you need to publish a blog or a simple informational site, WordPress gets there faster. If your organization handles public information, multiple editorial teams, integrations, or compliance requirements, Drupal offers a more solid foundation with lower long-term risk.
Drupal for government in Colombia
Drupal is the reference CMS for the public sector worldwide, and Colombia is no exception. Its permissions model, accessibility, multilingual support, and lack of licensing costs align with GOV.CO guidelines and transparency and accessibility standards (NTC 5854, Resolution 1519).
At Coresis we've supported Drupal platforms for entities such as the Ministry of Housing, USPEC, ICBF, ICDE, Metro de Bogotá, and Colombia Digital, and we work with Govimentum, the Drupal distribution created for Colombian government portals. That context — regulatory and technical — is what sets implementing Drupal in the public sector apart from building a generic site.
Drupal for enterprise platforms
In private organizations, Drupal works as an open source digital experience platform (DXP):
- Multisite: dozens of sites (brands, countries, campaigns) governed from a single codebase.
- Headless / decoupled: content served via API to Angular applications, mobile apps, or kiosks.
- Integrations: CRM, corporate authentication (SSO/LDAP), gateways, analytics, and search engines like Apache Solr.
- Serious operation: controlled deployments, versioned configuration, and staging environments on NGINX infrastructure.
The result: a governable platform that grows with the business without being tied to proprietary licenses.
Security, community, and version cycle
Drupal is maintained by a global community of more than a million members and a dedicated security team that publishes coordinated advisories and patches. Coresis actively participates in the Drupal.org community.
| Version | Status (2026) | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Drupal 7 | End of life (January 2025) | Migrate immediately: no security patches |
| Drupal 9 | End of life (November 2023) | Migrate immediately |
| Drupal 10 (LTS) | Extended support until mid-2026 | Plan the upgrade to Drupal 11 now |
| Drupal 11 | Current version, active support | Recommended version for new projects |
Frequently asked questions about Drupal
What is Drupal and what is it for?
Drupal is an open source content management system (CMS) written in PHP. It's used to build sites and digital platforms that demand security, scalability, and control: government portals, universities, media outlets, intranets, and enterprise platforms with multiple sites, languages, and user roles.
Is Drupal free?
Yes. Drupal is free software under the GPL license: there are no license fees or per-user charges. The costs of a Drupal project come from development, hosting, and maintenance, not from the software, which supports the organization's technological sovereignty.
Which is better, Drupal or WordPress?
It depends on the project. WordPress is simpler and faster to launch for blogs and small sites. Drupal is superior when you need granular permissions, structured content, multisite, multilingual support, complex integrations, or demanding security requirements, as in government and enterprise organizations.
Which organizations use Drupal?
Drupal powers sites for governments, universities, and large companies around the world, including state portals like whitehouse.gov and NASA. In Colombia it runs at entities such as the Ministry of Housing, USPEC, ICBF, ICDE, and Metro de Bogotá, many of them with platforms aligned to GOV.CO.
What's new in Drupal 11?
Drupal 11 improves performance (up to ~50% faster on PHP 8.3), introduces the recipes system to configure sites faster, modernizes the admin interface with new navigation, and adopts object-oriented hooks that make the code easier to maintain.
Is Drupal hard to learn?
Drupal has a steeper learning curve than other CMSs because it's built to model complex content and permissions. For the editorial team, a well-built Drupal site is simple to operate; the complexity is absorbed by the team that designs the architecture.
What does a Drupal site need to run well (hosting)?
A modern PHP stack (PHP 8.3+ for Drupal 11), a MySQL/MariaDB or PostgreSQL database, and good caching practices (Redis/Varnish or page caching in NGINX). For high traffic, a CDN, monitoring, and separate staging and production environments are recommended.
How do you migrate a site to Drupal 11?
With a prior audit of modules, theme, and content; a staged plan with a testing environment; content and configuration migration; and functional, SEO, and accessibility validation before launch. Drupal 7 and 9 no longer have support and Drupal 10 LTS reaches its end in mid-2026, which makes migrating a priority.
Coresis Drupal services
We're Drupal experts in Colombia. If this guide helped you understand the platform, the next step is to apply it to your case:
- Drupal services in Colombia — diagnosis, strategy, and roadmap.
- Drupal development — custom portals, components, and integrations.
- Support and maintenance — security, updates, and continuous evolution.
- Migration to Drupal 11 — from Drupal 7, 9, or 10, without losing SEO or continuity.
- AI agents — intelligent automation on top of your platform.
Want to talk about your Drupal project? Write to us on WhatsApp or at contacto@coresis.info.
Decision guide
How to decide if Drupal fits a digital platform
Drupal fits when content is a critical part of the product and needs to coexist with granular permissions, approval workflows, integrations, and several years of evolution. It isn't chosen just to publish pages: it's chosen for the governance that lets you sustain them.
Government and education
Portals with many owners, accessibility requirements, structured data, and editorial traceability.
Multisite ecosystems
Organizations that share components and governance but need independent identities, teams, or domains.
Integrated platforms
Experiences that connect procedures, search engines, internal systems, and decoupled channels without losing editorial control.
How it fits into the architecture
The content model, permissions, and reviews live in Drupal. NGINX and the caching layers protect the origin; Apache Solr can handle complex searches; and a Next.js or Angular interface is only added where interaction justifies operating a separate frontend. This separation avoids using an SPA for content Drupal can deliver as fast, indexable HTML.
What to validate before adopting it
- Model content types and relationships before designing screens.
- Define roles, approvals, and owners for every publication.
- Plan security updates and compatibility from the start.
- Measure caching, search, accessibility, and performance with real data.
When not to choose it
For a small, temporary campaign with no editorial workflows, Drupal can introduce more governance than needed. It also doesn't fix, on its own, an architecture without owners, insufficient hosting, or an improvised content model. In those scenarios it's worth simplifying the scope before choosing the CMS.
How Coresis applies it
Coresis works with its own team specialized in Drupal and with public platforms in production. You can review our Drupal development approach, our experience with GOV.CO and Drupal, and the profile of our Drupal experts in Colombia team.
Source and related technologies
Compare capabilities and limits in the official Drupal documentation.