Drupal 7.14

Drupal is to CMS systems what Linux is to Operating Systems. That is, the installation of Drupal is extremely easy and clear, the messages when something is missing (permissions and requirements) are clear and simple... but when you get down to it and start trying to build anything other than static pages or "stories" (whatever those are) you are faced with a godawfully steep learning curve. It seems Drupal would require a few books and some months before I could even pretend to know what's going on and how to actually use it.

The way the plugin system is set up means you will spend hours downloading and installing dozens of pre-requisites, trying to activate them and realizing you need yet another dozen to make these work, and so on.

If you are looking for something that's simple to use and easy to understand, stay the heck away from Drupal; it's not for you!

Drupal is theming is awful when compared to other CMS (e.g. Silverstripe, CMS made simple, typo light, and many other).
No design freedom at all.
There are a lot of work around to try to get something acceptable, but it is far from the level of previous mentionned CMS.

On top of that Drupal is slow. It has huge performance issues, due to its very poor caching features.

It is a CMS to play with (many add-ons and tweaks), not a CMS for real work.

How can one ever say Drupal's template engine is poor? Have you even tried it? OMG, it's incredibly flexible and gives you plenty of options to render your code exactly the way you want to.

what's wrong with it? No one really comes with arguments here, so I might as well do that.

1) there are page templates. node templates, block templates, views templates, cck templates, taxonomy templates, hierarchical template selection, url based template selection, content type templates...

2) With the added module "devel", it gets even easier to select and/or code the right template for your needs, it gives you all the instructions needed to create perfect templates.

Anybody of the commenters here even used views? Or a views template? Node templates? Taxonomy templates? Probably not.

Maybe some of you should give a try the next version - Drupal 7 Alpha 1 will be released next week.

And maybe some of you will change your mind. I did.

Drupal is good for Blog But it is not best as wordPress
i try to run an magazin I download Lullabot.com - Advanced Theming For Drupal & Lullabot.com - Theming Basics For Drupal & so on red toms of e-books read help section of site drupal.org spend hours & days at all i find I waset my time its beter use something as Simple
very hard to set up moduls (installing missing & disabled) after you seleact to instal every thing you recive MySql server has gone on line 128 some where in a scrept
very terible after re installing every thing recive the same error amy be for Sony & othere big company is best because they have monye and many many personal to do that what I plan to do on my web server in very low capital and very chiep cast for me

I am tired to hear that Drupal is the best CMS. I would rather say Drupal is one of the most popular CMS.

BUT POPULAR DOES NOT MEAN BEST.

Sorry guys, but Drupal cannot pretend to be at the level of ModX, Expression Engine, Silverstripe, typolight, CMS made simple, etc. (all new generation CMS).

There is absolutely no control of the template. You can try to hack, you can try to learn whatever you want, it is full lost of time.

Today, many CMS allow template per page and their full control. Drupal is simply far from it.
For example Drupal still uses a bloc system for template control. This is stone age in CMS world. But Drupal does it...

Furthermore, the core of Drupal is poor. Excessively poor. You don't even have picture features, text editor, URL aliases, and so on.
But yes, you can add many, many features if you add modules.
Drupal has thousands of modules.

Fact is that many features you add through modules in Drupal are in core in many other CMS. For exmaple pictures, text editor, media, alias URL, cache, query, multilingual, etc.

The issue with Drupal modules is: the more you add modules, the more you slow down the site performance. Drupal is horrible in this respect.
I used it on proprietary server (not shared), but it is a disaster.

The worst part of it is here: you are obliged to install modules is you want a decent site, but all these module have an extremely negative impact on the site performance.
You'd rather try Joomla (even if personnally I don't like Joomla). Performances will be much better.

Other CMS (like ModX or EE) have a fine grained caching per page system that speed up your site like crazy. Drupal cache system is basic and very poor. Simply forget about a per page caching.

For me that's where the Drupal story stops: no proper design possibilities and no performance.
This is the contrary of what internet users wants: nice site and speed.

Other big issue: the numerous request to the DB.
Each module that you install increases exponentially the DB requests. On a shared server you'll be dead in no time if you have some decent traffic.

Other negatives are the extremely bad administration, the documentation that is plethoric but non organized, redondant and often outdated.
You do not have a decent user manual, but just pages and pages of hints and how tos.
Sorry, but look at Expression Engine and you will understand what I mean with good documentation.

An other point (and I will stop there despite I could write much more about it): no ressources management. In Drupal you never know where your content is located or where your files are uploaded.
Simply incredible. Imagine that you have no structure to find your files on your computer. You would feel quickly miserable.
Fact is that Drupal has no way to show your site organization.

Finally, Drupal has certainly been a good challenger of CMS like phpnuke, etc.
But it has become old and includes many drawbacks that should not be there nowadays.

Personnally my preferences go to ModX and Expression Engine because of the full control you have over your site and your content. But other CMS like Silverstripe are also excellent.

Drupal for noobs or not for noobs? This is a fully silly point. A CMS does work or does not. If you need 3 years to learn it, then you should go for another one.

Drupal is complicated not because it is superior to other CMS, but because it has a design issue.
The technical choices made 7 years ago are no more relevant today.
It is true that the Drupal community tries to cope with this, but that's why the technology is so complicated.

It would not be an issue, if this bloated code would not directly lead to performance problems. Drupal is very slow once you start to add modules.

Finally, Drupal is stuck with its choices made years ago, and other CMS bring today much better answer to the developper that this CMS.

With my experience with drupal, it is never a noob friendly cms. Drupal is pretty much for people who has extensive experience in coding, customizing, and all other technical stuff. Deep inside drupal is strong and powerful, but, as I said, it isn't something for noobs.

If you're new in designing and creating websites, Drupal is not for you. But if you have the experience, you can use drupal to create almost any kind of website you would want it to be. And I do mean ALMOST. of course there are a few exemptions, but in the end, drupal can be formed into anything (almost).

If you need something easier, go look else where. But if you;re really good, either use drupal as base cms, or build your own.

Drupal is from the advanced to expert range of people. and I am definitely NOT one of those. But I still use drupal beacause I'm learning it. and I am satisfied as to what it can provide me with my minimal knowledge and experience. it is quite hard to maintain, yet if there's anything I would want it to do, I can make it happen. Just think that Drupal is the "wordpress" of portal cms, just without the noob friendly system. Only if drupal can improve the beginner friendly areas, then this would really ne a really really good portal cms. hands down, but as of now, I still need to look elsewhere for something at my level.

Using examples like Whitehouse, FedEx, SONY BMG is a huge stupidity.
If one needs the budget of these guys to be able to run Drupal, thenI advise anybody to run away of it.

I used Drupal for several years. It has pluses and minuses.

What Robert Fabian mentions about modules is effectively a bigger issue.
Other aspects like unflexible template or poor administration are also worth to mentionned.

Despite these bigger drawbacks I use it as I considered it more advanced in some areas as for example Joomla.

But today Joomla and Drupal are outdated. They have totally missed the innovation brought by the new generation of CMS.
And really, I don't think they will be able to overcome this.

I'm a more or less happy Durpal user. Used with care, Drupal can be a quick, easy, and reliable way to build interactive websites. Quick because most required functionality is available in the core as an add-in module. Easy (for users) because Drupal admits easy creation of new content types, and their viewing through attractive real-time queries. Reliable, assuming care is used in selection of modules and that you keep current with recommended releases. The end users, including user editors, see a friendly web face that "fits" how they think of the world.

An important word of caution: Limit yourself to modules that are being actively supported. And only add modules that you really need. It's just too easy to add modules that aren't really required, and that are not being actively supported. With that important restriction, Drupal does deliver on its promises.

Useful extra: Theming in Drupal is a challenge. I've found that Artisteer does a good first approximation of a desired theme. It ain't perfect and the resulting themes do need tweaking, but it's a very good way to get started. [I have no connection with the Artisteer people except as a user.]

The big challenge is continuing tech support. Drupal sites do need to be kept current with security releases. It's not rocket science, but it does go beyond what many users are equipped to undertake. My limited experience argues for a basic tech support budget of something like $100/month. And at that price there are SaaS solutions that can be considered, e.g. Wild Apricot for associations.

Bob Fabian

For us who prefer powerful to funny CMS then there is no comparison to Drupal. Today when I hire consultants, Drupal experience is a must have.

You can set up a photo gallery in less than 10 minutes in Drupal unless you are a total noob.

Becides Whitehouse there are tons of huge sites like Economist, SONY BMG, FedEx etc running on Drupal and more coming each day so it is hardly behind the curve.

It's all about taking some time to learn the system but once you do you will find Drupal the best CMS on the market, with no real competition except for very simple sites. As for security, it's good enough for Presidents and Prime Ministers. Just keep stuff updated and you are as secure as you can be.

Drupal is a piece of bloated heavy code. Administration is crap, template system is awful.
The core is very poor, it has to be said.
Hundreds of modules, yes, but you don't need most of them. And the few ones you might need, like a decent picture gallery, are low level.
A big drawback here is the lack of consistency in the module development that is not inline with the core development. This leads to security issues, lost of hacking, loss of time and big frustration for upgrading.
If you still find your way through all this, then you are still unsecured as very often developpers behind the modules just leave it there (no follow-up).
This is really a pain, and you are stuck with no other solution than to run for a paid developement.

At last, Drupal is now getting old. It needs more than a big refresher. There is a full new generation og CMS that are much more funny, usable and full of nice features.

Well there is a comparision with Drupal, Wordpress and Joomla here http://www.cmswire.com/cms/web-cms/sxsw-web-content-management-system-showdown-update-2-004124.php

This is the result demo of the sites http://www.cmsshowdown.com/

Also for Joomla there is a multi site comparison for larger demands with Jentla addon http://www.jentla.com/software/multisite-challenge.html

About Joomla lacking multicategories cck, ACL etc there is many free addons to solve this. Just examples...http://extensions.joomla.org/extensions/access-a-security/backend-a-full-access-control/7010
http://www.jseblod-cck.com/ etc etc so It depends on what you want to do. A lot of time and money go for Drupal. Easy site for bloggin one to many - use Wordpress.

Drupal is a good blog CMS but is a real pain where design is concerned.
If you are skilled and have a lot of time then you might come to something acceptable (I still hate most of the theme done under Drupal).