Drupal CMS – Advantages and Disadvantages

Drupal is a free and open source content management system (CMS) written in PHP and distributed under the GNU General Public License.

Advantages:

All the Basic Features you need:

Drupal Core is their standard release of features, which includes: user account registration and maintenance, RSS-Feeds, menu management, system administration and page layout customization. These basic features can be used to create simple sites, single or multi user blogs, brochureware, forums, community websites and more.

Great Building Tools and Templates

Drupal offers you the basic building blocks of websites in a module-styled format where content and rules can be created quickly. Through the use of templates and themes there is no need to start from scratch—no matter if you are building a simple or complex site. Pre-defined configurations of site features help users build fairly complex sites rapidly, allowing them to use their time to build in extra features.

Flexible Yet Robust Content Creation

Drupal’s bread and butter is in its content creation. Drupal allows its users the flexibility to create and manage different content types including: video, polls, user management, text, blog, podcasts, real-time stats, and revision controls.

Advanced Administrator Controls

Administrators have the options of setting up new user accounts and user permissions. These permissions can be designated per role or group and offer fine-tooth comb-style, allowing users to help create your content for you. Drupal’s new release of version 7 allows for easier administration and greater controls.

Create Your Own Dynamic Designs

While Drupal offers themes and templates that are easily recognizable to the public many users like to use its design tools to create their own dynamic designs. The system’s presentation layers allows for easily usable and interactive experiences.

Organize Content Easily

One of the difficult parts of many CMS tools is the ability organize your content for later use and recall. Drupal allows you to categorize your content through path urls, create custom lists, associate content and create defaults. This structure helps you to organize, structure, search, find and reuse content.

Allow your Users to Collaborate with you

Drupal is commonly mistaken for a blogging platform due to its incredible ability to publish socially. Drupal-based sites engage users to contribute while giving the administrator the ability to create, view, publish, administer and otherwise control the social content published to the site.

Tools that make it Easy to Connect with your Audience

The most important part of a site is connecting it to users, other sites, social networks, and search engines– and Drupal makes this simple. Through increased network integration, feeds, search engine optimization tools, aggregation and other connecting tools, Drupal helps connect you to your viewers.

Multi-featured

Drupal CMS is multi-featured CMS and has all the necessary features that a webmaster or a blogger may need to create an impressive website. The most commonly liked features of Drupal CMS include- system administration menu management, RSS-Feeds, maintenance, user account registration and page layout customization.  These features of Drupal CMS enable a user to create any kind of website right from a simple personal blog to a professional e-commerce website.

Great website Building Tools and different Templates

Drupal CMS has many different and advanced website building tools which help to create a website quickly without any considerable effort. By using the different and attractive template the user can make the website layout attractive. The pre-defined configuration feature of Drupal CMS enable user to make even a complicate website easily and rapidly.

Excellent Content Creation

Drupal CMS main attraction is its feature of excellent content creation. The user can add many of the different and useful modules like polls, videos, management, blogs, revision controls, podcasts and videos in their blogs with Drupal CMS.

Highly developed Administrator Controls

when you create a website with Drupal CMS, you get an authority of setting up new user account and that account is administered completely by you. You can designate other people as admin in your website if you want a group of people to work there. The latest version of Drupal CMS brings new and advanced administrator controls.

Dynamic Designs

Drupal CMS carries some very interesting themes and templates and those are easy to use as well. The user can use those designing tools and the templates to give the website an attractive look. You can check out more information about Drupal and other CMS services at WPSkool

Easy management

Drupal CMS though has a learning curve but is easy to manage. The user can categorize the posts, create the defaults, and create custom lists and much more to organize the blog or website.

Disadvantages:

Usability

Drupal is not the most user-friendly platform and it has a high learning curve. Platforms like WordPress and Joomla are significantly easier to use, although they don’t offer the power and options that Drupal does. The good news though is that the new release of Drupal 7 is addressing some of the usability concerns and should be an easier adaptation for newer administrators.

Backwards Compatibility

Drupal is a relatively new system and is not backwards compatible with other software so if you have other content, systems and programs in place that you have become accustomed to then Drupal might not be the system for you.

Performance

In terms of loading and scalability Drupal is one stroke behind that of WordPress. The slow loading is simply because of the breadth of tools and capabilities. If you have a slower computer, or are simply a microwave generation kid and need things to work quickly then consider a zippier platform. Advanced users have however found ways around its problematic performance indicators, but with the big learning curve this takes a significant amount of time.

Non friendly interface

Drupal CMS is much user friendly as compared to the other open source content management systems. It incorporates a high learning curves and one need to learn a few basic things about the platform and its features before using it.

Not good Compatibility

Drupal CMS is a new content management system as compared to other old and established content management systems. Drupal CMS is not compatible with other software.

Mediocre performances

The websites made in Drupal CMS are relatively heavy and take more time to load. The large breadth of tools in Drupal CMS makes the website heavy. The websites made in Drupal CMS can never open with a slow internet connection.