Companies Using Drupal

We detect Drupal on 158,947 domains, including HCLTech, Siemens AG, Mahindra & Mahindra. A detection means the technology is present on that domain, which for large organisations is often a single storefront or subdomain rather than a company-wide deployment. Among domains we matched to a company with a resolved industry, the most common is Government Administration (4.09%).

We detect 158,947 domains running Drupal across our monthly crawl of live business domains. Company data could be matched for 101,526 of them (63.9%), and every company-size, industry and country breakdown on this page describes that matched subset rather than the full detected base. A further 5,720 domains carried a Drupal detection previously and no longer do.

Drupal holds 1.07% of the CMS & Website Builders category, ranking #8. This is a share of the domains we detect running a platform in this category — not a share of all websites, and not a share of spending — so it is not directly comparable to figures published on other denominators.

The top alternatives to Drupal include WordPress (64.17% market share), Wix (8.72% market share), Squarespace (6.84% market share), GoDaddy Website Builder (3.67% market share) — measured as a share of the domains we detect running a platform in this category.

United States leads with 26,964 matched Drupal domains, followed by Germany (7,856), France (7,602), Belgium (7,127), United Kingdom (6,984). These are counts within the 101,526 domains we could match to a company record, not the full detected base.

The most common company size is 1-10 employees, representing 50.01% of the Drupal domains we could match to a company record and size — a subset of 101,526 matched companies, not of all 158,947 detected domains. This is followed by 11-50 employees (22.55%) and 51-200 employees (12.37%).

Among the Drupal domains we could match to a company with a known founding date, most were founded in the 2010s (25.63%), followed by the 2000s (20.16%). That matched subset is drawn from 101,526 companies and is not representative of all 158,947 detected domains. This suggests Drupal is most popular among relatively young companies.

The ideal Drupal customer is: Company Size: 1-50 employees, Location: US, France, or Germany, City: London, Paris, New York, Berlin, Founded: 2000-2019, Company Age: ~15-25 years old — based on our analysis of 101,526 enriched companies at TechnologyChecker.io.

Yes, Drupal is a free and open-source content management system (CMS) written in PHP. It was first released in 2001 by Dries Buytaert and has evolved into one of the most powerful enterprise CMS platforms available. Drupal excels at managing complex content architectures with multilingual support, advanced user permissions, and flexible taxonomy systems. It's particularly popular among government agencies, universities, and large organizations that need strong security and scalability for mission-critical websites.

No, Drupal isn't the same as PHP, though it's built using the PHP programming language. PHP is a server-side scripting language used to create dynamic web applications, while Drupal is a complete content management framework written in PHP. Think of PHP as the building material and Drupal as the finished structure. Drupal uses PHP to provide a full-featured CMS with database abstraction, theming systems, module architecture, and administrative interfaces that allow non-technical users to manage website content without writing code.

Drupal is still widely used by government agencies, universities, nonprofits and large enterprises that require strong security and complex content management. Our data shows 158,947 active Drupal installations, and the live detections include Siemens, Pfizer, Bayer, Novartis, Nokia, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, RTX, Orange, Royal Mail, PepsiCo, DHL, the United Nations, France's Ministry of Education, the Australian Government's GovCMS platform, and Harvard, Yale, Princeton, MIT, Stanford and Oxford.

Yes, Drupal has a steeper learning curve than WordPress. G2 reviews consistently cite Drupal's "complex coding requirements" and "learning difficulty" as top challenges for new users. WordPress prioritizes ease of use with visual page builders and intuitive interfaces, while Drupal requires more technical knowledge to configure content types, views, and permissions. However, this complexity translates to greater flexibility and control. Organizations with dedicated development teams can build highly customized solutions in Drupal that would be difficult to replicate in WordPress without extensive custom development.

Choose Drupal over WordPress when you need advanced content architecture, enterprise-grade security, or complex multilingual/multi-site management. Drupal excels at structured content with custom content types, relationships, and taxonomies that WordPress handles less elegantly. Government agencies and enterprises select Drupal for its rigorous security track record and granular user permissions. The platform also offers superior multilingual capabilities out of the box and can manage dozens of related sites from a single installation. If you're building a simple blog or brochure site, WordPress is easier; for complex institutional websites, Drupal's architecture provides a stronger foundation.

Drupal's main disadvantages include a steep learning curve, higher hosting costs, complex upgrade paths, and limited availability of non-technical resources. G2 reviews highlight "learning difficulty" and "expensive hosting costs" as top concerns. Drupal requires more server resources than lightweight CMS options, driving up infrastructure expenses. Major version upgrades often require significant rebuilding rather than simple updates. The platform also demands developers with specialized Drupal knowledge, which can be scarce and expensive compared to WordPress developers. For small teams without technical staff, these challenges often outweigh Drupal's enterprise capabilities.

Yes, Drupal core software is completely free and open-source, released under the GNU General Public License. You can download, install, modify, and distribute Drupal without paying licensing fees. However, the total cost of ownership includes hosting infrastructure, development time, custom module development, ongoing maintenance, and potential professional support services. While the software itself costs nothing, organizations typically spend significantly on implementation and support. Hosting requirements are more demanding than simpler CMS platforms, and you'll likely need experienced Drupal developers for configuration and customization, which adds to the overall investment.

Yes, Drupal is excellent for enterprise websites, and the data shows it more clearly than for any other platform in this category: 1.41% of Drupal organisations employ 10,001+ people, over thirty times the rate on Wix (0.04%) or Squarespace (0.03%), and 27.44% have more than fifty employees against roughly 4% on the hosted builders. Its architecture supports complex organisational structures, granular permissions, multilingual content and strict accessibility requirements, which is why government ministries, defence contractors and research universities keep choosing it.

Drupal is used for government portals, university websites, nonprofit sites, corporate intranets, publishing platforms, and complex multilingual web applications. Government agencies use it for transparency portals and citizen services that require accessibility compliance and security. Universities deploy Drupal for academic department sites, research databases, and student information systems. Media organizations build publishing workflows with editorial calendars and content scheduling. Corporations use Drupal for knowledge management systems and customer-facing microsites. The platform's flexible content modeling makes it ideal for any project where content relationships, user permissions, and data structure matter more than quick setup and simplicity.

Drupal was first released in 2001 by Dries Buytaert, making it over 24 years old. The platform originated as a message board for Buytaert and friends before evolving into a general-purpose CMS framework. Our dataset shows Drupal detections beginning in July 2005. Major versions have included Drupal 6 (2008), Drupal 7 (2011), Drupal 8 (2015), Drupal 9 (2020), and the current Drupal 10 series. This longevity gives Drupal a mature collection of contributed modules, established best practices, and a proven track record for mission-critical applications that newer platforms can't match.

Yes, Drupal has a strong security reputation and is trusted by government agencies and enterprises with strict compliance requirements. The Drupal Security Team actively monitors vulnerabilities, releases security advisories, and provides patches for both core software and contributed modules. However, security depends heavily on proper configuration, regular updates, and following best practices. Outdated Drupal installations can be vulnerable, as seen in past exploits targeting sites that didn't apply security patches promptly. When properly maintained, Drupal meets stringent security standards including FISMA, HIPAA, and PCI DSS compliance requirements that government and healthcare organizations demand.

Government Administration (4.09%), Construction (3.54%), Non-profit Organizations (3.17%), IT Services and IT Consulting (2.98%) and Financial Services (2.98%) are the top five industries using Drupal, with Hospitals and Health Care (2.74%) and Higher Education (2.52%) close behind. Drupal is the only platform in this category where government is the #1 vertical, and the public-sector cluster, government, non-profits and higher education, accounts for 9.78% of its base.