Drupal Website Design
Drupal Web Design
Drupal Website Design & Development in El Dorado Hills, CA
Drupal is the most powerful CMS on the market today. It is ideal for companies that want to have large, robust customize-able pages that can perform many different functions. Drupal is versatile and easy to customize for various uses and customer requirements. Some of the benefits of using Drupal are the main reasons why many Drupal developers choose Drupal over Worpress or Joomla.
Benefits of Using Drupal for you Web Design Project:
- Open source: Drupal is open source, meaning that the source code for the CMS is available for anyone to see, use and build upon. Open source software invites innovation, and many people contribute to Drupal’s platform and create custom add-ons and plugins that you can use for free.
- Advanced system: Whereas WordPress is simple at the lower levels and progresses to a more advanced system as you need to use additional features, Drupal is the most technically advanced CMS and all the features are available for use from the very beginning. This fact has pros and cons in terms of usability, of course. It is harder to learn to use Drupal up front, but once you do learn how to use it you do not need to pay more to upgrade it the way you do with WordPress. With Drupal, you will need to have an advanced knowledge of PHP, CSS and HTML to truly customize each page of your website.
- Excellent end-user performance: Web sites that are developed in Drupal typically better load times than sites that are developed in other CMS platforms, such as WordPress or Joomla. Of course, this is only true across the board for basic websites. As you start to add plugins and extensions, your load time will increase correspondingly.
- Fully customizable: Not only can you create your own plugins and extensions for use on your Drupal website; you can also view and edit the root code to fully customize your website. For those with experience in PHP programming, this makes Drupal second to none in terms of usability and functionality.
- Free software: The entirety of the Drupal software is free. You can add on unlimited features without having to pay for upgrades. If you anticipate that you will want a large, robust website, Drupal is the CMS to choose!
Cons of Drupal for Web Development:
- Requires programming knowledge: Drupal is the most powerful of the CMS platforms, but it is also the hardest to use. If you know how to program in PHP, you will likely have an excellent experience using Drupal for your website. If you do not know how to program in PHP, CSS and HTML, you may have a hard time moving past the most basic setup without expert help.
- No hosting: Unlike WordPress, Drupal does not have an option for hosting your website. This means you will have to arrange and pay for hosting yourself. You will also have to buy your own domain name. Self-hosting has more options and flexibility than hosting your site on the CMS’s server, but it is an additional step that you have to take.
Front Street Media and Drupal Web Design
At Front Street Media, we specialize in building Drupal websites for your company. We have the programming and the design experience necessary to utilize this robust and versatile platform for your business. We provide an out of the box “sandbox” that uses our most popular Drupal features for easy web building. Then, if you want additional customization, we provide this to make your website completely unique. We host your website and provide constant monitoring to watch the performance of your website and create strategies to increase traffic and sales.
Why choose Drupal?
If you do not have a website yet and are thinking of building one in Drupal, or if you have an existing website and are thinking of upgrading and redesigning it in Drupal, there are several reasons why this might be an excellent choice for you and your business.
- You already have a website built in Drupal. People tend to stick with the systems they already have, with which they are already comfortable. Drupal is a great platform to build a new system in because it has the power and capability to grow practically forever.
- You want flexibility. Drupal’s open source code means that your website can easily be ported over to a new CMS if you decide to switch. No part of the site is hidden in proprietary code.
- You want to know you are in charge. The open source management of Drupal means that you can completely customize it and make your website be any way you want it to be. There are no limitations.
- You need features that work well in Drupal. Because of Drupal’s powerful tools, there are many web features that work exceptionally well in this CMS. If you are looking for a website that can do specific tasks that work best in Drupal, then Drupal is the platform for you.
What type of sites are built with Drupal?
Of course, Drupal works well with any site because it is such a powerful tool. In terms of comparing the pros and cons of power versus difficulty of use, though, there are some sites that work especially well with Drupal:
- Ecommerce sites: From information security to ease of searching, customers expect a lot from ecommerce sites. Similar in popularity of the popular Ecommerce CMS (Magento), Drupal has many options for Ecommerce development as well. It is possible to create an ecommerce site on another CMS platform, but a Drupal ecommerce site will give you the most tools. It will also give you the size and power you need to utilize these tools without slowing down your website.
- Directories: Directories are notorious for needing tremendous amounts of power. End users need to be able to search your directory using any and all methods possible, and with every new search functionality you need a CMS with greater size and power.
- Lots of content & User Management: We have clients who build sites that have thousands of pages. Drupal is the only CMS that is robust enough to handle thousands and thousands of pages on a single site.
With Front Street Media, you aren’t just getting expert web creation and hosting for your Drupal website. You are also getting the years of experience that we have creating Drupal sites. We know what does and doesn’t work with this CMS. We will create a website for you that will produce the results you want. Give us a call today for a free estimate, a free website evaluation and quote of fill out our contact form if you have any questions!
