CMS Wars: Drupal Makes A Comeback

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In the battle for the hearts and minds of website owners, one CMS platform has been breaking away from the pack. Wordpress.

Corporate-backed and with a bend towards ease of use, Wordpress has been the go-to choice for many casual webmasters. However, the CMS titan Drupal has been making waves recently with the whispers of its newest release, 8.0.

Ok, so I know what you're thinking, 8.0 has been rumored for a very long time. And you're right, 7.0 came out back in January 2011, so the platform is long overdue for a upgrade. Historically back in the early 2000's, Drupal had a major release put out almost every year.

Until 7.0, which took about 3 years to come out after 6. And the reality is that 8.0 is currently the record holder for the longest amount of time for a major version upgrade. Why so long?

Some would attribute this to the fact that Drupal use has been in decline, and whereas there is some truth to that, you might be wrong. Drupal 7 is still a very useful platform and has been a leading CMS technology for the entirety of it's existence. And will continue to be long after 8.0 is released.

So the development towards Drupal 8 is not something to rush. Likewise, Drupal is still a main staple for complex web development, which was always it's original intention.

Wordpress is really built to be optimal for brochure sites and minimal back-end complications, and because most of the sites on the internet are of this type, it would make sense that Wordpress wins by the numbers.

The push towards Drupal 8.0 is getting a ton of attention this summer. The new platform is much more focused on eliminating too much Drupal proprietary code and focusing on more general PHP standards.

That means that the next Drupal developer you are looking for is really just a PHP developer. Therefore, the platform will be more universally accepted by developers and companies won't have to worry about finding Drupal-specific geniuses.

Drupal 8.0 is not yet fully available, but there are beta versions to try out. We expect the full release to happen sometime before the end of the year.

So prepare for a big year for Drupal as the CMS wars rage on.

Wanna read more on this? Check these out: The Drupal 8 Production Wait Is Almost Over (more); Drupal 8 Won't Be Wordpress And That's A Good Thing (more); Social media expert cautions users to think before they leap (more).