Drupal over the years
If you are a web development company, you will find yourself having many conversations about the sheer power and capability of Drupal. Drupal is a popular open-source content management system (CMS) that is widely used for building websites, intranets, and web applications. The history of Drupal web development dates back to 2001, when a Belgian student named Dries Buytaert created a simple message board system as a way for friends to keep in touch while he was studying abroad. Over the years, Drupal has evolved into a powerful and flexible CMS that is used by millions of websites around the world.
The first version of Drupal, called Drupal 1.0, was released in 2001. It was a simple message board system that allowed users to post messages and reply to existing ones. The system was based on the PHP programming language and used a flat file database to store data. Despite its simplicity, Drupal 1.0 quickly gained popularity among students and hobbyists.
In the following years, Drupal continued to evolve and gain new features. Drupal 2.0, which was released in 2002, introduced the ability to create custom content types, such as articles and pages. Drupal 3.0, which was released in 2003, introduced the ability to create custom fields and added support for multiple languages.
In 2005, Drupal 4.0 was released, which marked a major turning point in the development of the CMS. Drupal 4.0 introduced the ability to create custom modules, which allowed developers to add new features and functionality to their websites. Additionally, Drupal 4.0 introduced a new database abstraction layer that improved performance and made it easier for developers to work with different database systems.
Drupal 5.0 was released in 2007, which brought many new features and improvements to the CMS. Drupal 5.0 introduced the ability to create custom themes, which allowed users to change the look and feel of their websites. Additionally, Drupal 5.0 introduced a new user interface that made it easier for users to manage their websites.
Drupal 6.0 was released in 2008, which brought many new features and improvements to the CMS. Drupal 6.0 introduced the ability to create custom views, which allowed users to create custom lists of content on their websites. Additionally, Drupal 6.0 introduced support for new web standards, such as RDFa and Microformats.
Drupal 7.0 was released in 2010, which brought many new features and improvements to the CMS. Drupal 7.0 introduced a new version of the database abstraction layer, which improved performance and made it easier for developers to work with different database systems. Additionally, Drupal 7.0 introduced a new user interface that made it easier for users to manage their websites.
Drupal 8.0 was released in 2015, which brought many new features and improvements to the CMS. Drupal 8.0 introduced a new version of the PHP framework, which improved performance and made it easier for developers to work with different web technologies. Additionally, Drupal 8.0 introduced a new user interface that made it easier for users to manage their websites.
Drupal 9.0 was released in 2020, which is the latest version of the CMS. Drupal 9.0 introduced a new version of the PHP framework, which improved performance and made it easier for developers to work with different web technologies. Additionally, Drupal 9.0 introduced a new user interface that made it easier for users to manage their websites.
Throughout its history, Drupal has grown from a simple message board system to a powerful and flexible CMS that is used by millions of websites around the world. Today, Drupal is used by organisations of all sizes and in a variety of industries, from small businesses to large corporations and government agencies. The open-source nature of Drupal has made it a popular choice among developers and organisations looking for a cost-effective and customisable CMS.
Drupal key statistics and figures
According to BuiltWith, Drupal is used by over 1.2 million websites worldwide, which makes it the third most popular CMS behind WordPress and Joomla.
According to W3Techs, Drupal is used by 3.5% of all websites on the internet, and by 4.1% of the top 10 million websites.
According to the Drupal website, over 2,500 organisations use Drupal for web content management, including the White House, The Economist, and The Weather Channel.
According to the Drupal website, the CMS powers over 2% of the top 100,000 websites and over 3% of the top 10,000 websites.
According to the Drupal website, there are over 1.2 million active Drupal users and over 57,000 active Drupal contributors.
According to Google Trends, the search interest for Drupal has been steadily increasing over the years, with a spike in interest in late 2020 when Drupal 9 was released.
Here are some of the top websites that use Drupal:
Whitehouse.gov: The official website of the White House, the residence and workplace of the President of the United States, uses Drupal as its CMS.
Weather.com: The website of The Weather Channel, a popular American cable and satellite television channel, uses Drupal as its CMS.
Economist.com: The website of The Economist, a weekly news and international affairs publication, uses Drupal as its CMS.
BBC.co.uk: The website of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), the world’s oldest national broadcaster, uses Drupal as its CMS.
Grammy.com: The official website of the Grammy Awards, the prestigious awards for musical excellence, uses Drupal as its CMS.
Worldbank.org: The website of the World Bank Group, an international organisation that provides financial assistance to developing countries, uses Drupal as its CMS.
Nasa.gov: The official website of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the United States government agency responsible for the civilian space program, uses Drupal as its CMS.
Harvard.edu: The website of Harvard University, one of the oldest and most prestigious universities in the world, uses Drupal as its CMS.
Stanford.edu: The website of Stanford University, a private research university located in California, USA, uses Drupal as its CMS.
