Drupal Starshot

Starshot, 'Drupal CMS' in 2025

We've used Drupal for more than 15 years; we've built lots of websites and software solutions using it and we have evolved along with Drupal over the years. It's allowed us to do some wonderful things and we've always been big fans, but the Drupal Starshot initiative is about to bring Drupal to a whole new set of users and organisations in 2025.

The Drupal Starshot Initiative is set to redefine Drupal by introducing a new default package known as Drupal CMS. This package integrates Drupal core with a selection of refined features from the contributed project ecosystem, aiming to deliver an exceptional out-of-the-box user experience. It might not sound revolutionary, but the idea has the potential to make Drupal accessible to a huge amount of people with much lower development effort and cost, and the creator of Drupal is betting on its success.

Drupal has always been more of a framework for building websites and applications, as opposed to an off the shelf CMS. It's incredibly flexible and allows the development of highly advanced applications meaning it’s a popular choice in the enterprise space, but it never really offered a pre-built out of the box system or website, but rather relied on a developer to use the building blocks to create something from it, often with custom written code and modules. This has always meant a higher barrier to entry when compared to a CMS like WordPress, and thus less people using Drupal.

Drupal Starshot (now named Drupal CMS) aims to change this and make Drupal the best option, even for smaller organisations, smaller budgets and site builders with limited experience in website development.  WordPress is popular for getting a minimal viable website up and running by installing some plugins. Drupal CMS will provide the same experience but built on an enterprise core.

The Drupal that we know and love, that we've used to build many things over the years, will become known as Drupal Core, this will be the raw platform that developers will continue to use, building advanced applications and websites. Drupal CMS will be known as the more accessible out of the box solution that is powered by Drupal core under the hood.

Building upon recent advancements such as Recipes, Project Browser, and Automatic Updates, Drupal CMS is designed to empower site builders, even those without prior Drupal experience, to effortlessly create and extend websites directly through their browsers. The system guides users in installing pre-packaged recipes tailored for common use cases and innovative functionalities, facilitating a swift transition from installation to launch.

A significant highlight of this initiative is the Experience Builder, formerly known as Layout Builder. This tool is poised to become the default interface for layout design, page building, and basic theming within Drupal CMS. The primary objective is to craft a tool that site builders find intuitive and efficient, enhancing the overall user experience. The first stable release of Experience Builder is anticipated in late 2025, with plans to incorporate it into Drupal CMS 2.0.

What does Drupal CMS mean for our clients, or potential clients? 

The big thing is that we can offer Drupal CMS out of the box solutions to smaller organisations on smaller budgets, whist still catering for more complex requirements by developing bespoke solutions using Drupal core. The beauty of this is that we can still use an enterprise grade, robust and advanced framework, but provide a simplified out of the box solution on top of this at a much lower cost than bespoke development.

If you are interested in discussing further, get in touch.

You can watch a video below of the keynote speech at DrpualCon Barcelona 2024, which incldues a demonstration of Drupal CMS.

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