In this digital-first epoch, a CMS enables businesses to acquire digital prominence by managing the website without coding from scratch. An end-to-end content management solution assists businesses in upscaling their digital reputation.

Besides increasing your customer base, you can also improve your SEO strategies. So, a content management system is a prerequisite because of the following:

  • Offers complete control over your content
  • Allow you to opt for seamless website maintenance
  • Eliminates the need for hiring multiple content managers  for your website

The Ins and Outs between Contentful and Drupal Solutions

By now, you have already realized the importance of a CMS. But which type of CMS system should you opt for? Given the multiple types of CMS platforms and services, choosing the most appropriate one becomes fairly challenging.

But the two most popular ones are Drupal and Contentful services. And here's your comprehensive guide to understanding the difference between Contentful and Drupal.

#1 Understanding their Functions:

Drupal allows you to decouple the front end from the backend where you wish to. What it does is allows you to make the content reusable. Also, it prepares you for delivery to multiple apps and websites.

While decoupling, Drupal gives you the benefit of presentation-neutral content. Also, the technology incorporated in the system is innovative. This free CMC for website building assists in building outstanding websites.

The advanced administration panel offers complete control of the overall content presentation. It's secure and fast-loading. Not to forget, it supports more than 100 languages, offering already-made templates for various industries.

Drupal also allows you to build interactive apps and websites. You can access complete insights into the front-end technologies with Drupal's decoupled architecture. The solution lets you future-proof the project by uplifting designs without re-implementing the content management system.

Stating that Contentful is a completely different version from Drupal is partially true. This API-first content infrastructure makes the front-end layers more versatile and less rigid. The difference lies in its API and the approach it uses.

Contentful API gets delivered through the CDN. On the flip, Drupal operates on RESTful APIs, GraphQL, and JSON. Another difference lies in Contentful's approach, such as JavaScript, JAMstack, Markup, and APIs. But decoupled Drupal implements Express, NodeJS, MongoDB, MERN, and React.

#2 Scalability & Performance

Drupal can handle any performance scalability requirement. But it might do that only if optimized correctly. A functional Drupal website is ready to accommodate traffic spikes & content growth. But contrarily, Contentful comes with a few technical limits on its infrastructure.

They can mandate a lack of interruption in shared-service infrastructure functions. But Contentful can compensate for website development much like the other type. It considers all growth dimensions a website or application experiences, thereby categorizing them into different categories.

#3 The Security Sufficiency

When it comes to security, Drupal is on a higher level. Due to the available features, Drupal has become a frontrunner. It's competent since it has a security team adhering to the security guidelines. Its community is proactive, and it analyzes security issues. It has an encrypted database, and its API ensures the violation of data to prevent malicious activities.

On the flip, Contentful competes with Drupal quite excellently. It comes with ISO 27001-compliant data centers. So, Drupal and Contentful both offer excellent security solutions.

#4 Streamlining the Content Workflow

For a CMS, the content is an essential part, and so is the creation & management streamlined for a successful CMS. When it comes to Drupal, it offers various field types such as boolean, date, comments, and more. Its field group module allows you to customize the group fields.

Also, it has a view system that allows you to create an enhanced experience. It allows you to add fields to the view and execute operations effectively.

Contentful does not fall behind in content workflow. It also has equal abilities. It brings an editorial experience that's seamless and easy to understand. While decoupling using NodeJS (for example), one needs to part with default features.

#5 Third-Party Integrations

Drupal can get integrated with third-party tools & apps. That's irrespective of whether it's the eCommerce verticals, analytic platforms, marketing systems, or ERP systems.

Drupal will function effectively regardless of any of them. On the flip, Contentful comes with UI extensions that can get integrated with external APIs & third-party data.

#6 Understanding the Community

Drupal, being a large platform, is operational worldwide. And Drupal community has over a million users in more than 230 countries. That's quite an achievement. On the other hand, Contentful doesn't have as large a community as Drupal.

But it still makes strides toward improving its reputation. Contentful's community offers technical support through the slack channel, where several developers are active & ready to assist you.

#7 What to Learn about Their Responsiveness?

Considering Drupal's responsiveness to devices, the service does not have a sheer alternative. It offers an optimal visitor experience that makes Drupal improve its responsiveness. It offers responsive design, tables, images, breakpoints, and themes.

These aspects allow Drupal apps and websites to identify the height and width of devices & adapt accordingly. So, that makes it more user-friendly and mobile-centric.

But Contentful optimizes mobile performance with features like selective sync, support for offline persistence, and image auto-compression.

So, now you have learned the most crucial difference between Contentful and Drupal services. It's time for you to consult the team of NVISH for end-to-end content management services.