Top Drupal Alternatives in 2025: Best CMS Options Compared

- builder of brands and businesses since 2000

UPDATED: Nov 01, 2025

8 minute read

Drupal has long been a trusted option for building powerful, customisable websites. But it's not always the best fit for every business. From cost and complexity to team workflows and scalability, there are plenty of reasons you might be exploring alternatives.

Our team has over 20 years of experience with CMS solutions, so we’ve done the hard work for you and rounded up a comprehensive list of CMS options. These range from traditional monolithic platforms to modern headless systems.

Every company’s needs will differ, so take a look to find the right fit for you.

In short: What you need to know about Drupal alternatives in 2025

Drupal is powerful, but not always the best fit for every business. Here are 13 of the best Drupal alternatives for 2025, from open-source platforms like WordPress and Joomla, to enterprise DXPs like Sitecore and AEM, to modern headless CMSs like Sanity, Contentful, and Strapi.

Best for personal projects: WordPress
Best for enterprise scale: Sitecore or AEM
Best for developer control: Strapi or Sanity
Best for flexibility & collaboration: Sanity
Best for marketing simplicity: Prismic

💡 Bottom line: Choose your CMS based on your team’s skills, budget, and content strategy. Not just brand recognition.

The better you understand your CMS options, the better the odds are of finding the perfect fit.

Why Teams Are Moving Away from Drupal

Before we dive into alternatives, it’s worth understanding why many organisations start looking beyond Drupal.

While Drupal remains a powerful, extensible CMS, common pain points include:

Complexity and steep learning curve: Even small updates can require developer expertise.
Maintenance and upgrade costs: Major version updates often mean full rebuilds.
Limited marketing agility: Non-technical teams can struggle to manage content without developer input.
Hosting and performance overhead: Unlike SaaS or headless options, Drupal requires more infrastructure management.
Developer resource challenges: Drupal specialists can be harder (and more expensive) to hire than WordPress or headless developers.

For many teams, these issues lead to exploring CMSs that are easier to use, faster to scale, or better aligned with composable architecture.

Dig deeper into the alternatives below or skip straight to the comparison table.

Top Drupal Alternatives

WordPress

Type: Open-source, monolithic CMS

Best for: Blogs, personal projects, small businesses that don't plan to scale.

Pros:

Massive plugin ecosystem
Huge developer community
Easy-to-use editor for non-technical teams

Cons:

Can be resource-heavy at scale
Security risks if not properly maintained
Customisation can require significant development

👉 We have some strong opinions about this one, have a read.

Joomla

Type: Open-source, monolithic CMS

Best for: Community-driven sites, membership portals

Pros:

More flexible out-of-the-box than WordPress
Strong multilingual support
Good for complex content structures

Cons:

Smaller ecosystem than WordPress or Drupal
Learning curve for non-technical users

Backdrop CMS

Type: Open-source CMS (Drupal fork)

Best for: Organisations that like Drupal’s structure but want something simpler and lighter

Pros:

Familiar to Drupal developers (shares Drupal 7 DNA)
Easier upgrades and maintenance
Lower resource requirements

Cons:

Smaller community than Drupal
Limited enterprise adoption

👉 Backdrop CMS is ideal if you want Drupal’s flexibility without its overhead. Essentially “Drupal Light.”

Sitecore

Type: Enterprise DXP (Digital Experience Platform)

Best for: Large enterprises needing advanced personalisation

Pros:

Advanced personalisation and marketing tools
Strong enterprise support
Robust scalability

Cons:

High licensing costs
Requires specialized developers

Adobe Experience Manager (AEM)

Type: Enterprise DXP

Best for: Global enterprises with complex content and marketing needs

Pros:

Deep integration with Adobe ecosystem (Analytics, Target, Creative Cloud)
Advanced workflow management
Strong enterprise support

Cons:

Very expensive
Steep learning curve

Contentful

Type: Headless CMS

Best for: Teams embracing composable architecture and omnichannel content

Pros:

Flexible content modeling
Great API-first approach
Scales well with complex digital experiences

Cons:

Pricing can grow quickly with scale
Limited built-in authoring experience

Sanity

Type: Headless CMS

Best for: Teams needing flexibility, real-time collaboration, and custom workflows

Pros:

Fully customisable content studio
Real-time collaboration (like Google Docs)
Developer-friendly with GROQ queries and APIs
Flexible integrations with modern frameworks

Cons:

Requires some development expertise to unlock full potential

👉 If you’re exploring headless CMS options, Sanity is a strong choice when you need scalability, collaboration, and design flexibility.

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Modern "headless" E-commerce

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Strapi

Real-time content collaboration and advanced version control.

Type: Open-source headless CMS

Best for: Developer-heavy teams that want control over the CMS itself

Pros:

100% open-source, self-hosted
Strong customisation options
Active community

Cons:

Requires more DevOps effort
Limited managed hosting (unless using Strapi Cloud)

Ghost

Type: Open-source, monolithic CMS

Best for: Publishers, blogs, newsletters

Pros:

Clean, fast, lightweight
Focused on publishing workflows
Built-in membership and subscription tools

Cons:

Less flexible for non-publishing use cases
Smaller ecosystem compared to WordPress

Prismic

Type: Headless CMS

Best for: Marketing teams that want a balance of flexibility and simplicity

Pros:

Slice-based editor for modular design
Simple UI for marketers
Strong integrations with modern frameworks

Cons:

Content modeling less flexible than Sanity
Some limitations on complex use cases

Kentico Kontent (now Kontent.ai)

Type: Headless CMS / DXP

Best for: Mid-market and enterprise teams needing structured workflows

Pros:

Enterprise-grade workflows
Strong governance and compliance tools
API-first architecture

Cons:

Pricing aimed at mid-to-enterprise market
Less developer customisation than open-source headless CMSs

Magnolia CMS

Type: Enterprise CMS

Best for: Large organisations needing modular content and personalisation

Pros:

Hybrid headless capabilities
Strong personalisation and marketing tools
Built for enterprises

Cons:

Complex setup and licensing
Steeper learning curve

Umbraco

Type: Open-source, .NET-based CMS

Best for: Microsoft-stack teams

Pros:

Flexible and developer-friendly
Open-source with commercial support available
Strong .NET ecosystem integration

Cons:

Smaller ecosystem than WordPress or Drupal
Requires .NET expertise

Comparative Overview of Drupal Alternatives

CMS	Type	Best For	Pros	Cons
WordPress	Monolithic	Blogs, SMBs	Easy to use, huge plugin library	Can get bloated, security risks
Joomla	Monolithic	Communities, memberships	Multilingual, flexible	Smaller ecosystem, harder UI
Backdrop CMS	Open-source (Drupal fork)	Teams that like Drupal but want something simpler	Familiar structure, easier upgrades, lightweight	Smaller community, limited enterprise adoption
Sitecore	Enterprise DXP	Large enterprises	Personalisation, scalability	Very expensive
Adobe Experience Manager	Enterprise DXP	Global enterprises	Adobe integrations, workflows	High cost, steep learning
Contentful	Headless	Omnichannel	API-first, flexible	Price scales fast, limited editor
Sanity	Headless	Scaling, collaborative teams, complex integrations	Custom studio, real-time collab	Needs dev expertise
Strapi	Headless	Dev-heavy teams	Open-source, customisable	Requires hosting/ops
Ghost	Monolithic	Blogs, publishers	Lightweight, memberships	Less flexible
Prismic	Headless	Marketing teams	Slice editor, easy UI	Limited modeling
Kontent.ai	Headless/DXP	Mid-enterprise	Workflows, compliance	Pricing, less dev control
Magnolia CMS	Enterprise	Large orgs	Hybrid headless, personalisation	Complex setup
Umbraco	Monolithic	.NET teams	Open-source, flexible	Requires .NET expertise

There’s no one right answer…so which is best for you?

No single CMS is "best", it completely depends on your goals, team, and budget. Drupal is a powerful option, but if you’re exploring alternatives, the market has never been more diverse.

If you’re looking for a future-proof, flexible, and collaborative CMS, a headless solution like Sanity can be an excellent choice. This is the closest we’ve found to a “One size fits all” CMS, which is why we’ve chosen to make it our specialty.

But whichever platform you choose, the key is finding the right fit for your workflows, your developers, and your content goals.

At Represent, we run our agency on the basis of trust and transparency. So if you ever need sound advice, let’s chat and we’d be happy to advise on the best solution for you.