Integrations
DataScope & Drupal

When you start a blog or build a website, you'll need to find a content management system (CMS) that will best serve your needs. If you're a developer or find yourself with more specialized website needs, you should consider the open source solution Drupal. Drupal is one of the main players in the website building space. It even powers some very large, specialized sites, like NASA. To get started using Drupal, you can download the application and host it on your own servers, or use one of the simple one-click installations provided by some of the major hosting providers. Read MoreYou'll find that there's a steep learning curve before you're able to confidently build the website of your dreams with Drupal. Drupal is set up in a way that might feel more intuitive to developers, using "blocks" to add content to the various parts of your website (header, sidebar, footer, etc.) and a marketplace for themes and modules that seems to rely more on release notes and code updates than visual screenshots and marketing copy.There are over 40,000 modules currently listed on the Drupal site, which can be both exciting and overwhelming, depending on how confident you are with the program. Fortunately, the standard release of Drupal (called Drupal core), comes with a handful of the most important modules: RSS feeds, menus, page layout customization, and user permissions, which can save you a ton of time and energy during the initial setup.Because of the rich documentation and wealth of tutorials available, those without coding skills can build a perfectly usable site with Drupal. And once the initial learning curve is over, you may even appreciate the logic and ease of navigation that comes with the tool.The majority of your website building work is done in an area known as the site's "back end." Here, you can install a theme (which determines your site's appearance and basic layout) and modules (which extend the site's functionality), as well as perform other admin actions like adding users to the site and determining what their access permissions should be.Drupal stands out to the developer community because of its rich API, which allows for custom integrations with other tech tools, or new additions to the theme and module marketplace. With an active developer community eager to work in the platform, a simple search on the Drupal website will connect you with professionals that can set up and customize your Drupal site for you. While Drupal can work for anyone, from casual bloggers to tech businesses, it tends to be a more attractive solution for someone who's familiar with code or who has access to a talented developer. And for those who have complex, technologically advanced requirements for their sites, Drupal easily stands out as one of the top CMS contenders.