CMS (content management system)
A CMS stores a site's content and settings and builds its pages on request. Drupal is a free, general-purpose CMS released under the GPL.
A content management system (CMS) is software that lets people add, edit, publish and remove website content through a browser, without editing code for every change. Drupal is one. The Drupal.org glossary names WordPress and Joomla! as other examples.
How a CMS works in Drupal 11
Drupal splits the job into parts you can add or remove:
- Content. Editors create and manage content in the browser. The core Node module handles creating, configuring and displaying the main site content, and each item is a node.
- Users. User accounts are among the basic functions the User Guide lists. You assign permissions to roles and give users those roles.
- Modules. Installing or uninstalling a module adds or removes features.
- Themes. Installing or uninstalling a theme changes how the site looks.
The User Guide calls Drupal a general-purpose CMS. It contrasts that with special-purpose packages, such as those for blogs or club membership sites, and presents Drupal as suited to sites that fall outside a narrow purpose.
Example
A marketing editor signs in and opens Content, then uses the Add content button, which the node module places on that page. She picks a content type, fills in the fields and saves. No developer touches the code; the CMS stores the text and builds the page when a visitor requests it.
Common mistakes
- Treating "CMS" as a brand. It is a category. "Drupal", "Drupal CMS" and a vendor's distribution are different things, so check which one a vendor means before you compare features.
- Choosing by the editing screen alone. A CMS also handles accounts, permissions, themes and extensions. Ask who will manage those over time.
For marketing and content teams
Your daily work is content: writing, editing, publishing and unpublishing. Settings, new content types and new features are site-building tasks that need an administrator or developer. Know which side a request falls on, and you will wait less.
With DXPR
DXPR CMS puts Drupal, the DXPR AI page builder and DXPR Theme into one distribution that DXPR curates and maintains.