Content

In Drupal, content is the information shown to visitors, such as pages, tags, comments and files, kept apart from the configuration that sets up the site.

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Edited by Jurriaan Roelofs Founder and CEO, DXPR Last updated November 11, 2026

In Drupal, content is the information meant to be displayed on your site: text, images, downloads and similar material. It is stored in the database as content entities, such as content items, comments, taxonomy terms, content blocks and files. Content is separate from configuration, the site setup that developers move between environments.

How content works in Drupal 11

The Drupal user guide calls each piece of content a content entity. Entities are grouped into entity types, and most types are divided into smaller variations. These are among the common types the guide lists; Drupal 11 calls the custom block a content block:

Entity type	What it holds	Variation
Content item	Main page content	Content type
Comment	Commentary on content items	Comment type
Taxonomy term	Labels that classify other content	Vocabulary
Content block	Smaller chunks such as header or footer text	Block type
File	A managed image or attachment	None

The data inside an entity lives in fields. Content entities can also have revisions and translations; the guide defines a revision as a record of the past or present state of a content entity as it is edited. Configuration works differently: Drupal.org calls it the data you would want to synchronize from development to production, and lists content types and views as examples.

Example

Go to Manage › Content › Add content › Basic page. Fill in the title and the body, check Published so that visitors can see the page, and save. The new item then appears on the Content page. Behind the form, Drupal has created one content entity of the node type.

Common mistakes

Mixing up a content type with content. A content type is configuration; the items created from it are content.
Calling everything a page. A tag, a comment and an uploaded file are content too, and each belongs to a different entity type with its own settings.
Forgetting to publish. The user guide has editors check Published before saving so that the item is visible to the public.

For marketing and content teams

The Content page lists the items on your site. In Drupal core 11.x its view offers filters for title, content type, published status and language, and it includes a bulk form for working on several items at once. Treat content as the part of the site you own day to day, and configuration as the part you request from your developer.

Sources

Questions about Content

Content is what editors and visitors create and read: pages, comments, tags, files. Configuration is site setup, such as content types, views and user roles. Drupal.org describes configuration as the data you would want to synchronize from development to production.

A node is one kind of content, the content item. Comments, taxonomy terms, content blocks, user profiles and files are content entities too, each defined by its own entity type.

In database tables. Each content entity type has its own tables; the node entity type, for example, uses node, node_field_data, node_revision and node_field_revision.

Related terms

All Drupal terms from A to Z