Drupal vs. Salesforce CMS

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Drupal
Score 6.7 out of 10
N/A
Drupal is a free, open-source content management system written in PHP that competes primarily with Joomla and Plone. The standard release of Drupal, known as Drupal core, contains basic features such as account and menu management, RSS feeds, page layout customization, and system administration.N/A
Salesforce CMS
Score 8.4 out of 10
N/A
Salesforce Marketing Cloud Personalization (formerly Salesforce CMS) is a hybrid CMS allowing users to author content once and deliver it anywhere, in or out of Salesforce. Users create content, define content access, and define channels so they can share content and limit access to appropriate contributors. For an experience built with Salesforce, users can choose from two of the company's “what-you-see-is-what-you-get” (WYSIWYG) tools: Experience Builder and Commerce Page Designer. If the user…N/A
Pricing
DrupalSalesforce CMS
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
DrupalSalesforce CMS
Free Trial
NoNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
DrupalSalesforce CMS
Features
DrupalSalesforce CMS
Security
Comparison of Security features of Product A and Product B
Drupal
2.0
Ratings
121% below category average
Salesforce CMS
10.0
Ratings
21% above category average
Role-based user permissions2.00 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Platform & Infrastructure
Comparison of Platform & Infrastructure features of Product A and Product B
Drupal
7.7
Ratings
1% above category average
Salesforce CMS
10.0
Ratings
27% above category average
API9.30 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Internationalization / multi-language6.00 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Web Content Creation
Comparison of Web Content Creation features of Product A and Product B
Drupal
5.3
Ratings
37% below category average
Salesforce CMS
10.0
Ratings
26% above category average
WYSIWYG editor1.00 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Code quality / cleanliness9.30 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Admin section3.00 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Page templates4.00 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Library of website themes3.00 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Mobile optimization / responsive design10.00 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Publishing workflow9.30 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Form generator3.00 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Web Content Management
Comparison of Web Content Management features of Product A and Product B
Drupal
5.0
Ratings
38% below category average
Salesforce CMS
10.0
Ratings
31% above category average
Content taxonomy10.00 Ratings10.00 Ratings
SEO support1.00 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Bulk management10.00 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Availability / breadth of extensions2.00 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Community / comment management2.00 Ratings10.00 Ratings
User Ratings
DrupalSalesforce CMS
Likelihood to Recommend
2.0
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
8.2
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Usability
3.0
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
Availability
9.7
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Performance
8.9
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
5.0
(0 ratings)
8.0
(0 ratings)
In-Person Training
8.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Online Training
6.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
5.1
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Ease of integration
9.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
8.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
DrupalSalesforce CMS
Likelihood to Recommend
We developed a corporate website using Drupal, which features a large number of static pages and several dynamic functions, including a contact us form, location finder, and job posting. We utilized Drupal with some customization to achieve the desired functionalities. We have also worked on e-commerce sites using Drupal, and there is a scope for improvements, specifically in cataloging.
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If you have a large customer base and a large amount of data on each of your customers, it is really strong in creating personalized content that your salespeople can use in their pitch meetings—and then setting up workflows for automated for lifecycle journey creations to automatically go out to customers.
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Pros
  • Content Types... these are amazing. Whereas a more simplistic CMS like Wordpress will basically allow you to make posts and build pages, Drupal 8 gives you the ability to define different types of content that behave differently, and are served up differently in different areas of the website.
  • Extensibility... it scales, ohhhh does it scale. They've really figured out server-side caching, and it makes all the difference. Once a page has been cached, it's available instantly to all users worldwide; and when coupled with AWS, global redundancy and localization mean that no matter where you're accessing the site, it always loads fast and crisp.
  • Workflows... you have the ability to define very specific roles and/or user-based editorial workflows, allowing for as many touchpoints and reviews between content creation and publication as you'll require.
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  • Easy to use, just like Salesforce's other products. Many users can sit down and figure it out in no time, and with a little training become power users.
  • Fast and secure - Salesforce is a leader in the cloud world so you get consistently fast results and security that is top notch in the industry.
  • Accessible from anywhere - if you use cloud CMS already this is a no-brainer, but for those that do in-house CMS still, this is a major difference. Mobile access from anywhere on the planet without a VPN is something you just can't do without the cloud.
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Cons
  • Security and new release notifications are a hassle as they happen too often
  • Allowing them to write PHP modules is a big advantage, but sometimes integrating them is a small challenge due to the version the developer is working on.
  • Steep learning curve, but worth it
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  • Organizations that are new to Salesforce need to be prepared for report building and other configurations. Customization is a great feature, but it can be overwhelming if not impossible for a brand new user.
  • Salesforce Trailhead is robust but can be confusing and overwhelming.
  • I'm currently comfortable with only using Salesforce CMS or any iteration on a desktop.
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Likelihood to Renew
I really like Drupal, and besides the one major issue with not being able to update from version 6 to version 7 and I am happy to continuing using it. Hopefully as time goes on they will make it easier to upgrade or provide better tools for mid-level web designers like myself to build out new sites without the help of expensive 3rd party's.
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It will be too difficult to change to a different software. We are fully integrated, and if things are not working well, it would be way worse to try to move to a different platform.
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Usability
It has a very steep learning curve. When starting with Drupal, the functionality and setup have to be learned, which is complex in comparison to tools like WordPress. Drupal is more powerful and can create a wider range of applications, but it definitely has a learning curve. I would recommend it to anyone who wants to make a dynamic web application bigger than the scale of a WordPress blog.
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Strengths: - Intuitive for Salesforce Users – If you’re already working within the Salesforce ecosystem, the Salesforce CMS is easy to navigate, with a clean UI, drag-and-drop content management, and reusable assets for quick updates. - Seamless Integration – Since it connects natively with Experience Cloud, Marketing Cloud, and CRM, it allows for efficient multi-channel content distribution without needing extra third-party tools. - AI-Powered Personalization – The ability to deliver dynamic content based on user profiles and engagement data is a huge plus, making content delivery more relevant and impactful. Challenges: - Learning Curve for New Users – If you're not already familiar with Salesforce, the interface can feel overwhelming, requiring training to fully leverage all features. - Limited Customization & Workflow Automation – While it works well for structured content, advanced approval workflows and deep editorial customization are limited compared to enterprise CMS platforms like Adobe Experience Manager. - Media & Design Limitations – Salesforce CMS is not as robust for managing rich media-heavy content, which can be frustrating for teams needing more flexibility in multimedia presentation.
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Reliability and Availability
Drupal itself does not tend to have bugs that cause sporadic outages. When deployed on a well-configured LAMP stack, deployment and maintenance problems are minimal, and in general no exotic tuning or configuration is required. For highest uptime, putting a caching proxy like Varnish in front of Drupal (or a CDN that supports dynamic applications).
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Seen very least outages and it would took more time hardley not more than 10 mins that to with prior advance notice
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Performance
Drupal page loads can be slow, as a great many database calls may be required to generate a page. It is highly recommended to use caching systems, both built-in and external to lessen such database loads and improve performance. I haven't had any problems with behind-the-scenes integrations with external systems.
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Its very quick and not facing any issus in loading if we have good internet bandwidth then it works very well and doesnt gives any issues
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Support Rating
As noted earlier, the support of the community can be rather variable, with some modules attracting more attraction and action in their issue queues, but overall, the development community for Drupal is second to none. It probably the single greatest aspect of being involved in this open-source project.
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I've never really had to contact support. It's at the point where we have people in the organization that are our specific go-to inhouse support teams for Salesforce. Again, that goes back to what I said about there being a point where just too much is added to Salesforce that you have to hire someone to be the go-to person of Salesforce. There is only so much their support team can do for you. I wouldn't expect Salesforce Support to have any sort of understanding of the weird issues I deal with!
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In-Person Training
I was part of the team that conducted the training. Our training was fine, but we could have been better informed on Drupal before we started providing it. If we did not have answers to tough questions, we had more technical staff we could consult with. We did provide hands-on practice time for the learners, which I would always recommend. That is where the best learning occurred.
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Since I attended training from one of our senior resource in organizations I didn't face any issues
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Online Training
The on-line training was not as ideal as the face-to-face training. It was done remotely and only allowed for the trainers to present information to the learners and demonstrate the platform online. There was not a good way to allow for the learners to practice, ask questions and have them answered all in the same session.
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N/A. I wasn't present for vendor-provided training.
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Implementation Rating
Plan ahead as much you can. You really need to know how to build what you want with the modules available to you, or that you might need to code yourself, in order to make the best use of Drupal. I recommend you analyze the most technically difficult workflows and other aspects of your implementation, and try building some test versions of those first. Get feedback from stakeholders early and often, because you can easily find yourself in a situation where your implementation does 90% of what you want, but, due to something you didn't plan for, foresee, or know about, there's no feasible way to get past the last 10%
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I joined post the installtion so not aware much of it but as per feedback its not that hard to setup
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Alternatives Considered
Drupal's capabilities outpace WordPress by miles. Drupal is more customizable, scales better for larger companies and has advanced content types. If you own a small business or work at a startup company, I would recommend WordPress but if your firm is trying to scale and you have more than 50 employees I would recommend Drupal.
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Salesforce CMS is way better with both optimization and reporting both of which Sonar Scheduling lacked. Our ability to skill technician or prioritize was lacking with Sonar. The API was very delayed with Sonar so changes on the Gantt had a delay that would throw off other team members. Sonar was cheaper but Salesforce CMS is way more capable.
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Scalability
Drupal is well known to be scalable, although it requires solid knowledge of MySQL best practices, caching mechanisms, and other server-level best practices. I have never personally dealt with an especially large site, so I can speak well to the issues associated with Drupal scaling.
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We've never run into issues no matter how many concurrent users!
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Return on Investment
  • Drupal helped us launch a creative, marketing- and product-focused website with custom coding integrations tailored to our goals.
  • Drupal allows us to rely on secure and consistently updated core code.
  • Drupal's code taxing on the server does start to get a bit heavy as you go along with customizations, so at some point, we decided to stop. We want to ensure our Google Page Score remains high, including paying close attention to page load speed.
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  • It has a smooth integration with Salesforce CMS application which can make it a positive for enhanced performance.
  • It may require extensive training for new joiners and that can become costly for the organization.
  • It also has automation features that reduce the distribution time by a significant number.
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ScreenShots