So you’re excited to start a website, and you’ve selected a perfect hosting provider, but you don’t know which content management system (CMS) you should choose. In this blog, we’ll look at two popular CMS; Drupal and WordPress to help you decide the perfect fit for your upcoming site! 

A Little Market Research

Before looking at the strengths and weaknesses of these two CMS, let’s first look at which is more prevalent in the market. When looking at google trends, WordPress is by far the more popular platform in all regions. .WordPress takes approximately 59.8% market share versus 4.6% for Drupal. Although this fact is enough to confirm WordPress is the best choice, understanding the specific features of each CMS can help you make a more informed decision when choosing the right one for your site.

Why is WordPress Popular?

WordPress is popular among bloggers and small and larger enterprises because of the following advantages:

• Ease of use: WordPress is known for its ease of use and does not require high technical expertise when first starting out.
• Learning curve: WordPress is a simple interface. Its themes and WYSIWYG tools allow users to start from scratch and have a fully functional website in just a short period of time.
• Large support community: It’s easy to get support and help with any issues because WordPress has a large group of users who are well connected on different internet groups. There are so many forums out there to search on so you can get expert help quickly. 
• Affordability: You can develop a WordPress site on your own or you have the option to hire WordPress developers. Luckily WordPress developers can be much more cost-effective compared to Drupal developers due to its popularity. 
• Extensive plugins and themes: You can extend your site’s functionality, look, and feel with over 50,000 WordPress plugins and 5,000 Themes!

Why is Drupal STILL a choice?

Many government agencies and large corporations still prefer Drupal because of its outstanding security features and content taxonomy. Here are a few reasons why Drupal is still a choice:

• Security: Drupal’s security is its top-selling point. It offers security reports and is much more transparent on its security features compared to other CMS. Drupal ensures data security with frequent security updates, including SSL and CDN support for full website protection.
• Multi-Language support: Drupal supports character sets and easy language management variants without the need for an external plugin to help websites in different geographical locations.
• Taxonomy: Drupal’s taxonomy allows for better content categorization and works really well for large content websites to facilitate faster site search.

 Drupal or WordPress: Which Is The Best For Me?

Now that you know a little bit about the benefits of both CMS, it’s time to decide which one is best for you. Here’s a little checklist to start you off: 

1. What’s your website for?: This is probably the first thing you need to determine as it can help you decide how complex your site needs to be and the duration you need to develop it.
2. Who will build the site?: Are you planning to develop the site yourself, hire a developer, or get a managed hosting provider to do it for you? If you plan to do it yourself then we suggest you pick WordPress. It’s easier to use, has tons of plugins, and has many WordPress hosting services to choose from. Plus a WordPress developer tends to be less expensive than a Drupal developer so you may save money in upfront costs.
3. Are you trying to start your site alone?: Working with an open-source tool means you may need help with errors or improvements. Choose a tool that has great support groups for beginners to even advanced-level users. Also, check if your hosting provider offers help for your selected CMS. 
4. Who is your web hosting provider?: Almost all hosting providers offer hosting platforms for WordPress and Drupal these days. If you have chosen a hosting provider, check with them on options or support given for the CMS. We recommend A2 Hosting because of its excellent support and prices!

Now that you’ve gone through this quick checklist, it’s time to decide: WordPress or Drupal? Overall we recommend WordPress as the first choice for anyone who needs a CMS to develop a professional and attractive website quickly! 

Conclusion

Before selecting your tools and platform, it’s vital to understand your website’s commercial and business goals. The right hosting provider and CMS are important when developing faster and cost-effective websites to gain a better online presence. A2 Hosting supports both Drupal and WordPress hosting, offering unbeatable speed for your site. Check out our WordPress hosting packages today and feel free to contact our sales team with any questions!

Related Resources

How to Install WordPress Using Softaculous

How to Install WordPress On Managed WordPress Hosting

How to Install Drupal Using Softaculous

How to Find the Right WordPress Plan

The post Drupal vs WordPress: What’s the Difference? appeared first on The A2 Posting.

Drupal: Should You Use it?

Before going any further, let’s discuss which types of websites Drupal is especially good for. We know that it is a robust and reliable Content Management System,  but there are a few specific cases wherein it is especially useful.

Drupal, in itself, has a lot to offer as a CMS and you probably can never go wrong if you select it as the CMS of choice. If you are building a business site, or planning a magazine or news portal with multiple authors, Drupal is a worthy fit. As a Content Management System, Drupal can scale depending on your needs. It can run gigantic websites as well as very small ones with relevant comfort.

However, Drupal’s unique selling point does not lie only in its scalability. Unlike most other CMSs, Drupal comes with SEO features as well as security settings out of the box. You likely will not even need a dedicated SEO addon, nor will you have to spend days hardening Drupal’s security. This means you can spend more time managing your website and less time configuring these settings. 

Of course, this also implies that unlike other CMSs such as WordPress, Drupal has a steeper learning curve for new users. Fortunately, there is an active community and extensive documentation available for Drupal users. Need more help? A2 Hosting support staff are experts with Drupal!

Tips and Tweaks for Using Drupal

Now that we’ve covered the basics of the CMS, here are a few tips to help your Drupal installation work faster and better:

1. Choose the right web host

It might seem a little obvious to say, but your web hosting solution matters a lot. And it is not just about “the server should be fast” anymore.

When running a dynamic script such as Drupal, your web hosting provider should be able to handle queries and calls efficiently. If the server is overloaded, no matter how good the hardware, your website will fare poorly. Make sure you pick a decent web host that can offer good memory limits as well as database connection limits (many smaller web hosts offer disk space and bandwidth, but the memory limits are too low to run a busy Drupal site).

2. Basic Optimization and Performance Tips

These measures apply not just to Drupal but to any software that you run. Firstly, always ensure that you are running the latest version of Drupal. With each new version, many performance enhancements, bug fixes as well as security patches are offered. Running an older version means you are missing out on crucial security and performance updates.

Secondly, make sure you rely on templates and addons only from trustworthy sources. Using Google to get “premium templates for free” or downloading via torrents is always a bad idea. Plus, if you do not need a particular addon or module, delete it or deactivate it. Having a large number of active modules can often slow down your website due to multiple memory calls and resources hogs.

3. Speed Improvements

You might come across this often repeated rumor that Drupal is slow by nature. This is more of hearsay and less of reality. By taking the correct measures to improve speed, Drupal can run very fast.

Caching, for example, is something you should definitely look into. Drupal offers two different types of caching, broadly speaking:- Page Caching and Views Caching.

Views Caching caches pages for logged in users as well. However, most of the time, you would not want this happening (a customized block, such as “My Recent Posts” meant to be unique for each user and frequently updated, can be cached by Views Caching). Page Caching is meant for general visitors to your website. It works by caching pages’ content into a database cache table, thereby preventing repeated database calls and queries. This in turn loads the page faster and consumes less server resources.

The best part is that Drupal does not really need a new plugin or addon for caching — head over to Configuration → Development and then tick the check box next to “Cache pages for anonymous users”.

4. Useful Modules

There are certain Drupal modules that can further improve the overall performance of your website.

If your website contains a lot of images, you might wish to compress or optimize them for faster load times. In that case, modules such as Image Optimize or ImageMagick can prove to be useful. Similarly, if you wish to implement “lazy loading” of images (such that an image is loaded only when the user scrolls to its location, as opposed to loading the entire page’s images in one go), Image Lazyloader can do the job for you.

Fast 404 is another useful Drupal module. It can scan and check your website for 404 errors and dead links and help you repair them.

Advanced CSS/JS Aggregation is something you should also consider looking into for improving the page load times of your site. This particular module aggregates the CSS and JavaScript on your web pages so that the code runs more efficiently and faster. This can yield faster page load times and better performance. You can also navigate to Configuration → Development → Performance and enable CSS and JavaScript aggregation therein, but the Advanced CSS/JS Aggregation module offers more in-depth and detailed features.

Drupal Optimization Tips Conclusion

So there you have it, some simple tips and modules to help you get more out Drupal and improve the overall performance of your website! Drupal is a robust, secure and reliable solution and with the right set of modules and tweaks, you can ensure that your website remains fast and free from issues.

The post Doing More with Drupal: Easy Optimization Tips appeared first on The A2 Posting.

Fortunately, there are tools in place to help you build a more responsive website with Drupal. Developers have created modules that enable you to include vital elements such as a mobile menu. With a little effort, you can optimize your site so that it looks and works well on smaller screens.

In this article, we’ll explain how to optimize your Drupal site for mobile devices in five steps. Let’s get moving!

Why It’s Important to Optimize Your Site for Mobile Devices

A website designed for desktop use can appear unreadable on a phone or tablet. Therefore, it’s important to ensure that your site is mobile-friendly, and looks its best no matter how viewers access it.

There are plenty of benefits to optimizing your site for mobile devices, such as:

• Improved loading times, which is crucial on cell phones.
• The unlikeliness that users will abandon a website that takes longer than a few seconds to load.
• Sites being able to benefit from improved Search Engine Optimization (SEO).

Fortunately, it’s not too hard to optimize your Drupal website for mobile devices. All it takes is a little time, and a few particular modules.

How to Build a Responsive Website With Drupal (5 Key Techniques)

The following tips will help you make your Drupal website mobile-friendly. We’ll be assuming that you already have at least a basic Drupal site up and running.

If you are new to Drupal, you may want to hire a developer for help with some of these steps. However, even if you end up using a developer, this guide can help you familiarize yourself with the key vocabulary, so you know exactly what to ask for.

1. Install a Mobile Menu

First, it’s important to have a menu that’s optimized for mobile devices. This will ensure that your navigation links display properly on narrow screens.

Perhaps the most popular style of mobile menu is the ‘hamburger’ icon. When the screen shrinks to a certain width, the menu is replaced by a simple icon with three horizontal lines. When you click on the icon, it displays the site’s main menu in a mobile-friendly stack:

You can add this type of menu by installing the Responsive Menus module. On the module page, download the tar.gz file. Then in your dashboard, click on the Extend tab:

Next, select the Install New Module button, and upload the tar.gz file using the file browser. You should be ready to start using the module to style your site’s menu now. Keep in mind that you can also configure the module if you like, as part of the installation process.

2. Minify Your Code

As we mentioned earlier, it’s vital for mobile sites to load quickly. JavaScript, CSS, and HTML files for a large website can get bulky. ‘Minification’ is the process of removing unnecessary elements from your site’s code, so that it will render more quickly and enable faster loading times.

You can minify your code by installing the Minify module on your site. Visit the module page, download the tar.gz file, and unarchive it on your computer:

Then, move the resulting folder into your site’s Drupal modules/ section. After that, you can enable the module by going to Administration > Modules in your dashboard, and selecting Enable Newly Added Modules.

Check the enable box next to the minify module to start it working automatically. This should help your site load faster on mobile devices (and desktops as well). You can also configure the module by visiting Administration  > Configuration > Performance and following the prompts there.

3. Implement Browser Caching

Next up, browser caching is a way of storing data so that a visitor’s browser doesn’t have to download the same files repeatedly. Caching tells browsers to ‘save’ certain information, so that it doesn’t need to requested and transferred every time a visitor opens a new page on your website (or re-visits it at a later date).

For example, if your site has a large background image, it might slow down your pages’ loading time. However, with browser caching, that file could be stored locally on each visitor’s device, so it only needs to be downloaded once.

In Drupal, browser caching is a built-in tool that you can configure in your control panel by visiting Administration > Configuration > Development > Performance:

We’d recommend following the official guide to learn how to set up caching and what the different settings mean.

4. Optimize Images

If your site has a lot of large image files, it may take longer to load on mobile devices. Therefore, another way to speed up your site is to optimize your images, which lets you reduce their files sizes without compromising on quality.

There are plenty of easy ways to optimize images before uploading them to your site. You can also optimize images in Drupal itself, by using the ImageAPI Optimize module:

As with any other module, you’ll first need to download its tar.gz file. Then, you can install and enable the module in your dashboard.

After that, visit Administration > Settings > Imageapi, and choose ImageAPI Optimize as the default toolkit. You can configure the module’s settings from this page as well. This will automatically optimize any images on your site for mobile devices.

5. Add @media Rules for Image Sizes

Optimizing images reduces their file sizes. However, the amount of space an image takes up on the screen is important too. An 800 x 600 pixel image might look fine on a laptop screen – but what about on a 400 x 700 pixel phone screen?

Fortunately, you can use @media rules in Drupal to constrain images depending on each viewer’s screen size. To do that, you’ll need to:

1. Ensure that the Breakpoint and Responsive Images modules are enabled.
2. Set your ‘breakpoints’ using the Breakpoint Module. These are established screen sizes that you can use to create responsive layouts. For example, you could set one breakpoint for a typical laptop screen, another for tablets, and a third for cell phones.
3. Visit the Responsive Images admin page to define image styles for each breakpoint. This will force your images to scale down when viewed on a smaller screen.

In addition, Google offers a free online course in how to create responsive images using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. This can be useful if you want to learn more about how responsive images work, as well as some best practices for styling images on mobile devices.

Drupal Conclusion

As is hopefully clear by this point, optimizing your Drupal website for mobile devices is vital. An increasing number of users prefer browsing the web on their cell phones, and they may abandon your site if it takes too long to load, or looks distorted on their devices.

Fortunately, there are simple steps you can take to improve the appearance and performance of your mobile pages. You’ll want to:

1. Install a mobile menu.
2. Minify your code.
3. Implement browser caching.
4. Optimize images.
5. Create rules to constrain image sizes.

Image credit: Pexels.

The post How to Build a Responsive Website With Drupal (5 Key Techniques) appeared first on The A2 Posting.

That’s where Drupal 9 comes in. It’s a free and open-source CMS that provides users with an intuitive back end to keep site management simple. In terms of features, it offers a range of themes and add-ons to support you as you create your website.

In this article, we’ll first go over what a CMS is, and then take a look at Drupal 9. We’ll also compare the current version to earlier iterations. Let’s dive in!

An Introduction to CMSs

While similar in several ways, a CMS differs from a website builder. The latter streamlines page creation, but limits customization options to preset templates and other components.

Website builders are often intuitive to use, making them appealing to beginners. However, like IKEA furniture, they may not give you the flexibility you need to add more complicated features. Instead, you might be stuck with whatever designs and functionality the platform provides.

By contrast, a CMS provides the fundamentals of your dream website but allows you to do much more. For instance, you can typically enhance a high-quality CMS with third-party add-ons, themes, and plugins to achieve unique designs and functionality with ease.

These tools enable you to modify your website to your heart’s content, and give both the front and back ends extra functionality you may want. Plus, you can usually apply custom code of your own as well.

However, unlike with a website builder, you’ll need to find your own hosting provider to accommodate your site. Some people also see CMSs as more difficult to use, although they’re definitely still user-friendly enough for beginners to pick up with a little practice.

A Look at Drupal 9 (And How It Compares to Previous Versions)

Drupal is an open-source CMS that emphasizes flexibility, ease-of-authoring, and the ability to customize your website. The latest version of the platform to be released in a stable form is Drupal 9:

You can enhance Drupal with different themes and thousands of add-ons called ‘modules’. They provide a wide range of functionalities to your site, including connecting it to Google Analytics, building front end features such as forms, and providing access to code libraries.

Drupal 9 is largely unchanged from the previous version, Drupal 8. In fact, the developer states that they built the new iteration mostly within the architecture of its predecessor. However, it still includes some valuable updates.

For starters, the Drupal 9 cleans up deprecated code from prior versions. It also features upgraded third-party software, as the earlier iterations were coming to the end of their life cycle. Specifically, platforms including Symfony 3 and Twig have released newer versions, which Drupal is now compatible with.

Certainly, the changes are more subtle compared to the transition from Drupal 7 to Drupal 8. Indeed, its immediate predecessor included drastic updates including enhanced support for mobile responsiveness, improved editing and uploading for the authoring system, and the introduction of Twig as the default template engine.

Although most of the enhancements in Drupal 9 are more behind-the-scenes features, they’re still important. Cleaner code should bring tighter security and better performance to your site. Both are key to your online content’s continued success.

Taking the Next Steps With Drupal 9

If you’ve decided that Drupal 9 is the CMS for you, your next step is investigating which hosting plans are available to support it:

Here at A2 Hosting, we offer scalable plans with lightning-fast speeds. Our services include uptime guarantees, as well as Turbo Servers providing performance 20 times faster than competitors.

Our Drupal Lite hosting option starts at $3.92 per month, but you can scale up to the Turbo plan for less than $10 monthly if you need additional features. We also offer a money-back guarantee, so you can confidently test our services out to see if they’re for you.

With A2 Hosting, Drupal will come auto-installed on your server. This saves you from the hassle of setting everything up yourself, enabling you to invest your time in the tasks you want to focus on, like publishing content.

Conclusion

Choosing a CMS can seem daunting at first, especially as it might seem more technically involved than a website builder. However, a more complex platform can offer a range of features and customization options that you may not enjoy if you opt for a simpler solution.

With Drupal 9, you’ll have plenty of customization options, including thousands of modules and numerous themes. With open-source software, you’ll have access to well-tested materials and a flourishing community for support.

Image credit: Pexels.

The post A Look at Drupal 9 (And How It Compares to Other Versions) appeared first on The A2 Posting.

Fortunately, if you’re using Drupal, you have access to a host of ready-made website themes. These tools can enable you to craft an aesthetically-pleasing Drupal website in a matter of minutes. Themes are also far more budget-friendly than working with a designer, so you’ll be able to save some money as well.

In this post, we’ll explain why using a professional Drupal theme is so important. We’ll then highlight some of the best places to find top-quality options. Let’s get to it!

Why Your Drupal Theme Matters

When it’s time to design your website, you have a few options. You can craft it by hand, for example, or work with a professional designer. Alternately, you can shortcut the process by using a few tools that provide you with a solid foundation.

Drupal is an excellent start – this open-source Content Management System (CMS) is both powerful and flexible. Yet a brand-new Drupal site is something of a blank slate. That’s where themes come into the picture. These add-ons can be installed on your site to completely overhaul its look and design.

In other words, a theme gives you a starting point for designing your site. The right one will offer a professional look that’s appropriate to your niche, as well as a host of optimizations for performance, security, Search Engine Optimization (SEO), and so on. All you’ll need to do is add in your own content and branding, and make whatever tweaks you like to the theme’s basic setup.

3 (More) Places to Purchase the Best Drupal Themes

Of course, there are a lot of Drupal themes out there to choose from. It can be hard to know exactly where to start. Not too long ago, we published a list of some of the best places to look – we’d highly recommend giving it a read.

Since the right theme can make or break your site, however, you may want more than just a few options. With that in mind, here are three more excellent places to find quality Drupal themes!

1. Sooperthemes

If you’re building a business or e-commerce site, it can be worth investing in a high-quality premium theme. This may cost you a little more, but can provide the professional foundation you’re looking for.

Sooperthemes is a premium developer, which offers a handful of themes for both Drupal 7 and 8. They come in a range of styles, from minimalist to image-heavy, and focus on providing for the needs of small to mid-sized businesses. There are general purpose themes, along with niche-specific options for those in construction, app development, photography, marketing, and more.

The signature theme is Glazed, which is an open-ended framework featuring a ton of demo content and customization potential:

What’s more, all of this developer’s themes include the custom Glazed Builder, which is a drag-and-drop editing tool. This user-friendly solution makes it simple to tweak your chosen theme and demo content, without the need for a lot of technical know-how. Sooperthemes also offers a few handy modules that integrate smoothly with any of its themes, and give you more design options.

All in all, Sooperthemes is an excellent resource for anyone needing to put together a professional-looking website quickly. With the combination of theme and page builder, you’ll have the tool set you need to get your site off the ground. For $78, you can get access to all of this developer’s themes and modules (along with the Glazed Builder).

2. WeebPal

What if you’re looking for a broader selection of Drupal themes to pick from? If that’s the case, WeebPal is a solid go-to resource. It offers both free and premium theme options, as well as the choice to either pick up a single theme, or subscribe to a membership encompassing everything on the site.

There are a handful of free themes on offer, each one serving a specific niche and function – education, e-commerce, blogging, business, and so on. These can be easily downloaded from the site, enabling you to use them without any fuss:

The premium theme selection is more diverse, covering a range of styles and purposes. No matter what type of theme you’re in the market for, there’s a good chance you’ll find something relevant here:

It’s also worth noting that a generous selection of these themes were built specifically for Drupal 8, the latest version of the platform. There’s a filter that lets you easily sort out those themes, making it simple to choose something that will work smoothly with the platform’s most recent updates.

WeebPal strikes a balance between maintaining a consistent level of high quality, and offering a diverse selection of options. Most of the premium themes are priced between $49 and $68, and you can also get a membership with access to all themes for $249 per year.

3. ArrowThemes

ArrowThemes is another premium-only theme developer. That means you’ll need room in your budget to pay for a theme – yearly, if you want continued access to support. At the same time, it also affords you with access to more features, demo content, and customization options.

The selection at ArrowThemes isn’t particularly large, but it is diverse. There are e also two categories of themes to choose from. First, there is a handful of themes sold on ThemeForest, which you can buy individually:

You’ll also find a selection of themes that come bundled together with an ArrowThemes membership:

There’s a strong focus here on ‘art’ themes, designed for sites that require a strong visual style and lots of room for large images and other media. Most come with an impressive range of layout options, demo content, and other useful features (such as e-commerce integration).

ArrowThemes is worth a look for any Drupal user, but it’s particularly relevant for artists, photographers, musicians, and anyone looking to showcase a portfolio. The ThemeForest themes range from $48 to $58, while membership access starts at $59 per year.

Conclusion

In the past, designing a website was a difficult and long-winded process. Today, CMSs like Drupal offer a wide variety of themes that can make the job a lot easier. By installing a theme from one of the services we’ve featured in this post, you can ensure that your site both looks professional and runs like a well-oiled machine.

In addition to our previous picks, here are some of the best places to pick up Drupal themes.

1. Sooperthemes: A premium-only developer catering to small and mid-sized businesses.
2. WeebPal: Offers a well-rounded selection of both free and premium theme options.
3. ArrowTheme: A great place to find art-focused themes for showing off your portfolio.

Image credit: Pixabay.

The post 3 (More) Places to Purchase the Best Drupal Themes appeared first on The A2 Posting.

Fortunately, there are a wide variety of tips, tools, and tricks that can help you master the Drupal platform. Familiarizing yourself with these can ensure you’re making the most of your Drupal site, whether you’ve just built it or have been running it for a while.

In this article, we’ll look at the most critical things every Drupal user should know. Let’s get going!

1. How to Perform an Automatic Module Install

If you use Drupal, you’ll almost certainly want to download a module at some point. These code extensions can be installed on your site to add new functionality and features.

However, you want to be careful about how you install Drupal modules, especially if you’re a technical novice. In particular, you’ll have the choice to perform a manual or automatic install. If you’ve never directly interacted with files on a website’s server before, you should probably stick with an automatic installation.

If you try to use File Transfer Protocol (FTP) to install files onto your server manually, without understanding how this works and what could go wrong, you might create errors in your site’s directory by mistake. Therefore, automatic installs are a much safer (and quicker) choice for most beginners.

To perform an automatic install, first copy the URL of the add-on you want from Drupal’s module directory. Next, from your site’s admin dashboard, visit Extend > Install new module:

Paste the URL into the appropriate box, and click on the blue Install button. Drupal will automatically add the module files to your site’s database:

You will then be redirected to your site’s module list. Click on the box next to the module you just installed to enable it, and your new add-on will be ready to go.

2. How to Determine Which Modules Are Safe to Use

Since Drupal is an open-source platform, anyone can create modules. Inexperienced developers may write modules that have mistakes or security vulnerabilities. Installing the wrong module can harm or break your site, which is why it’s important to only install add-ons from trusted sources.

If you’re installing a module from Drupal’s own directory, look for a stamp of approval from the Drupal Security Advisory. It’s also a positive sign when a module has a large number of active installations. Plus, you’ll want to check out reviews from other users, and take a look at how recently the module was updated (anything over a year or so is a warning sign).

However, since the security advisory only covers projects hosted on Drupal.org, you’ll need to be even more cautious if you purchase a premium module from a developer. Again, this is where ratings and reviews from other Drupal users will come in very handy. When in doubt, test any new module out on a staging site before installing it on your live site.

Finally, if your budget allows, you may want to hire a developer to create a custom module. In that case, look for well-reviewed programmers who can show evidence of other successful modules they’ve built in the past. We’ll go over more about how to choose a qualified candidate in the next section.

Finally, it’s also important to scan your site with the Security Review module, and back up your site before and after installing any new software.

3. How to Hire an Honest Programmer

Next up, it’s important to know how to hire a reputable programmer. Since Drupal can be challenging for beginners to use, you may want someone to put your site together for you. Additionally, because Drupal does not have a wide variety of pre-built tools, you might need to commission some custom features.

Therefore, every Drupal site owner with at least a modest budget should know how to hire a programmer. However, it can be difficult to gauge whether a given programmer is going to be worth your money. An unscrupulous person might skip over key details or leave security vulnerabilities in their work, leaving your site open to hackers.

To find an honest programmer, you’ll want to stick with high-quality job sites such as Smashing Jobs and Authentic Jobs:

Be prepared to spend a bit of money – a professional developer will charge what they’re worth, so be wary of fees that seem far underpriced when compared to the competition. Also, as we mentioned earlier, ask to see samples of work and references before engaging a new programmer.

In addition, make sure that the programmer is well-versed in Drupal specifically. Just because he or she has an impressive portfolio in WordPress, for example, does not mean those skills will translate to Drupal. Even for professionals, each platform has its own learning curve, so you should make sure to hire a programmer with plenty of Drupal experience.

4. How to Optimize Your Website

Once your site is up and running, you’ll still need to maintain it and keep an eye on its performance. This includes making sure that your site is running at top speed. You want to keep your site’s performance high, since impatient users often abandon a site that takes longer than a few seconds to load.

Fortunately, there are many steps you can take to optimize speed in Drupal. You can even make improvements to your Drupal site directly from your A2 Hosting dashboard:

For example, make sure to enable caching, which uses stored browser files to reduce page loading times. You can also install modules such as Image Optimize, which automatically reduces your site’s image files for improved speed.

5. What to Do If You’ve Been Hacked

Last but not least, it’s important to plan for worst-case scenarios. No matter how careful you are, there’s always a chance your site will be hacked. In fact, there is a new hacker attack roughly every 40 seconds.

When it comes to hacking, prevention is the best policy. The first and most important thing you can do is maintain regular site backups. This gives you the option to easily restore your website if anything goes wrong.

In addition, make sure you’re using the most up-to-date version of Drupal, and always update your modules when new versions are released. This gives you access to the latest security patches. Of course, you’ll also want to use a strong password.

If you do think you’ve been hacked, you should immediately log into your A2 Hosting account and change the cPanel password. Then, you can follow this guide to combat the threat.

Conclusion

When you first build a Drupal site, it can seem like there’s a huge amount of information to take in. You’ll want to focus on the most crucial details first, in order to prioritize maintaining your site without becoming overwhelmed.

The five most important things everyone with a Drupal site should know include how to:

1. Perform an automatic module install.
2. Determine which modules are safe.
3. Hire an honest programmer.
4. Optimize your website.
5. Deal with hacking attempts.

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Modules are pre-built tools that can take your site to the next level. There’s a wide range of modules available, offering everything from website backups to developer tools (and much more). These are an excellent way to expand your site’s functionality, without the expense of hiring a developer to build custom solutions.

This article will show you how you can make your Drupal site even stronger, by introducing a few of the modules you’ll absolutely want to have. Let’s get going!

A Brief Introduction to Drupal Modules

Before we get started, let’s quickly go over the concept of modules. Drupal is an open-source CMS, and it comes with a certain set of tools out of the box. However, it can only do so much by default. That’s why the wider Drupal community of developers creates modules, which are a way of expanding the platform’s functionality easily and cheaply.

Some of the most useful modules, such as the CK Editor, end up being incorporated into Drupal over time. However, there are still many features you can only achieve with dedicated modules. Fortunately, any user can download and install a module on their site, even if you’re a relative technical novice.

Of course, not all modules are equally useful or safe. It’s important to avoid potentially harmful modules, for example, as they can be security risks. However, there are plenty of popular modules by reputable developers, which offer functions that can drastically expand the way you use your site.

How to Install Modules on Your Drupal Site

In a moment, we’re going to look at a few of the best modules out there. Before that, however, you’ll need to know how to install them. To add a module to your Drupal site via the automatic import feature, you can follow a few simple steps. First, in your site’s admin panel, click on the Extend tab and select Install New Module:

From there, you can perform an automatic import of the module’s files. Either paste in the module’s link from the Drupal extension directory, or click on Choose file and select the module’s .zip or .tar.gz file. You can download this file from the Drupal extension directory, or from a developer’s site once you’ve purchased a premium module:

Once the file is imported, select the option Enable newly added modules to start it up. From there, it may begin to work automatically, or you might have to configure some settings (depending on the module’s purpose and complexity).

If necessary, you can also install a module manually. This just requires extracting the contents of its .zip or .tar.gz file, and adding the entire folder to your site’s directory in the appropriate location.

3 Drupal Modules You Should Be Using

Now you know how to install Drupal modules, you’re ready to start deciding which ones you’ll add to your site. There are a lot of useful options out there, but many are only appropriate for certain types of sites. The following three modules, on the other hand, are essential in nearly any situation. Plus, all three are completely free.

1. Chaos Tool Suite

It’s no secret that Drupal can be a little challenging to use, especially for relative beginners. With that in mind, Chaos Tool Suite is a must for web developers working on Drupal sites. It offers a wide range of tools that make certain webdev functions easier.

This module’s key features include a form wizard, which helps you generate forms without having to manually code them, and tools that enable you to clean up your CSS to improve page loading times. You also get access to exportables and object caching, making it easier for your site to store and use ‘objects’. These are a way to store a set of variables and methods, so that you can easily reuse them on different parts of your site. This can be a huge time-saver.

2. Pathauto

Next up, Pathauto makes it far easier to create user-friendly links. Drupal does not have a built-in feature for automatically organizing URLs for certain types of content. Pathauto enables you to set up an automatic system for generating nested URLs.

For example, if you publish a blog post under a certain category, you could tell Drupal to use the URL yoursite.com/category/blog_post_slug. By default, the URL would simply be yoursite.com/blog_post_slug, which doesn’t offer the reader as much information. What’s more, this feature can also have a positive effect on your site’s Search Engine Optimization (SEO).

3. Backup and Migrate

Finally, backing up your Drupal site is crucial. If your site is hacked, or if something is mistakenly broken or deleted, having a recent backup in place enables you to ‘undo’ the problem. The Backup and Migrate module enables easy automatic backups, which can take some of the worry off your shoulders.

This module can also be customized to suit your unique needs. For instance, you can choose to back up all or just some of your site’s database. In addition, you can use this module to clone or migrate your site. This means you can quickly create a test environment, or even move your site to a new server.

Conclusion

Drupal modules are a smart way to expand your site’s functionality. They can help make your site more user-friendly, get it noticed, or simply provide helpful tools for everyday management.

Some of the most popular Drupal modules you might want to consider using on your site include:

1. Chaos Tool Suite: Provides a group of tools that make certain tasks much easier, including a form wizard and CSS caching.
2. Pathauto: Offers you a way to automatically generate SEO-friendly links.
3. Backup and Migrate: Makes it easy to set up automatic backups so you can restore, clone, or migrate your site.

Image credit: Pexels.

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Fortunately, there’s a wide variety of ready-made themes available for purchase. If you want a site that looks compelling on a budget, using the right Drupal theme can help you out. There are themes available that meet just about every need. You can even find a theme that’s close to what you want, and hire a designer to tweak it at a lower cost than having one designed from scratch.

In this article, we’ll explore some of the best places to obtain sleek, functional Drupal themes. Let’s get going!

The Importance of a Professional Drupal Theme

If your Drupal website is the online face of your business, it’s critical to have a professional theme. In Drupal, your theme affects nearly every aspect of your website: functionality, appeal, and even Search Engine Optimization (SEO).

Most importantly your site’s theme does a lot to determine its layout and appearance. You’ll want to use a theme that will create a strong first impression for visitors. At the same time, you can achieve varied results with the same theme by incorporating custom CSS or changing a few settings.

However, it can be difficult to choose a theme from the many options that are available. It’s also crucial to get one from a reputable source – the wrong theme can slow your site down, expose it to security risks, or even break it. We’ll introduce some of the websites you’ll want to check out in a moment. First, however, let’s talk about how to select the right Drupal theme.

What to Look for in a Drupal Theme

Now that you know why your theme is important, let’s go over some things to look for when picking one out. To help you narrow down your search, and avoid choosing a problematic theme, you’ll want to consider:

• Security. Just because someone is selling a theme doesn’t mean they have written secure code. Quality themes avoid leaving vulnerabilities open that could help hackers target your site more easily.
• SEO. If you want your site to rank highly in search engines, you’ll need to look for themes with SEO features built in. Your site’s SEO can be affected by the way a theme is structured, whether it’s optimized for speed, and if it’s responsive.
• Custom features. Before buying a theme, make a list of any custom features you want, such as a portfolio builder or video integration functionality. Make sure the theme you choose has those options, or that you have room in your budget for custom alterations.
• Responsiveness. Over half of all web traffic comes from mobile devices, and responsive themes will automatically adjust for size when viewed on a mobile device. They may also be optimized to load faster on mobile devices, which is a must since mobile users tend to be impatient.
• Bootstrap. If your site requires flexibility in layout from page to page, Bootstrap is a very helpful tool. Therefore, you’ll want to search for themes with Bootstrap included, so you can change up the layout later.
• Appearance. Finally, make sure you like the theme’s basic look and style. Of course, keep in mind that you’ll be able to adjust aspects like colors, fonts, and some parts of the layout.

There’s a lot of subjectivity involved in choosing a Drupal theme, but you’ll also want to pay attention to the more objective factors. Changing your site’s theme down the line can create various problems, so it’s best to take your time and explore everything that’s out there.

The 4 Best Places to Purchase Drupal Themes

As we mentioned earlier, it’s important to purchase Drupal themes from trusted sources if you want to find one that meets all the above criteria. Let’s take a quick look at four of the best places to start your search.

1. ThemeForest

ThemeForest is a marketplace with products from lots of different developers (and designed for many platforms). It offers over 500 Drupal themes, which are searchable by price, ratings, date of creation, and number of downloads. You can also search for themes by using tags, such as “responsive”, “business,” or “blog.”

ThemeForest also provides fraud protection, customer service, and a strong refund policy. All in all, it’s the number-one place to begin your Drupal theme search.

2. TemplateMonster

Another theme marketplace, TemplateMonster hosts over 300 Drupal themes. You can search by features, such as “responsive” and “portfolio,” as well as by categories like “Food and Restaurant” or “Design and Photography.” The site also has a handful of free Drupal themes you can try.

What’s more, TemplateMonster has a refund policy to protect you from misleading themes. There are also helpful customer service options, to guide you through basic customization and installation if needed.

3. Adaptive Themes

Next up, Adaptive Themes is a trusted Drupal theme developer. Since this site is owned by a single seller, there’s a much smaller selection of themes than on a marketplace like TemplateMonster or ThemeForest. However, the themes offered are all of high quality, and provide a wide variety of styles to choose from.

All of the themes on this site are SEO-optimized and responsive, and there is customer support available for any of them. Adaptive Themes also offers a competitive pricing scheme. For $45 per year, you can receive unlimited access to every theme on the site for unlimited domains. Of course, themes are also available for individual purchase.

In addition, Adaptive Themes offers a refund policy, although it requires that you first give the developers a chance to resolve any issue you’re having with the theme. It also includes full demos, so you can preview a theme before purchasing it.

4. More Than Themes

Finally, More Than Themes is another single seller, with 34 high-quality themes available at the time of this writing. All of them are optimized for mobile devices, and include a library of free fonts. Like Adaptive Themes, More Than Themes is a trusted Drupal theme developer.

In particular, this site offers an excellent deal for web developers working on multiple sites. For $299 per year, you can receive unlimited access to any of its themes, as well as priority support. If you’re on a tight budget, you can also check out More Than Themes’ selection of free options.

Drupal Template Conclusion

If you want to create a well-designed site without spending a fortune (in time or money), having an excellent theme is a must. Themes can help improve many aspects of your site, from SEO optimization and page speed to aesthetics.

To find the right theme for your site, we’d recommend checking out one (or all) of these sellers:

1. ThemeForest: A theme marketplace with excellent search options, and hundreds of Drupal themes to choose from.
2. TemplateMonster: Another theme marketplace that lets you search by type of business, and offers handful of free Drupal themes.
3. Adaptive Themes: A single seller providing a small selection of high-quality themes to pick from, as well as a $45-per-year plan with unlimited theme access.
4. More Than Themes: A single seller with over 30 high-quality themes, and an unlimited plan for $299 a year.

Image credit: Pixnio.

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Fortunately, there are ways to demystify Drupal. There is something of a steep learning curve, but you don’t need to have a deep technical background in order to master it. With a beginner’s guide (and a little patience) anyone willing to take some extra time can how to use this CMS effectively.

In this post, we’ll tell you a bit about the history of Drupal, as well as the advantages of the platform over other website builders. This will help you decide if it’s worth investing the time and effort required to learn it. Finally, we’ll offer a short guide on how to get started. Let’s begin!

A Brief History of Drupal

First, let’s go over a bit of history. Drupal got its start as a message board named Drop.org, founded by Dries Buytaert and Hans Snijder. In 2001, Buytaert released Drupal as an open-source code, so that others could modify and expand upon it.

Drupal’s first big break came in 2003 when it was used to build DeanSpace, a large collection of connected message boards used for members of the Howard Dean campaign to communicate with each other. Drupal has since expanded into the complex CMS that it is today. Yet, it’s still built by a collective open-source community.

One of the big changes between the original iteration of Drupal and where it is now is that in 2007, the developers incorporated a What You See Is What You Get (‘WYSIWYG’) editor:

This means that, even if you end up hiring a web developer to create your site, there’s a user-friendly interface where you can create text, images, and other content. WYSIWYG editors give you the independence to run your site without constantly having to send text changes back and forth to a developer. You can even try out a free online demo to see what using this editor is like.

The Pros and Cons of Using Drupal for Your Website

Although Drupal is very powerful, it is also somewhat difficult for beginners to learn. That may lead you to wonder why should you use Drupal instead of a simpler system, such as WordPress or Joomla!

Ultimately, Drupal is an excellent middle ground between those CMS options and building your own website from scratch. It enables you to create complex sites, but also has an extensive library of modules that save you time, and let even dedicated non-coders add new features to their sites. Even if you hire a developer, Drupal may save you money in the long run versus an HTML site. That’s because its WYSIWYG interface enables you to make text and content changes on your own.

If you put in the time to understand Drupal, it can be quite rewarding. For coders in particular, there’s an entire community out there building systems that anyone can use. It also offers higher security and better enterprise-level scaling than any other CMS on the market. Plus, once your site is set up, the dashboard is relatively easy to use.

However, if you’re planning to build a Drupal site on your own, you should probably have some coding experience under your belt. It can take a significant amount of time and effort to learn the system from scratch. The main con of Drupal is that, if you don’t want to hire a developer, it is not as beginner-friendly as WordPress or Joomla!

How to Get Started with Drupal

As we’ve mentioned, Drupal can seem daunting at the start. However, getting started and beginning to experiment with its powerful systems is well within reach.

There are a few simple steps you can follow, if you want to create a new Drupal site as a complete newbie:

• Purchase a hosting plan with one-click install feature. A hosting plan with Drupal pre-loaded saves you the trouble of figuring out how to install it yourself – which is perfect for beginners (plus, our Drupal hosting comes already optimized for speed and performance).
• Familiarize yourself with the platform. You can either buy a book, or peruse one of the many free online tutorials for beginners.
• Understand the terms. Skim through Drupal’s helpful glossary to familiarize yourself with key phrases you’ll need to know.
• Get to know the core modules. The core modules are at the heart of Drupal. Understanding what they are and how they work is vital.
• Begin building your site. As we’ve discussed, Drupal 8 comes with a WYSIWYG editor that you can use to start adding text and images to your pages right away.
• Ask for help when needed. For anything you don’t understand, Drupal has an active forum that’s very accepting of questions.
• Consider hiring a professional. If you’re lost, or if you’re creating a very complex site, consider hiring a professional to get the ball rolling. Then, focus on learning how to update content and make small changes once your site’s framework is in place. For example, if you can’t find a module that does what you want, you may end up needing to hire a programmer to build you something custom.

Drupal is a flexible and powerful solution for websites. This is especially true if you either have some coding experience yourself, or the resources to hire a designer. Once you put in the effort to learn how the system works, you’ll be able to take advantage of its security and enterprise-level scaling ability (among other advantages).

Conclusion

Drupal is well-suited to experienced programmers, beginners with the resources to hire a developer, or simply anyone willing to take the time to learn how it works. In particular, it’s a strong choice if your site could benefit from the advanced security and speed that comes along with this platform.

If you’re new to Drupal, it helps to purchase a hosting plan with Drupal pre-installed and optimized, and take some time to understand the core modules and how they work. Then, you can begin building your site with the WYSIWYG editor – the best way to learn is through practice. If you get stuck, consider asking a question or hiring a pro for your site’s initial setup and customization.

Image credit: Pxhere.

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Fortunately, there’s a middle option. Content Management Systems (CMSs) are frameworks designed to help anyone create a website, regardless of your technical background (or lack thereof). CMSs are much quicker and easier to use than designing from scratch, and offer more flexibility than a website builder.

In this article, we’ll explain how CMSs work and how to choose the best one for your site. Plus, we’ll introduce three of the most popular platforms out there. Let’s begin!

An Introduction to Content Management Systems (CMSs)

A Content Management System (CMS) is a website-building framework designed to help you create content, such as text, video, images, and blog posts. While most website builders have these features as well, a CMS generally offers more customization and powerful tools.

Even though website builders like Wix or Squarespace may seem appealing because of their simplicity, they lack dynamic ability when compared to a CMS. For example, WordPress (the most popular CMS out there) has a set of powerful SEO options. A website builder might enable you to create a basic site, but will restrict what you can do with it.

A CMS also offers advantages when compared to a pure HTML site. HTML is extremely customizable, but it cannot be edited without some technical knowledge – which means you’ll need to call in your web developer for every small change.

The easy-to-use framework of a CMS means that even if you get a professional to build your site, you can quickly learn to update its contents yourself using an editor that shows you what your content will actually look like.

Finally, another benefit of using a CMS is that most of these platforms have communities that create resources for them. That means you can use modules others have created to add features to your site, rather than starting from scratch.

Of course, a CMS has some downsides as well. If you’re ‘tech-phobic’ and only need a very simple website, you might prefer the simplicity of a website builder. On the other extreme, if your site needs many custom components, a pure HTML site may be best. In most cases, however, a CMS provides the perfect balance between adaptability and ease-of-use.

How to Decide Which CMS Fits Your Needs

Of course, simply deciding to use a CMS is only the beginning. Choosing the right CMS is also important. Fortunately, there are some simple factors that can help you evaluate different CMSs, in order to decide which one is best for your site:

• Popularity. The most popular CMSs have a large and dedicated community coming together to build tools and expand the platforms. This gives you more options, as well as additional support channels.
• Ease of installation. A CMS needs to be installed on your hosting server. If you’re a beginner, you’ll want to look for a platform that hosting providers offer simple installations for.
• Your site’s complexity. A simpler CMS like WordPress should be sufficient for most websites and blogs. However, if you want to build complex user roles, portals, or lots of different page types, a more complex CMS like Drupal offers some advanced features.
• Your technical background. If you are a complete beginner, you’ll want a platform with an editor that’s easy to pick up. On the other hand, if you have the technical knowledge to go with a more complex CMS, it’s possible to build very advanced sites.
• Security. Some CMSs are more vulnerable to hacking than others. Look for a platform that is constantly updated, in order to respond to the latest security threats. (You should also protect your site by implementing normal security measures, regardless of its platform.)

When exploring your CMS options, you’ll want to keep each of these considerations in mind. Before we wrap up, let’s look at three of the top platforms worth checking out.

3 Popular CMSs to Consider for Your Website

The three biggest fish in the CMS pond are WordPress, Drupal, and Joomla. These are all free and open-source platforms, meaning that anyone can contribute to the code.

Among CMS options, these three also have the largest and most active communities, along with lots of up-to-date extensions. Let’s look at each one in turn.

1. WordPress

WordPress is by far the most popular CMS, powering about 30% of the web. It combines ease-of-use with powerful functionality. Beginners can dive in and choose from the thousands of ready-made themes and plugins to customize their sites, but advanced users can easily create add-ons to meet their exact specifications. WordPress is ideal for blogs, portfolios, and business sites, among other applications. You can even create an online shop using the WooCommerce plugin.

One downside to WordPress is that it’s a bit harder to create complex portals or advanced user permissions. If that’s going to be a big part of your website, you may want to go with Drupal or Joomla! instead. Otherwise, WordPress is both secure and scalable, making it an excellent choice for small and large sites alike.

2. Drupal

Drupal is an enterprise-level behemoth. Its toolbox includes complex portals and enterprise-level security; in fact, over 150 government websites use it. In some ways, it has even more powerful tools than WordPress. It’s also slimmer, requiring less memory than WordPress, which means that on the same hosting plan, a Drupal site will often perform a bit better.

However, Drupal is far less beginner-friendly. It’s possible to learn, but it can be more confusing than WordPress, especially when it comes to building complex functionality. If you’re not a developer, you’ll most likely need to hire one if you want to build a site with Drupal.

3. Joomla!

Joomla! falls between WordPress and Drupal in terms of complexity. It offers some of the same advanced features Drupal does, but has a visually-oriented interface, making it more user-friendly. There is still a learning curve with Joomla!, but it’s smaller than Drupal’s (although WordPress is still quicker to pick up for most people).

One downside is that Joomla! offers far fewer themes – add-ons that let you alter your site’s appearance – than WordPress does. This means that you may need to hire a designer or purchase a paid theme if you have a specific vision in mind.

Conclusion

CMSs provide powerful website-building tools. Whatever your skill set or website needs are, there’s a platform out there to fit your requirements. Since there’s an advantage to using a CMS with a large community, however, we recommend sticking with WordPress, Drupal, or Joomla! – the three largest and most comprehensive options on the web today.

To recap, here’s what you’ll want to consider when deciding which CMS is right for you:

1. The platform’s popularity and ease of installation.
2. The complexity of the site you’d like to build, and your own technical knowledge.
3. The CMSs security (and how often it’s updated)

Image credit: Negative Space.

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