# Drupal 30 Hacker News commenters recommended Drupal and 48 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 9 of 13 months; owners who said how long report a median of 6 years (3 owners). **Verdict:** Recommended for its mature, battle-tested architecture, large community and built-in features that avoid reinventing a CMS; critics cite frequent major-version rewrites and maintenance and security concerns. ## Why people recommend it - Mature, proven solutions to common problems (4 comments): "build on top of a lot of well discussed well thought through solutions to these sorts of problems that the Drupal community has dealt with for a couple of decades" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50159532)) "It's a solid framework to build on without having to reinvent the CMS wheel." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50186054)) "battle tested without having to make all the decisions that get you there" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50165591)) - Built-in features without programming (3 comments): "It has understood and workable flows for things like content approval, timed releases, etc." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50159820)) "Drupal's features and functionality match the requirements of your project the best." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50162835)) "if you fully buy into Drupal, it can do most everything without programming" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47122820)) - Large, active community and ecosystem (3 comments): "had literally thousands of developers volunteering code to the core development project, a dedicated security team" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48061979)) "the overall ecosystem is so expandable and the community is great" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47701071)) "Better code, better community, better architecture etc." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50183988)) - Foundation rebuilt over time (2 comments): "The reason Drupal can do what it does today is because of this willingness to rebuild" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50166091)) "Drupal can do what it does today because it continually rebuilt it's foundation" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50160013)) ## What people warn about - Frequent rewrites and breaking changes (4 comments): "But that rewriting the base system, every couple of years, was why I dropped it." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50160088)) "Drupal earned that reputation for so many architectural upheavals and pointless version churning" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50161795)) "To be fair, they did it once, from v7 to v8. But yeah, a major release does break APIs." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50173998)) - Security risks and vulnerabilities (3 comments): "Drupal is no paragon of security" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49817271)) "This current strategy of Drupal has high risks in terms of maintainability, stability, security and privacy" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50197784)) "it's vulnerable to one of the most serious and easily-exploitable RCEs in the history of computing" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50184238)) - Steep learning curve for smaller users (3 comments): "Modern Drupal is more geared towards coders rather than smaller folks." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50202106)) "Drupal was even better, but the barrier to entry was higher." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47612427)) "I totally saw the value for the client but I really disliked my experience, so I avoided it afterwards." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48347614)) - Hard maintenance, needs SSH access (2 comments): "There's no way you're using modern Drupal without SSH access and using command line to install and update." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50171089)) "Drupal has been absolute mess for maintenance, backwards compatibility, responsive ness (code/dev wise)." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50184329)) ## Alternatives hackers recommend - [WordPress](https://hackerapproved.com/p/wordpress.md): 194 recommend - [Sveltia CMS](https://hackerapproved.com/p/sveltia-cms.md): 7 recommend - [Sparktype](https://hackerapproved.com/p/sparktype.md): 5 recommend ## Cite as Hacker Approved, "Drupal", https://hackerapproved.com/p/drupal/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).