State of Drupal in the NZ ecosystem

Here in New Zealand, Drupal occupies an interesting position. Large enterprises, government departments, universities, major corporations, all trust Drupal for their most critical digital properties. But when I talk to decision-makers evaluating content management systems, I encounter a persistent preconception: Drupal is messy.

Often, these stakeholders haven't touched Drupal in five or more years. Their memory is of Drupal 7, or implementations that required extensive customization and maintenance. They remember complexity, technical challenges, and upgrade difficulties. They don't realize how much has changed and expect modern CMS's to operate in a far more elegant manner.

This creates an opportunity. Drupal's evolution isn't just about explaining its capabilities - it's about demonstrating how the platform has matured and simplified. When an organisation approaches me about a new project, I can show them how modern Drupal addresses the challenges they remember from the past.

The Challenge: Too Many Choices Without Clear Guidance

Drupal's flexibility has historically required more decision-making upfront. Page building alone has multiple efficient approaches - whether that be layout builder, paragraphs, or good old fashioned templating. The list goes on - content models - should we use nodes? Custom entities? Storage module? You get my point.

Each option has legitimate use cases. Each has passionate advocates. And each, when chosen without proper planning or understanding, can create complexity that organisations struggle with over time.

The preconception that Drupal is complex isn't entirely unfair - it has been true in many cases. Not because Drupal is inherently complex, but because Drupal has historically provided so many options without clear guidance on which path to choose.

The paradox of choice is well known and no where better than in a fresh Drupal build. The more flexibility we offer, the more important it becomes to have clear guidance on best practices. When organisations make architectural decisions without proper planning, they can end up with sites that are harder to maintain and upgrade than necessary.

Common Implementation Challenges

Let me be specific about what can create complexity in Drupal implementations:

Architectural Choices Without Clear Strategy: An agency chooses Paragraphs for one section, custom templates for another, and layout builder for a third - each with good reasoning. Three years later, no one remembers the why, and maintaining consistency becomes challenging.

Module Selection Without Curation: A site accumulates 50+ contributed modules, many solving overlapping problems. Some become abandoned, others conflict, and the update process becomes complex.

Custom Solutions Without Documentation: Developers build clever solutions to specific problems, but when that developer leaves, no one understands how it works or why it was necessary.

Configuration Management Gaps: Changes get made directly in production databases. Configuration drifts between environments. Deployments become manual, error-prone processes.

Limited Upgrade Planning: Sites launch on Drupal 7 or early Drupal 8 with custom code tightly coupled to core APIs. When upgrade time comes, the accumulated complexity makes migration more challenging.

None of these are Drupal's fault. But Drupal's flexibility made all of them possible. And in markets like New Zealand, where the Drupal ecosystem is smaller and specialized expertise scarcer, these challenges can compound. organisations end up with complex implementations and conclude that the platform itself is the problem.

A United Community Push: The Turning Point

This is why the community's united push around several key initiatives represents such an important turning point. For years, Drupal's modularity meant we had many ways to build sites and therefore many ways to build them with varying levels of success.

Drupal CMS is the most visible example of this shift. Rather than presenting evaluators with dozens of configuration decisions where poor choices can lead to complexity, Drupal CMS provides a coherent, opinionated starting point. It actively guides organisations toward successful implementations.

When you start with Drupal CMS:

• Page building has a clear default approach
• Media management follows established patterns
• Configuration management is built-in from day one
• The contrib module selection is curated, not overwhelming
• Upgrade paths are tested and documented

This is about providing clear guidance that helps organisations make good architectural decisions from the start.

The Drupal AI Initiative

The Drupal AI initiative demonstrates this same philosophy applied to emerging technology. Rather than fragmenting efforts across dozens of experimental AI modules, each with different approaches, different dependencies, and different architectural assumptions - the community is rallying around unified AI integration.

This means:

• Standardized approaches that build on proven patterns
• Consistent patterns that agencies can learn once and apply everywhere
• Opinionated defaults that work without requiring deep AI expertise
• A clear story about capabilities without overselling vaporware

For agencies in markets like New Zealand, this matters enormously. When we implement AI features using community approaches, we know we're building on solid foundations. When that developer leaves or when the client needs a different agency to maintain the site, the AI implementation will be maintainable and understandable.

Community Alignment:

We've had Drupal distributions before. Some succeeded, many didn't. The critical difference now is the unified, committed push behind these initiatives.

These are battle tested agencies across the world, the Drupal Association, major contributors and end users aligning around shared goals. More importantly, it's alignment around shared standards that guide organisations toward successful implementations.

LocalGov Drupal demonstrates this perfectly. UK councils were ending up with complex Drupal sites because each council was making the same architectural decisions independently, with varying levels of success. LocalGov provides proven architectural patterns that lead to successful outcomes. Something like GovCMS would be a great stand in for NZ governemnt sites.

Headless + Next.js starters do the same for decoupled projects. Instead of each agency inventing their own approach to API architecture, authentication, and preview systems, these starters provide solid patterns that have been proven in production.

What makes this different from past distribution efforts is sustainable governance and ongoing maintenance. LocalGov has formal governance, dedicated funding, and committed organisational backing. The AI initiative has multiple organisations contributing because they all need AI capabilities and they all benefit from not fragmenting the ecosystem with incompatible approaches.

From an agency perspective, this transforms their relationship with Drupal. We're no longer architecting from scratch on every project, hoping we make good decisions that will serve us well in the future. We're building on proven foundations that the community maintains and improves.

Addressing Common Concerns

In New Zealand, Drupal's reputation challenge is real. The market is small, the number of Drupal specialists is limited, and challenging implementations have outsized impact on perception. When I pitch Drupal to organisations, I'm often addressing specific concerns:

"We tried Drupal six years ago. The site was difficult to update."

That was likely Drupal 7 without proper configuration management, or early Drupal 8 before the community standardized around best practices.

"Our previous agency built us a Drupal site that no one else can maintain."

That's the options paradox in action: too many ways to build, too few guardrails to guide architectural choices.

"Drupal feels bloated and slow compared to newer platforms."

That's often module sprawl or poor caching configuration, not Drupal itself.

The united community push addresses these concerns directly:

For "difficult to update": Drupal's commitment to continuous updates (not major version jumps), improved configuration management, and Composer-based workflows means modern Drupal sites can be maintained without the challenging migrations of the past.

For "no one else can maintain it": Starting with Drupal CMS or other opinionated distributions means sites follow community-standard patterns. Any competent Drupal agency can pick up maintenance because the architecture is recognizable.

For "bloated and slow": Opinionated starting points come with curated module selections and performance best practices baked in. You don't inherit years of accumulated complexity.

The Evolution Toward Better Practices

Making opinionated starting points successful requires addressing the root causes of complexity:

Guide Architecture From the Start with Drupal CMS and distributions providing proven patterns. You can still customize, but the defaults guide you toward maintainable implementations.

Community-Maintained Standards with the AI initiative and other community efforts establish patterns that work. Agencies don't need to invent approaches to common problems, reducing the risk of creating unique complexity.

Sustainable Governance such as LocalGov and similar initiatives show that distributions can be maintained long-term with proper governance. Sites don't get abandoned on old patterns as the community evolves.

Upgrade Paths That just Work. Modern Drupal's commitment to continuous updates means organisations can stay current without challenging migrations. The "complexity accumulation followed by expensive migration" cycle is broken.

This matters for more than just new sites. It changes the conversation for organisations with legacy Drupal implementations. We can now say: "Your experience with Drupal 7 (or challenging Drupal 8 implementations) was real. But modern Drupal, especially starting with Drupal CMS, is fundamentally different. The community has learned from those experiences and built better guidance to support success."

Toward a Marketing Message That Acknowledges Growth

The challenge of marketing Drupal in a market like New Zealand is showing how the platform has evolved. That requires acknowledging past experiences while demonstrating concrete improvements.

For Enterprises Maintaining Legacy Drupal Sites: "Modern Drupal provides governance confidence, clear upgrade paths, and streamlined workflows. Drupal CMS offers proven patterns without vendor lock-in."

For Organizations Who Evaluated Drupal 5+ Years Ago: "Drupal CMS eliminates the 'too many choices' problem. You get modern capabilities with clear guidance and community support."

For Agencies Who've Inherited Complex Sites: "New sites follow community standards, not proprietary approaches. Any competent Drupal agency can maintain them."

For Decision-Makers Comparing Platforms: "Drupal CMS provides enterprise flexibility with clear defaults. You get modern capabilities without the complexity."

Looking Ahead

Building trust and demonstrating Drupal's evolution won't happen overnight. Past experiences create lasting impressions, and trust must be earned through demonstrated excellence over time.

We need:

• Continued investment in Drupal CMS and opinionated distributions that guide successful implementations
• Success stories from organisations who rebuilt from challenging legacy Drupal to modern implementations
• Agency adoption of community-standard patterns rather than custom architectural approaches
• Honest marketing that acknowledges past challenges while demonstrating concrete solutions
• Long-term commitment to maintaining distributions and community initiatives

The good news: we're making progress. The community has aligned around providing better guidance for successful implementations. Drupal CMS provides clear starting points. The AI initiative shows coordinated innovation without fragmentation. LocalGov demonstrates that sustainable governance leads to long-term success.

From my perspective, in New Zealand this is an exciting time for Drupal. The platform's flexibility will always be both strength and potential challenge. But with opinionated starting points and staying truly open source, we can help organisations build successful Drupal sites that remain the backbone of operations over time.