In my work for the Promote Drupal initiative, I’ve been reflecting on what motivates people to adopt Drupal. As someone who has run a Drupal agency for years, I'm often asked why our company invests in open source and what the business model is. At the same time, I’ve been reading the book Platform Revolution. It explores technology platforms—especially apps and digital marketplaces—as a business model to disrupt a market by connecting vendors and consumers. Examples range from Airbnb to SoundCloud.
This disruption isn’t always positive. There are positive and negative social effects of disrupting a market. While Spotify might connect us to new musicians we wouldn’t have discovered otherwise, it can also undervalue musicians’ work. It offers an opportunity to be discovered but also exploited. Likewise Airbnb can drive up rental prices in popular areas, making it hard for local residents to find affordable housing. Drupal wants to avoid those negative effects, generating value for the community in a socially-sustainable way.
The Benefits of a Platform Revolution
The power of platforms is how they grow the number of users on both the vendor and consumer side. The more people offer services and products on a platform, the more customers it attracts. And the more customers there are, the more vendors will want to offer their services. These feedback loops are called “network effects” and result in a larger market than a single company selling to a set of customers could ever accomplish alone. One taxi company would be hard-pressed to scale up to serve as many customers as Uber does.
One illustrative example which had early online success is eBay, a platform for electronic auctions. It attracts both buyers and sellers, with so much success that consumers expect to find any type of product available on the platform, and vendors can find a market for both obscure and common items. Both buyers and consumers benefit from the huge variety of products available, and the resulting competition.
Since Drupal is an open source product as well as a platform, it fits the definition in interesting ways. Drupal.org is a technology platform like eBay that connects buyers and sellers—in this case, the developers and agencies that build Drupal websites with the end-users that need them. What creates the inherent connection between these parties is that Drupal is also an open source product, a digital public good that everyone has free access to.
Drupal differs from many platforms by offering a product that is freely accessible under a GPL license, forming the foundation of its market. The ability for users to download Drupal at no cost is what makes the market for developing Drupal-based websites possible.
Implementing Drupal takes an expertise that not everyone has, so there’s a skill gap between Drupal vendors (agencies and vendors) and consumers (organizations that need a website). The platform helps match vendors and consumers. In the case of Drupal, the platform is Drupal.org, but the community and the Drupal Association are key elements that keep the platform functioning.
Other platforms tend to have stronger governance conditions. They're owned by a company that dictates the rules of the game, such as what products you can sell on eBay or who can be an Uber driver. Marketplaces tend to be driven by ratings of vendors.
Why Do Developers Use Drupal.org as a Platform?
Drupal’s GPL license ensures all code is freely available, fostering collaboration. Reusability, modularity, and following coding standards are encouraged. While contributors are free to publish their code anywhere, virtually all code in use is available on Drupal.org (which is remarkable!).
Developers benefit from publishing code on Drupal.org because it gets more exposure and the quality increases as a result. Consumers benefit by receiving information about the expertise and experience of vendors.
Drupal.org tooling is a set of tools and resources available on Drupal.org that support development, management, and collaboration on Drupal. This makes it easier for developers, site builders, and contributors to work efficiently together. Originally providing the grease between needs and development, this was a key to early success. It increased the network of developers who were motivated to both learn and contribute to Drupal, and lowered the barrier of entry to get new developers on board.
What’s the Alternative to a Platform Model?
In the 90s and early 2000s, individuals and companies would develop websites from scratch or develop their own techniques or CMSs. This meant creating all the functionality from the ground up, but also meant that each company was on their own to do the marketing and sales required to attract customers.
When Evolving Web started using Drupal, we benefited from the existing pool of potential customers who were aware of it and interested in it as a solution. Our customers benefited from being on a publicly available system with various vendors and pre-built extensions to choose from. What's more, Drupal.org gave them clues as to our experience and technical expertise.
Why Do Drupal Agencies Collaborate With Competitors?
Ride-hailing services like Uber and Lyft are examples of platforms that experience the network effect. More drivers means shorter wait times and wider coverage, which in turn attracts more users, thereby growing the platform.
A thriving marketplace benefits everyone involved. Agencies that specialize in Drupal benefit from having competitors in the same market. It attracts consumers who like having a choice of vendors to support their website, and who like having so many developers reviewing code they use.
What are the Challenges?
Here are some of the biggest challenges I see in growing Drupal.
Drupal.org’s tooling was innovative when it was built, but it now needs further investment and modernization to remain attractive to developers. This could mean creating a dedicated developer portal, separate from the marketing content on Drupal.org.
On the consumer side, the scope and quality of code available on Drupal isn't enough. Consumers expect a high level of user experience and some websites fall short of marketers expectations. This is where the goals of the Starshot Initiative are so relevant and important. Enhancing both developer and user experiences is crucial for maintaining positive feedback loops and growing the market.
Business decision-makers, though they appreciate transparency, often require clearer indicators of developers' and agencies' expertise. Contribution can seem very theoretical to organizations that aren’t involved in open source themselves.
The Drupal Association is responsible for maintaining drupal.org, which is a challenging task for a tiny organization. They take responsibility for a huge amount of infrastructure maintenance and global community organizing. So despite having thousands of contributors, it's been challenging to scale up the leadership of contributed efforts.
What Does Progress Look Like?
Despite these challenges, the Drupal Association and the community have made some important progress recently, building momentum behind the network effects that can drive Drupal forward.
The Drupal Certified Partner Program
This program enhances the community feedback loop and builds trust in the reputation of service providers. By certifying individuals and organizations, it maintains a standard level of expertise and knowledge across the board.
As a vendor, I recognize the value of having more certified partners, even if it means increased competition. In the short term, being one of the few certified providers might seem advantageous. But in the long run, it's far more beneficial to have a robust ecosystem where Drupal is well supported by many knowledgeable and certified professionals.
New Drupal Branding
Strong branding helps establish Drupal’s identity, reputation, and trustworthiness in the marketplace. It communicates the platform’s unique benefits and values—including its flexibility, security, and the strength of its community. A robust and widely recognized Drupal brand attracts more users, developers, and organizations to the platform. This in turn generates more contributions, innovations, and improvements within the ecosystem.
The Drupal Starshot Initiative
The Starshot initiative is building a new version of the platform, called Drupal CMS. It aims to lower the barrier to entry by simplifying the initial setup and use of Drupal. Users will be able to quickly deploy and manage their websites without needing extensive technical knowledge or custom development services.
Starshot will make Drupal more accessible and user-friendly for a wider audience. In doing so, it'll also encourage more businesses to adopt Drupal, as they'll be able to start with user-friendly solution and scale up as needed. This will strengthen the network effects that drive the platform's success, ensuring that Drupal continues to grow and evolve to meet the needs of its diverse and expanding community.
What Else Can We Do to Grow the Market?
- A separate Drupal dev portal. A dedicated space can enhance the developer experience, streamline onboarding, and provide resources for engaging with Drupal and other developers.
- Converting devs to end users and vice versa. This means encouraging developers to use their own products to better understand the user experience, and empowering end users with tools to customize and code without deep Drupal knowledge
- Frictionless entry for newcomers. We need to design an onboarding experience so seamless that joining the Drupal community requires minimal effort and no extensive technical knowledge. This will increase usage and expand the market. The new Drupal on the Edge feature that supports an in-browser demo experience is a huge step towards this. Keeping demo users engaged will be the logical next step.
Balancing the needs of developers and end-users is essential for the platform's holistic growth. We can't prioritize product over the platform. Instead, we must ensure that Drupal remains a well-architected, developer-friendly system while also appealing to a broader audience. We have a product that holds significant market value; continuous investment in both developer and user experiences will lead to its success.
The Drupal community, the Drupal Association, and Drupal.org are foundational to the platform's unique value. They collectively create a competitive advantage that goes beyond the product itself. Embracing a mindset of abundance is vital for our continued growth. Transparency, openness, and confidence in the product are what sustain our positive feedback loops and foster community growth.
Want to join us in pushing these initiatives forward? Get in touch or learn more at drupal.org/marketing.