Is Drupal right for you?

Drupal is a highly configurable, modular content management system. Before you can answer if Drupal is right for you, consider a couple of questions: Which type of Drupal user are you, and what are your needs?

Below is a list of common user types followed by Drupal features. If the features meet your needs and you have the skill-set required to implement them, Drupal might be a perfect system for you. (See the list at the bottom of this page for more on required skills.)

I'm a Blogger and I need...

* single- and/or multi-user blogs
* to categorize content
* commenting
* trackbacks
* custom style and layout using sample or custom themes
* image and/or other media support using contributed modules (i.e., plug-ins)

Skills needed: end-user, administrator

I'm evaluating Drupal for my organization/company and we need...

* customizable user roles and permissions
* robust security model
* scalability
* to configure and extend functionality to meet specific business needs
* a support infrastructure (documentation, community, etc.)
* to categorize content
* additional features/functionality

Skills needed: evaluator, end-user

I'm a community organizer and I need...

* community members to easily share ideas (blogs, forum, files, etc.)
* members to have tools to help them self-organize
* a site that can evolve as the community evolves (keeping up with the state-of-the-art of interactive web sites)
* a support infrastructure (documentation, community, etc.)
* customizable user roles and permissions
* a site that is safe on the web (security, spam, trolls, etc.)
* a special distribution of Drupal and contributed modules that come preconfigured with community relationship management tools like CivicSpace.

Skills needed: evaluator, end-user, administrator, site developer (to some extent)

I'm a small business owner and I need...

* to set up the site myself
* custom style and layout using sample/custom themes
* customizable user roles and permissions
* a system that is scalable and adaptable to the needs of my changing business
* to categorize content
* a support infrastructure (documentation, community, etc.)
* e-commerce support for
o shopping carts
o premium paid content subscriptions
* to configure and extend functionality to meet specific business needs

Skills needed: evaluator, end-user, administrator, site developer (to a limited extent)

I build or design websites for clients and I need...

* to create a custom look and feel with my own themes
* additional features/functionality
* to easily provide support to my clients
* access to a community of designers and developers

Skills needed: evaluator, administrator, site developer, developer (to some extent)

I'm a programmer and I need...

* a robust, well-designed, modular system that I can customize and extend
* well documented APIs
* system and architecture documentation and coding standards
* access to a community of other developers
* a rich feature list

Skills needed: administrator, programmer

Do you know what type of Drupal user you want to be? If you do, review the skill sets below to see what you'll need to get started:

* Evaluator: Familiar with web terminology and concepts.
* End-user: familiar with browsing, clicking, submitting web pages, selecting options.
* Administrator: Manage roles, select themes, categorize web pages (content), configure module settings, install and upgrade software and databases, apply security fixes.
* Site designer/developer: Install software, design style and layout (with css and minimal php), build and deploy websites, evaluate contributed modules, work with LAMP.
* Programmer: program in php, administer databases, program through a well-defined API, design database objects, evaluating existing solutions and apply patches, collaborate with other developers

Now is a good time to learn more about Drupal. The Case studies section examines typical types of sites that use Drupal and gives links to real sites of each type. This section includes a listing of hundreds of Drupal sites.

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