Contao vs Drupal
Contao
contao.orgDrupal
drupal.orgSide by side
| Figure | Contao | Drupal |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | Yes |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| Windows | — | Yes |
| macOS | — | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 1 | 1 |
| Spec score · Content Management Systems | 8.9 (#17) | 9.0 (#10) |
| Custom content types | Yes | Yes |
| Custom user roles | Yes | Yes |
| Editorial workflows | Yes | Yes |
| Founded | 2006 | 2007 |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Integrations | Contao is based on Symfony and can be extended with packages from the Contao extension directory or Packagist. | Drupal can integrate with external services and other applications in an organization’s infrastructure. |
| Media library | Yes | Yes |
| Multilingual content | Yes | Yes |
| Platform type | self_hosted | hybrid |
| SEO tools | Yes | Yes |
| Support | The project offers free forum support from its community and professional support through Contao partners. | Drupal CMS support is available through its user guide, Drupal Slack’s #drupal-cms-support channel and the project issue queue. |
Plans
In their own words
Contao
Contao is a free, open-source content management system for professional websites and scalable web applications. One installation can operate multiple websites and multilingual sites. Editors can work in TinyMCE, change multiple records together, and restore earlier versions. Administrators can assign permissions to individual backend fields for users or groups, while editorial workflows, custom roles, custom content types, a media library, and multilingual content support organize publishing. The core includes calendar, news and blog, newsletter, form-generation, and full-text-search modules. SEO features include schema.org data and generated XML sitemaps, with stated WCAG 2.1 AA support. Passkeys or two-factor authentication and account locking address access security. Contao runs on web servers with current PHP and MySQL, and can be installed through Contao Manager or Composer. It is based on Symfony and extendable through its directory or Packagist.
Drupal
Drupal is content management software for building websites and applications. Drupal CMS is a ready-to-use platform for marketing teams, content creators, and site builders, built on Drupal 11 core. Included tools cover media management, SEO, AI-driven website building, consent management, analytics, search, and automatic updates. Drupal supports structured content, multilingual publishing, editorial workflows, custom user roles, and APIs for serving web, mobile, and other channels from one source. Thousands of modules, themes, and distributions can extend it, and it can connect with external services and organizational applications. Drupal identifies accessibility, API-first architecture, security, performance, and scalability as core capabilities. The software is free open-source software with no licensing fees, but self-hosting and technical setup are required. Linux or a similar system is recommended for hosting; Windows is supported only for development, not production. Drupal CMS offers temporary browser-based trial sites. After setup, Drupal CMS itself is not updated, although installed modules and themes are updated like other Drupal sites.