Today is a significant day for us as we launch our latest site on Laravel, After years of building secure, dynamic, and feature-rich portals and websites with Drupal, we’ve officially transitioned all our managed Drupal sites to Laravel or WordPress. This transition wasn’t a move away from Drupal’s power and versatility but a decision that reflects both evolving client needs and the expanding capabilities of modern frameworks. Here’s a look at the journey, what made Drupal a strong choice in the past, and why Laravel is our future for custom solutions.

The Power and Challenges of Drupal

We started with Drupal 7, and as the needs of our clients evolved, we either upgraded or built new sites with versions 8 and 9. From day one, Drupal stood out as a robust content management system, ideal for government websites and applications. Drupal’s framework also separates configuration from content, simplifying staging environments and minimizing disruptions during updates—a huge asset for our clients who require dependable, continuous service. Its out-of-the-box role and permissions system is still unmatched, providing the kind of granular access control essential for government sites and large organizations.

Drupal was our go-to for a reason: beyond the initial learning curve, we were able to quickly build everything from mobile app backends to intranets, custom CRM solutions, and complex business portals. However, as client needs shifted, so did the challenges with Drupal.

Why Move to WordPress and Laravel?

While Drupal is a powerful framework, it’s not the most intuitive platform for non-technical users. Even with customized content management forms, many of our clients were either reluctant to manage their content or wanted a more accessible CMS—one with features like visual editors and simpler content workflows. WordPress, with its widely adopted interface and editors like Elementor and Visual Composer, offered this ease of use while still allowing us to maintain a level of customization.

For our complex, high-performance applications, Laravel emerged as the ideal framework. Coincidentally, we also started with version 7 of Laravel. With Laravel, we quickly discovered how efficient, flexible, and developer-friendly Laravel is. While the transition from Drupal 7 to 8 required a complete rebuild, each Laravel version upgrade—from 7 up to the latest Laravel 11—has been straightforward. Laravel’s ecosystem, including Forge, Jetstream, Livewire, TailwindUI, Inertia, and Flux, allows us to create responsive, interactive applications, custom portals, and SaaS applications, faster than ever. The additional ease of implementing APIs gives us flexibility to integrate other technologies and build sophisticated solutions at speed.

Enhanced Performance and Scalability

One of Laravel’s standout features is its minimal overhead. It’s lightning fast compared to Drupal, allowing us to deliver high-speed applications tailored to client specifications. And while Laravel doesn’t come with a default CMS, this actually aligns with our clients’ need for unique solutions that allow them to use software to differentiate their organizations from competitors. Laravel lets us build exactly what we need, without the weight of unnecessary modules.

Security is always a priority, and while Drupal remains highly secure, our Laravel and WordPress stack, supported by rigorous server environments, has provided the security our clients expect. Platforms like Pantheon previously helped us maintain robust security in Drupal, but as we manage our own Laravel hosting through AWS and use Kinsta for WordPress, we’re able to meet these standards effectively.

The Future: Laravel, WordPress, and an Open Door for Drupal

Our clients continue to be at the heart of our technology decisions. Technology continues to rapidly evolve and for now, the shift to Laravel and WordPress allows us to exceed our clients’ expectations. We’re excited by the possibilities of the Drupal’s next generation, Drupal Starshot and Drupal 11. While we’re embracing Laravel and WordPress for current projects, we’re keeping an open door to Drupal’s innovations.

This shift reflects our commitment to innovation and building scalable, user-friendly solutions that help our clients grow.

Here’s to the future of streamlined, intuitive, and high-performance web experiences!