Is Drupal the right tool for the job?

Drupal is a very powerful and flexible framework to build virtually any kind of website. There are some situations where Drupal is a better choice than other solutions and here are some considerations that may help you decide.

Drupal is an excellent choice for any of the following situations:

• You need a site that is flexible enough to evolve in any direction. For example, you might start with a blog but want the option of adding other features like a wiki, electronic commerce, forums etc.
• You need a site that can easily be configured to interact with other sites or with other technologies.
• You need a site that can easily handle complex forms and workflows.
• You need the ability to create your own content types. For example, you need to add a custom field to a page.
• You need the ability to quickly organize and display lists of information.
• One or more of the many contributed Drupal modules addresses your needs.
• You need to quickly develop custom functionality.

There are several cases where Drupal may not be the best choice:

• If your only requirement is to write a personal blog, you may also want to evaluate one of the more specialized blogging platforms like WordPress or one of the hosted blogging solutions. Although Drupal does provide an excellent blogging platform out-of-the-box, you will probably find that blog-specific software typically has a simpler administration interface.
• Similarly, if your only requirement is to create a wiki, you should probably consider using dedicated wiki software like MediaWiki or a hosted wiki solution. You can certainly configure Drupal so that anyone can edit content (and even enable advanced features of systems like MediaWiki with the help of several contributed modules like wikitools and Diff), but it may be simpler for you to use a more specialized solution.
• If your only requirement is to host discussion forums, you will want to consider a system such as SimpleMachines or phpBB with an mature set of Forum features, or Vanilla which has many plug-ins, although Drupal's forum module with forum enhancement modules may be better suited to extension if you'll need custom features.
• With every release, Drupal is becoming easier to use; but like most powerful tools, it will always have a learning curve. If you or your organization are not prepared to spend some time learning how Drupal works (or if you are not able to hire Drupal expertise), it may not be your best option.