Drupal received high scores in a satisfaction report by NTEN, a major Non-profit Technology organization. Drupal was evaluated in five categories, and had the highest number of responses, and the highest number of respondents that indicated Drupal is their primary CMS. Drupal is clearly popular with the non-profit crowd and this satisfaction survey provides the Drupal community with focused areas for improvement.

Drupal received the following scores:

  • Quality and reliability: A
  • After sales support: B+
  • Delivers on promises and deadlines: B+
  • Usability: B+
  • Value: A

The report is available to members of NTEN for free. It is available to non-members at a discount, $25, with the discount code: "Drupal". A sample format of the report is also available.

A special note on the success of open source content management cites the following reasons for success:

  • No fees for acquisition.
  • No maintenance fees if it is a low to medium traffic site.
  • Low hosting costs.
  • Solid software: for most organizations, as good, or better than a system they would pay for.
  • Active development and communities mean lots of improvements and new features, plus lots of help.
  • Generally easy installation and maintenance.
  • Very customizable - easy to add custom functionality.

Comments

Chill35’s picture

The bulk of the work is to convince corporations to use Drupal more and more.

Non-profit organizations use Drupal. That's no surprise to me. That's what I see.

Convincing corporations to use Drupal "more and more" enables people like me to divide up their time between projects that don't really pay the rent, and these projects that do. Money should flow from those Who Have to those Who Have Not, so that just about anyone can use Drupal. (I know, that smells of socialism, but that's how I see it.) Corporations should contribute to the development of modules that will benefit non-profit organizations, etc.

Depending on your environment, as a web developer, you may feel the burden of reluctance and snobism corporations manifest in general toward Drupal.

Many web development companies push on Ruby on Rails...

It's frustrating...

My boyfriend just spent a month an a half developing a beautifully-coded component that allows upload of media files to a Ruby on Rails CMS he's creating from scratch. Woaaahhh (read my sarcastic tone here)... something that could have been finished within days if he had convinced his boss to use Drupal. Sure his code is beautiful, Ruby is pretty, Rails is a MVC, but who cares? I don't. Drupal the framework _is_ a MVC of sorts, but most people who don't use or know Drupal very well believe otherwise.

But my boyfriend says: "No way I will go back to coding in PHP, blahblahblah".

Drupal is cheap, but it is no 'cheap' solution. It's not because Drupal's cheap, that it is inferior, in other words.

Enough of my ranting here. :-)

Caroline
11 heavens.com

alexrayu’s picture

It's about market Caroline. Don't be upset about it. Drupal is great but it lacks in classy design a lot, and so it makes an impression of a raw and cheap thing.
Half of all Drupal sites are using Garland with a changed color. How not a socialism?

- Alexei Rayu.

Drupal Related Services | SiteHound Drupal Free Distro

Chill35’s picture

it makes an impression of a raw and cheap thing...

For sure.

Caroline
11 heavens.com

BioALIEN’s picture

The number of high quality themes for Drupal is growing in numbers. Ever since Drupal 5 I've seen a big shift as more and more fantastic themes are being ported over.

The number of talented theme designers is also on the rise. The problem here is educating Drupal users to start experimenting with different themes. We need to rid these users (who happen to represent a large chunk of the community) of the habit of installing Drupal and think "I installed Drupal. I don't have to add anything more". Ideally we want people to install core and start experimenting with different modules and/or themes. The barrier for these users seems to lie in visiting the drupal.org site and browsing the multitude of choice.

---
Dee
iScene Interactive :: iScene.eu

mehuls’s picture

Drupal have many flexibility with theme more then any other CMS,

But Yes it requires knowledge of drupal theme system and thats why the designers are lazy to designs themes for drupal,

Nowadays there are some good themes also available on some sites,

And you also can design themes as per your choice within the drupal drupal rules of theming.

If you dont believe then see this link

www.mondo.fi

I have build this one with drupal.

Hope your belief will change after this friend.

alexrayu’s picture

Drupal makes a wrong impression. It deceives a new person into thinking it's worse that it is.
We have some good people doing hard coding work. But design is needed no less! "They meet you according to your clothes" - as we say in Russia, and only then do people look inside.
I attempted to energize looks a bit with the SiteHound, but Drupal needs a much more radical and serious design overhaul NOW!

update: yes, I can help however I can, it's not an idle talk. Lets band up and create some design policy, break up tasks, and do something sweet.

- Alexei Rayu.

Drupal Related Services | SiteHound Drupal Free Distro

Boris Mann’s picture

Hi Alexei -- I just checked out SiteHound and it's interesting. Have you considered turning it into an install profile and further develop / host it here on Drupal.org?

My belief is that tuned and designed install profiles are the right end user facing solutions, so that core can continue to be a great framework.

--
The future is Bryght at Raincity Studios

alexrayu’s picture

Profiles are great, but I rally for having Drupal have some look fitting it's internal strength.
SiteHound is just a tool I have been developing based on experience, but nothing would compare to a team of designers doing some brushing to Drupal looks! It falls short of the ultimate needs.

- Alexei Rayu.

Drupal Related Services | SiteHound Drupal Free Distro

decibel.places’s picture

Turn on your CSS - and make Drupal look any way you want!

Do you think this "looks like Drupal"? But it is - v. 5.x with Ubercart!
It's nearly pixel-perfect from PSD - starting with Framework
(just waiting on client for content to flesh out the menu)

IMO Drupal does not have a "look" - rather the contrib themes are pretty bland, for the most part.

However, I have had some fun with Moveable Type themes via the Gutenberg theme...

So, theme developers, let's see some cool themes!

I created a site for a nonprofit using a slightly modified Ability theme - it's friendly and easy to navigate - and the nonprofit administrators are so appreciative! It's not live yet, will announce it when it launches...

~are you netsperienced?

Reliable Web Hosting - cheap!

alexrayu’s picture

Themes are a partial answer. We are talking about an admin interface as well. I have included lots of css and custom images for the admin interface in SiteHound, this made it nicer, but it's like re-painting your car. And we need to re-design it.

- Alexei Rayu.

Drupal Related Services | SiteHound Drupal Free Distro

Kuldip Gohil’s picture

Hi Alexei Rayu,

i think you can do all things which is in sitehoud by custom profile and theme ...
have you done any changes in Drupal core?

Thanks,

Kuldip Gohil

alexrayu’s picture

Probably in previous versions. And in the current only some changes in modules, not the core.

- Alexei Rayu.

Drupal Related Services | SiteHound Drupal Free Distro

decibel.places’s picture

What about module upgrades and sustainablility?

You could provide patches, I guess...

~are you netsperienced? /\_][_][_/\ Reliable Web Hosting - cheap!

Kuldip Gohil’s picture

sorry for twice posting

decibel.places’s picture

Good points, Alexei

I generally tell clients they will get blogs, forums, ecommerce (if applicable), WYSIWYG CMS, newsletters, Web 2.x community features, extensibility - and they wouldn't care if I build the site out of sh*t!

Other clients are seeking Drupal development, however Drupal is not yet a positive marketing term except among some sectors, particularly nonprofit orgs.

I have interviewed recently with several top IT recruiters in the New York market and approximately 50% had heard of Drupal - and for them it was a big plus.

We are also struggling to overcome the bad reputation of failed developers who have been unable to deliver Drupal sites - I have my share of cleanup work - but perhaps we should initiate some kind of developer certification that would ensure a certain level of competency?

I am trying to find time to check out your SiteHound - always looking for ways to deliver quality sites with less work/less expense for the client!

~are you netsperienced? /\_][_][_/\ Reliable Web Hosting - cheap!

decibel.places’s picture

Anybody complaining about Drupal's "look" or usability, have a look at these impressive and inspiring case studies

http://groups.drupal.org/node/13190

~are you netsperienced? /\_][_][_/\ Reliable Web Hosting - cheap!

irakli’s picture

Drupal Admin interface can be better from both the design as well as the usability standpoint, we all know that and I believe a lot of effort is ongoing to fix that. The awesome "administration menu" module does make this a lesser problem, though, at least for more technical people and less technical people need some training with a CMS system anyway.

The Ruby On Rails thing is purely a marketing thing. It gets more buzz, people know it better. They put RoR applications in your face all the time whereas Drupal.org does not even have a main navigation section which would list prominent websites/systems developed on Drupal!!! That information is buried somewhere in some discussion thread that a mere mortal can hardly find.

I think many things have a lot to do with the fact that Drupal is still somewhat of a geeky community and its business side is not well-established. That will all change, though, I am sure. I am sure of it because I can see, first-hand, how leading Drupal companies collaborate and put joint effort to move the system forward. A lot of very smart and talented people there who both see the problems and know how to solve them.

On another note - to be honest, when we pitch Drupal to large companies and leading non-profits, we never hear a complaint about design flexibility. That has never been an issue, for us, and we have implemented all kinds of designs for all kinds of companies. What you do hear concerns about, when you approach large enterprises, though, is the security of the system.

Unfortunately, historically, PHP has gotten a bad vibe as being a spaghetti-code system, insecure blah-blah-blah. Most of it is unfair criticism, but brand image (including negative one) is an incredibly strong factor in business and Drupal will have to suffer from it for a while. Lisitng big websites, websites for "big companies" that are run on Drupal can greatly help mitigate that unfair buzz, though. Humans like references. There are some very serious names that are associated with Drupal. We need to ask their permission to reference them and create a gallery so any newcomer can see clearly: secure sites with high traffic do trust Drupal and it works!.

Phase2 Technology - Web solutions that fit your business.

alexrayu’s picture

I also never had complaints about the end product based on Drupal.

- Alexei Rayu.

Drupal Related Services | SiteHound Drupal Free Distro

Ignas’s picture

Joomla received the same scores ;)
The best scores received www.impresscms.org, but with much less responses.

Wolfflow’s picture

No profit Organization that ask money for a Report?

Oh yes very clever Guys !!!

Kind Regards

Share your experience with the Open Source Community it's not only a choice but a Life Philosophy !!!
Do you care? Adaccs Scoops

Contact me for drupal projects in English, German, Italian, Drupal Hosting Support.

decibel.places’s picture

Non profits can charge for services that cost them a great deal to produce, like this report.

They still may not turn a profit...

Nonprofit doesn't mean free - just that they are not profit-motivated.

~are you netsperienced? /\_][_][_/\ Reliable Web Hosting - cheap!

Wolfflow’s picture

@amazon @decibel-places

Oh I see an expert ! Well nothing against but why this Kind of post in a really no profit Site like Drupal.org
There are may better Place where to do this:

Heard of

http://drupal.org/talk ?
http://drupal.org/planet ?

Cheers

Contact me for drupal projects in English, German, Italian, Drupal Hosting Support.

decibel.places’s picture

I think this post by amazon is newsworthy even without reading the report

I am no expert but I have a couple of nonprofit clients who struggle to make ends meet - producing a major study like this is not cheap and I think it is reasonable to charge a fee for services

The NTEN members do get the report for no charge, and us Drupal users get a generous discount

I do not see any reason to complain

~are you netsperienced? /\_][_][_/\ Reliable Web Hosting - cheap!

Rob T’s picture

Actually, they can be profit-motivated. They just can't show a profit on their books.

Wolfflow’s picture

LOL ;-)

Share your experience with the Open Source Community it's not only a choice but a Life Philosophy !!!
Do you care? Adaccs Scoops

Contact me for drupal projects in English, German, Italian, Drupal Hosting Support.

Rob T’s picture

Ever seen some of the salaries that some non-profit executives earn? Surely these groups had to earn above and beyond what their costs are to be able to fund these salaries. Not that there's anything wrong with that... these groups do a lot of good, both for society and their leaders' bank accounts :-)

Non-profit salaries from 2004:

Roy Williams, Boy Scouts: $ 913,021.00
Lynn Nicholas, American Diabetes Association: $ 792,326.00
John Sefrin, American Cancer Society: $ 760,953.00
Marsha Adams, American Red Cross: $ 651,957.00
Peter Van Etten, Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation : $ 544,853.00
Michael Lomax, United Negro College Fund: $ 455,547.00
M. Cass Wheeler, American Heart Association : $ 449,289.00
Jennifer Howse, March of Dimes: $ 449,077.00

figaro’s picture

Is it made clear what the symbols A and B+ mean?

JimShady’s picture

Hi Figaro,

The symbols reference an academic grading scale. In the US (and in many other countries), students' academic work is graded based on quality. A perfect score would be "A+" followed by A, A-, B+, B, B-... and so on. "C" is usually considered "average" so for Drupal to receive all "A" and "B" scores is great.

More info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grade_(education)

Jim Craner
Chicago Technology Cooperative - Managing Partner
website/app development for nonprofit organizations

JimShady’s picture

Our team is a Drupal shop that works exclusively with nonprofit and community organizations across North America - we've found that Drupal meets the needs of the majority of our clients, from 4-page "brochureware" sites to large, complex, and sophisticated applications.

Our nonprofit clients choose Drupal for two primary reasons:

  • Pragmatic - open source, community-driven software such as Drupal can offer significant cost savings compared to similar proprietary packages or expensive web authoring tools.
  • Philosophical - the values that open source communities like Drupal embrace are very much in line with the core values and missions of many nonprofits, such as sharing, transparency, and the importance of strong community spirit.

For those of you who work with nonprofit or voluntary sector organizations, I highly recommend you join the following groups on g.d.o:

Drupal for Good: http://groups.drupal.org/drupal-for-good
Drupal for Activists and Campaigns: http://groups.drupal.org/drupal-for-activists-and-campaigns

Jim Craner
Chicago Technology Cooperative - Managing Partner
website/app development for nonprofit organizations

asd123asd5’s picture

As a designer who works for a large corporation in Australia that has started to roll out all it's redesigns and new projects on drupal I have to say that there are at least some large companies who respect drupal and it's uses.

As for the above comments about skins - most companies should have an at least somewhat unique look and feel anyway. I believe this is what makes things like the theming handbook and zen so much more powerful than generic skins.

Oghnia’s picture

I think people don't want to invest the time to learn drupal.
I am one of these people that pushed drupal in my workplace.. No one wanted it,, they all argued about building our own CMS - but look at us now,, once the website is live I will post a link to it online,, I did wonders with the design and functionality of the site,,,
its in two languages and it has a lot of features,,

Even I was skeptical about it,, but seriously you can make drupal look the way you want how you want -- its very flexible and amazing we just need to better educate ourselves..

______________________________
next project convert this site to drupal -> http://www.oghnia.com

decibel.places’s picture

Hi Oghnia,

Please let us know when you go live! Post it in the Showcase!

~are you netsperienced? /\_][_][_/\ Reliable Web Hosting - cheap!

alexrayu’s picture

Well Joomla may have gotten the same scores as Drupal. But comparing what Drupal is and what Joomla is, its a shame for Drupal to have the same scores as that colored cookie form.

- Alexei Rayu.

Drupal Related Services | SiteHound 1.2 (based on Drupal 5.9) - Free Download

Pfabb’s picture

Where can I see
Joomla, WP and other CMS scores?