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Drupal Development

Drupal developers
  • Frustrated with the lack of experience of your Drupal developer?
  • Feeling trapped by a proprietary content management solution that costs a fortune and is difficult to modify?
  • Seeking an agency that can customize
    your Drupal site just the way you want it?

Does any of this sound familiar to you? Would it make sense to have an open discussion to talk about the issues you are currently facing online? If so, please contact us.Contact us now

What to look for when choosing your Drupal Development agency

Drupal is an open source CMS (content management system) used by some of the biggest sites on the Web and there are tens of thousands of Drupal developers all claiming they are capable of using the platform. Surely not all developers are the bee's knees when it comes to Drupal, so how do you differentiate the good from the bad?

  1. What is the Drupal Developer's depth of experience?
    Find out how long the agency has been developing Drupal Web sites. They should be able to show you a dozen or more example sites. Ask them to see a demo site of how the backend works, so that you can experiment changing content and adding pages yourself.
  2. Do they specialize in Drupal development or do they offer every content management system under the sun?
    An agency with too many offerings means they aren't focused on world class offerings that add value for their clients. Ask the agency what options they have for content management platforms. If they offer 2 or more, they likely only do basic installs, straight out of the box. Ask them how many developers they have dedicated to each. You certainly don't want to be paying for their education on a platform they have little to no experience using.
  3. Can they meet your needs now and in the future?
    Drupal has thousands of add-on modules that can be added to the main core to perform certain functions. Ask the agency what add-on modules they typically use, which ones work as they are and which ones require modification. There's a good chance you will need to use a module or two in your site. If they can't demonstrate this ability it's likely you will have costly updates in the future. Every module has its issues, so check to see what customizations they've needed to make to fit a client's particular need and what modules they've created from scratch because they didn't exist.

    Drupal is an open source community built by the hard work of thousands, for free! A good developer embraces the community, so ask them what modules they've contributed back to the open source community.
  4. How do I know if I'm going to get a good bang for my buck?
    Picking up the expertise of CMS platform takes deep pockets and a ton of research and experimentation. It takes years to gain a firm understanding of the ins and outs of these complex software systems. Be leery of developers claiming the lowest rates, only made possible by outsourcing to other countries such as India. Their low rates seem attractive, but the lack the experience will cost you more in the long run in the form of bug fixes, timeline overruns and misalignment of objectives. Cover yourself by asking about their warranty period; what is covered and for how long.