Drupal vs. AEM? Which CMS is Right for Your B2B Website?

A revamped website is your top priority when planning a rebranding initiative for your B2B company. On top of securing the right design, deciding on the right platform for your enterprise website is critical. When considering your options, the distinctions between industry-leaders Drupal and Adobe Experience Manager (AEM) have to be at the top of your mind.

In one corner, Drupal is an open-source CMS revered for its flexibility and ability to support websites and organizations of all sizes. On the other is AEM, a proprietary digital experience platform backed by one of the biggest technology brands in the world. It’s a complicated choice, and one that carries influence over whether your rebranding will be successful.
Ultimately, the decision comes down determining the right tool for your business needs. While AEM may have the advantage of a sales team to underscore the platform’s virtues, Drupal’s open-source technology leaves the platform to do the talking. But in the end, both platforms offer a rich set of features to justify their position at the head of the pack.

7 Factors to Consider When Comparing Drupal and AEM

From the perspective of supporting your company’s enterprise needs, Drupal and AEM stand on equal footing. AEM offers a wealth of out-of-the-box features, and Drupal can be customized to provide a powerful and user-friendly backend experience.

Both are near the top in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant ratings for digital experience platforms with Drupal appearing under its hosting arm Acquia. Overall, AEM and Drupal offer similar capabilities to fully support any enterprise.

The pros and cons between either platform can be broken out across 7 categories:

1. Licensing Cost

The biggest differentiator between AEM and Drupal is the price tag. As an open-source software tool, Drupal’s source code is free to access. Yes, your organization inevitably will incur the costs associated with customizing and implementing a Drupal site. But the fixed cost differences between the platforms are significant.

As a proprietary system, AEM demands that your company pay a licensing fee that starts around $40,000 and gets higher depending on your organization’s size and needs. Along with requiring an up-front investment to design and develop, your AEM website will incur a license fee every year. Drupal doesn’t require any such fees.

2. Implementation Cost

Because AEM is a closed platform, implementation costs for a new website are also much higher. Creating an AEM site requires Adobe-certified developers, and your build costs could range from $500,000 to $1 million according to a recent report.

With Drupal, your organization is able to draw from a deeper pool of development specialists, which lowers implementation prices. The platform also includes tens of thousands of custom modules of pre-built features that can be configured to suit your organization’s needs. Plus, building a site in Drupal is less complex than with AEM, and the implementation costs are not as high. In our experience, Drupal site implementation will likely range between $170,000 and $350,000 in most cases.

3. Support & Maintenance

AEM charges an annual licensing fee, but that cost isn’t simply dedicated to maintaining your company’s right to use the platform. It also comes with dedicated Adobe support teams who can assist your organization in maintaining your platform.

AEM also offers user groups and other community resources available for your IT team. If you encounter an issue with AEM, Adobe provides 24/7 support offering high-level guidance about what has gone wrong. However, you will still need your own development team to resolve those issues. Drupal also features a robust open-source community of developers who provide platform support for bugs as well as major version updates. Plus, you’re not confined to one in-house support team. With Drupal, you have more options to pursue support and maintenance plans from design and development agencies specializing in Drupal.

4. Security

Site security is a constant concern for any business, and an area where a proprietary system is often perceived to hold a clear advantage. AEM offers an assortment of features allowing you to manage user identification and restrict access. But Drupal offers a higher level of security than you may expect.

Drupal features its own security team working to address potential issues, and any new vulnerabilities are shared with the community so they can be resolved. The platform also features modules dedicated to managing your company’s users and ensuring proper authentication for access.

Drupal’s focus on security has been effective. According to one security firm, Drupal accounted for less than 1% of infected sites among open-source platforms in 2021.

5. Integration Capabilities

AEM offers a wide variety of additional services — which can add to the platform’s implementation costs. But AEM is not a closed system. Through AEM Connectors, your developers can integrate any marketing tool your firm needs into Adobe’s CMS.

Drupal also allows your company to connect to whatever external services and data sources your company needs through APIs. The CMS was designed with a focus on scalability and expansion, and it readily integrates with other enterprise systems.

6. Development Speed

Drupal’s biggest strength is its customizability, which means it’s designed with a developer-friendly focus. If your company needs a custom feature, your developers can quickly build and test a prototype so you see the changes you need within a shorter time frame.

With AEM, the platform’s expansion is dependent on incorporating multiple products from Adobe. For example, AEM uses machine learning to support different user experiences for different prospects through Smart Layout. But your organization must adopt the latest versions of four other Adobe products to use it. And implementation can be slow.

7. Flexibility

For enterprise users, flexibility stands as one of the biggest differentiators between Drupal and AEM. With Drupal, your company gains the ability to integrate any of your current external technologies with an open-source tool that can be customized to suit your needs.

For AEM, your company should also adopt Adobe’s solutions to see the greatest benefits from the platform. Many of these tools can offer best-in-class capabilities to your teams. Multiple vendors also create 3rd party applications for use with AEM, but the list of options is considerably shorter than for Drupal.

The Right Agency Simplifies Your Choice of Website Platform

Though both AEM and Drupal come at differing costs, any new website platform constitutes a major investment. The question comes down to which choice will deliver the best return for your company’s business needs.

In the end, AEM and Drupal platforms have their strengths when you look at the pros and cons. But choosing a new platform with a wealth of expertise in your corner is the strongest decision yet.

When you’re collaborating with the right web design and development partner, your decision-making process is simplified. At Clear Digital, we’re experts in both Drupal and AEM, and we have a long history collaborating with B2B companies to find the website solution that’s right for them. Whether your B2B company is considering a rebranding or weighing options for its next website platform, we should talk. We can ensure your next steps are in the right direction for your business.