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What Is A Drupal Development Company?

A Drupal development company is an agency that specializes in creating and maintaining websites and apps using the flexible, open-source content management system Drupal.

Drupal is the fourth most popular CMS on the market used by 2.9% of all websites. In fact, 312,169 companies, including NASA, Tesla and Cisco, take advantage of its reliability and resources.

While everyone can use it upon download, partnering with a professional Drupal agency can make a huge difference since it takes platform certified experts to deliver high-performance products.

drupal written on a laptop display
Drupal is the 4th most popular CMS on the market used by 2.9% of all websites

What Does A Drupal Agency Do?

Drupal web development teams usually operate within larger web design or digital agencies.

Therefore, you can expect the company you hire to provide a broad range of services that go beyond technical development.

These may include:

  • Strategy: The strategy phase enables Drupal development companies in the US to conduct necessary research into the target audience and key competition. The deliverable is usually a strategy document that outlines the project approach, recommendations for content structure and core messaging.
  • Website design and development: It includes start-to-finish custom web design, including user experience design, responsive layout, visual design, development and quality assurance.
  • Content migration: Some Drupal web development companies will assist with content migration from an existing website to a newly redesigned one. Content upload services are usually not included as part of the redesign and will likely come at an additional cost to the client.
  • Hosting: The companies specialized in Drupal web development services frequently help arrange web hosting services on behalf of their clients, including managed Drupal hosting and cloud hosting if desired.
  • Digital marketing: A professional Drupal agency also offers digital marketing services to their clients. These may include SEO, PPC, social media marketing and content marketing.
  • Support and maintenance: To ensure your digital platform performs flawlessly at all times, Drupal developers will keep it error-free and up-to-date. They will make urgent security and minor version updates, add new content and report on performance.
  • Consulting: Drupal development companies provide their clients with expert consulting services to help them understand how to run their platforms, how to create winning strategies, how to make informed technology choices and more.

How Much Do Drupal Web Development Companies Charge For Their Services?

The most common fees among the top Drupal web development companies are:

  • The fee per hour (billed based on time estimates and the number of hours spent on specific tasks or projects)
  • The fee per project (billed based on the type of project, its complexity and scope)

When it comes to the fee per hour, the approximate cost ranges between $50 and $150. Depending on the company’s stature, you can come across prices that go below $15 or even more than $200+.

In respect to the cost per project, some specialized agencies undertake projects worth $1,000, sometimes even less. While others take projects valued at $10,000 - $50,000.

Drupal Themes & Modules: A Breakdown

Drupal is fully customizable. Free themes and modules exist to help users tailor the platform to meet their specific needs.

Drupal Themes

For those who want to take a more out-of-the-box approach to their platform development, or simply wish to reduce the need for a lot of design time and resources, there are many Drupal themes to choose from.

Mobile compatibility and responsive design are key needs in the modern digital era, and many free Drupal themes are mobile-first, so they’re designed to always meet the needs and expectations of the mobile user.

With over 2,000 free Drupal themes to choose from, there is truly no dearth of options available.

Drupal Modules

Drupal modules are add-ons to the Drupal core which can extend and modify platform functionality to better meet specific website’s needs.

Modules are created and maintained by members of the Drupal community and are offered for free to Drupal users.

They can do anything from help CMS users manage content to create SEO-friendly URLs and virtually everything in between.

Drupal development companies can help you integrate any of these successfully.

What Type Of Businesses Should Partner With Drupal Agencies?

Drupal is among the most popular content management systems and application frameworks in use today.

It is an open-source CMS, which means it’s free to use, adapt and modify as you wish. From an implementation perspective, it can be used as an out of the box CMS to run simple websites, but further customization requires a high level of technical skill.

The most significant benefit to building on Drupal is the platform’s flexibility and ability to scale. This particular attribute makes Drupal a top choice for more complex sites that require high levels of customization.

The platform can be manipulated to take virtually any form or accomplish any task a company requires. It’s no surprise then that Drupal is the platform of choice for many complex websites in various sectors.

Large content sites like The Economist and Al Jazeera are built on Drupal, as are many government sites (City of London, City of Los Angeles, Bermuda) and higher education sites like Rutgers University and Georgetown.

The downsides of Drupal are mostly centered around issues of cost. Harnessing the full power of Drupal through customization can only be accomplished by experienced Drupal developers.

Such experts are in high demand and can charge high rates for their services. Drupal also rolls out major updates (most recently Drupal 9) every few years, and these can require a significant amount of work to implement, resulting in higher maintenance costs than might be found with other platforms.

As a result, small businesses may not see their money’s worth from a Drupal build if their website needs can be more readily and cost-effectively met by an alternative platform like WordPress or Joomla.

In addition, as a flexible and scalable platform, Drupal can handle eCommerce needs as well.

Drupal Commerce offers full eCommerce functionality through the platform.

Due to a strong focus on content, it promises to marry content creation with product management for a powerful online shopping experience that converts visitors into paying customers.

Drupal agencies have the expertise and experience to set high-performing eCommerce stores that engage the users and drive conversions.

Why Hire A Drupal Developer?

These are the top reasons why you should invest your time and money in a Drupal agency:

Reason #1: Take Advantage Of Their Technical Expertise

Although you don’t necessarily need to be a web development expert to utilize Drupal programs on your website or custom apps, it is worth your while to hire professionals to make the process smooth and simple.

Drupal can be modified and personalized to each design. The CMS is a huge draw for businesses because it can work with many types of content, including social media, videos, polls, interactive graphics and more.

Plus, Drupal offers businesses strong backend content management, enabling them to categorize information, create their own lists and quickly search through existing information.

Counting on the technical expertise of Drupal development companies in the USA will make managing all these features and functionalities easier and smoother.

Reason #2: Keep Your Sensitive Data Safe

According to the FBI, there were 467,361 complaints of suspected internet crime in 2019. In fact, they cost businesses a loss of $3.5 billion.

With cyber attacks being on the rise, brands are at risk to lose their money, clients and reputation. This is why you need to ensure you get a highly secured digital platform to avoid potential issues.

One of the greatest benefits of Drupal is that the system is equipped to protect company and customer information.

In addition, Drupal provides regular updates, announcements and assistance to help users feel confident in the program.

Top Drupal agencies are always on top of these and they know what processes to put in place to keep your data and customers safe.

This is why they are uniquely positioned to prevent your business from being subject to data breaches, public scandals and a loss of trust from consumers.

Reason #3: Get An Outstanding Design

Bad design is the reason why 90% of visitors abandon websites.

While Drupal offers over 2,000 themes that anyone can use to create a site, it takes the experts to deliver a design that stands out and engages the users.

According to Forbes, visitors form their opinions about brands within seven seconds.

First impressions count. And design plays a major role in whether your users will stay or they will bounce and head over to some of your competitors.

This is why investing in professional design matters.

A top Drupal development company will ensure you get a high-performance website that carries many benefits including:

  • Keeping up with design trends
  • Increasing your search engine rankings
  • Building audience trust and driving engagement
  • Decreasing bounce rates

… which ultimately helps you outperform your competition and generate business growth.

We’ve ranked the best eCommerce development companies.
FIND THEM HERE

How To Choose The Best Drupal Development Company For Your Business

Here are a few factors to consider that will help you pick the right Drupal development agency for your business needs:

  • Previous experience: Find out whether the potential agencies have the relevant expertise and experience to execute your project successfully. Looking at their portfolios is a great way to start. Their past work will give you an insight into what projects they have worked on and what type of clients they have served. Once you know this, you can understand how they correlate with your particular needs.
  • Communication: Learn how communicative every Drupal web development company is since consistent interaction matters in ensuring a smooth workflow. Make sure the partner you hire defines the communication channels and assigns a contact member from the very start. That way you will ensure the company keeps you updated continuously in every aspect of the development process.
  • Post-launch maintenance: Every website, no matter whether it is built with WordPress, Shopify or Drupal stands in need of regular updates and maintenance. Trends constantly change and, as businesses grow, their needs grow as well. Having said that, their websites will require making certain changes, whether it is adding content and functionalities, removing zombie pages or fixing bugs. This is why you should hire an agency that wants to invest in a long term partnership. However, be sure to ask about the cost of after launch support in advance to avoid any hidden costs.

15 Questions To Ask Drupal Agencies Before You Hire One

Ask the following questions to determine if a Drupal agency is a right fit for your brand:

  1. Who will work on the project? Are these team members Drupal certified?
  2. What area, features or functions does each expert specialize in?
  3. What previous projects have you worked on? What was the outcome?
  4. Are you and/or your team members involved in the Drupal community? How?
  5. Who are some clients that you have worked with? Would any of them be willing to speak to us about their experience working with you?
  6. How will you create a project timeline? How will you ensure the deadline is met?
  7. Do you have a plan to keep the project on track?
  8. What process do you have in place for testing new features before they go live?
  9. Do you have an in-house quality assurance team?
  10. How do you determine your QA standards? How do you ensure they are met and maintained?
  11. Do you have a team in place to handle API integrations?
  12. What metrics do you use to measure results and how often do you report on them?
  13. How often will we have calls or meetings? Who will our point of contact be?
  14. How much do your services cost?
  15. Which goals, deliverables and results will the contract include?
Looking for the top cybersecurity companies?
FIND THEM HERE

Takeaways On Drupal Development Companies

Drupal development companies in the United States build high-performing websites using the open-source CMS Drupal.

The cost of their services ranges between $50 and $150.

You should hire a professional developer to:

  • Take advantage of their technical expertise
  • Keep your sensitive data safe
  • Get an outstanding design

To choose the best Drupal agency for your business needs, consider the following factors:

  • Previous experience
  • Communication
  • Post-launch maintenance

Bets of luck!

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