Drupal CMS user guide

Drupal CMS is the content platform built on Drupal core. It ships with what most sites need on day one: structured content types, an editorial workflow, media management, SEO and accessibility tooling, and a catalog of add-ons you apply through the browser. This guide is for the people who run the site: editors, marketers, and site owners. It takes you from a blank computer to a live, well-maintained site.

Everything here applies whether Drupal renders the site or a front-end team builds it in Next.js, Astro, or another framework with Canvas Headless: editors work in the same admin UI either way. Developers building the front end start in the developer docs.

Choose how to run Drupal CMS

Try it with the launcherA desktop app that runs Drupal CMS on your computer with no other software. The fastest way to explore; not a base for a production site.

Install it with DDEVA full local development environment. Start here when you are building a site you intend to move to a hosting provider.

Move it to a hosting providerTransfer a finished local site to a host, point a domain at it, and go live.

What this guide covers

Get startedInstall Drupal CMS, walk through the setup assistant, and learn your way around the dashboard and admin navigation.

Manage contentModel your content with types and fields, review changes through the editorial workflow, and keep everything you publish accessible.

Customize your siteAdd features with add-ons and modules, set up forms, email, consent management, and AI tools, and take the site live.

Promote with SEOWork through the SEO checklist, configure meta tags and analytics, and submit your site to search engines.

Keep it up to dateBack up your site and apply updates to Drupal core, modules, and themes.

Drupal CMS builds its site templates and add-ons from recipes, the same packaging mechanism the developer docs teach. When you outgrow the admin UI, everything here has a code-level counterpart.