--- title: "Drupal development" description: "Content management for ambitious enterprises." url: https://www.pivale.co/services/drupal/ publisher: Pivale (https://www.pivale.co) --- # Drupal development Your CMS should let your editors publish, satisfy your IT and cyber security teams and cost nothing in licences. Our Drupal agency has designed, built, migrated and supported Drupal platforms for more than 18 years. | | | |---|---| | Experience | 18+ years with Drupal | | What we do | Drupal builds, upgrades, migrations and support | | Standards | GDPR-safe and WCAG 2.1 AA | | Licence fees | None, because Drupal is open source | ## The problem: A CMS that holds you back. Your editors wait on developers for simple changes. Your IT and cyber security teams worry about what’s unpatched. Finance pays licence fees for features you don’t use. - **Publishing bottlenecks:** Simple updates need a developer. - **Security as an afterthought:** Patches and permissions wait until someone remembers. - **Licence creep:** Per-seat and per-site fees grow with you. - **Stuck on old versions:** Upgrades feel so risky that they keep slipping. ## How we help: Tested before it ships. Consultancy, design and engineering sit in one team. Automated tests and continuous deployment check each release before it reaches you. 1. **Consult:** Plan the architecture, content model and integrations up front. 2. **Design:** Give your editors a component-based design system to build pages with. 3. **Engineer:** Ship tested, reviewed code through continuous integration and deployment. 4. **Evolve:** Keep upgrades, security patches and new features on a predictable cadence. ## What changes: Marketing, IT, security and finance all win. - **18+** years designing and building on Drupal, since 2008 - **0** software licence fees, and no lock-in - **100** Lighthouse scores for accessibility and SEO on every page of Adelco’s Drupal site ## Why Drupal: A CMS with the range to grow. Drupal is a content management system and a development framework in one. It has been in active development since 2001, backed by a community of more than a million developers, designers and specialists, and governments, universities and global brands run their websites on it. We try other CMSs as part of our research and keep choosing Drupal. - **Open source:** A GPL-licensed core and modules, so you pay no licence fees and own your platform. - **Modular:** Reuse functionality across sites and change it as your needs change. - **Multisite:** Run several brands or markets from one secure platform. - **Multilingual:** Translate and localise content for each market you serve. - **A framework as well as a CMS:** Custom content types, workflows, APIs and integrations are built on Drupal itself, so complex requirements don’t need a second system. - **Accessible:** Sites built to WCAG 2.1 AA, so more people can use them and you avoid legal headaches. ## For your teams: Editors in control. Your marketing and comms teams update pages, launch campaigns and test ideas without waiting for a developer, while your IT and cyber security teams keep the governance they need. - **Components and templates:** Editors build pages from a design system, so your brand stays consistent across teams and markets. - **Roles and workflows:** User roles, approval workflows and audit logs keep publishing compliant. - **Connected:** Drupal links to your CRM, marketing automation and analytics, so your teams work from the same customer data. - **Your own design:** A bespoke theme and functionality, so your site doesn’t look or behave like anyone else’s. ## Security: Security your cyber team can sign off. Drupal has a dedicated Security Team who investigate reported vulnerabilities, work with maintainers on fixes and publish coordinated security advisories, so you hear about a problem with the fix ready. We apply those fixes to your platform on a set schedule. - **The Drupal Security Team:** Security specialists who review reported issues in Drupal core and contributed modules and coordinate their release. - **Security advisories:** Fixes are announced in public advisories with a risk score, so your security team can see what changed and why. - **Covered modules:** Contributed modules with a stable release can opt into the Security Team’s coverage. We favour covered modules and review any custom code ourselves. - **Fine-grained access:** Roles and permissions control who can see, edit and publish each part of the site, with two-factor authentication for editors. - **Patched on a schedule:** Our support team applies security updates weekly or fortnightly, checked against each new advisory. - **Hardened hosting:** Read-only deployments on Upsun’s certified cloud, with Cloudflare blocking attacks before they reach your site. [Secure hosting](https://www.pivale.co/services/hosting) ## Drupal migration: Off old Drupal, with nothing lost. Drupal 7 lost community support in January 2025, and Drupal 8 and 9 before it. If your site still runs on one of them, you get no security fixes. We audit what you have, then move your content, users and integrations to a supported Drupal release. - **Audit first:** A website systems audit finds your Drupal version, custom code, modules and integrations, and what each needs before the move. - **Upgrade or rebuild:** A Drupal 8 or 9 site can often be upgraded in place to Drupal 10 or 11. A Drupal 7 site is rebuilt, keeping your content and dropping what you no longer use. - **Content and data migration:** Pages, media, users and records move across in scripted migrations that can be tested and run again before launch day. - **From other platforms:** Moving from WordPress or another CMS? Your content comes across the same way. - **Kept current:** After the move, a support plan keeps core and modules patched, so you don’t face the same cliff again. [Website systems audit](https://www.pivale.co/services/audits#website-systems-audit) ## Why Pivale: The Drupal agency that stays. You work with Drupal developers who have built on Drupal since 2008, from the first workshop to years of support after launch. The team who builds your platform is the team who looks after it. - **18+ years of Drupal:** Multisites, commerce, portals and integrations, built and kept current through each new major version of Drupal. - **In-house Drupal developers:** UK-based employees, with consultancy, design and engineering in one team. - **Upsun Gold Partners:** Your Drupal platform runs on enterprise hosting we know inside out. - **Drupal support that answers:** Your calls go straight to a developer who knows your site, and you can leave with three months’ notice. [Drupal support](https://www.pivale.co/services/support) ## Proof Virtus Health: Twelve sites, one family The problem: Fertility clinic websites in Europe, Australia and Singapore, each built and hosted its own way. The solution: One Drupal multisite platform with a shared pattern library, so each clinic keeps their own brand. The outcome: 12 consistent websites, the first seven built for half the cost of building them separately. Read the case study: https://www.pivale.co/work/virtus-health Virtus Specialist Day Hospitals: A clean bill of health The problem: Six separate day hospital websites, so every change and security update was made six times. The solution: One Drupal website on a new domain, with a reusable design system, hosted on Upsun behind Cloudflare. The outcome: One platform to manage, with new hospitals added without duplicating effort. Read the case study: https://www.pivale.co/work/virtus-specialist-day-hospitals Argus: Fertile ground for trade The problem: Argus wanted companies in the African fertiliser industry to find each other and trade. The solution: A Drupal directory where organisations manage their own profiles and Argus admins approve new entries. The outcome: Content in place from day one, kept up to date by its members. Read the case study: https://www.pivale.co/work/argus Royal Collection Trust: The royal treatment The problem: The Trust needed to present a vast collection, with clearer navigation and more control for their editors. The solution: A custom Drupal site with a filterable collection, role-based editing and on-brand landing page templates. The outcome: Praised at launch for its design, user experience and speed, with more than 300,000 collection items to browse and filter. Read the case study: https://www.pivale.co/work/royal-collection-trust Drainfast: Orders that flow to the ERP The problem: Drainfast wanted to grow online and win new, larger trade accounts, with ordering that worked from their own customised ERP. The solution: A Drupal Commerce store built around the ERP, with live stock, customer pricing and trade ordering tools. The outcome: 1,000+ new trade customers and 3,000+ new customers in total, with more profit and a bigger market share. Read the case study: https://www.pivale.co/work/drainfast > We’ve been collaborating with Pivale for several years on a global digital transformation project involving multiple brands. They tackle problems enthusiastically, making potentially daunting tasks feel like a breeze. — Kristian Johnson, Digital Marketing Manager ## Related - [Multisite management](https://www.pivale.co/solutions/multisite): Many brands, regions and sites on one platform. - [Ecommerce](https://www.pivale.co/solutions/ecommerce): B2B and B2C commerce built around your business. - [Digital transformation](https://www.pivale.co/solutions/digital-transformation): From scattered systems to one clear operating model. - [Portals & intranets](https://www.pivale.co/solutions/portals-intranets): Custom systems that support daily operations. - [Integrations](https://www.pivale.co/services/integrations): CRM, ERP and DAM connections you can trust. - [Audits & discovery](https://www.pivale.co/services/audits): Customer experience and website systems audits. - [Secure hosting](https://www.pivale.co/services/hosting): Upsun’s certified cloud, behind Cloudflare. - [Support & security](https://www.pivale.co/services/support): Responsive support that grows with you. Planning a Drupal build, upgrade or migration? Let’s talk it through. --- Source: https://www.pivale.co/services/drupal/. Pivale is a UK digital consultancy. Book a 30-minute call at https://www.pivale.co/contact/ or email hello@pivale.co.