The Case for Drupal & No-Code

Around 2009, I was in my early twenties, living in Budapest. The popularity of ruin bars and the local Drupal user group was on the rise. The two scenes would often merge after our monthly meetup events. I vividly remember the stars of those meetups; the people who did the most popular and engaging presentations, getting the most questions, and the biggest nods. Recalling what we saw on the projector screens during those evenings, I mostly think of Garland — the default theme of Drupal 6. I don’t recall a code editor or a terminal window.

No-code elevated people and ideas

Drupal by its nature was no-code well before the term, no-code, got popular. Installing a range of modules meant people could build solutions without writing a single line of code. This opened doors for everyone with various skills and interests:

• Folks with a focus on frontend were able to create business logic without the need of writing backend code. This allowed them to hone in on their CSS and often even design skills.
• Backend-oriented people had the space to work on truly unique features and use-cases instead of spending time with implementing common functionality. For many this created possibilities to develop expertise in niche areas.
• People who were early in their career were exposed to end-to-end solutions, which allowed them to develop their interest, while being able to ship value from the early days.
• Generalists were able to do a little bit of everything, providing value for customers, managing smaller projects while being involved in building the websites to a various degree. Many of them ended up starting their own agency.

No-code in the early Drupal days created a lot of wins for a diverse group of people.

Drupal 8 for the enterprise

When Drupal showed up on the radar of organizations with enterprise requirements, access to a growing pool of global talent — which the no-code approach arguably helped building — checked an important box.

Some boxes, however, remained unchecked on the list of enterprise requirements. Being invited to enterprise deals meant bigger business and professional opportunities to everyone involved in the Drupal ecosystem, so it made sense to go after those missed spots. Drupal 8 succeeded in doing just that back in 2015. The result was a CMS with great positioning in the enterprise market.

Drupal and no-code today

What happened to those doors that Drupal's no-code approach opened to many people prior to Drupal 8? They became much less accessible. The complexity of running a Drupal 8+ site, e.g. installing modules with a package manager instead of downloading and extracting a tarball, created a gatekeeping effect. But the doors are still there. The same no-code approach that made Drupal popular in the early days is still in the heart of the CMS. So how can we remove the gates and create even more doors?

The Project Browser and Automatic Updates initiatives are presenting the most crucial steps by allowing users to manage modules from their browser. Building on top of these and other initiatives, Drupal Starshot, a new milestone in the entire Drupal project, is building an even bigger momentum around not just no-code, but a more refined default Drupal experience. Starshot aims to deliver results by the end of 2024. It's an exciting time to be in Drupal! (I'm also thrilled and grateful that Acquia hired me to work almost full-time on Experience Builder, one of Starshot's key initiatives.)

Drupal and hosting

The innovations Drupal Starshot and its initiatives are bringing will unlock new possibilities for site builders. That is, if there is already a Drupal website running somewhere.

Starshot has a track named Drupal at the Edge, led by my friend, Matt Glaman. His solution allows people to launch a Drupal site in their browser using WebAssembly. The main goal of this initiative is to offer a trial experience. You ultimately need a hosting provider and run your website on a server.

Other Starshot tracks can only address the application layer, i.e. when things are already running on a hosting platform. As Drupal moved towards enterprise in the past, so did the excellent hosting companies in the Drupal space. To get a website up and running, it usually involves managing a code repository, using Composer for dependencies, setting up SSH keys, configuring the hosting service via the hosting provider's own config file format, and more. There is still a barrier of entry when it comes to hosting.

In my opinion, a no-code friendly, affordable hosting provider is the final missing piece to an all‑around Drupal no-code experience. To solve that, I'm excited to announce Cosmic Build: a no-code, no-terminal, managed hosting for Drupal and Drupal Starshot.

We are launching our waiting list for our private beta today, and hope that many of you will join our journey at this early stage. We would love to hear what you are planning to build on Cosmic Build, and how we can maximize your experience.