Drupal Turns 25: A Quick Look at 25 Years of Open Source CMS History

On January 15, 2026, Drupal turns 25. What started as an experiment that was first released in January 2001 has grown into one of the most influential open source content management ecosystems on the web. 

We want to give you a quick overview at what Drupal became over the last 25 years and why it matters today. And yes, we are also celebrating the anniversary in Vienna with a Birthday Bash in our Office -> don’t be shy, join us.

From a dorm project to a global community

Drupal’s roots go back to drop.org and Dries Buytaert experimenting with online community features. In January 2001, the software was released as “Drupal”, named after the Dutch word “druppel” (drop) and pronounced “droo-puhl”. 

Over time, Drupal became a large scale open source project supported by a global community and a dedicated nonprofit, the Drupal Association, which was announced in 2006 to help support infrastructure, events, and the project’s public presence. 

25 years of milestones worth knowing

If you have been around Drupal for a while, you know it is never “just a CMS”. It is a framework, a long-running engineering effort and an awesome community. Here are a few milestones that help tell that story.

• January 15, 2001: Drupal 1.0.0 initial release.
• 2006: The Drupal Association is announced as a nonprofit to support the project and its ecosystem.
• January 5, 2011: Drupal 7.0.0 was released, which will become the longest LTS CMS of the world being supported until January 5, 2025 ← 14 years!
• 2012: drupical.com was created to show all Drupal related events on a map overview ← shameless plug :)
• November 19, 2015: Drupal 8.0.0 released, In-Place Editing, Major frontend improvements and Twig as the default template engine, to name a few features.
• Drupal 8 era: Drupal adopts Composer to handle PHP dependencies such as Symfony and Twig, reflecting deeper alignment with the wider PHP ecosystem.
• September 10-14, 2018: DrupalEurope, a DrupalCon Like event, but organized by the community as the Drupal Association need time for restructuring.
• June 3, 2020: Drupal 9.0.0 released.
• December 15, 2022: Drupal 10.0.0 released.
• April 25, 2023: Drupal is approved as a Digital Public Good by the Digital Public Goods Alliance.
• August 2, 2024: Drupal 11.0.0 released.
• January 5, 2025: Drupal 7 reaches end of life (security support ends).
• January 15, 2025: Drupal CMS 1.0 (which is a pre-defined and user-friendly out-of-the-box Drupal solution) was released
• December 4, 2025: Drupal Canvas was released which will help to redefine how Content is created and edited
• January 15, 2025: … We think there will be something happen, beside worldwide celebrations, for a 25th anniversary :)

We will save here the highlights/milestones, which ACOLONO accomplished for Drupal, to a separate blog post, to keep the tension :P But we will write together one in the near future :)

What Drupal became (in plain terms)

A platform for complex, long-lived websites

Drupal is used by millions of people and organizations worldwide and is backed by a very large contributor community. That combination (software plus community) is a big reason Drupal is often chosen when requirements are serious: governance, multilingual, structured content, editorial workflows, integration needs, and long term maintenance.

A modern development ecosystem

Over the years, Drupal’s core architecture evolved to embrace modern PHP practices. A concrete example: Drupal 8 adopted Composer for dependency management, explicitly referencing Symfony and Twig as dependencies.  On the frontend side, Drupal 8 made Twig the default template engine and shipped major responsiveness and markup improvements. 

A community that organizes itself

Drupal’s community is not just a nice story, it is part of how the project works. The Drupal Association exists to support the ecosystem (infrastructure, events, grants, partnerships, and public presence), while development remains community driven.

A foundation for responsible AI in publishing

In recent years, Drupal has also become a practical foundation for AI assisted content workflows. Because Drupal is built around structured content, strong editorial permissions, and flexible APIs, it is well suited for integrating services like text generation, translation, summarization, image analysis, and content quality checks directly into everyday publishing. In plain terms, AI in Drupal is less about flashy demos and more about making real editorial work faster and more consistent backed into the system and not on top, while keeping governance, transparency, and human review in place.
And even if ACOLONO is not an AI Initiative Sponsor, we help with multiple contribution to drive these efforts further: AI Sidekick since 2023, Alttext.ing, Nanobanana Provider and Editor to name a few.

How the community is celebrating Drupal 25

The global community is rallying around Drupal’s 25th birthday on January 15, 2026, with a broader celebration moment and ways for local groups to join in.

Join us in Vienna: Drupal 25th Birthday Party at ACOLONO

To celebrate Drupal turning 25, we are hosting an in person birthday party at the ACOLONO office on January 15, 2026, together with Drupal Austria. Expect snacks, drinks, and a friendly evening to look back at 25 years of Drupal and the people behind it.

If you are part of the Drupal community in Austria (or you are visiting Vienna), come by and celebrate with us.
 

Global Celebration Infos

RSVP Birthday Celebration in Vienna Details

 

And if you are an agency, maybe our Agency Meetup, which is happening before the party, is worth to join too.