Drupal is dying
Not because it is useless. Because the incentives around it push buyers away.
1) Upgrades that drain budgets
Major version jumps feel like rebuilds. Teams pay senior rates to chase parity, unblock contrib, rewire config, and retest everything. Months pass and the roadmap barely moves. Executives see spend without new value.
2) Maintenance as a business model
Agencies got used to fat retainers. Predictable upgrade cycles funded predictable revenue, then lifestyle inflation followed. Bigger teams. More meetings. Less urgency to simplify. Clients can feel the misalignment. They are paying to stand still.
3) Editors left behind
The editing experience is too often an afterthought. Inconsistent admin UX. Slow forms. Fields everywhere. The people who publish every day quietly disengage, and the platform loses its internal champion.
Put those together and buyers start planning an exit before the next RFP.
This is not a moral judgment. It is a market signal.
A better way to run Drupal
At Rudder, we believe there is a more cost-effective way to manage Drupal. That is why we built Helm. It keeps maintenance lean, focuses on momentum, aligns incentives with outcomes, and puts editors at the center.
Want to spend more on progress and less on overhead?
Learn about Helm and how it can reduce your Drupal total cost of ownership.