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We've published an updated product strategy for Drupal CMS. Version 2.0 replaces the original Drupal Starshot strategy from August 2024, and it reflects where we are after nearly two years of building.

The updated strategy largely documents what we're already doing, and why, and makes some important clarifications.

Developers delivering for marketers

The initial strategy framed content creators and marketers as the primary target audience. That made sense as a signal about our ambitions: Drupal already has a reputation for being developer-friendly, so we wanted to emphasize the focus on end users.

In practice, though, it created some confusion. Marketers are the end users of the sites built with Drupal CMS, but they're not the ones installing it, configuring it, or (in most cases) choosing it. That decision usually belongs to agencies and professional developers.

So the updated strategy is clearer: Content creators and marketers remain the target person for the product as end users, and the primary audience for the builder experience is agencies and professional developers. We can only reach marketers if developers can succeed with Drupal.

Rather than representing a change in what we're focused on, this now more accurately captures it.

What's actually changed

The strategic frame has shifted to "making agencies and developers successful faster." The end goal of delivering great experiences for content teams is still central to the strategy, but we are explicit about doing that through agencies and developers.

A few other notable updates:

AI is now framed as infrastructure, rather than a feature. The original strategy positioned AI as one of several ways to win. Version 2.0 is more direct: every workflow in Drupal CMS should be operable by an AI agent. The goal is to be able to ship new AI-enabled workflows in days, not months.

Integrated hosting providers are now explicitly part of the strategy. These platforms are becoming real distribution channels for Drupal CMS, and the strategy names them as a priority. Making Drupal CMS excellent to provision and host is a prerequisite for those partnerships.

Vibe coding platforms are now named as a positioning opportunity. We're not competing with tools like Lovable or Bolt for prototyping. But we are positioning Drupal CMS as where those projects land when they need real content governance, multi-contributor workflows, and long-term maintainability.

The timeline has changed. Version 1.0 set a target of June 2027. Version 2.0 extends that to June 2028, acknowledging that the scope has grown and the strategy is more comprehensive.

What hasn't changed

We're still aiming to expand in the mid-market, with projects with total budgets in the $30,000-$120,000 USD range, and we're still explicitly not competing with entry-level website builders. We are also calling out that we will continue to maintain our leadership in the enterprise market.

And, of course, the differentiators against proprietary CMS solutions are the same: open source, no vendor lock-in, digital sovereignty.

Read the full strategy

The updated strategy is published on Drupal.org.

If you have questions or feedback on the direction, find us in #drupal-cms-development on Drupal Slack.