Torchbox Drops A Bombshell On Developers By Ending Drupal Relationship

When a big company like Torchbox decides to make a change, it is often newsworthy. This week, Torchbox dropped the bombshell that it is going to stop working with Drupal. Their relationship with Drupal has lasted for more than 10 years. Dropping Drupal also meant that they would be dropping may of their best clients. Losing those clients means a 60 percent drop in Torchbox's income.
Many analysts would wonder why a company would take such a risky move. Torchbox fully understands the risk that it is undertaking, but it could not continue to work with a CMS that the firm's developers do not believe in or enjoy using. The story begins in 2007, which was the first release of the iPhone. Torchbox replaced their homemade CMS, called RationalMedia, with an open-source option that the global development community could use. That replacement was Drupal.
With Drupal, Torchbox rapidly grew and developed a host of technically complex and well-received sites. By 2011, Drupal was in its seventh version. It functioned like a big CMS gorilla for non-profit clients. Since the, Drupal has quashed the ability of Torchbox developers to be productive. The most recent version of Drupal has not helped their quandary.
Torchbox's developers stopped believing in Drupal because it is slow. The platform is difficult to use and maintain. It costs a lot to keep up a site in Drupal. There are too many modules that do not quite deliver what the developer wants them to do. Fewer than half of the modules are maintained for Drupal 8 compared to Drupal 7, making site maintenance even more of a challenge. Each version of Drupal has made learning it more of a challenge.
The user interface of Drupal is complicated. The entire platform is moving to more of an Enterprise function, making it of questionable value to non-profit organizations. Torchbox plans to use Wagtail as a replacement for Drupal. The firm runs the core development team for Wagtail, which is its own open-source CMS service. Doing this should allow Torchbox to continue to maintain affordable services for non-profits in the UK. For more information click here https://torchbox.com/blog/torchbox-has-dropped-drupal/.