Drupal is one of the most powerful and flexible content management systems (CMS) in the world. It's trusted by large enterprises, governments, universities, and media companies to build highly customizable and secure websites. But what truly sets Drupal apart is its modular architecture. With thousands of contributed modules available, you can extend Drupal's core functionality to suit your specific needs.
In this article, we'll walk you through the top 12 most installed Drupal modules, based on their widespread adoption by the Drupal community. These modules are essential tools that can transform your website's functionality, usability, and performance. Whether you're a site owner, developer, or content creator, these modules will help you build smarter and more scalable digital experiences.
1. Views
Installation Count: Used on nearly every Drupal site
Why It’s Essential: The Views module is arguably the backbone of many Drupal websites. It allows you to create, manage, and display lists of content. Whether it’s a blog roll, event listing, or custom admin view, Views lets you display content without writing code.
How It Transforms Your Site: Views gives you full control over how content is presented. You can filter, sort, and format data from any content type, making your site more dynamic and user-friendly.
2. Pathauto
Why It’s Popular: Clean URLs are not just about aesthetics—they play a huge role in SEO. Pathauto automatically generates human-readable URLs based on preconfigured patterns.
Example Use: A blog titled “Top Drupal Modules” can automatically become /blog/top-drupal-modules.
Transformation Impact: Saves time and boosts SEO by avoiding manually setting paths for each piece of content.
3. Token
Why It's Powerful: Token provides dynamic placeholder tokens that can be used in various parts of your site like paths, meta descriptions, and email templates.
Where It's Used: Often works in combination with Pathauto and Metatag to automate content-based settings.
Why You Need It: It allows deeper customization without writing PHP code, making automation across your site much easier.
4. CKEditor
Default in Drupal 8+
What It Does: A rich WYSIWYG editor that simplifies content creation for non-technical users.
How It Helps: You don’t need to know HTML to create beautiful content. With image embedding, bold text, tables, and more, it offers an intuitive editing experience.
Result: Empower editors to create engaging content with ease.
5. Metatag
For SEO Lovers: This module allows you to add structured metadata to your content, like title tags, descriptions, and Open Graph tags.
Major Benefit: Helps your site rank better in search engines and ensures your content looks great when shared on social media.
Why It Matters: SEO is often an afterthought, but with Metatag, it’s baked into your content workflow.
6. Webform
For Interactivity: Webform is one of the most advanced form modules for Drupal. You can create contact forms, registration pages, surveys, and more.
Why It Stands Out: It includes conditional logic, multi-step forms, and integrations with email marketing tools.
Transformation Power: Adds interactive and lead-generation tools to your site without needing a third-party service.
7. Redirect
What It Fixes: Broken links and outdated URLs can hurt both user experience and SEO. Redirect helps you fix this by automatically creating redirects when a URL changes.
Typical Use Case: When you change a blog title and thus its path, Redirect ensures old URLs still work.
Result: Preserves SEO rankings and avoids frustrating “404” errors.
8. Admin Toolbar
UX Upgrade for Admins: This module enhances the default Drupal admin toolbar by making it collapsible and adding dropdown menus for easier navigation.
Why It’s Useful: Admins and content managers save time accessing configuration pages or content listings.
Improved Efficiency: Makes back-end management faster, especially on larger sites with many menu items.
9. Devel
For Developers: Devel is a suite of modules used for debugging, development, and performance testing.
Key Tools: Variable inspection, SQL query logs, and dummy content generation.
Why Developers Love It: Speeds up the development process and provides valuable insights for troubleshooting issues.
10. Paragraphs
Better Content Structuring: Paragraphs gives content editors more control by allowing them to create flexible content components such as text blocks, sliders, images, and more.
Think of It As: Building blocks for creating rich layouts within the same node.
Transformation Factor: Empowers non-technical editors to create engaging, media-rich pages without needing a developer.
11. Google Analytics
Tracking Made Easy: This module integrates Google Analytics into your Drupal site, enabling powerful tracking of user behavior, traffic sources, and conversion goals.
Key Advantage: Easily insert your GA tracking ID and configure it for different content types and roles.
Why It Matters: Data-driven decisions become easier when you can track what content works best.
12. Backup and Migrate
For Peace of Mind: This module lets you easily back up your database and files, and even schedule automated backups.
Use Case: Migrate your site to a different server or restore it in case of failure.
Business Impact: Protects your data, ensures business continuity, and saves time during site maintenance.
Conclusion: Supercharge Your Drupal Site with These Tried-and-Tested Modules
Each of the above Drupal modules serves a distinct purpose—from improving SEO to enhancing user experience and streamlining development. Installing and configuring these tools not only boosts your site’s performance but also minimizes manual effort and helps future-proof your digital platform.
If you're looking to build or upgrade a Drupal website, these 12 modules should be at the top of your checklist. Just remember to test modules in a staging environment before pushing them live, and always ensure compatibility with your version of Drupal.
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