Content volume and structure
Migrating 200 pages with a simple structure is a different project from migrating 5,000 pages across a dozen content types with nested taxonomies and years of accumulated inconsistency.
Drupal Pricing
What does Drupal actually cost? Here's the honest answer
Every Drupal conversation eventually gets to price. We'd rather explain exactly what drives it — and get you a real, costed number through a short discovery phase — than hand you a range so wide it's meaningless.
What actually drives the cost
"How much does Drupal cost" doesn't have one answer, because two organisations both asking that question can have wildly different projects hiding behind the same sentence. What actually moves the number is a short list of concrete factors — not the CMS itself.
drupal-pricing-hero.jpgNew build vs. migration
A new build starts from a clean content model. A migration carries the cost — and the risk — of every legacy field, broken reference and undocumented workaround already living in your current site.
Custom integrations
Connecting to single sign-on, a CRM, an ERP or a government service platform is real engineering work, priced by how complex and well-documented that system's API actually is — not a flat add-on line item.
Arabic/RTL and multilingual publishing
Genuine bilingual publishing — mirrored RTL layouts, language-aware URLs and search, independent editorial workflows per language — costs more than a translation plugin because it is genuinely more engineering done properly.
Hosting and compliance requirements
In-Kingdom or in-UAE hosting, PDPL data-flow documentation, and security hardening for regulated sectors add real, necessary scope that a generic brochure-site quote never accounts for.
Editorial governance
The more roles, departments and approval steps your organisation runs, the more workflow configuration a platform needs to match how you actually publish — this is usually the most underestimated cost driver.
Why we don't publish a rate card
Not evasiveness — a deliberate, customer-protective stance.
1
A number without scope is a guess, not a quote
Two organisations both asking for "a Drupal site" can have a five-figure gap between them once content volume, integrations and compliance requirements are accounted for. A rate card would either be wrong for most people, or so padded it's wrong for everyone.
2
Discovery is fixed-price and small, not open-ended
You are not committing to an unbounded engagement to get a real answer. A short, fixed-price discovery phase produces a costed, scoped plan — you know exactly what you're paying before you pay it.
3
You get documentation your procurement team can actually use
The output of discovery is not a sales PDF — it's a scoped plan with the detail a government or enterprise vendor-assessment process expects to see before approval.
4
It protects your budget better than a published range would
A public rate card invites anchoring to the low end and scope creep toward the high end. A scoped plan fixes the number to your actual requirement instead.
The real comparison isn't "pay us or don't"
It's the cost of staying exposed vs. the cost of a scoped, fixed-price migration.
Staying on an unsupported version
- • Drupal 7 reached end-of-life in January 2025; Drupal 9 is no longer supported — newly discovered vulnerabilities are published but never patched on either.
- • That exposure sits directly against what Saudi NCA's Essential Cybersecurity Controls and equivalent UAE frameworks expect regulated organisations to demonstrate.
- • The cost here is not a line item — it's the cost of an incident, an audit finding, or a compliance gap discovered during a vendor assessment.
Migrating on a fixed, scoped plan
- • A responsible migration runs three to six months depending on content volume, custom functionality and integrations — scoped and priced up front through discovery.
- • Content models are audited before migration code is written, migrations are rehearsed, and counts are reconciled, so nothing published disappears in the move.
- • Once complete, you're back on a supported release with no licence fees, since Drupal is open source — the migration cost is a one-time project, not a recurring one.
More on the urgency itself in thehistory of Drupaland why organisations still choose it inwhy enterprises and governments choose Drupal.
Frequently asked questions
Why won't you just give me a number?
Because a number without knowing your content volume, integration requirements and compliance needs would be a guess dressed up as a quote. The honest alternative is a fixed-price discovery phase that produces a real, costed plan — not a range so wide it tells you nothing.
Is the discovery phase itself expensive?
No — it's a small, fixed price specifically because it's meant to be a low-risk first step, not a commitment to the full project. You get a scoped, costed plan out of it whether or not you proceed to the build.
How does a migration compare in cost to a new build?
It depends on what you're carrying forward. A migration can be cheaper than a rebuild if your content model is reasonably clean, or more expensive if your current site has years of undocumented custom fields and workarounds — which is exactly what a content-model audit during discovery is for.
What specifically makes Arabic/RTL support cost more?
Doing it properly, not doing it at all. Mirrored right-to-left layouts, correct Arabic typography, language-aware URLs and search, and independent editorial workflows per language are real engineering scope — a translation plugin bolted onto an English site is cheaper because it does less.
Can you work within a fixed government or enterprise budget ceiling?
Yes — tell us the ceiling during discovery and we'll scope what fits inside it, and be direct about what doesn't. That's a more useful conversation than pricing a full-scope plan and hoping it happens to match your budget.
Does an open-source platform actually save money long-term?
Yes, structurally — there are no per-seat or annual licence fees, and you are never locked into a single vendor for maintenance, since any competent Drupal team can pick up what we build. The cost you're pricing is the project and its ongoing support, not a licence on top of it.
More questions answered in the fullDrupal FAQ.
Ready for a real number instead of a range?
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