I recently stood before a room of fellow builders at Drupal Developer Days Athens 2026 and asked a question: "How many of you use Drupal distributions?" Lots of hands shot up across the room. But when I followed up with, "And how many of you are actually happy with them?" the room went quiet, only a couple hands remained in the air. Distributions were our solution for long to make starting easier with Drupal, so this was sad.
It was a moment that perfectly captured why we are evolving our tools to provide easier ways to start, while avoiding locking users in to their starter package and support longevity of Drupal builds better at the same time. We’re moving away from the "molded plastic" distributions that offer quick starts but long-term maintenance heartaches, and moving toward a "Lego kit" philosophy that prioritizes our collective flexibility.
This evolution is leading to a three-layer architecture that allows for faster innovation and much easier upgrades across the board going forward:
- Drupal Core: Our foundational layer. We’ve been "clearing the field" by moving legacy modules to the contributed space, ensuring that core stays a lean, high-performance framework for the most ambitious custom builds.
- Drupal CMS: The community’s elevated starting point. It’s a zero-lock-in platform pre-configured with best practices, tailored to help content editors and site creators get moving without technical debt.
- Site Templates: "Lego kits" you can start with and still build forward from. These are use-case-specific kickstarts (like a ready-to-go nonprofit site) that bundle a distinct look and feel with the freedom to adapt as needs change.
The real magic making this possible are recipes: automated site building steps that set up and evolve your site using existing tools and then step out of the way. They don’t leave behind a trail of dependencies, making the path to the next version of Drupal smoother than ever. This shift ensures that Drupal becomes "easier than ever to start" while remaining "impossible to outgrow."
I’ve just received the recording of my session where I dive into this bright composable future. Please watch the full talk below.