Compare / Drupal

Blutui vs Drupal

Drupal’s core is free, but agencies pay for it in hosting, modules, specialist upkeep and forced rebuilds every major version.

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01.

Feature by feature

Blutui and Drupal on what agencies need to run their web work, from white labelling to pricing. Blutui goes further on 10 of the 15 features.

  • Native or included
  • Via plugin, add-on, specific edition or community project
  • Not available
  • Where Blutui goes further
Blutui vs Drupal: features and pricing compared
Feature Blutui 15 of 15 native Drupal 5 of 15 native
Best suited to Blutui Agency Web Ecosystem: microsites, corporate, campaign and complex data-driven sites Large content and public sector sites
Blutui goes further: White-label Agency Web Ecosystem Native or included Via plugin, add-on, specific edition or community project
Headless Native or included Native or included
Blutui goes further: In-page visual editing Native or included Via plugin, add-on, specific edition or community project
Database and collections creation (Collections) Native or included Native or included
Blutui goes further: Forms Native or included Via plugin, add-on, specific edition or community project
Blutui goes further: Managed hosting Native or included Via plugin, add-on, specific edition or community project
Blutui goes further: Infrastructure handled (CDN, scaling, security) Native or included Via plugin, add-on, specific edition or community project
Code-first Native or included Native or included
Blutui goes further: MCP / Agentic workflows (Context) Native or included Via plugin, add-on, specific edition or community project
Safe client editing (Canopy Blocks) Native or included Native or included
Blutui goes further: Multi-campaign management (Cassettes) Native or included Via plugin, add-on, specific edition or community project
Blutui goes further: Single Sign-On (SSO) Native or included Via plugin, add-on, specific edition or community project
Client user seats included Native or included Native or included
Blutui goes further: Command-line interface (CLI) Native or included Via plugin, add-on, specific edition or community project
Blutui goes further: Auto-updates, no plugin upkeep Native or included Via plugin, add-on, specific edition or community project
Pricing Platform cost only, excluding build and agency services US$39 / seat Per month, with unlimited projects. Plus US$199/mo for the Agency Web Ecosystem and project fees from US$29/mo, managed hosting included. Free core Hosting from ~US$55/mo per site. Build and major-version rebuilds extra.

Assessment by Blutui from publicly available vendor information and pricing, October 2026. Features vary by plan and edition; prices are list prices or commonly cited ranges and may change.

02.

Where Drupal is strong

Open source with full code control, a robust permissions model, headless delivery through JSON:API and a large module ecosystem.

03.

Why agencies choose Blutui

  1. No rebuild treadmill

    Drupal 7 reached end of life in January 2025, and moving to Drupal 11 is a rebuild plus content migration, typically three to six months. Drupal 10 itself reaches end of life in December 2026. Blutui updates automatically, with no plugin or module upkeep.

  2. Hosting and infrastructure included

    Drupal needs a separate host, from about US$55 a month per site on Pantheon Basic. Blutui project fees from US$29 a month include managed hosting, CDN and auto-updates.

  3. Native, not assembled

    SSO, forms, MCP and multi-site in Drupal come from contributed modules that the agency must choose, secure and maintain. In Blutui they are part of the platform.

  4. Front-end first

    Drupal work leans on PHP and Drupal specialists. Blutui puts front-end developers and designers at the core of delivery.

04.

Where Blutui goes further

Two of the features an agency gets on Blutui as standard, and how Drupal handles them.

WE Weka
Publish
TS
Overview Branding Cassettes Domains

Overview

W
Weka

weka.blutui.com weka.co.nz

Development Publishing… Published

Domain

weka.co.nz

Connected

Last published

Never Just now

Managed hosting

Blutui
Native or included
Drupal
Via plugin, add-on or edition

Every project is hosted and published from the platform, with domains, SSL and the CDN handled. Project fees from US$29 a month include it, so there is no separate host to choose for each client.

Drupal needs a separate host, from about US$55 a month per site on Pantheon Basic.

See how it works
KEKererū
Search⌘KRC

Project enquiry

CancelSave
FieldsSettings
Name

name

Text
Email

email

Email
Phone

phone

Phone
Add field

Forms

Blutui
Native or included
Drupal
Via plugin, add-on or edition

Forms are part of the platform: build the fields, store the submissions, catch the spam and route the email, with no module to choose, secure and keep up to date.

On Drupal, forms come from contributed modules the agency must choose, secure and maintain.

See how it works

05.

From microsite to data-driven website

Drupal can run large content platforms and applications, but even a quick microsite carries the same hosting, module and maintenance overhead as a full build. Blutui makes the microsite fast and data-driven websites manageable.

In one line

Drupal is free to download and expensive to own; Blutui turns those hours back into client value.

Sources and notes

The three-to-six-month migration estimate is a range commonly cited by agencies and competing vendors, not a Drupal figure.

Dream it.
Design it.
Build it.

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