57 Expert-Picked Modules Powering the All-New Drupal CMS

Drupal CMS is a ready-to-use platform built on Drupal 11 core, designed to provide marketing teams, content creators, and site builders with a seamless, feature-rich experience. Unlike traditional Drupal, which serves as a highly flexible framework requiring manual setup and extensive configuration, Drupal CMS delivers a pre-configured solution that includes tools for media management, SEO, AI-powered site-building, analytics, search, consent management, and automatic updates.

A key strength of Drupal CMS lies in its contributed modules, which extend the platform’s capabilities to address specific use cases. These modules provide enhanced content structuring, streamlined editing workflows, and automated processes that improve efficiency. They also contribute to better SEO and performance optimization, ensuring higher search engine visibility and improved site speed. Security-focused modules protect against spam, unauthorized access, and vulnerabilities, while e-commerce modules enable seamless integration with payment gateways, product management tools, and checkout enhancements. The growing adoption of AI-powered modules further enhances content generation, accessibility, and user engagement. Additionally, site-building modules simplify administration, navigation, and the overall user experience.

Compiled by The DropTimes, this listicle highlights 57 essential contributed modules, organized by their respective Drupal CMS recipes—predefined module sets tailored to specific functionality. These modules play a crucial role in building enterprise websites, e-commerce platforms, digital experiences, and community-driven sites, providing developers, site owners, and content managers with powerful tools to enhance their projects.

Even for those who are not currently using Drupal CMS, the information in this list remains valuable. Many of these modules introduce industry-standard best practices and cutting-edge solutions that can benefit any web project, regardless of the content management system in use. By understanding these modules and their impact, site builders and developers can make more informed decisions, optimizing their workflows and improving the overall efficiency of their digital platforms.

The modules are listed as per their Star rating. This rating allows users to rate content on a website using a star-based system, essentially providing a visual way for users to give feedback on the quality of a piece of content by selecting stars on a scale. 

Contributed Modules in Drupal CMS

Webform

The Webform module for Drupal allows users to create a wide range of forms to collect data from site visitors, ranging from simple contact forms to complex multi-page forms with conditional logic. It offers extensive customization options for form behavior and input elements, and supports integration with external applications like CRM systems. The module includes features such as email notifications, data export/import, SPAM protection, and more, making it a powerful tool for building and managing forms on Drupal sites.

Gin Admin Theme

Gin is a Drupal admin theme that offers a modern UI refresh, including a dark mode and a redesigned layout. It enhances the administrative experience, providing a sleek interface and additional features beyond the default Drupal themes. Gin is also suitable for headless Drupal setups, offering a styled login screen. Installing the companion Gin Toolbar module is recommended for full functionality.

Pathauto

The Pathauto module automatically generates URL/path aliases for different types of content such as nodes, taxonomy terms, and users, eliminating the need for manual path alias specification. It uses a pattern system with customizable tokens to create user-friendly and SEO-friendly URLs like '/category/my-node-title' instead of '/node/123'.

Field Group

The Field Group module allows users to organize fields into various group types such as fieldsets, tabs, details, accordions, and HTML elements. It enhances the management of fieldable entities by providing default HTML wrappers and supports customization for better content presentation.

Metatag

The Metatag module enables automatic generation of structured metadata, or meta tags, for a website, enhancing search engine optimization and social media sharing. It supports a wide range of meta tags, including Open Graph and Twitter Cards, and allows for global, per entity, and individual overrides, with multi-lingual and revision support.

ECA: Event - Condition - Action

ECA is a no-code rules engine for Drupal that allows users to create conditionally triggered actions based on Drupal events. It integrates with BPMN.iO for a graphical interface, enabling users to design event-condition-action models easily. ECA supports plugins for events, conditions, and actions, which can be extended by other modules, and it stores models in configuration for easy import and export. This module is designed to enhance the automation and orchestration of Drupal sites without requiring coding expertise.

Search API

The Search API module provides a flexible framework for creating searches on any Drupal entity using various search engines. It supports facetting, integrates with the Views module for displaying search results, and offers high-performance search capabilities through Apache Solr integration. The module is highly extensible, allowing developers to customize and enhance search functionalities with additional contrib modules.

Token

The Token module provides placeholder variables and an interface for browsing available tokens in Drupal. It allows for the replacement of contextual values in records, such as node titles or user names, enhancing content personalization and dynamic content display.

Linkit

Linkit provides an autocomplete interface for internal and external linking in rich-text editors, supporting nodes, users, taxonomy terms, files, comments, and other entities with canonical link templates. It offers configurable autocomplete on link fields, metadata configuration, IMCE integration, and customizable matchers and attributes, making it a versatile tool for enhancing link management in Drupal.

Smart Date

The Smart Date module enhances Drupal's date functionality by offering an intuitive admin interface for time range and event data entry, similar to calendar applications. It supports features like all-day and zero-duration events, recurring dates, and timezone specification, while optimizing performance by storing dates as timestamps. Additionally, it provides sophisticated formatting options and integrates seamlessly with Views and various admin themes, making it a versatile choice for managing date fields in Drupal.

Redirect

The Redirect module for Drupal enables users to create manual redirects and maintain a canonical URL for all content, ensuring that all other requests are redirected to this path. It offers features such as a common API for managing redirects, case-insensitive matching, a redirect counter, and integration with Drupal's page cache for optimized performance. Additionally, it supports Views API integration and provides tools for handling 404 errors and domain-specific redirects.

Better Exposed Filters  

The Better Exposed Filters module enhances the user experience in Drupal Views by replacing default single or multi-select boxes with more intuitive radio buttons or checkboxes. It allows for the addition of description fields and Select All/None links, providing greater control over exposed filters and making advanced search functionalities more user-friendly.  

Scheduler  

Scheduler is a versatile Drupal module that enables editors to schedule the publishing and unpublishing of content, media, commerce products, and taxonomy terms at specified future dates and times. The module supports a wide range of Drupal versions and integrates with other modules like Content Moderation and Workbench Moderation, offering a comprehensive solution for managing scheduled content changes.  

Focal Point  

Focal Point is a Drupal module that allows users to specify the most important part of an image, ensuring that this focal area is preserved during cropping or scaling. By using a crosshair tool, content editors can easily set the focal point on images, preventing important elements from being cut off. The module includes image effects that maintain the focal point at the center of cropped images, providing flexibility and precision in image presentation.  

Honeypot  

The Honeypot module for Drupal employs honeypot and timestamp techniques to effectively deter spam bots from submitting forms on your site. It offers a less intrusive alternative to CAPTCHAs, allowing you to protect all forms or specific ones like user registration, contact, and comment forms. Configuration is straightforward, and the module can be customized to fit your specific needs through its API.  

Coffee  

Coffee is a powerful Drupal module designed to enhance admin navigation efficiency by allowing users to access any admin page with just a few keystrokes. Inspired by Mac’s Alfred and Spotlight, it offers seamless keyboard navigation, enabling quick content creation and management without the need for extensive menu navigation. With customizable commands and support for Drupal 7, Coffee significantly boosts productivity for both site administrators and developers.  

Real-time SEO for Drupal  

The Real-time SEO for Drupal module enhances your site's SEO by optimizing content around keywords in a natural and non-spammy way. It integrates with the Metatag module to ensure your posts are adequately detailed, checking for elements like meta descriptions, focus keywords, and subheadings. This real-time analysis helps improve both search engine rankings and user readability.  

Simple XML Sitemap  

The Simple XML Sitemap module generates multilingual XML sitemaps that comply with SEO standards, including hreflang and image sitemaps, to enhance website visibility. It supports various Drupal content entity types and allows for custom sitemap creation and submission to search engines, utilizing protocols like IndexNow for instant content indexation.  

Svg Image  

The Svg Image module modifies the default image field widget and formatter to support SVG images within the standard Image field, eliminating the need for a separate field type. It allows users to specify image dimensions in formatter settings, choose between rendering images as `<img>` or `<svg>` tags, and supports responsive images through an additional submodule.  

Automatic Updates  

The Automatic Updates module simplifies the process of keeping Drupal core up to date by applying patch-level updates in a sandboxed environment, detecting issues during the update process, and providing an API for error detection and custom triggers. It requires Composer-managed sites and supports updating Drupal core within the same minor version, while also offering an experimental feature for updating contributed modules and themes.  

Easy Breadcrumb  

The Easy Breadcrumb module enhances the core Breadcrumb block by incorporating the current page title into the breadcrumbs, using the URL and page title to construct them. It offers a range of customization options, such as including or excluding the current page title, adding JsonLD metadata, and managing breadcrumb segments, to provide a flexible and user-friendly breadcrumb navigation experience.  

AI (Artificial Intelligence)  

The Drupal AI module offers a comprehensive framework for integrating Artificial Intelligence into Drupal sites, supporting various AI models from multiple vendors. It provides foundational tools and an API for generating text, images, and conducting content analysis, with a focus on flexibility and ease of use for site-builders, developers, and administrators. The module includes several submodules like AI Core, AI Explorer, and AI Automators, enabling users to build powerful AI applications with minimal coding. It supports integrations with major AI providers such as OpenAI, Anthropic, and Huggingface, and allows for the use of open-source models on self-hosted servers.  

Address  

The Address module for Drupal provides comprehensive functionality for storing, validating, and displaying international postal addresses. It includes address, country, and zone field types and form elements, supporting address formats for 200 countries and subdivisions for 60 countries. The module also offers translations for country lists in over 200 locales and supports complex territorial groupings for shipping or tax purposes. It adheres to the OASIS eXtensible Address Language (xAL) standard for property names.  

Leaflet  

The Leaflet module provides advanced integration with the Leaflet JS mapping library, enabling Drupal sites to create mobile-friendly interactive maps. It offers a user-friendly API for map customization, supports multiple map layers and overlays, and integrates with various plugins for enhanced features like marker clustering and gesture handling. The module also includes tools for geocoding, dynamic styling, and supports multiple maps on a single page, making it a versatile choice for geospatial data visualization in Drupal.  

CAPTCHA  

The CAPTCHA module for Drupal adds challenge-response tests to user-facing forms to prevent spambot submissions. It supports various CAPTCHA types through additional modules, ensuring robust protection for web forms against automated spam.  

Geofield  

Geofield is a Drupal module that provides a geo-location field for storing and managing geographic data, allowing for the integration of maps, geocoding, and location-based functionalities. It supports various geo-types such as points, lines, and polygons, and integrates with JavaScript mapping libraries like Google Maps and Leaflet. The module offers multiple data input methods, including latitude and longitude, Well Known Text, and bounding box, and supports geocoding from other fields. Geofield is compatible with advanced mapping solutions and geocoding modules, making it a versatile tool for geographic data management in Drupal.  

Editoria11y Accessibility Checker  

Editoria11y is an automatic accessibility checker designed to help content editors identify and fix accessibility issues directly within the editing interface, without needing to navigate to a separate dashboard. It focuses on checking rendered content for issues that appear after page assembly and provides alerts and tooltips to guide authors in resolving content-specific accessibility problems. The module is intended to complement more comprehensive accessibility testing tools by focusing on issues that content editors can address.  

Search API Autocomplete  

The Search API Autocomplete module enhances the Search API by providing autocomplete functionality for searches. It allows for detailed configuration on a per-search basis, enabling control over where and for whom autocompletion is available. This feature is dependent on server backends that support autocompletion.  

SEO Checklist  

The Drupal SEO Checklist module helps streamline search engine optimization by providing a comprehensive to-do list of tasks and modules tailored for Drupal sites. It organizes tasks into categories like Title Tags and Content, offering direct links for module downloads and configuration. The module also tracks completed tasks with timestamps, making it easy to manage and share progress.  

Google Tag  

The Google Tag module integrates your Drupal site with Google Tag Manager, allowing you to manage analytics and measurement tags through a web-based interface without needing administrative access to your site. It supports multiple containers and various conditions for tag insertion, such as user role and domain, and is compatible with both 7.x and 8.x Drupal branches. Users should be aware of specific configuration requirements and potential issues with Google Search Console verification.  

Autosave Form  

The Autosave Form module for Drupal provides an autosave feature for all forms, including entity forms, ensuring that users do not lose their input during editing. It allows configuration of autosave intervals and supports content entity forms by default, with plans to extend support to regular forms. The module alerts users about existing autosaved states and offers options to resume or discard them. It uses its own storage system for autosave states, avoiding the use of revisions for efficiency.  

Menu Link Attributes  

The Menu Link Attributes module allows users to add custom attributes to menu links and their wrapping list elements in Drupal. This functionality enables enhanced customization and styling of menu items by setting attributes directly through the Drupal admin interface.  

Mail System  

The Mail System module provides an administrative interface and developer API for managing mail backends and plugins in Drupal. It allows users to configure different backends for formatting and sending emails by default, per module, and per mail key, with an option to apply themes to sent mails. The module supports both Drupal 7 and 8, offering a reliable solution for rendering any email template during the building and sending process.  

Project Browser  

The Project Browser module allows Drupal site builders to easily find and install modules directly from within their site, eliminating the need to navigate away. It features a user-friendly interface with enhanced filtering capabilities and real-time queries to the Drupal.org API, ensuring up-to-date content. This module is particularly beneficial for new Drupal users and site builders, providing composer commands for developers as well. It integrates seamlessly into the admin interface, offering a 'browse' tab for exploring and adding new functionalities to your site.  

Selective Better Exposed Filters  

Selective Better Exposed Filters enhances the Better Exposed Filters module by adding an option to display only the terms that are actively used in filters. This functionality is particularly useful for entity reference fields indexed by Search API, allowing for more streamlined and relevant filtering options.  

Easy Email  

Easy Email is a Drupal module that simplifies HTML email templating with minimal configuration. It offers features like template creation through a user-friendly interface, token replacement, email preview, and an override system for Drupal core emails. The module supports dynamic attachments, email logging, and integrates with the ECA module for triggering emails, making it a comprehensive solution for managing HTML emails in Drupal.  

Geocoder  

The Geocoder module for Drupal acts as a wrapper for the Geocoder PHP library, enabling the conversion of text addresses and WKT geometries into geographic data formats like Geofield. It supports geocoding and reverse geocoding, allowing integration with various geolocation services and formats, and provides an API for handling geographic information, including complex geographies such as lines and polygons.  

RobotsTxt  

The RobotsTxt module is designed for multisite Drupal installations, allowing each site to have its own unique robots.txt file. It dynamically generates and enables editing of the robots.txt file through the web UI, providing flexibility for site-specific configurations.  

Trash  

The Trash module introduces a trash bin feature for all content entities in Drupal. It allows entities to be moved to the trash instead of being permanently deleted, enabling users to restore or permanently delete them at a later time.  

BPMN.iO  

BPMN.iO is a BPMN modeller fully integrated into Drupal's admin UI, allowing users to build, view, and maintain BPMN models directly within their Drupal site. It dynamically adapts to the available events, conditions, and actions on the current Drupal site, requiring no configuration. The module converts BPMN models into ECA config entities, activating the defined rules immediately.  

Simple Add More  

The Simple Add More module enhances the user experience for editors by simplifying multi-value widgets with fixed cardinality in Drupal forms. It hides unnecessary empty elements and provides a client-side 'Add another item' button to reveal one new empty element at a time, eliminating the need for server or AJAX calls.  

Sitemap  

The Sitemap module provides a way for visitors to navigate a website using an overview of notable pages by displaying human-readable lists of links. It is particularly useful for sites with a large amount of lightly-organized content, such as universities or government organizations. The module includes features like a configurable sitemap page path, title, and description, and an extensible plugin API for displaying links based on Drupal entities.  

Token OR  

The Token OR module enhances the functionality of the Token module by allowing the use of 'OR' logic within a single token, returning the first non-empty token or string. It requires the Token module and, from version 2.2.0, includes support for Webform through a submodule.  

Login Email or Username  

The Login Email or Username module for Drupal simplifies the login process by allowing users to log in using either their username or email address in the same input field on the standard login form. It requires only core dependencies and does not offer any configuration options, making it easy to install and use.  

Drupal Symfony Mailer Lite  

Drupal Symfony Mailer Lite integrates with the Symfony Mailer library to send HTML-formatted emails and attachments from Drupal. It serves as a direct replacement for the deprecated Swiftmailer module, allowing users to configure it as the default email formatter and sender. The module requires the Mail System module and provides a straightforward upgrade path for those transitioning from Swiftmailer.  

Scheduler Content Moderation Integration  

The Scheduler Content Moderation Integration module is a submodule designed to enhance the Scheduler module by integrating it with Drupal's core content moderation system. This integration allows for scheduled publishing and unpublishing of content while respecting the workflows and states defined in the content moderation settings.  

Klaro Cookie & Consent Management  

The Klaro Cookie & Consent Management module for Drupal integrates the Klaro! consent manager JS-Library, providing a comprehensive solution for managing external sources and cookies. It allows site administrators to configure and customize consent management, manage services and purposes, and ensure compliance with data protection regulations like GDPR. The module also offers features such as customizable and translatable consent texts, automatic setting of required HTML attributes, and the ability to block unconfigured external resources by default.  

Add to Calendar Date Augmenter  

The Add to Calendar Date Augmenter module enables users to add events to their calendars without relying on external dependencies or libraries. It utilizes the Date Augmenter API to integrate add-to-calendar links with other formatters, allowing for enhanced flexibility and functionality. This module is compatible with the Smart Date module, supporting recurring dates and enabling users to add entire recurring series to their calendars.  

Add Content by Bundle Views Area Plugin  

The Add Content by Bundle Views Area Plugin module enhances the core 'Empty Node Frontpage behavior' by allowing site builders to add direct links to content forms for specific content types in views. It simplifies site maintenance by providing intuitive editorial links and integrates with Form Mode Control for linking to specific form modes. The module currently supports nodes and offers options to open forms in different ways, such as in a settings tray or modal dialog.  

AI Agents  

The AI Agents module provides a framework for creating various types of agents in Drupal, including text-to-action agents that can modify Drupal configurations or content based on textual or multimodal instructions. It utilizes the Drupal Plugin API to allow developers to create custom agents and includes built-in agents for managing fields, content types, and taxonomies. The module integrates with the AI module's Chatbot and AI Assistants API to enhance its functionality, although it does not include a user interface for direct interaction.  

Dashboard  

The Dashboard module provides a centralized interface for users to access key information and essential tools after logging into a Drupal system. It enhances user experience by offering a customizable overview of relevant website or application aspects, including widgets or blocks for data like traffic statistics and content summaries. Users can define multiple dashboards with adjustable layouts and manage access through permissions, catering to different roles and preferences.  

Search API Exclude  

The Search API Exclude module allows users to exclude specific nodes from being indexed by the Search API in Drupal. It provides configuration options for each node type, enabling administrators to choose which nodes should not appear in search results, enhancing control over search visibility.  

AI Image Alt Text  

The AI Image Alt Text module generates alt texts for images using AI vision models, enhancing website accessibility and SEO. It integrates with image widgets, allowing users to manually generate and verify alt texts before saving, and supports multilingual alt text generation based on the entity's language.  

CAPTCHA: Friendly Captcha  

The CAPTCHA: Friendly Captcha module integrates Friendly Captcha with the Drupal CAPTCHA module, enhancing website security by providing a user-friendly challenge mechanism. It requires the FriendlyCaptcha/friendly-challenge JavaScript library and a Friendly Captcha account to function effectively.  

Simple Search Form  

The Simple Search Form module provides a streamlined form with a text input and submit button that redirects users immediately to a page with a GET parameter, bypassing the typical two-step form submission process in Drupal. It is integrated with the Search API Autocomplete module, allowing for enhanced search functionality without the need for a form submission on the Drupal side.  

OpenAI Provider  

The OpenAI Provider module integrates OpenAI's advanced AI models, such as GPT-4, DALL-E, and Whisper, into Drupal, enabling seamless text generation, image creation, and speech-to-text capabilities. It requires setting up an API key and linking it to your OpenAI credentials, allowing users to fully utilize OpenAI's cutting-edge features within the Drupal environment.  

Anthropic Provider  

The Anthropic Provider module integrates Anthropic's Claude series of AI models with Drupal, offering advanced capabilities in text generation, conversation, and content processing. By leveraging these models, users can enhance their Drupal applications with high-performance AI features that prioritize ethical practices. The module requires configuration of an API key and is compatible with the Drupal AI module family.  

Dependent Modules:  

Dependent modules serve as essential backend frameworks or libraries that enable other contributed modules to function but offer little to no standalone utility. They provide foundational tools, APIs, or integrations that extend the capabilities of Drupal CMS, ensuring seamless compatibility between modules. While these dependencies do not add direct features for end users, they are critical for site functionality, making them a necessary part of the Drupal ecosystem.

• Chaos Tool Suite (ctools): A set of APIs and tools that enable features like AJAX handling, object caching, and plugin management.  
• Key: Manages API keys and encryption keys securely, ensuring compliance with best security practices.  
• Crop API: Provides image cropping functionality but requires a UI module like Image Widget Crop to be useful.
• Gin Toolbar: Enhances the Gin Admin Theme by injecting the necessary toolbar styles into the front end.  
• Checklist API: Allows developers to create checklists for tracking progress but does not offer direct user-facing features.  
• jQuery UI: Provides asset libraries for adding jQuery UI effects, though deprecated and no longer maintained.  
• jQuery UI Resizable: Supplies resizable element functionality for themes and modules but is also deprecated.  
• Date Augmenter API: Enables modules to modify date formatting, supporting plugins for enhanced date processing.  

Though these modules do not provide direct features, they remain crucial for the stability and functionality of many contributed modules in Drupal CMS.

This list provides a comprehensive look at the contributed modules that enhance Drupal CMS, helping site builders, developers, and content creators extend their websites with powerful features. As Drupal CMS continues to evolve, so will its ecosystem of modules, offering new solutions and improvements. In future content, we will explore which modules are available under each recipe, helping you better understand how to leverage them for specific use cases. Stay tuned for more insights into the evergrowing world of Drupal CMS modules.