CampusDrop Enters Prototype Testing as Open-Source BackdropCMS Platform for Higher Education

CampusDrop is a new open-source web platform for higher-education institutions that entered prototype testing on the Pantheon hosting platform in June 2025. Fibonacci Web Studio’s Irina Zaks led development in collaboration with the University of Colorado Denver to migrate its WebExpress system off Drupal 7 under tight budget constraints.

The platform is built on an open-source Backdrop CMS core forked from Drupal and offers modular recipes for profiles, news, events, and moderation workflows, a Bootstrap starter theme, and full extensibility through additional modules and themes.

Site-building tools include a CKEditor-based editor configured for varied user roles, reusable layout components similar to blocks, a media library of reusable images, and support for embeddable content such as video and interactive forms.

Editorial workflows support core scheduling, revision history, moderation flows, review notifications and content-syndication tools.

Integration with central services such as course catalogs, profile directories, and event systems is configurable via the Feeds module or the Backdrop core API. Authentication options include SimpleSamlPHP, OpenID Connect, CAS, HybridAuth, and two-factor authentication.

Configuration management separates content from settings, storing configuration in human-readable JSON and YAML files for version control and to prevent accidental overwrites. Shared-hosting compatibility, UI-driven module and security updates and backward-compatible upgrades reduce the need for in-house developer support. CampusDrop offers a low-cost alternative to CampusPress and Drupal 10/11, which typically require developer intervention for updates and extensions.

Ongoing releases of CampusDrop-tagged recipes will continue through 2025. The first full platform release is scheduled for Fall 2025 and a migration pathway for existing WebExpress sites is planned for Spring 2026. For more information or to download CampusDrop, visit https://campusdrop.online/.