Drupal Themes – everything you need to know about them!

What is Drupal?

Drupal is a content management system available to users free of charge as open-source software. It was originally developed in 1999 by Dries Buytaert as a forum. However, growing interest in the software soon led him to turn it into an open-source project.

Built on PHP, Drupal functions not only as a CMS but also as a modular framework. It belongs to the same category as WordPress, Joomla, and Typo3, allowing users to create websites quickly and easily — even without any programming knowledge.

The CMS operates as a modular system and offers numerous extensions that can be freely combined. As a result, the Drupal framework is suitable for virtually any type of web application — from business and multilingual websites to blogs, e-commerce platforms, discussion forums, and social networking sites.

What features does Drupal come with?

The features of Drupal offer everything your website could possibly need. First and foremost, it provides a powerful content management system that allows you to create, edit, and publish content such as pages, articles, blog posts, and products. You can also manage any type of content with custom fields.

Who can make which changes can be controlled directly through Drupal’s user and role management system. Here, you can manage users with individual profiles and assign them specific roles and permissions — giving you complete control over access to pages, content, and functions.

Anyone who values organized workflows will love Drupal’s structural flexibility. You can create your own content types — such as events or products — and also build taxonomies like categories, tags, and classifications.

Drupal also offers the Views tool, which allows you to design lists, tables, galleries, and blocks without any programming. For even more possibilities, the CMS includes built-in API and GraphQL interfaces and can be used as a headless CMS — meaning Drupal serves only as the backend, while the frontend can be powered by frameworks like React, Vue, and many others.

To help you reach users across multiple countries, Drupal comes with built-in support for multilingual websites. This enables the translation of content, menus, user interfaces, and URLs, which users can easily switch between using a language selector.

When it comes to your individual design and functionality needs, Drupal comes equipped with several powerful features. For one, it offers a wide range of themes that let you give your website the perfect look — including for mobile devices, since the CMS comes with built-in tools for responsive design.

From a technical perspective, Drupal’s framework can be extended at any time with thousands of free modules for SEO optimization, media management, and contact forms. And if you’re familiar with programming, custom module development allows you to create your own features and functionalities.

Speaking of SEO — Drupal doesn’t overlook your search engine optimization or performance either. The CMS includes an integrated URL alias system that lets you customize your URLs, as well as built-in meta tag and sitemap modules, plus a robust caching system — all ready to use right out of the box.

Another key feature is security. Drupal has made it a top priority from the very beginning, maintaining exceptionally high standards through regular security patches and access controls at every level to keep your system continuously protected from external threats.

When working with software applications, it’s always good to have a sparring partner — and in Drupal’s case, that’s a massive global community of users and developers. You can turn to them for support and also benefit from tens of thousands of freely available modules and themes. The best part? This community drives innovation and ensures Drupal’s continuous improvement and evolution.

What are Drupal themes?

When we say there are thousands of themes, we’re not exaggerating: at present, there are more than 2,500 Drupal themes available on the official website, drupal.org, that users can access. Of these, over 1,400 published themes exist for Drupal versions 7, 8, 9, and 10, with around 500 of them actively maintained for the newer versions 9 and 10.

And those are just the free themes. In addition, there are many commercial, paid themes that are professionally designed — making them ideal for agencies, online shops, and start-ups.

How many Drupal themes are there?

When we say there are thousands of themes, we’re not exaggerating: currently, there are over 2,500 Drupal themes available on the official website, drupal.org, that users can access. Of these, more than 1,400 published themes exist for Drupal versions 7, 8, 9, and 10, with around 500 themes actively maintained for the newer versions 9 and 10.

And those are just the free themes. In addition, there are numerous commercial, paid themes that are professionally designed — making them ideal for agencies, online shops, and start-ups.

Are Drupal themes free?

That’s the major advantage: most Drupal themes are free. They are provided as open-source software, which means users can not only download them freely but also customize them to their needs. Furthermore, like Drupal itself, they are released under the GNU General Public License, allowing them to be modified and used for commercial projects without any licensing fees.

For those who prefer something a bit more exclusive or sophisticated, there’s also the option to purchase premium Drupal themes on popular marketplaces such as ThemeForest or TemplateMonster. Prices range between €30 and €100 and often include additional services like support, updates, or extra design features.

What functions does a theme have in a CMS?

The theme in a CMS, as we’ve already established, is the structural foundation of any website — where colors, styles, and shapes come together to form the layout. But it can do much more: a theme also includes additional functions that define the appearance and, to some extent, the behavior of a website’s content.

In terms of design and styling, a theme defines and controls colors, fonts, spacing, borders, icons, and animations. It also determines how elements such as the header, footer, navigation, and columns are arranged on the page.

To ensure that all this content doesn’t look raw or overly technical but instead appears well-formatted and user-friendly, the theme provides templates for blog posts and products. Modern themes also include responsive design by default, ensuring optimal display across different devices and creating a positive user experience through intuitive navigation and clearly visible buttons.

What is the difference between a theme and a template?

Two terms that sound almost the same — and even work together — can be hard to distinguish. So let’s briefly explain the difference between a theme and a template!

Imagine you’re building a house. The entire structure, including its look and style, represents the theme. It provides the fully designed layout framework for websites and ensures that the design of all elements is consistent: headlines, subheadings, fonts, and sizes are all defined by the theme. However, a theme doesn’t yet contain specific page patterns where content is inserted and formatted.

That’s where templates come in. In the house analogy, templates are like windows and doors. A theme always includes several templates, which serve as page patterns or building blocks that define the structure of individual sections of a page. These templates determine how specific content appears within the theme. For example, the node template defines how a single article looks, the page template defines the overall layout of the page — including the header, footer, and main content — and the block template controls how a small content block is displayed.

What makes a good theme?

There are certain requirements that must be met for a theme to earn the label “good.” We’ve compiled the key indicators for you!

Responsive Design

Given the fact that most users access websites from multiple devices — primarily smartphones — your theme should feature a responsive design that automatically adapts to smartphones, tablets, and desktops. This ensures that everything is neatly arranged and easy to read, regardless of the device used.

Modern look

Your website is your digital business card, so it should have a fresh look with clean typography, matching colors, and balanced spacing. Avoid cluttered pages with chaotic layouts at all costs!

Accessibility

Starting this year, digital accessibility has been firmly anchored in law through the Accessibility Strengthening Act. Therefore, it’s essential to ensure that your website — and thus your theme — is easy to use for people with disabilities. Your theme should offer screen reader compatibility, enable keyboard navigation, and allow flexible adjustment of contrast settings.

Fast loading times

For users and search engines alike, performance is everything. A good theme should load quickly, thanks to minimized CSS files and optimized images. Unnecessary large scripts or bloated frameworks, on the other hand, will continuously slow down your performance.

Customizability and compatibility

A good theme should allow you to easily adjust colors, logos, fonts, and layouts without touching the code, enabling you to align it with your corporate identity. It should also be compatible with key modules such as Views, Paragraphs, and the Layout Builder to ensure seamless integration and functionality.

Support and SEO friendliness

Bugs can occur in any theme from time to time. That’s why it’s important to choose one that offers continuous support, fixes issues, and provides regular updates. For optimal search engine ranking, it should also use proper HTML structures to ensure your website is easier to find.

What criteria should you consider when choosing a Drupal theme?

Before choosing the right Drupal theme, you should go through a short checklist. First and foremost, make sure the theme is compatible with your current Drupal version — otherwise, it may not function smoothly or at all. The theme should also include a responsive design and provide accessibility features.

No theme in the world will match your individual corporate identity 1:1, which is why it’s important that your Drupal theme is customizable. Instructions on how to make these changes are usually provided in the theme’s documentation, along with guides and tutorials.

In general, you should also check whether the design fits your target audience or project and whether the licensing terms are clear: is the theme open source or commercial? Are there any usage restrictions?

Once you’ve found a theme that meets all your requirements, you’re ready to go — simply install it in your Drupal CMS and get started!

Install a Drupal theme

You’ll see — installing a theme is done in no time! We’ll guide you through each step so you can quickly connect your chosen theme with your CMS. Let’s get started!

Open the theme’s project page

Go to the official Drupal theme page at https://www.drupal.org/project/project_theme. Use the search bar to look for your desired theme. Once you’ve found it, open the theme’s project page. There, you’ll find the download links available as .tar.gz or .zip archives.

Open the “Design” menu item

Next, log in as an administrator to your Drupal backend and click on Appearance in the top admin menu. There you’ll see all currently installed themes and have the option to add new ones.

Install a new theme

Click on the Install new theme option. You’ll be given two choices: install the theme from a URL or upload the file manually.

Install from URL or as a download

If you want to install the theme from a URL, copy the download link from the theme’s project page and paste it into the “Install from URL” field.

For the second option, download the theme archive from the project page as a .zip file. In your Drupal backend, click Choose file in the form and upload the theme file from your computer.

In both cases, click Install afterward.

Install and set as default

Finally, once the installation is complete, you can activate the theme right away and set it as the default theme if you want your users to see it immediately.

Installing a Drupal theme with Drush

Alternatively, you can also install your Drupal theme using Drush. Drush stands for Drupal Shell and is a command-line tool for managing Drupal websites. It allows you to perform tasks faster and more efficiently: as a command-line interface specifically developed for Drupal, it enables you to install modules and themes, clear caches, back up databases, and import or export configurations.

The advantages of installing with Drush are primarily its speed — since a single Drush command is enough to complete the installation — as well as its automation and clean management, allowing themes to be systematically activated. Moreover, Drush installations are less prone to errors and can easily be scripted for team environments.

We’ll show you how to carry out the installation!

Find the system name of the theme

Go to drupal.org and open the project page of your desired theme. There, look for the machine name or project name.

Download the theme

Copy or manually download the theme and place it in the /themes/contrib/ directory. However, it’s generally recommended to install it via Composer, as it manages updates and dependencies more efficiently.

Execute Drush commands

Now you need to enter the corresponding Drush commands. Here’s an example using the theme called bootstrap.

To install the theme, run the following command:

drush theme:enable bootstrap

To set the theme as the default, use:

drush config-set system.theme default bootstrap

Follow the instructions

After executing the commands, you’ll receive direct feedback from Drush, such as:
“[success] Successfully enabled bootstrap5”
“[success] Configuration set system.theme:default”

Finally, check under Appearance in your backend to confirm that the theme is active