Did you know that the term “One-Stop-Shop” is one of the most clichéd marketing taglines to use, according to Hubspot? Thankfully, I came across that article before I sat down to write this one. So, I’m NOT going to say that a Drupal distribution is a “one-stop-shop” for a quick and easy way to launch your website. Let’s put it this way instead – If you want to build a Drupal website and eager to see it go live real quick, while making sure that you want to save time on maintenance too, Drupal distributions are meant for you.  

What is a Drupal distributions?

A Drupal distribution is an all-inclusive package to get your website up and running quickly. This package consists of the Drupal Core (basic features), installation profiles, themes (for customized designs), libraries (consists of assets like CSS or Javascript) and modules specific to an industry. For example, if you run a publishing company, a distribution like Thunder can help you speed up your development process. Here you can find modules like Paragraphs, Media Entity, Entity Browser and features like Thunder admin theme, scheduled publishing and much more – all in one place. 

Why should you use a Drupal 8 distribution?

Let me give you a few reasons for that -

• You don’t have to scramble your way through thousands of Drupal modules only to find a few that you really need.  
• Configuring Drupal core is easier too as most part of it comes preconfigured.
• The features and modules included in a Drupal distribution are time tested, optimized and proven for quality.
• Maintenance of a Drupal distribution is simpler because updates for all modules and features can be performed on one shot!  
• Since you don’t have to reinvent the wheel every time, you save on time. You save precious resource time. Which also means, you save on money! 
• Now that you have saved some time, you can spend more time on customizing and personalizing these components to tailor-fit your business needs.

Top 15 Drupal Distributions (alphabetically sorted)

1. CiviCRM Starter Kit

The CiviCRM Starter Kit brings together the power of Drupal and the open-source CRM tool – CiviCRM. The popular CRM is used by more than 8000 organizations to centralize constituent communications. Along with core Drupal and CiviCRM, the distribution also packs in CiviCRM related modules like CiviCRM Cron, Webform CiviCRM, CiviCRM Clear All Caches, etc.

 2. Commerce Kickstart

If you are looking to quickly get your e-commerce store up and running on Drupal Commerce framework, this one’s for you. Commerce Kickstart is a Drupal distribution made for both Drupal 7 and Drupal 8 and is maintained by Centarro (previously Commerce Guys). The Commerce Kickstart 2.x version comes loaded with beautiful themes, catalog, promotion engines, a variety of payment tools, utility tools, shipping and fulfillment tools, analytics and reporting tools, marketing tools, search configuration, custom back-office interface, and much more.

                                Source - https://www.drupal.org/project/commerce_kickstart

3. Conference Organizing Distribution

Creating a website for events and conference gets easier with this Drupal distribution. Conference Organizing Distribution (COD) was made for Drupal 7 but is being actively ported to Drupal 8. With COD, you can -

• Create/manage tickets for event registrations
• Create announcements for paper submissions
• Moderate session selections
• Provide an option for attendees to vote for their favourite sessions
• Schedule sessions on any day and place
• Easily manage sponsorships
• Event management made easy with a powerful event management dashboard
• Keep a track on multiple events and sessions
• Sell tickets with Drupal commerce

4. Contenta

This API-first Drupal distribution provides you with a framework that is API ready. It reduces the complexity and pain of using or trying decoupled/headless Drupal. Contenta also comes pre-installed with code and demo content along with front-end application examples. Even if you are new to Drupal, Contenta offers simple and quick ways to get the Drupal CMS part ready and you can then focus on frontend frameworks you intend to use. If you’re looking for a complete solution for a headless Drupal project, ContentJS is your best bet. Content JS integrates Contenta CS with front-end framework NodeJs for a powerful, high performing digital experience.

5. Drupal Government Distributions (federal, regional, local)

The aGov Drupal 8 distribution was developed to meet the guidelines of the Australian government. It allows government bodies to follow standards like the WCAG 2.0 AA, Australian government Web guide, AGLS metadata and Digital Service Standard. However, the developers of aGov, PreviousNext, no longer develop of support this distribution as they are now focused on the GovCMS Drupal distribution. GovCMS was built on the foundation of aGov to build more secure, compliant and adaptable government websites. 

deGov Drupal 8 distribution was built for German government websites and used Acquia Lightning to offer more valuable features and functionalities. Some features common to all the Drupal government distributions-

• Meeting all government standards
• Workbench moderation
• Citizen engagement portals
• Responsive design
• Example content
• Intranet/Extranet

6. Acquia Lightning

True to its name, Acquia Lightning is a light-weight Drupal 8 distribution that you can use to develop and deploy a website in lightning speed (up to 30% lesser development time!). Developed by Acquia, Lightning aims to provide full flexibility and a great authoring experience to editorial teams and content authors. Built on Drupal 8, it offers powerful features like page layouts, drag and drop of assets using Panels, rich text, media, slideshows, Google maps, content scheduling and much more. You can also streamline the workflow process of publishing, reviewing, approving and scheduling content.

7. Open Atrium

OpenAtrium is a Drupal distribution built specifically for organizations to be able to create a collaborative intranet solution for social collaboration and knowledge management. It offers features like a drag and drop layout, events management (Events), document management (Files), issue tracking, granular access controls, media management, a worktracker (to monitor tasks and maintain transparency), and much more. It is also offers responsive layouts and themes.

8. Open Academy

Built on the Panopoly base distribution, the Drupal distribution is tailor-made for higher education websites which can be further extended and customized. It is an easy-to-use tool that does not need users to be technical. You can have a great website without any customizations too! Open Academy distribution consists of a Drupal 7 installation profile and features meant for managing courses, departments, faculty, presentations, news, events, publications and more. The themes provided are optimized and mobile ready.

9. Open Social

Open Social is a Drupal 8 distribution that allows organizations to create intranets, online communities and other social portals easily. It is being used by hundreds of organizations including NGOs and government bodies to facilitate communication and connection with their volunteers, employees, members and customers. It also has features like multi-lingual support, private file system, social login, Geo-location maps, etc.

Source : https://www.drupal.org/project/social

10. Opigno LMS

Opigno Distribution is a Learning Management System built on Drupal. It is an easily scalable solution built not just for universities but also for organizations looking to create e-learning solutions. It allows to manage training paths that are organized in courses, activities and modules. It also provides with features like adaptive learning paths, management of skill acquisition, quizzes, blended learning (online modules + in-house sessions + virtual classrooms), award certificates, forums, live meetings and more.

                                               

 Source: https://www.drupal.org/project/opigno_lms

11. Panopoly

This is a base Drupal distribution – which basically means it also acts like a foundation or a base framework for many other distros to be built upon. Panopoly Distribution is powered by the magic of the Panels module and its features like In-place editor, Panelizer, Fieldable Panel Panes, etc. The Panopoly package consists of contributed modules and libraries. It offers cross-browser and responsive layouts, drag and drop page customizations, a powerful easy-to-use Admin interface, etc. It can also be extended through many Panopoly apps. 

12. Presto!

Want a Drupal 8 starter-kit that can meet all your content management needs and get you up and running, presto?! Count on Presto! Whats better, you can start using Presto right out-of-the-box! It is power packed with some great content features like Intelligent content editing, Promo bar (inline alerts for news/announcements), Divider (adding space), Carousel (interactive images), Blocks, etc. It also comes shipped with a responsive theme based on Bootstrap framework that can be further customized to add more layouts. It also lets you easily integrate with Drupal Commerce to make selling on your website easier. With Presto, you can reduce the development time by 20%!

13. Reservoir

Like Contenta, Reservoir too is an API-first Drupal distribution for decoupling Drupal. With this tool, you can build content repositories that are ready to be consumed by front-end applications. It is packed with all necessary web service APIs necessary to create decoupled websites. Reservoir was developed with the objective to make Drupal more accessible to developers, to provide best-practices for building decoupled applications and to provide a starting point for Drupal developers (with less or no Drupal experience) to build a content repository. Reservoir uses JSON API (a specification used for APIs in JSON) to interact with the back-end content. It also ships with API documentation, OpenAPI format export (compatible with a plethora of tools) and a huge set of libraries, SDKs and references.

14. Thunder

This Drupal 8 distribution is designed exclusively for professional publishing. Thunder was originally designed for and by Hubert Burda Media. The Drupal distribution is loaded with features meant for the publishing sector like the Paragraph module, drag and drop of content, Media Entity, Entity browser, Content lock, Video embed field, Facebook Instant articles, Google AMP, LiveBlog, Nexx.tv video player and much more. All of this along with Drupal core features and responsive themes. 

Source: https://www.drupal.org/project/thunder

15. Varbase

Are you lost in a mountain of Drupal modules and wondering which one to pick? Looking for a package that can jumpstart your web development process right away? Varbase is your go-to Drupal distribution then! Varbase provides you with all the necessities and essential modules, features and configurations to speed up your time to market.