Why Drupal suits the public sector
Government and education websites have specific requirements: WCAG accessibility, data protection, long-term support and open source. Drupal meets all of them.
Public sector websites are not simply marketing pages. They must be accessible to all users regardless of disability, operate for years without platform replacement, comply with data protection requirements, and be developable through competitive procurement — which means open source.
Why Drupal, not other CMS platforms
Open source with no licence costs. Drupal is distributed under the GNU GPL licence — government and public sector institutions pay no licence fees. The platform code is auditable, which matters in security assessment contexts.
WCAG accessibility. Drupal supports WCAG 2.1 AA in Core and in most widely used themes. The European Accessibility Act requires public sector websites to meet WCAG requirements — Drupal is well prepared for this.
Long-term security. The Drupal Security Team's regular updates are well organised — published on a known schedule, classified by severity and available in machine-readable form. Drupal 7 received security updates for over 13 years.
Multilingual content is built into Drupal Core — not a plugin. For public institutions where content must be available in multiple languages, this is a significant argument.
Estonian examples
University of Tartu (ut.ee) — university and faculty sites on a shared Drupal platform. One IT team manages the platform while dozens of content editors manage their own sections.
Tallinn University of Technology (taltech.ee) — Drupal-based institutional website with faculties and institutes.
Riigi Kinnisvara AS — WebPro maintains the RKAS Drupal platform, including a custom procurement module and portfolio import from an external API.
Tallinn Health Care College — Drupal 7 to Drupal 11, WCAG 2.1 AA compliance, over 5,000 pages, 40 content editors.
International examples
Drupal is used as the standard platform in many countries:
- European Commission (commission.europa.eu) — EU institutions' shared OpenEuropa platform on Drupal
- Australian Government (GovCMS) — national Drupal distribution
- US states and city governments — several use Drupal for official websites
Procurement and open source
Public sector procurement is governed by competition principles. An open source solution means:
- The platform is not "owned" by a single vendor
- Any agency with Drupal competence can bid on the contract
- Code remains with the client after project completion
This is a significant argument against closed platforms like Sitecore or Adobe Experience Manager.
Requirements for the development partner
Public sector Drupal projects require specific competences: WCAG testing, implementing data protection in code, a security update process and documentation.
WebPro has delivered Drupal development for education and real estate public sector clients. If you are evaluating platform options, describe the project to us.
Kaido Toomingas
WebPro Company OÜ
Need Drupal help?
If the article describes your situation, you do not have to read everything first. A real person will help you choose the next step.