Open-source CMS

Drupal, from zero to first page

A short, plain-language guide to what Drupal is, how to spin it up in a browser without installing anything, and how to build your first content type. A live public demo is embedded below.

Your private Drupal sandbox

Every visitor gets their own isolated Drupal instance — you launch one on SimplyTest, paste its URL back here once it is ready, and this window then loads your sandbox. Each browser is tracked independently, so multiple people can use this page at the same time without seeing each other's site.

Launch on SimplyTest
Preparing your session...

If nothing loads here, the sandbox host does not allow being framed by other sites. That is a common, sensible security setting for live administrative interfaces — use the "Open in new tab" button above.

Launch the sandbox

How to put Drupal into the sandbox

A sandbox is a temporary, disposable Drupal site hosted for you by a third party. You do not install anything on your own computer. The walkthrough below uses SimplyTest — it is free and the most beginner friendly.

  1. 1. Open the sandbox provider

    Click simplytest.me. You do not need an account. If the embedded window above already shows the page, you can use it directly.

  2. 2. Choose what to install

    In the search field, type drupal. To try the newest official experience, pick Drupal CMS. To try classic core, pick Drupal core. Any module or theme listed on drupal.org can be typed in here instead, and it will be pre-installed for you.

  3. 3. Pick the version

    Use the version dropdown next to the project name. If you are unsure, keep the default — it is the current stable release. For Drupal CMS today that is 1.x; for Drupal core it is 11.x.

  4. 4. Launch the sandbox

    Click Launch sandbox. SimplyTest queues your site, spins up a private Drupal instance in a container, installs any projects you added, and shows a progress bar. This usually takes about 30–90 seconds.

  5. 5. Enter your sandbox

    When it is ready you will see a green Enter sandbox button. It takes you to a live Drupal site at a temporary URL such as your-sandbox.tugboat.qa. You are logged in as the super-admin automatically.

  6. 6. Explore the admin toolbar

    The black bar across the top is the admin toolbar. Click Content to add pages, Structure to create content types, blocks and menus, and Extend to install extra modules with a checkbox. Every change is real and takes effect immediately.

  7. 7. Add your first page

    From the toolbar go to Content, Add content, Basic page, type a title and some body text, then save. Your new page appears at the URL shown on the confirmation notice — this is how Drupal publishing works day to day.

  8. 8. Save any work you want to keep

    A SimplyTest sandbox is deleted automatically after a few hours, and there is no login to come back to. If you build something you want to keep, copy the text out, or export the site configuration from Configuration, Development, Configuration synchronization and download the archive.

Ready to try it? Open the sandbox in a new tab and follow along.

Step-by-step guide

  1. 1. What Drupal is

    Drupal is a free, open-source content management system used to build websites, portals and apps. Think of it as a flexible toolkit: it ships with the basics (pages, users, menus, media), and everything else — shop, forum, multi-language, custom content — is added as modules and configured through the browser. It is written in PHP and stores its data in a database such as MySQL, MariaDB or PostgreSQL.

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  2. 2. Try Drupal without installing anything

    The fastest way to see Drupal is a hosted sandbox. Services such as SimplyTest and SandboxCMS spin up a private, disposable Drupal site for you in about a minute. You get an admin login, you can add content, install modules and change themes, and the site is deleted automatically after a few hours. No credit card, no server needed.

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  3. 3. What you need to run it yourself

    To install Drupal on your own machine or server you need PHP (8.3 or newer), a web server (Apache or Nginx), a database (MySQL, MariaDB or PostgreSQL) and Composer (a package manager for PHP). Beginners usually skip installing these one by one and use DDEV or Lando — free tools that give you the whole stack pre-configured in a couple of commands.

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  4. 4. Install Drupal locally with DDEV

    Once DDEV is installed, create a new folder for your project, run "ddev config --project-type=drupal --docroot=web", then "ddev start", then "ddev composer create drupal/recommended-project", then "ddev launch". DDEV opens your browser at your local site, walks you through the standard Drupal installer (choose language, database credentials pre-filled, site name, admin account), and you land on a working Drupal home page.

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  5. 5. First run — the admin toolbar

    After logging in you see a black admin toolbar at the top: Content, Structure, Appearance, Extend, Configuration, People, Reports, Help. Content is where posts and pages live. Structure is where you shape the site (content types, blocks, menus, taxonomy). Appearance is themes. Extend is where you turn modules on and off. People is users and roles. Reports tells you what needs updating.

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  6. 6. Content types — Drupal’s core idea

    Every piece of content in Drupal is a "node" of a given content type. Out of the box you get Article and Basic Page. You can create your own — for example, "Event" with a date, a location and a photo — by going to Structure, Content types, Add content type, then adding fields. Once a type exists, editors get a clean form to add new entries, and the site can list them, filter them and template them differently.

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  7. 7. Blocks, regions and menus

    A Drupal theme divides each page into named regions (header, sidebar, content, footer). Blocks are small pieces of content or widgets that you drop into those regions from Structure, Block layout. Menus are managed under Structure, Menus — the "Main navigation" menu is the one shown in the header by default. You can add, remove and reorder menu items with no code.

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  8. 8. Users, roles and permissions

    Drupal has a fine-grained permission system. Under People, Roles you can create roles such as Editor, Contributor or Member, and under Permissions you tick which actions each role can perform. Users then get one or more roles. The rule of thumb: never edit the site as user 1 (the super-admin) day to day — create an editor account for normal work.

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  9. 9. Add features with modules and themes

    Almost every feature that is not built in — SEO tools, forms, e-commerce, search, media library, translations — is a module you install. The cleanest way is "ddev composer require drupal/pathauto" (for example), then enable it under Extend. Themes work the same way. Drupal.org lists thousands of official, community-reviewed modules and themes with compatibility badges for each Drupal version.

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  10. 10. Publishing your site

    When you are happy locally, deploy to a host that supports PHP and a database — Pantheon, Acquia, Platform.sh and Amazee are Drupal-specialist hosts, or use any VPS with LAMP/LEMP installed. Copy your files, import the database, set the correct file permissions, run the update script, and point your domain. Keep Drupal core and modules up to date monthly — the security team publishes patches on Wednesdays.

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One-page cheat sheet

Local install commands

ddev config --project-type=drupal --docroot=web
ddev start
ddev composer create drupal/recommended-project
ddev launch

Add a module

ddev composer require drupal/pathauto
ddev drush en pathauto -y
ddev drush cr

Update the site

ddev composer update
ddev drush updb -y
ddev drush cr

Useful drush commands

drush cr       # rebuild the cache
drush uli      # one-time admin login link
drush cex      # export config to files
drush cim      # import config from files