Drupal is a powerful and versatile content management system (CMS) that can be used to build a wide range of websites, from simple blogs to complex enterprise applications. It is known for its flexibility, scalability, and security, making it a popular choice for businesses of all sizes. It offers enhanced flexibility and scalability to fulfill diverse needs, from designing and developing simple websites to complex web applications. So today, we share the best Drupal development tools that can help you to build a Drupal website.
Developers are opting for Drupal development services because of its unmatched features, such as page layout customization, menu management, user account registration, etc.
With 413,343 active websites globally and a commanding 7% presence among the world’s top 10,000 high-traffic sites, Drupal has become the enterprise CMS of choice for government, healthcare, and media organizations that demand robust security and scalability. (BuiltWith)
Drupal’s ecosystem provides robust tools to streamline workflows, automate repetitive tasks, and improve code quality. Whether you’re looking to simplify app configuration management, accelerate theming, or debug more effectively, the proper development tools can make a significant difference.
The selection of ideal Drupal development tools can make a massive difference in web development. When we looked at the heap of tools, the questions that came to our minds as Drupal developers were: Are all these tools useful? What is each tool’s specification? Which tools are helpful for my project?
In this article, we’ll explore five of the best Drupal tools for developers. These tools solve development pain points, enhance productivity, and help Drupal programmers deliver high-quality Drupal solutions more efficiently.
Top 5 Drupal Tools To Have In Your Arsenal
There are diverse Drupal development tools available that help developers to create optimized software. We have listed the top 5 Drupal tools that are widely used by developers to simplify complex tasks. Explore the Drupal development tools list that best suits your business to boost the software performance and responsiveness.
1. Drush (Mastering the Drupal Shell for Advanced Automation)
Drush can be called the Swiss army knife of Drupal, which means it is a multipurpose tool. It is a command-line and scripting interface for Drupal. It is widely used to develop, install, and maintain Drupal websites. Along with all the necessary core commands provided by Drush, Drupal can declare its commands as well. Instead of clicking through the admin interface, you can simply type one command. You can directly log into the MYSQL database, and you will have the rights to run any pending database updates.
Drush 13, released in 2025, supports Drupal 10.2+ and Drupal 11. With Drupal Console now sunset, Drush has integrated robust code-generation features via the Drupal Code Generator library, cementing its position as the essential CLI tool for modern Drupal development.
2. Composer (Managing Complex Dependencies with Precision)
Composer is a PHP dependency management tool that helps you to install, update, and manage the processes of Drupal core, contributed modules, themes, and third-party libraries. Since Drupal 8+, Composer has been considered the official approach to managing Drupal projects smoothly. In addition, it allows users to execute the commands for cache clearing, enabling or disabling specific modules, running thorough database updates, and exporting configurations with a few clicks. It is helpful to manage large-scale Drupal projects, significantly reducing repetitive tasks and boosting site management.
Drupal 10 and 11 have made Composer the exclusive dependency management solution. As of versions 10.4.0 and 11.1.0, administrative UI installation has been deprecated entirely. Organizations managing projects outside Composer will face unresolvable dependency conflicts during version upgrades. This is what establishes Composer as a foundational requirement for enterprise Drupal operations.
3. Xdebug (Streamlining Code Analysis and Eliminating Technical Debt)
Xdebug is a powerful debugging and profiling tool for PHP that assists Drupal programmers in troubleshooting their code structure efficiently. It allows developers to set breakpoints, inspect variables, and step through code execution inside an IDE like PHPStorm or VS Code. This makes it easy to track complex errors, improve performance, and analyze functional calls. Additionally, Xdebug also offers profiling tools that assist developers in identifying slow-performing code. This makes it an essential tool to optimize Drupal applications.
Xdebug 3.x made life easier by replacing Xdebug 2’s confusing maze of configuration flags with one clean setting: “xdebug.mode.” And if you’re using DDEV (which became Drupal’s officially recommended local environment in June 2024), you get Xdebug ready to go. Just run “ddev xdebug on” and you’re debugging.
4. Twig Tweak (Theming Enhancement Module)
Twig Tweak is an important module for Drupal theming as it extends Twig, a themed engine used in Drupal. This module has made it much easier for developers because it allows them to render blocks, views, menus, and entities directly in Twig templates without writing complex preprocess functions.
The current stable branch of Twig Tweak is 3.x, designed to work with Drupal 10 and Drupal 11. This version streamlines the API and aligns better with updated Drupal core practices. If your project is still on Twig Tweak 2.x, upgrading is advisable, as Drupal 9 is no longer supported.
5. Devel (Accelerating Module Testing and Data Inspection)
Devel is an important tool for Drupal developers that helps them with debugging, performance analysis, and database insights. One of its standout features of Devel is Kint, which allows developers to inspect variables in a readable format directly in the browser. This also helps developers save time and effort in debugging and fixing the issues. Additionally, it provides SQL query logging and performance monitoring that helps developers to optimize database queries and site performance.
In recent versions, Devel treats Kint as an optional dependency rather than a bundled component. If you need advanced variable dumping with Kint, install the “kint-php/kint” package via Composer. This separation helps keep environments lighter by avoiding unused debugging libraries.
Bonus Tool: DDEV – A Preferred Choice for Drupal Local Development
No modern Drupal development toolkit feels complete without DDEV. Over the past few years, it has emerged as a widely recommended local development environment within the Drupal community, often preferred over older setups like Drupal VM, Docksal, and Lando.
DDEV is a Docker-based, open-source tool that sets up a fully configured Drupal environment in minutes. It works consistently across macOS, Windows with WSL2, and Linux. It includes PHP, MySQL or PostgreSQL, Nginx, Mailpit, and Xdebug pre-configured.
This setup ensures all team members work in identical environments, which minimizes configuration drift and reduces debugging time.
We have analyzed the best Drupal development tools that help every developer to create scalable solutions. But there are many other free Drupal development tools that developers should know and use to improve workflow, efficiency, and code quality as per the project requirements.
The Drupal development tool list is mentioned below:
Note: Drupal Console is no longer actively maintained and is not recommended for modern Drupal projects. Drush now supports most common code generation tasks, making it the preferred tool for current Drupal development workflows.
So, choosing the right Drupal development tool is important to build enterprise-grade software and an integrated platform. For this, diverse industrial leaders hire Drupal developers to get highly secure, optimized, and customized solutions.
Final Thoughts on Scaling Your Drupal Workflow
With such effective Drupal development tools, you will not only save lots of time but also enhance the quality of your work. Having familiarity with these tools is as important as knowing each and every aspect of Drupal development. When comparing Drupal with WordPress, Drupal offers enhanced flexibility and scalability, making it ideal for complex, enterprise-level websites with custom content architectures. Unlike WordPress, Drupal provides robust user permissions, advanced APIs, and customization.
The Drupal ecosystem in 2025 is more aligned than ever, with clear preferences across development workflows. DDEV is widely recommended for local environments. Composer is the standard for dependency management. Drush remains the primary CLI tool. Teams that adopt this stack can reduce setup friction and maintain better consistency across projects.
If you are well-versed in Drupal development, then these tools can enhance your skills to a great extent and will reduce your efforts considerably. As a leading web development company, Excellent Webworld has an experienced team with expertise in the best Drupal tools that aim to transform the development process. For any complex Drupal development project, businesses can hire Drupal developers from our pool of experienced resources to get the best and trending Drupal development solutions.
FAQs: Optimizing Your Drupal Tech Stack
Drupal development means implementing the Drupal framework to build and modify websites and applications within the system. Developers use Drupal’s APIs in combination with configuration management and a flexible entity system to build custom content types and modules with themes and workflows. The workflow of developers includes the use of local tools such as Lando, DDEV, and Drush to optimize their work.
Drupal tools refers to any software program or utility that helps Drupal website developers automate website maintenance and development tasks. Drush command-line tools combine with debugging modules Devel and additional development-enhancing tools that include Composer and Xdebug.
The best editors for Drupal development include PhpStorm and VS Code, offering powerful debugging and Drupal-specific integrations. Others, like Sublime Text, Vim, and NetBeans, are also widely used based on preference and workflow. Choose based on your needs for speed, customization, or advanced features.
Drupal functions as a Content Management System (CMS) and offers expanded capabilities beyond typical CMS platforms. Non-technical users can use Drupal as a content management tool (similar to WordPress or Joomla), but the platform also functions as a content management framework (CMF), which enables developers to build web applications with complex logic and managed content features and user access systems.
DDEV has become a preferred choice for Drupal local development. It offers a Docker-based setup with support for Drupal 10 and 11, and runs reliably across macOS, Windows with WSL2, and Linux. With features like Xdebug integration and consistent environment configuration, it helps reduce setup issues across teams.
Drupal Console has faded out of active use and is no longer maintained. Drush now takes care of most CLI and code generation needs, making it the practical replacement for modern Drupal projects.
Article By
Mahil Jasani began his career as a developer and progressed to become the COO of Excellent Webworld. He uses his technical experience to tackle any challenge that arises in any department, be it development, management, operations, or finance.
