SHSelfHostIndex

Drupal vs Squidex

A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted content management systems options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.

Not the right match-up?
DR Drupal Flexible enterprise CMS for complex content structures VS SQ Squidex Headless CMS, based on MongoDB, CQRS and Event Sourcing
FeatureDrupalSquidex
CategoryContent Management SystemsContent Management Systems
LicenseGPL-2.0MIT
LanguagePHPC#
Setup difficultyHardMedium
Min. RAM1,024 MB512 MB
Deploymentdocker, bare-metal, sourcebare-metal
GitHub stars★ 4,280★ 2,509
First released20012026
ReplacesAdobe Experience Manager, Sitecore—

Why pick each one

Choose Drupal if…

  • Scales to very large sites
  • Enterprise-grade security track record
Drupal details

Choose Squidex if…

  • Released under the MIT license
  • Active community (2.5k GitHub stars)
  • Written in C#
  • Lightweight — runs in 512 MB RAM
Squidex details

Frequently asked questions

Is Drupal or Squidex better?

Neither is universally better. Drupal has the larger community, while Squidex is simpler to set up (medium difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.

Are Drupal and Squidex free and open-source?

Yes. Drupal is licensed under GPL-2.0 and Squidex under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run Drupal and Squidex with Docker?

Drupal: yes. Squidex: check the project docs for container support.

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