Why Developers Don't Choose Drupal (And What We Can Do About It)

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Drupal CMS launched to much fanfare... to existing Drupal developers and customers. Now, Drupal comes with AI agents, visual page builders, one-click Recipes. It's genuinely impressive tech. So why don't students or developers care?

Here's the uncomfortable part: we already fixed the technical problems. Drupal CMS isn't hard to use anymore. The learning curve is way better. We have actual innovation happening.

But new developers still aren't showing up. They're on YouTube, Discord, and Twitch learning JavaScript frameworks or the new hotness language. The "Drupal is legacy tech" perception hasn't budged.

I'm a Drupal developer who streams game development on Twitch to an audience that mostly doesn't know what Drupal is. I've built unconventional projects like using Drupal as a game backend, and I spend time in gaming and indie dev communities where Drupal isn't even on the radar. I've learned what makes someone outside the Drupal bubble actually get curious about a technology. And what makes them scroll past.

This session is a frank conversation about the gap between having good tech and getting people to notice. We'll talk about:

Where developers actually discover new frameworks (spoiler: not drupal.org)
Why technical excellence doesn't equal excitement
What we can do as individuals, not just "the community"
Real examples of what's working vs. what we think should work

What you'll get: 3-5 concrete actions you can take this week, not someday. Plus a clearer picture of why the usual "let's market Drupal better" approach keeps missing the mark.

We have a very short window before Drupal CMS becomes "that cool thing that launched that nobody noticed." Let's actually do something about it.

About the Speaker

JD Flynn

Senior Software Engineer at HeroDevs

LaPorte, IN

JD Flynn has had mental illness most of his life, but didn't admit it until his early 30s when he decided it was time to do something about it. After a decade-long career in emergency services as a paramedic, JD made the jump from the ambulance to the text editor. Since then, JD has climbed to Principal Drupal Software Engineer in his current position.

His life was changed by OSMH (Open Sourcing Mental Health), a 501(c)(3) non-profit focused on opening the conversation on mental illness, which led him to telling his own story to as many people who would listen. As someone with mental illness who is not afraid to talk about it, JD has presented on the topic of Mental Illness in the Tech Community to local user groups, regional conferences, and national level events at locations such as MIT, UC Berkeley, Washington State Convention Center, Guaranteed Rate Field, and DePaul University.

More recently, JD has started streaming development on Twitch and has been learning new tools and languages on stream. He streams under the name JDDoesDev and is desperate for your approval and attention.

When not speaking or coding, JD plays baritone saxophone in Windiana, a professional level wind ensemble out of Valparaiso, IN, and Michigan City Municipal Band, the oldest municipal band in Indiana.