For years we have been talking about how Drupal got too expensive for the markets we used to serve. Regional clients, small and medium businesses in Latin America, Africa, Asia, anywhere where $100,000 websites are simply not a reality. We watched them go to WordPress. We watched them go to Wix. Not because Drupal was worse, but because the economics stopped working.
That conversation is changing.
Drupal CMS 2.0 landed in January 2026. And with it came a set of tools that, combined intelligently, make something possible that was not realistic before: an affordable, professional Drupal site delivered for $2,000, with margin, for markets that could not afford us before.
I want to show you the math. Not to sell you a fantasy, but because I did the exercise and the numbers work. And I am being conservative.
What changed
The real budget killer was always theming. Getting a site to look right, behave right, be maintainable, took serious senior hours. That is where budgets went.
Recipes pre-package common configurations so you are not starting from zero. Canvas lets clients and site builders assemble and manage pages visually once a developer sets up the component library.
Dripyard brings professional Drupal themes built specifically for Canvas (although works with Layout Builder, Paragraphs, etc), with excellent quality and accessibility, at around $500. While that seems expensive, the code quality, designs, and accessibility are top notch and will save at least 20 hours (and usually much more), which would easily eat up a small budget.
Three tools. One problem solved.
We proved the concept about a month ago with laollita.es, built in three days using Umami as a starting point. Umami as a version 0.5 of what a proper template should be. Drupal AI for translations, AI-assisted development for CSS and small components. Without formal templates. With proper ones, it gets faster.
The $2,000 blueprint
Scope first. Most small business sites are simple: services, about us, blog, team, contact. The moment you add custom modules or complex requirements, the budget goes up. This blueprint is for projects that accept that constraint.
Start with Drupal CMS and a Dripyard theme. Recipes handle the configuration. Add AI assistance, a paid plan with a capable model, Claude runs between $15 and $50 depending on usage. Let it help you move faster, but supervise everything. The moment you stop reviewing AI decisions is the moment quality starts leaking.
For hosting, go with a Drupal CMS-specific provider like Drupito, Drupal Forge, or Flexsite, around $20 to $50 per month. Six months included for your client is $300. Those same $300 could go toward a site template from the marketplace launching at DrupalCon Chicago in March 2026, compressing your development time further.
With a constrained scope, the right tools, and AI under supervision, ten hours of net work is realistic. At LATAM-viable rates, $30 per hour on the high side, that is $300 in labor.
The cost breakdown: $500 theme, $300 hosting or template, $300 labor, $50 AI tools. Total: $1,150. Add a $300 buffer and you are at $1,450. Charge $2,000. Your profit is $550, a 27.5% margin.
And I am being conservative. As you build experience with the theme, develop your own component library, and refine your tooling, the numbers improve. The first project teaches you. The third one pays better.
The $1,000 path
Smaller budget, smaller scope. Start with Byte or Haven, two Drupal CMS site templates on Drupal.org, or generate an HTML template with AI for around $50. A site template from the upcoming marketplace will run around $300.
The math: $300 starting point, $150 for three months of hosting, $200 incidentals. Cost: $450. Charge $1,000. Margin: 35%.
A $1,000 project is a few pages, clear scope, no special requirements. Both you and the client have to be honest about that upfront.
The real value for your client
When a client chooses Wix or WordPress to save money, they are choosing a ceiling. The day they need more, they are either rebuilding from scratch or paying for plugins and extras that someone still has to configure, maintain, and update every time the platform breaks something.
A client on Drupal CMS is on a platform that grows with them. The five-page site today can become a complex application tomorrow, on the same platform, without migrating. That is the conversation worth having. Not just what they get today, but what they will never have to undo.
The tools are there
The market in Latin America, Africa, Asia, and similar regions was always there. We just did not have the tools to serve it profitably. Now we do.
Drupal CMS, Canvas, Recipes, Dripyard, Drupal CMS-specific hosting, AI assistance with human oversight. The toolkit exists. Get back on trail.
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