Top Drupal Themes

While there are a number of options for managing content, the open source option Drupal is seen by many as the leader of the pack. Equipped with a multitude of modules, additional components, plugins, and other add-ons, Drupal is a powerful tool for managing websites.

Drupal is an open source Content Management System (CMS) that was released in 2001. It powers some of the busiest websites in the world and is considered to be a leading CMS today. According to Backend Battles, which is a website technology monitor, there are about 10.3 million Drupal websites on the web today, making it one of the most widely used content management systems in the world, along with Joomla and WordPress.

• While checking for a domain name, Drupal founder Dries Buytaert misspelled the Dutch word for village ‘dorp’. The resulting error ‘drop’ when translated in Dutch became ‘druppel’, which later evolved to ‘Drupal’!

• Drupal Core, or the basic set of Drupal functionalities and modules that come with every installation, has been translated into 90 different languages such as Hebrew and Chinese - and even the Internet comic website Lolspeak!

• The White House runs on Drupal! When President Obama took office, many of the governmental websites were converted to Drupal. Examples of some very important sites that run on Drupal areThe White House, Stanford University, The New York Stock Exchange and Twitter to name a few.

• Any Drupal page on your website can be set as a landing page on Facebook just by making a few adjustments to the page settings and clicking ‘Save’. You can also build Facebook applications using Drupal.

• The latest version of Drupal is Drupal 7.23 which was released in August 2013. Drupal 8 is in development with no release date announced as yet.

Drupal is an amazing CMS that has grown and matured over the years in terms of flexibility and design. A few years ago it would have been difficult to find an attractive Drupal theme that could be downloaded for free, but this is no longer the case now.

Drupal's main site hosts hundreds of free and fully customizable themes that could be used to launch your own websites. You can also develop your own custom theme to accessorize and design your site!

Some of the top-quality Drupal themes are listed below:

• Has been awarded the status of Best Drupal Theme for several years.

• Is simple and powerful.

• Comes with a mobile first grid design with support for RTL languages.

• Is a theme for corporate websites.

• Has 3 column tableless layout and a top-tabbed primary links system.

• Comes with a wide rotating image banner based on the jquery cycle plugin.

• Is a theme for corporate accounts and businesses.

• Comes with a lot of options and is minimalist in look and feel.

• Offers multiple column layouts and adjustable slider.

• Is webform ready.

• Is a sub-theme of the Adaptive theme framework.

• Has mobile support and a powerful layout engine.

• Has multiple colors and a configurable header.

• Is a theme for designers and illustrators who want to show their portfolio.

• Has an automatic thumbnail view on the front page for the latest articles or designs.

• Caters to children’s education

• Can be customized for any niche

• Has a Sass based grid system.

• Is an e-commerce theme for online shops.

• Works across all devices.

• Is a theme for freelancers and owners of small businesses.

• Comes with a custom front page with 4 block regions, a footer with 4 regions and a total of 12 regions.

• Is a sub-theme of the Adaptive Theme framework.

• Is built with mobile devices in mind.

• Comes with 17 regions and 4 column footer.

• Is a sub-theme of the Fusion Base Theme.

• Includes selectable icons and configurable sidebars.

• Requires Fusion and Skinr.

• Drupal themes use standardized formats that are generated by third-party theme design engines.

• These templates are written in PHP Template engine (or sometimes hard-coded PHP) or XTemplate engine.

• According to research that was carried out to identify the top Drupal themes, Zen came out on top. The Drupal theme is used for around 570 sites in the top 1 million ranked Drupal websites.