LocalGov Drupal

Overview

LocalGov Drupal is a council-focused publishing platform built on Drupal and maintained by councils and suppliers. It suits UK and Irish councils that want a shared foundation for public-service content and have the technical capacity to run it. Its breadth and multisite options are substantial, but councils must provide the hosting, implementation and upkeep.

Key features

Publishing and governance

The CMS handles subsites, service pages, directories, guides, step-by-step content, news, events, alerts, HTML publications and election information. That range gives council teams a structure for much more than routine announcements. Flexible components, patterns, styles and callouts help publishers build consistent pages, while service contacts, revisions and preview links support review before publication.

Optional workflow tools add roles, permissions, moderation, approval dashboards, scheduled publishing and review dates. These are useful for councils coordinating content across teams, especially when pages need formal approval or regular review. The trade-off is that governance still needs to be configured and operated; this is not a plug-in replacement for editorial processes.

Accessibility, integration and customization

Content and functionality are designed to meet or exceed WCAG 2.1 level AA, and the platform supports multilingual publishing and document management. Drupal’s REST and JSON:API tools and module ecosystem can connect the site to forms, payments, CRM, case management, identity providers, mapping and directories. That flexibility can accommodate varied council systems, but it comes with integration work rather than a turnkey set of connections.

A scalable base theme and sample Scarfolk subtheme provide a starting point for customization. The distribution also includes a quick-start install, modular architecture, automated testing and coding-standards checks, all useful to development teams maintaining a council-specific implementation.

Microsites and implementation

LocalGov Drupal Microsites allows councils to run distinct websites from one platform; more than 50 are live. This is a strong fit for councils seeking a common base across multiple sites, though it makes technical capacity and governance especially important. Installation uses Composer, with DDEV or Lando recommended, and Drupal 11 is supported on the 4.x branch. Installing and preparing a site requires development resources and appropriate hosting, followed by ongoing security updates. An Invuse penetration test was commissioned in early 2023, with recommendations documented by the project.

Community support includes technical Slack channels, a weekly Thursday technical drop-in and weekly Merge Tuesdays. These are useful avenues for teams working with the distribution, but they do not remove the need for local implementation and maintenance resources.

Pricing

LocalGov Drupal CMS: free. The open-source GPL2 software is freely available to all UK and Irish councils. The price of the software does not cover the development resources, hosting or security upkeep needed to prepare and run a site, so the practical cost depends on a council’s ability to provide those resources.

Platforms

LocalGov Drupal supports API, self-hosted and web deployments. The self-hosted option suits councils wanting to operate their own implementation; it also makes hosting and ongoing security maintenance their responsibility.

Who it's for

This is best suited to UK and Irish councils with development capacity that want structured publishing, workflow controls and the option to manage multiple sites on one platform. Councils looking for a ready-hosted website or without resources for installation and maintenance should look elsewhere.

Pros and cons

• Broad council publishing tools: service content, alerts, events, elections and other formats share one publishing framework.
• Useful governance options: optional approvals, permissions, scheduled publishing and review dates support coordinated editorial work.
• Multisite capability: Microsites supports distinct sites on one platform, useful for councils managing a wider web estate.
• Implementation burden: development resources, hosting and security updates are required, so free software does not mean a maintenance-free site.
• Integration flexibility requires work: Drupal APIs and modules can connect a range of council systems, but councils must make those integrations fit their needs.

Alternatives

For other options, see Government Website Builders. Isomer is another free option with a free plan and web platform. S3WaaS offers a freemium web option with a free plan, while Government Site Builder is also free, has a free plan and runs on the web.

Digital Place is a paid API and web option with all-inclusive SaaS pricing and feature packs. Loop Municipal Websites is a paid option for web, iOS and Android. CivicPlus Municipal Websites Central, Forms & Workflow (OpenForms) and GOSS iCM are paid web options.

Verdict

Choose LocalGov Drupal if your UK or Irish council needs a flexible publishing base, especially for coordinated workflows or multiple sites, and can support its technical operation. Its strongest case is council-focused functionality without a software licence charge. Look elsewhere if you need a hosted, ready-to-run website or cannot commit development and maintenance resources.