Drupal Modules

Drupal modules are code that is at the Core of Drupal itself that also extends Drupal Core’s base functionality by altering or adding new features. A module may also contain CSS, JS, config, and template files to give the module a custom looking and feel on the site, import default configuration on installation, or build out custom administration pages and configuration pages in the administration area.

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Open Source Drupal modules that are not included in Drupal Core are called Contrib modules, as these have been contributed by developers in the Drupal Community.

Drupal 9 Core Modules

Action

Aggregator

Automated Cron

Ban

Basic Auth

Big Pipe

Block

Block Content

Book

Breakpoint

CKEditor

CKEditor 5

Color

Comment

Config

Config Translation

Contact

Content Moderation

Content Translation

Contextual

Date Time

Date Time Range

DBlog

Dynamic Page Cache

Editor

Entity Reference

Field

Field Layout

Field UI

File

Filter

Forum

HAL

Help

Help Topics

History

Image

Inline Form Errors

JSON API

Language

Layout Builder

Layout Discover

Link

Locale

Media

Media Library

Migrate

Migrate Drupal

Drupal 9 Contrib Modules

Below I have compiled a curated list of the top Drupal 9 modules according to their usage statistics from Drupal.org. I have only included modules that are actively supported with at least maintenance fixes only, and I have tried to ensure that all modules included in this list are covered by Drupal’s security advisory policy. This should give you a solid list of Drupal modules to get started with for most site builds.

Learn more about Drupal modules on Drupal.org.

Address

The Admin Toolbar module extends Drupal Core’s Toolbar module by adding dropdown menus to the toolbar menu to allow easy access to Drupal’s administration pages.

Better Exposed Filters

Blazy

Block Class

Captcha

Chaos Tools

Chaos Tools, otherwise known as ctools, is a suite of APIs and functions developed to improve the developer experience. Much of ctools functionality was ported into Drupal 8 with the Views in Drupal Core initiative. The current version of ctools remains it’s own module that is currently porting any remaining functionality that was not merged into Drupal Core to Drupal 8+.

Devel

DropzoneJS

Editor Advanced Link

Embed

Entity API

Entity Browser

Entity Embed

Focal Point

Entity Reference Revisions

Google Analytics

GoogleTagManager

Honeypot

IMCE

Libraries API

Linkit

Mail System

Metatag

The Metatag module generates structured metadata automatically based on customizable configuration on Drupal entities. Metatags can be further customized on each entity to override the default metatags for that entity.

Paragraphs

The Paragraphs module is the successor to the Field Collections module for Drupal 7. The Paragraphs module allows for customizable sets of fields to be pre-configured with other fields and entity references inside a specific paragraph type. This allows site builders and developers to setup easy to understand content editor workflow compared to just throwing everything inside the WYSIWYG.

Pathauto

The Pathauto module generates path aliases automatically for Drupal entities based on customizable patterns. This is helpful for search engine optimization and creating great site architecture automatically based on tokens and menu structure.

Redirect

The Redirect module allows for 301 redirects and 302 redirects to be created from one Drupal path alias to another. The Redirect module can be integrated with the Pathauto module to ensure that Drupal paths are either never changed or redirected automatically from a previous path if it changes.

Scheduler

The Scheduler module allows for content to be published and unpublished at a specific date and time using cron. This is useful for publishing time sensitive content such as product reviews with manufacturer mandated review publishing embargo times, and unpublishing content at a specific date and time in the future.

Search API

The Search API module extends Drupal Core’s search functionality by allowing

Simple XML Sitemap

Slick Carousel

SMTP Authentication Support

SVG Image

Token

The Token module provides some additional tokens that were not included during the integration of the Token module into Drupal 7 Core. It also provides a UI to browse tokens.

Twig Tweak

Video Embed Link

Views Bulk Operations

Views Infinite Scroll

Webform

History of Drupal Modules

There have been thousands of Drupal modules contributed by the Drupal community throughout Drupal’s lifetime. The problem is that most modules are only available for specific versions of Drupal Core, and their successor projects are not always provided by the predecessor project’s maintainers. This makes it difficult to find the best Drupal module for a particular site build even for experienced Drupal developers. This makes it especially difficult if you are new to Drupal and have no idea what you are supposed to be looking for to begin with.