---
title: "Open Source Content Management System | SparkFabrik"
url: "https://www.sparkfabrik.com/en/solutions/content-management-system/"
lang: "en"
type: "solution"
date: "2026-08-28"
lastmod: "2026-10-30"
description: "One open source platform to run content, sites and languages: your editors publish on their own, with no license fees and no vendor lock-in."
keywords: ["content management system","open source cms","enterprise cms","content management","multilingual cms","multisite cms","editorial platform","digital experience platform","accessible cms","ai cms"]
image: "https://www.sparkfabrik.com/images/og/soluzioni-content-management-system-en.webp"
translations:
  it: "https://www.sparkfabrik.com/it/soluzioni/content-management-system/index.md"
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---

# Multisite, multilingual CMS, one Drupal for every site.

Your editors publish on every site, brand and language on their own, **without raising a ticket** or waiting for anyone.

[Tell us about your project](https://www.sparkfabrik.com/en/contact-us/)

- Open source, no license fees
- WCAG 2.2 AA from day one
- The first Drupal Certified Partner Gold in Italy

## Your editors should publish without opening a ticket.

A multisite, multilingual CMS manages the content of many sites, brands and languages from one platform, with shared components and rules. SparkFabrik is an AI Native Engineering company that builds these platforms on Drupal for clients such as Caleffi, Zambon and Luiss.

If changing a page takes a ticket, the platform is the problem, not your editorial team. With many sites, every edit goes through IT or an agency. Content gets duplicated, the CMS renewal costs more every year and nobody is sure which version of a page is the real one.

Decision makers buy more than a CMS: they buy an editorial team that can publish the next page itself.

**One platform for content, sites and languages, run by your own team.**

One system for every site

## One platform, many sites on top.

Content, components and brand rules live **in one place**; every site, country and brand takes what it needs and adds its own.

_Try the platform: update a shared component and the change reaches every site; change the colour of a brand and only that brand's sites change._

Editors publish without waiting

## From draft to live page, in one workflow.

Writers build the page with the design system components, **see it as it will look**, send it for review and publish it: roles and workflows decide who approves.

_Try the workflow: take a page built with the design system components from draft to review to published, and preview it on desktop and on a phone._

AI helps the writer

## AI proposes, a person approves.

Drafts, rewrites and translations enter the review workflow as proposals: **nothing goes live without a person's approval**, and the record says who approved what.

_Try the translation: pick a language and ask the AI for a proposal; it waits until a person approves or edits it, and the history records it._

## The situations people start from.

One of these is probably yours.

### Changing a page means raising a ticket and waiting

Roles and review workflows decide who approves, and the page goes live with no detour through IT. FiscoOggi works this way, with **almost 600 authors and 12 officials** on the same platform.

### We have too many sites and every brand does its own thing

One platform, one design system, many sites. Caleffi runs **30 countries and around 20 languages** on a single platform, and every local office reuses content created by the others. Zambon consolidated its corporate sites onto one design system, then onto a platform that new sites are built from.

### We have an accessibility deadline or an audit to pass

Accessibility and security are a project requirement, set from day one. The baseline is **WCAG 2.2 AA and EN 301 549**, delivery happens inside an ISO/IEC 27001, 27017 and 27018 certified perimeter, and security patches come from the open source project's security team.

### We would like AI for writing and translating, without losing control of what we publish

AI proposals enter the review flow like any other draft, and **a person always publishes**. We know the guardrails from the inside: we contribute to Drupal's AI modules.

### Our CMS renewal costs more every year and ties us to one vendor

The platform is open source: no license to pay for, and public code that stays yours.

### Our current platform is falling behind, and migrating scares us

FiscoOggi, the Italian Revenue Agency's online magazine, migrated **over 42,000 content items, 35,000 images and 2,700 media files** with almost 600 authors at work. A migration is a project with a method: inventory, batches, verification.

[Read the FiscoOggi case study](https://www.sparkfabrik.com/en/success-stories/fisco-oggi/)

### We are starting from scratch: a new site, a new project

No legacy to drag along: the platform, the design system and the accessibility baseline **are born together, from day one**. La Scuola SEI built its new digital identity this way: editorial platform, design and infrastructure in one end-to-end project.

[Let's talk about your CMS project](https://www.sparkfabrik.com/en/contact-us/)

## How it works.

A single Drupal platform at the center, connected to the systems you already use and released on cloud native infrastructure.

1. **Drupal 11 and Drupal CMS** (Architecture): Monolithic or decoupled, depending on what you need: Twig when the website is the destination, headless when the same content also has to reach apps, kiosks, e-paper or other channels. API-first, JSON:API and GraphQL, content model held in version-controlled configuration.
2. **The CMS as the content hub** (Composable integrations): CRM, ERP, PIM, DAM, marketing automation, e-commerce, payment gateways. At Caleffi the PIM is the single source of product data and Drupal exposes and enriches it with editorial content, and the site keeps working even when the link goes down.
3. **Kubernetes, pipelines, three environments** (Delivery and cloud native hosting): Containers, Kubernetes, CI/CD on GitLab, development, test and production environments, observability and repeatable releases. On whichever cloud suits you: GCP, AWS or Alibaba Cloud, as for Caleffi China, where the local choice produced a 196% performance improvement.
4. **Modules, guardrails, semantic search** (AI and search): The Drupal project's AI modules with guardrails on agent actions, an MCP client, RAG with vector search, translation providers. These are public modules we maintain on drupal.org.

- Drupal 11, Drupal CMS, JSON:API, GraphQL, Kubernetes, GitLab CI, GCP, AWS, Alibaba Cloud

## Promises you can verify.

Every promise has public proof.

- **Accessible, secure and compliant by design**: Accessibility and security are how the platform is set up on day one, and whoever audits you can verify them.
  - **Accessibility as the baseline** (WCAG 2.2 AA · EN 301 549): it is the starting point, stated publicly in our commitments. Components are born accessible, so every page an editor publishes starts out accessible.
  - **Security that arrives on its own** (Drupal Security Team advisories): the open source project has a security team and publishes advisories on a known cadence. Patches go through the pipeline and reach production without stopping your editors.
  - **Data, privacy and sovereignty** (ISO/IEC 27001 · 27017 · 27018): you choose the cloud and the country of the data, as Caleffi did in China, and who can touch it. There is a record of who changed what; cookies, consents and privacy notices are updated with the platform.
- **No license, no lock-in**: No license to pay: the budget goes on what you build, and the code stays yours.
  - **No renewal that grows every year**: no license tied to the number of sites, users or languages.
  - **The code and the data stay yours**: code you can inspect, content you can export, configuration under version control. If you change partner one day, **you take everything with you**.
  - **A partner that contributes to Drupal**: the founders have published and maintained modules on drupal.org since **2008**, SparkFabrik since 2015, and in **May 2026** we became the first Drupal Certified Partner Gold in Italy. A company that contributes to a platform knows it better than one that only uses it.
  - **Data and suppliers stay where you decide**: no tie to one cloud, one country or one price list. For a public body or a European university, **digital sovereignty** is a tender requirement.

- Recognition: [The first Drupal Certified Partner Gold in Italy](https://www.sparkfabrik.com/en/services/drupal/drupal-certified-partner/): SparkFabrik's contributions to Drupal
- Verifiable compliance: [ISO/IEC 27001:2022, ISO/IEC 27017:2015 and ISO/IEC 27018:2025. Dated, downloadable certificates.](https://www.sparkfabrik.com/en/security/): See the certificates

Success Stories

## What changes, measured.

A content platform is judged after go-live: publishing time, volumes, countries and languages, speed for the reader. These are the figures of the clients who adopted it.

- **−70%** Content publishing time: Luiss Guido Carli, university
- **5,000+** Content items published every year: FiscoOggi, Italian Revenue Agency
- **30** Countries on one platform, with around 20 languages: Caleffi, manufacturing
- **+196%** Performance for users in China: Caleffi China, manufacturing

> The PIM plus CMS combination lets us centralize and maintain all product information in real time, making the most of an enormous body of documentation, all of it available to every one of our offices around the world to manage on their own.
>
> Walter Bertona, Digital Innovation Manager

- [Luiss: Luiss rebuilds its digital presence as an ecosystem: multibrand design system, Drupal and search with agentic AI.](https://www.sparkfabrik.com/en/success-stories/luiss/)
  - University
  - **−70%** in content publishing time
- [Caleffi: Caleffi rebuilds its enterprise portal: migration to Drupal 10, a new information architecture, a new interface.](https://www.sparkfabrik.com/en/success-stories/caleffi-new-website/)
  - Manufacturing
  - **30** countries and about twenty languages on one platform
- [FiscoOggi: FiscoOggi, the magazine of the Italian Revenue Agency, renewed and accessible to everyone.](https://www.sparkfabrik.com/en/success-stories/fisco-oggi/)
  - Publishing and public sector

## Three steps, in this order.

Before we propose a platform we want to understand what you publish, how much of it, in how many languages, with how many people and under what constraints. After the first step you already know whether we are the right people.

1. **Discovery**: We look at the platform you have: sites, languages, content, integrations, who publishes and who approves. We check the accessibility and security level you are starting from. You leave with: A picture and a phased roadmap, useful even if you then choose somebody else.
2. **Build**: We build the platform, the content model and the design system foundations, migrate the content and train the editorial team. You leave with: The first site live, with your editors working inside it.
3. **Evolution**: New sites, new languages, new integrations, AI features, updates and security, on a roadmap reviewed at agreed intervals. You leave with: A platform that grows with you, year after year, release after release.

**A real editorial team, at work.** We show you how an editorial team composes, translates and publishes, and what it would look like with your sites. [Book a demo](https://www.sparkfabrik.com/en/contact-us/)

## The services inside this solution.

A solution is made of our services, put together for one precise problem.

- **Drupal**: The platform technology in full: versions, migrations, headless, modules, certifications. ([more](https://www.sparkfabrik.com/en/services/drupal/))
- **Strategy & Design**: The design system that makes your editors independent: foundations, components, documentation. ([more](https://www.sparkfabrik.com/en/services/consultancy-design/design-unit/))
- **Managed Services**: Who keeps the platform running after the first release: monitoring, updates, evolution. ([more](https://www.sparkfabrik.com/en/services/cloud-native-services/managed-services/))
- **AI Development**: The AI layer: editorial assistants, semantic search, translation, with guardrails in the right place. ([more](https://www.sparkfabrik.com/en/services/ai-development/))

## Frequently asked questions.

The questions you are already asking.

### What exactly is this solution?

A content management platform, open source, covering the technical core, the design system foundations, editorial training, an accessibility and security baseline, and running the platform over time. The Discovery sets the scope, with what is included and what is optional.

### Do you use AI on our projects? With what guarantees?

Yes. We develop the platform with specifications written with you, tests and review on every change, and a person on the team who approves every release. In the editor AI proposes and the editorial team decides, with a record of who approved. Code, configuration and content stay yours and exportable.

### What does it cost?

We do not publish a price list, because the cost depends on how many sites, how many languages, how much content there is to migrate and how many integrations are needed. The difference from a licensed CMS is structural: there is no annual fee for the right to use the software. The Discovery gives you a phased roadmap with an order of magnitude for each phase.

### Can my editorial team publish without developers?

Yes, for everything that is composing content: new pages, landing pages, campaigns, translations, updates. Developers come in for a new component or a new integration: your editors only wait when the platform itself has to be extended.

### Can I migrate from WordPress, from Adobe Experience Manager or from Drupal 7?

Yes, and it is the most common starting point. We start with a content inventory, decide what to migrate and what to archive, map URLs and redirects so rankings survive, then migrate in batches with verification. FiscoOggi migrated more than 42,000 items of content, 35,000 images and 2,700 media files with almost 600 authors at work.

### Is it built on Drupal? How is that different from Drupal CMS?

Yes, it is built on Drupal. “Drupal CMS” is the Drupal project's ready-to-use distribution, with a guided installation and preconfigured setups; Drupal is the platform underneath. We start from one or the other depending on the project: Drupal CMS shortens the start, Drupal gives more room when the content model is complex.

### How do you handle accessibility and compliance?

The stated starting point is WCAG 2.2 AA and EN 301 549: components are born accessible, so the level holds even when the person publishing has never read the guidelines. Delivery happens inside a perimeter certified to ISO/IEC 27001:2022, 27017:2015 and 27018:2025, with dated, downloadable certificates. On GDPR, NIS2 and DORA we have a [dedicated guide for regulated sectors](https://www.sparkfabrik.com/en/blog/drupal-cms-security-compliance-regulated-sectors/).

### Does the AI decide what gets published?

No. The AI suggests and a person approves, and the record shows who approved. Technically this means putting [guardrails on agent actions](https://www.sparkfabrik.com/en/blog/ai-guardrails-drupal-advanced-management/): we maintain the guardrails module and the MCP client these projects run on, so we wrote the point where automation stops ourselves.

### How does it integrate with the CRM, ERP, PIM or DAM we already run?

Through documented APIs, in both directions. The most common case is a PIM as the single source of product data: the CMS reads it, enriches it with editorial content and keeps serving pages even if the link goes down. The same applies to CRM, ERP, marketing automation, e-commerce and payment gateways.

### Who runs the platform over time?

We do, if you want: cloud native hosting, monitoring, updates, security and an agreed roadmap. Or your own team, with the documentation and the training. The code is open source, so the choice stays yours afterwards too. We have worked with Caleffi since 2013, and its previous site lasted ten years: that is the horizon we plan on.

### Do we need headless, or is a traditional CMS fine?

It depends on how many channels you have to serve. If the website is the destination, a traditional architecture is simpler to run and faster to evolve. If the same content also has to reach apps, kiosks, e-paper or other front ends, [decoupled](https://www.sparkfabrik.com/en/blog/best-headless-cms-drupal-advantages/) makes sense. The platform supports both, so the choice stays open.

### Why SparkFabrik rather than another agency?

Because we build the platform ourselves. The founders have contributed to the open source project since 2008, SparkFabrik since 2015; we maintain public modules on drupal.org, and in May 2026 we became the first Drupal Certified Partner Gold in Italy. In practice that means direct access to the people who maintain the critical modules when something breaks, and first-hand knowledge of the roadmap, because we take part in the discussions where it is decided.

## The other solutions.

- Solution: [AI Knowledge Platform](https://www.sparkfabrik.com/en/solutions/ai-knowledge-platform/): Company knowledge you can query in natural language, with governance per business unit, an open source stack and costs under control.
- Solution: [Semantic and agentic search](https://www.sparkfabrik.com/en/solutions/semantic-agentic-search/): Search by meaning across sites, portals and archives, anchored to the official content.

## Talk to the CEO or the CTO.

Bring your sites, your languages and whatever costs your team the most time. We will tell you whether this is the right path for your editors, including when the answer is no.

[Tell us about your project](https://www.sparkfabrik.com/en/contact-us/)

- CEO: Stefano Mainardi, [Book 30 minutes](https://calendar.app.google/5N7BejeB8h1HpkYs7)
- CTO: Paolo Mainardi, [Book 30 minutes](https://calendar.app.google/gwe2fWtNU1aL31JCA)

Updated October 30, 2026.

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