Open source is not fading because it no longer works. It is losing ground because the economic and political systems around it are under strain. When recent market data is viewed alongside developments within public institutions, a clearer, more uncomfortable picture emerges.
Cloudflare’s 2025 analysis of the top 5,000 domains shows a sharp shift at the surface. WordPress drops from 53 per cent to 41 per cent in a single year. Drupal slips more modestly from 4.8 per cent to 4.1 per cent. Combined, the two fell from 57.8 per cent to 45.1 per cent. At the same time, proprietary and semi-proprietary platforms fragment the market. Webflow jumps to 15 per cent, Contentful reaches nearly 7 per cent, and Adobe Experience Manager, while declining, still holds 14 per cent. This is not a simple story of open source being replaced. It is a story of specialisation, short-term convenience, and capital flowing toward tools optimised for speed rather than governance.
Beneath those CMS numbers, the infrastructure layer tells a different story. Drupal-focused platforms such as Pantheon, Acquia Cloud Platform, and Platform.sh grow from a combined 2.66 per cent to 3.54 per cent and move into the top tier of PaaS providers. These platforms support governments, universities, and major nonprofits, the organisations with the highest demands for security, compliance, and long-term stability. Open source remains strongest where failure is not an option, even as budget pressure and frozen procurement slow new initiatives.
This is why sustaining open source matters. Open source is not just a development model. It is the foundation for digital sovereignty, institutional resilience, and public accountability. Without sustained investment in maintainers, contributors, and open infrastructure, control shifts toward closed platforms driven by short-term incentives. If open source weakens, public institutions lose leverage, transparency erodes, and long-term costs rise. The question is no longer whether open source is capable. It is whether we are willing to support it as the critical public infrastructure it already is.
With that, let’s move on to the major stories from last week.
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We acknowledge that there are more stories to share. However, due to selection constraints, we must pause further exploration for now. To get timely updates, follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter, Bluesky, and Facebook. You can also join us on Drupal Slack at #thedroptimes.
Thank you.
Alka Elizabeth
Sub-editor
The DropTimes
