Bálint Pekker Explains the Shift from Installation Profiles to Recipes and Site Templates in Drupal

Staff Reporter

In a blog post published on 9 December 2025, Bálint Pekker, CTO of Cheppers, explores how modern Drupal projects benefit from moving beyond installation profiles. While profiles once provided a reliable way to bundle configuration and modules during site setup, their limitations — particularly their one-time use at install — have made room for more dynamic tools like Recipes and Site Templates.

Installation profiles have historically enabled consistent Drupal setups by preloading modules, user roles, and settings. But they’re locked to the installation phase and can’t be reused or reapplied once the site is live. That static nature makes them less useful in today’s agile workflows, where iterative changes and feature expansions are standard.

Recipes, in contrast, offer feature-based configuration bundles that can be applied at any time in a project’s lifecycle. Whether it’s enabling editorial workflows, adding a contact form, or integrating a blog section, Recipes are modular, reusable, and integrate cleanly via Drupal’s Checkpoint API. This allows restore points before application — a major benefit for live site deployments.

Site Templates build on top of Recipes by packaging a full site experience — content, design, layout, and features — ideal for launching new sites. Unlike old distributions or profiles, Site Templates allow developers to mix and match features through reusable Recipes, separating structure from presentation.

Pekker argues that this shift reflects how Drupal is evolving toward a more flexible and modular architecture. While profiles still have their place, especially in agency workflows, the momentum is clearly behind Recipes and Site Templates as the community's new standard for configuration management and feature delivery.

Reference: Are recipes replacing Drupal installation profiles? by Balint Pekker, Cheppers (9 December 2025)

Drupal Recipes

Site Templates

Workflow

Drupal 10

Configuration Management

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