Compare Platforms
Which Platform is Right for Me?
We offer two platforms (Drupal or WordPress). The platform chosen will depend on which platform best meets the needs for your site, or based on School requirements. All sites must comply with Terms of Use.
HarvardSites Drupal
Our Drupal platform is meant for Schools, departments, centers, initiatives, and academic profile (faculty) websites. It is our Enterprise-class offering and can serve virtually any type of site.
HarvardSites WordPress
Best suited for smaller sites, such as Academic Profiles (individual faculty sites), event landing pages, blogs.
Feature Comparison
| Features | HarvardSites Drupal | HarvardSites WordPress |
|---|---|---|
Support | Online documentation, training, service desk support (provided by HUIT) | Online documentation, training, service desk support (provided by CampusPress) |
Platform Updates – Regular security and platform updates | Yes | Yes |
Site Visibility Options | Public, Anyone with the Link, Site Members, HarvardKey protected, or specific Harvard groups (Grouper integration) | Public, Site Members Only |
Site Login with HarvardKey | Yes | Yes |
User Roles | Please refer to the HarvardSites Drupal User Guide | Please refer to the HarvardSites WordPress User Guide |
Data Security for up to Level 2 Data | Yes | Yes |
URL Structure | facultyname.scholars.harvard.edu, sitename.hsites.harvard.edu | sites.harvard.edu/sitename |
Custom harvard.edu Domains | Yes | Yes |
Accessibility | Themes are vetted for accessibility.However, site owners are responsible for accessibility compliance of their content | Themes are vetted for accessibility.However, site owners are responsible for accessibility compliance of their content |
Design Interface | Drupal Layout paragraphs | WordPress block editor (a.k.a, Gutenberg) |
Flexible layout options | Yes | Yes |
Design system-managed Harvard theme variations | Yes | Yes |
Design Customizations | Design modifications are managed by schools/units and HWP’s Design System | Design modifications will be managed by schools/units and HWP’s Design System |
Taxonomy (Tagging) | Supports custom and faceted taxonomy (tagging of content) | Supports simple categories to tag posts |
Duplicating and Cloning | Clone websites, pages, and components | Clone websites, pages, and blocks |
Import and Export | Future release | Yes |
Supports Google Analytics (GA4) and Google Tag Manager (GTM) | Yes | Yes |
Additional Features
| Additional Platform Features | HarvardSites Drupal | HarvardSites WordPress |
|---|---|---|
People Profiles (Directory) | Yes | Yes |
Blog/Announcements/News | News/Announcements functionality | Blog functionality |
Calendar/Events | Yes | Yes |
Classes/Courses | Yes | No |
Publications | Yes. Dynamically add, tag, and display publications | No. Publications can be displayed as a static list on a page |
Resources | Yes. Files, hyperlinks, and documents can be tagged and filtered | No. Lists of resources can be displayed as a static list on a page |
FAQs | Yes | Yes |
Post scheduling | Future Release | Yes |
Online forms – Allows embedding forms created in Qualtrics, Microsoft Forms, and Google forms | Yes | Yes |
Site Portfolio Management | Yes. Supports governance across groups of sites | No |