What are the magic numbers?

I'm often asked about just how scaleable Drupal is. How many unique site visitor-visits (uniques) can Drupal sustain? How long will pages take to load? What happens to that capacity if I upgrade the server or turn on more modules?

The answers aren't simple. As Drupal and the server hardware that runs it evolve, they're constantly changing. I work off 100,000 uniques/month, logged in, 4-5 mean pages/visit, dedicated single quad-core server. The real question? Is Drupal right for you?

The huge open-source code base makes Drupal an attractive option to web entrepreneurs (publishers), looking to:

• get their idea online
• functionally complete
• looking good
• as inexpensively as possible
• and yesterday

In the cheap-fast-good paradigm, Drupal seems to have it all. Builds can be done very quickly and so long as publishers as pragmatic about user experience, developers can leverage the plethora of Community modules to deliver high-end functionality on a budget.

Long-term Drupal is a stepping stone. It allows you to build sites very quickly, trial functionality and sustain companies and communities well beyond the start-up phase. It's not a viable alternative to a bespoke CMS if your traffic is competing with Google!