Over the past few weeks, the Marketplace Working Group and volunteers have been busy laying the foundations for the months ahead. As a reminder, our goal is to determine whether a Drupal Site Template Marketplace can be designed in a way that is trusted, inclusive, sustainable, and viable—and to reach a go/no-go recommendation before DrupalCon Vienna.
From Idea to Critical Assumptions
Over the past few weeks, the Marketplace Working Group has been focused on a key early step: identifying the assumptions that must be true for a Drupal Site Template Marketplace to succeed.
Rather than moving directly into planning and building, we are working transparently with the community to surface and stress-test our most critical assumptions before making any final decisions.
In this update, we’ll share where we are now—and where we still need your help to validate what matters most.
Why Focus on Critical Assumptions?
The Marketplace is an exciting idea, but it brings with it real risks. Some assumptions, if wrong, could seriously harm Drupal’s ecosystem, community trust, or financial health. We’ve identified the early critical assumptions—those with:
- High impact if we’re wrong, and
- High uncertainty based on what we know today.
Rather than ignoring or minimizing these risks, we are bringing them forward, openly and early, so the community can engage with them directly.
Critical Assumptions Emerging So Far
From the emerging community feedback (Survey #1: Shaping the Drupal Marketplace: Contributor Perspectives, slack prompts, and deep discussion in this thread), several high-risk assumptions have emerged:
1. There will be enough demand for site templates to sustain a marketplace.
If we build it, will they come? And will they pay?”
Without real demand, the Marketplace won’t achieve its goals—and may strain community resources without impact.
How we’ll validate: Ongoing surveys to Drupal users and agencies; testing via Drupal CMS starter templates; scenario-based surveys during Real-Time Collaboration (RTC) sessions.
2. High-quality templates will be created and maintained.
We need to avoid a freemium wasteland of abandoned templates.”
Success depends on attracting contributors with design and UX skills—and ensuring long-term maintenance.
How we’ll validate: Contributor surveys about incentives, motivations, and barriers; prototype pilot tests; deeper exploration in RTC sessions.
3. The operational complexity of running a marketplace is manageable.
The DA can’t afford to build and maintain a marketplace that requires millions to operate."
The Marketplace must be financially and operationally sustainable from day one.
How we’ll validate: Modeling operational costs; evaluating automation options; benchmarking against other marketplaces.
4. A commercial element can be introduced without undermining open source values.
Commercialization must not erode what makes Drupal different.”
If done poorly, a commercial marketplace could fragment the ecosystem, damage trust, and alienate contributors.
How we’ll validate: Community consultation on licensing models; exploring models for attribution, revenue sharing, and code stewardship.
5. Governance structures can maintain trust and quality at scale.
If trust fails, the marketplace fails.”
The Marketplace must earn and maintain user and contributor trust through clear standards, quality controls, and transparent processes.
How we’ll validate: Testing community expectations through surveys; prototyping governance models; pilot feedback loops.
Important Tensions Emerging
Through open discussion, several important tensions have also surfaced:
- Open Source vs. Monetization:
Balancing the spirit of FOSS with the need for financial sustainability. - Support Expectations:
Clarifying who provides support for templates—and setting fair boundaries. - Future Risks:
Avoiding the slippery slope toward undermining Drupal collaborative ecosystem model or a poor signal-to-noise ratio from low quality or unsupported templates.
We recognize that these are not easily solved with a single conversation. They will require ongoing community engagement, transparency, and iteration.
Where We Are Now
Here’s what’s been accomplished so far:
- Roadmap finalized for how we'll reach a go/no-go decision.
- Volunteer team onboarded, and we're beginning weekly coordination around community engagement.
- Community framing completed, based on early signals from surveys, Slack prompts, and discussions.
- Critical assumptions identified through our Week 2 Assumption Slam.
What’s Next
Over the coming weeks, we’re moving systematically through key questions:
- Contribution Value: What would make it worthwhile for someone to contribute a template?
- Governance & Trust: What signals would make users feel confident using a marketplace template?
- Ecosystem Fit: How can the marketplace align with, not compete against, existing agency and contributor models?
- Contributor Experience: What support is needed to help contributors succeed?
Each week, we’ll continue to validate assumptions, evolve our thinking, and ensure that what we’re building—if we build it—is something the community truly wants and can stand behind.
Thank you to everyone who has already shared feedback, challenged assumptions, and raised important questions. Your voices are helping shape this work.
Stay tuned—and stay involved.
How You Can Get Involved
- Respond to weekly Slack prompts.
This week: What would make it worthwhile for you to contribute a template? - Join our upcoming Real-Time Collaboration (RTC) session
First session: 1 May 2025 at 15:30 UTC about Co-creating Value and Incentives - Share your perspective on the surveys when they open.
How could a Drupal Site Template Marketplace Help You? for Agencies and potential End Users of templates. - Bring forward your own assumptions and risks we may have missed.