Why you have to avoid Custom Code in your Drupal website as a small/medium sized organisation

Custom Code unsustainable

Custom Code makes you dependent on the developer who created this piece of code. What happens if the code needs to be changed but the developer has moved on or isn’t available for a long period of time? You might end up with a broken website.

In theory it is always possible to let another developer take a swing at it, but most likely they will grunt at the code they get presented and will tell you it’s better to start from scratch. Which is fair, because it probably will be faster for them than to go through someone else’s code trying to figure out how they created the solution. 

Compare this to an already available Drupal module which you can download and use for free. Every Drupal module has a maintainer who is responsible for bugs and feature requests. If this maintainer becomes inactive it is possible for someone else to pick up where they left. Everyone can report a bug or request a feature and multiple developers can look into a sustainable solution.

When you can’t avoid Custom Code

If you need to connect Drupal to another system, such as an internal CRM tool, it is impossible to avoid some Custom Code. The arguments above still apply, though. Is it really necessary to connect these systems to Drupal to sync data? If it only concerns a few instances every month maybe it’s something that can be done by hand. If it is a well known system there might already be a module available, so make sure to check that first.

Update: After posting this blog I got a few reactions and I feel like I need to nuance a bit. If you are a developer and you can create a solution writing 10 lines of Custom Code instead of using a couple of modules, then by all means go for it. This blog is intended as a cautionary tale for organisations wasting money on a small part of a Drupal website (Custom Code) where it could better be spent on other facets of the website. Let me phrase it this way: if the Custom Code costs more than a third of the total price of your Drupal website, there might be something askew making you reconsider.

How do you feel about Custom Code?

Let me know by leaving a comment. I'm interested to hear use cases where Custom Code is unavoidable or why Custom Code might be better than an existing module.

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