Drupal compared to building a database

Building a database from scratch using MySQL requires learning the SQL language and using either the command line or “front end” software to manually create and populate tables. This approach requires users to be more comfortable with writing code and using environments geared towards code use, as opposed to user-friendly graphical interfaces.

Creating a database involves a great deal of work that doesn’t directly lead to a web-accessible “thing” at the end. A database is a backend; to make it available on the web, you also have to develop a user interface using some other programming language, or figure out how to import your data into a system that provides such an interface.

Working with Drupal gives you the flexible customizability of building a database from scratch, combined with the native ability to display content online, along with the ability to easily develop your own queries and interfaces to the data without writing any custom code.