Acquia adds DX8 to portfolio with Cohesion acquisition

A closeup of two people wearing suits shaking hands

Digital experience firm Acquia has announced the acquisition of Cohesion, creator of the first enterprise-grade, low-code Drupal website builder DX8.

The move will exclusively open up "unprecedented creativity and speed" for Acquia customers to build digital experiences, enabling those with minimal coding skills to create Drupal websites up to 4x faster than via alternative platforms, according to user testing.

Available now, Cohesion DX8 offers content marketers and website builders in-browser creation of themes, layouts and pages to help create modern, attractive sites on the Drupal content management platform.

"Businesses need to launch, manage, and update their websites quicker and more efficiently than ever before," said Dries Buytaert, co-founder, CTO and chairman of Acquia. "This acquisition allows Acquia to continue simplifying the way organisations of all sizes build, style, and design websites."

Not only can partners now create scalable sites from scratch at a faster rate than traditional methods, but multi-brand organisations with multiple Drupal websites can also create and maintain brand consistency across their whole range. The addition of DX8 also means Acquia is currently the only Drupal company to let businesses create and modify sites, layouts and templates using an intuitive drag-and-drop interface.

"Using Cohesion DX8 will be a complete game-changer for many; it will enable organisations to launch Drupal websites much faster, while still offering unprecedented creative freedom, brand consistency, and governance for digital marketers and content authors," Buytaert added.

Cohesion said the companies' shared vision for digital experiences brings together "the ultimate productivity kit for Drupal", complete with "best-in-class" website editing capabilities so organisations can efficiently respond to client requirements.

"Cohesion's vision was to revolutionise the way Drupal websites are built through low-code, visual solutions," commented Drew Griffiths, CEO and founder of Cohesion. "With the addition of Cohesion DX8's technology, Acquia will make it possible for organizations and agencies with demanding requirements to launch websites faster, while maintaining consistency across multiple brands, regions, or divisions.

"This allows technical resources to focus on more complex functionality, so organizations can spend more developer time on high value areas of the website and less time pushing pixels."

Daniel Todd

Dan is a freelance writer and regular contributor to ChannelPro, covering the latest news stories across the IT, technology, and channel landscapes. Topics regularly cover cloud technologies, cyber security, software and operating system guides, and the latest mergers and acquisitions.

A journalism graduate from Leeds Beckett University, he combines a passion for the written word with a keen interest in the latest technology and its influence in an increasingly connected world.

He started writing for ChannelPro back in 2016, focusing on a mixture of news and technology guides, before becoming a regular contributor to ITPro. Elsewhere, he has previously written news and features across a range of other topics, including sport, music, and general news.