ForterroAlmost 20 websites on one Drupal multisite platform
Forterro | Drupal multisite platform (Composable Multisite)
Digitalist designed and built Forterro a composable Drupal multisite platform that now runs almost 20 brand and product websites in several European languages. The platform is built for organizations with many brands, products, markets or business units, which usually means many separate websites, each with its own CMS, design and integrations. Every new site is built on the same platform, quickly and with integrations already in place.
- Digital transformation
- Online brand experience
- Content management solutions
- Integrations & architecture
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Forterro is a pan-European industrial software group with more than 25,000 customers, 2,500+ employees and 40+ offices. Its portfolio includes more than 20 products and brands, marketed in languages including English, German, French, Polish and Swedish.
Once you run dozens of sites, the web estate is no longer a marketing detail. It decides how fast a new product or market can go online, how consistently the brand shows up, and how much it costs to keep separate stacks secure and up to date.
Together with Digitalist, Forterro stopped building websites one by one and built a platform instead. It has one codebase, one design system, shared integrations and a repeatable model for bringing any new site onto the platform, whether it's for a new product, a new market or a brand that joins through an acquisition.
A familiar problem: too many separate websites and CMSs
The goal: one platform for every brand and product site
Bring separate brand and product sites together into one coherent digital presence, without slowing down local marketing.
Forterro needed a platform where the group sets the brand, components and integrations once, and every brand site and market benefits. At the same time, product and country teams had to keep control of their own content, languages and campaigns.
The challenge: separate sites made everything slower and more expensive
Before the platform, Forterro's websites were separate monolithic sites, each with its own design, database, CMS and hosting. Updates were slow and risky, security and maintenance work was repeated site by site, and brand consistency depended on manual work.
On top of that, the portfolio keeps growing through new products, markets and acquisitions. Without a standard model, every new site would mean a new web project, a new budget and a long wait before the product could be marketed under the Forterro brand.
The result: almost 20 sites on one scalable platform
Almost 20 websites now run on the same platform. Brand, components, integrations and security are managed once, centrally.
The sites include Forterro, 123 Insight, BPSC, Clipper ERP, Fortee, Garp, Helios ERP, myfactory, Orderwise and Silog.
New sites are assembled from proven building blocks and connected to the marketing stack from day one. Bringing a new site onto the platform, whether it's for a new product, a new market or an acquired company, is now a repeatable process, not a separate project.
Our partnership has been exceptional, characterized by seamless collaboration, efficient workflows, and quick response times. Thanks to this strong cooperation, we’ve successfully launched numerous sites with speed and precision—achievements that would have been challenging without this level of synergy and dedication.
How the Drupal multisite platform works at enterprise scale
Headless Drupal, Next.js and a shared design system
The platform combines a headless Drupal backend with Next.js (React) frontends. Content, users and permissions are governed centrally, while each brand site and market runs its own frontend and languages. Composable architecture means the platform is made of independent, replaceable parts, so any part can be improved or swapped without rebuilding the whole system. Every site is built from a shared design system and component library: the group controls brand and quality in one place, and teams launch new pages and sites from tested components instead of briefing new development.
Built-in marketing integrations and AI-accelerated development
Each site connects to Forterro's marketing and sales stack out of the box: HubSpot, Salesforce Pardot (Marketing Cloud Account Engagement), PinPoint Careers and other marketing tools. Leads, campaign data and job applicants flow into the same systems, whichever site they come from.
Delivery is sped up by AI agents connected to the platform through MCP (Model Context Protocol). They work with the platform's code, components and content model, and help the team build components, migrate content from old sites and run quality checks.
Automated testing and continuous integration keep releases safe across every site.
Toolkit
- Drupal (headless CMS)
- Next.js (React)
- Design system & component library
- HubSpot
- Salesforce Pardot (Marketing Cloud Account Engagement)
- PinPoint Careers
- AI agents & MCP (Model Context Protocol)
- Automated testing & CI
Composable architecture is the go-to approach for modern organizations
The beauty of this approach lies in its flexibility and future-proof nature. With a composable architecture, you can easily swap out components as your needs evolve or when better options become available. This means your platform stays resilient, adaptable, and ready to meet future demands. It’s exactly the approach we took with Forterro, ensuring their multisite platform is not only robust today but also built to grow and adapt tomorrow.
By allowing each component to function independently, businesses can easily adapt to changing market needs, integrate new technologies, and customize solutions without overhauling their entire system. This modular approach ensures that organizations stay agile, future-proof, and able to deliver consistent, high-quality user experiences across all digital platforms.
Check out these services
eCommerce Solutions
Digital Transformation
Integrations & architecture
FAQ
Drupal multisite in a nutshell
What is a Drupal multisite platform?
A Drupal multisite platform is one web platform that runs many separate websites from a single codebase. The sites share a design system, components and integrations, but each has its own content, languages and domain.
Who is a multisite platform for?
Organizations with many brands, products, markets or business units, and therefore many separate websites. Typical examples are international groups, multi-brand companies and organizations growing through acquisitions.
How is an existing website moved onto the platform?
We map the old site's content and structure, move the content into the platform's content model and assemble the pages from ready-made design system components. Integrations are connected at the same time. The source platform doesn't matter, and AI agents speed up the content migration.
Can each site have its own look?
Yes. All sites are built from the same design system, and each brand can have its own theme. At Forterro the sites follow the group brand, while each product and market has its own content and languages.
Which integrations does the platform have?
Forterro's sites connect to HubSpot, Salesforce Pardot (Marketing Cloud Account Engagement), PinPoint Careers and other marketing tools. Integrations are built once and are available to every new site from day one.
What are the benefits of a composable, headless architecture?
Content management (headless Drupal) and the frontend (Next.js) are separate, so each can evolve on its own. The platform is made of replaceable parts, so any single part can be renewed without rebuilding the whole system.
How is AI used in developing the platform?
The development team uses AI agents connected to the platform through MCP (Model Context Protocol). The agents work with the platform's code, components and content model, and help build components, migrate content and run quality checks.
Who builds and maintains the platform?
Digitalist designed and built Forterro's multisite platform and develops it continuously. Automated testing and continuous integration make sure updates can be released safely to every site.