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Can anyone explain to me the difference between content type and custom content type?

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Custom content type can be used with two different meanings:

  • Any node type (bundle, or entity bundle, in Drupal 8 terminology) created from the user interface (admin/structure/types/add in Drupal 7 and Drupal 8) from users with the right permissions

  • Any node type implemented from third-party modules

What is not a custom content type is a content type created from a Drupal core module, or a Drupal core profile. For example, the Forum topic content type is created from the Forum module, while the Article content type is created from the Standard profile.

For the rest, there isn't much difference between a custom content type and a content type: Both can be extended with fields.
There could be a difference between a content type created from a module (core module or third-party module) and a content type created through the user interface: the content type fields that aren't created from the user interface made available from the Field UI module. For example, the Forum module adds to the Forum topic content type a reference field for a vocabulary the module created. Similarly, the Standard profile adds a field to attach an image to nodes of the Article content type.

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A content type is a type of node. Node types (aka content types) are generally created through the browser UI. However, they can also be created through code, which people refer generally refer to as a custom content type.

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    Custom content type has always meant content type created by the user in my experience. The docs seem to agree: drupal.org/docs/7/nodes-content-types-and-fields/…
    – Clive ♦
    Apr 3, 2018 at 13:53
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    Then again the D8 docs page with a similar title refer to them as those created in YML: drupal.org/docs/8/api/entity-api/…. So I think the take away is that custom means whatever you want it to mean, and doesn't have particular significance in Drupal
    – Clive ♦
    Apr 3, 2018 at 13:56
  • Yeah, it's not really an official term. Just whatever a person thinks it is when they refer to it.
    – Jaypan
    Apr 3, 2018 at 13:57
  • But I thought the custom content type WAS the content created in the UI?? I am hearing "content type" and "custom content type" as synonymous phrases which I why I am getting confused. I thought the custom content type is similar to "custom post types" in WordPress. I know you DONT want to give that kind of control to a user/editor generally which is why I'm thinking allowing a user to make a whole other custom content type might be haphazard down the road. Does anybody have any clarity on my thought process?
    – Greg
    Apr 3, 2018 at 14:23
  • Forget WP that'll confuse things more, you just need to get a handle on basic Drupal terminology... content type is a type of content. Content is a piece of content - an instance of a content type. Anywhere you see the word Custom prepended to content type, you can pretty much assume it just means this one was created by a user, not by a core or contributed module. Whether that happened through the UI or code is largely irrelevant. Drupal doesn't have an official concept of a custom content type, just content types, the prefix comes from the people who are using it to build things
    – Clive ♦
    Apr 3, 2018 at 14:34

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