# What you can build on Acquia

Acquia gives you a Drupal backend two ways: **Source CMS**, a SaaS site Acquia runs for you, or **Cloud Platform**, hosting for a Drupal [application](/start-here/glossary/#application-cloud-platform) you run yourself. Either backend renders its own pages with no separate frontend (the default mode, **[in-platform rendering](/start-here/glossary/#in-platform-rendering)**), or serves content over an API to a frontend you build (**[headless](/start-here/glossary/#headless)**). Those two choices, who runs the backend and who renders the pages, are independent, so there are four combinations.

## Before you start

You need an Acquia account, plus the backend for your path: a Cloud Platform application you can access, or a Source CMS [site](/start-here/glossary/#site) you can administer. The direct JSON:API path and every write also need an [API client](/start-here/glossary/#api-client)'s credentials: `DRUPAL_SITE_URL`, `DRUPAL_CLIENT_ID`, `DRUPAL_CLIENT_SECRET`; the Canvas Headless quickstart needs only the site. If you don't have them yet:

- **No account?** Start a <a href="https://www.acquia.com/products/acquia-cloud-platform/trial" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Cloud Platform free trial</a>: self-serve, no credit card, and it gives you a Drupal 11 application with its codebase already provisioned in the repository, Dev, Stage, and Prod [environments](/start-here/glossary/#environment), and a [Cloud IDE](/start-here/glossary/#cloud-ide) with [acli](/start-here/glossary/#acli) installed, so the Cloud Platform paths open the same day. For a Source CMS [site](/start-here/glossary/#site), <a href="https://www.acquia.com/request-a-demo/acquia-source" target="_blank" rel="noopener">request a Source demo</a> or ask your organization's [subscription](/start-here/glossary/#subscription) admin to invite you.
- **A Cloud Platform application**: if your organization already has a subscription, ask its [subscription](/start-here/glossary/#subscription) admin for access to the application you need; the trial above is the self-serve route when there is no subscription yet.
- **A site**: your subscription's first Source CMS site is created for you automatically; create more from the Sites Dashboard ([creating a new site, on docs.acquia.com](https://docs.acquia.com/acquia-source/creating-new-site)).
- **API client credentials** (for the direct JSON:API path and writes): the [auth quickstart](/source-cms/authenticate/quickstart/) creates them in about ten minutes.

## What you can build

- **A headless frontend on Source CMS.** Your own Next.js, Astro, or Nuxt app renders the site, fetching content over JSON:API, and with [Canvas Headless](/start-here/glossary/#canvas-headless) editors keep composing pages from your app's components in the visual editor: no backend to install or operate. Start with the [Canvas Headless quickstart](/source-cms/get-content/quickstart/); [your first content fetch](/source-cms/content-api/first-fetch/) is the advanced path, when you need the content as data.
- **A Canvas site on Source CMS.** No separate frontend: editors compose pages visually in [Drupal Canvas](/start-here/glossary/#drupal-canvas) from components you write as React/JSX. Start with [your first Canvas component](/source-cms/canvas-components/quickstart/).
- **A Drupal codebase on Cloud Platform.** Full control of a Drupal application, rendering in-platform or headless, deployed to Cloud Platform through git. Start with [shipping a change to a dev environment](/cloud-platform/code-workflow/quickstart/).
- **An AI agent against your content.** Connect an agent to a Source CMS site over MCP and make it a real tool call. Start with [connecting an AI agent](/source-cms/ai-agents/quickstart/).

[Choose your path](/start-here/choose-your-backend/) walks through two questions and points you at all four combinations.