Strategic advantages of migrating from Drupal 7 to Drupal 10
As the digital landscape evolves, staying ahead of technological advancements is crucial for business success. With Drupal 7 reaching its end of life (EOL) on January 5, 2025, the urgency to upgrade to Drupal 10 has never been greater. This upgrade not only addresses security and performance issues but also unlocks new opportunities for innovation and business growth.
In this article, we will explore the strategic advantages of migrating to Drupal 10, the common challenges associated with migration, and present a unique alternative to costly and labour-intensive traditional Drupal upgrades.
End of Life for Drupal 7
As Drupal 7 approaches its EOL, it will no longer receive security updates or official support from the Drupal community. Without these updates, your website becomes increasingly vulnerable to security and technical issues. Relying on outdated technology not only compromises your website's integrity and performance, but also limits its potential for innovation and growth. Upgrading to Drupal 10 ensures that your website remains secure, compliant with modern web standards and prepared for the future.
Why migrate from Drupal 7 to Drupal 10?
Here are the top five strategic advantages that every business owner should consider when evaluating the need to migrate from Drupal 7:
Advanced security architecture
One of the most significant reasons to migrate to Drupal 10 is its advanced security architecture. Built on Symfony 6, Drupal 10 offers modern, robust security features that significantly improve protection against attacks. It also introduces automatic updates, which ensure timely deployment of critical security patches, reducing the risk of vulnerabilities.
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Given that Drupal 7 reaches its end-of-life, continuing to use it exposes your website to serious imminent risks due to the lack of ongoing security updates.
Modern development framework
Drupal 10 offers a modern development framework that increases team efficiency and improves overall site performance. Leveraging the capabilities of Symfony 6, it offers a more flexible, component-based architecture. This allows developers to create code that is faster, more efficient and easier to maintain. With support for PHP 8, Drupal 10 improves performance, reduces memory use, and speeds up execution times.
- Continuing with Drupal 7 post-EOL compromises site performance and increases its development and maintenance costs due to its reliance on legacy code.
Improved editorial experience
Another advantage of migrating to Drupal 10 is the improved editorial experience it offers. The platform comes with improved themes and user interface elements that make content management more intuitive. The new modern Claro admin theme and Olivero frontend theme are responsive, user-friendly, and designed with accessibility in mind.
- Transitioning to Drupal 10 allows organisations to offer a more seamless experience for both site administrators and content editors, improving productivity and reducing training time.
One of the highlights of a modern Drupal CMS is its powerful frontend editing functionality. Watch this short video or access a preconfigured Drupal CMS in less than two minutes and check out its intuitive editorial experience first hand.
Seamless end-user experience
Drupal 10 also brings a number of benefits to your end-users. It improves their user experience by optimising site performance, improving mobile responsiveness, and adhering to modern accessibility standards. The latter is becoming increasingly relevant due to the European Accessibility Act that both, the public and private sectors, must comply with by 28 June 2025.
- Sites built on Drupal 10 are faster, more intuitive and accessible, and provide a better experience for visitors on any device. This helps comply with legislation, and boost customer engagement.
One of the top features of a modern Drupal CMS is its built-in accessibility auditing tool (WAVE). It makes it easier to identify and rectify barriers that prevent users from fully engaging with your digital content, as well as to maintain accessibility standards over time, thereby complying with regulations in force.
Long-term business success
Migrating to Drupal 10 positions your website for long-term success. Its architecture is designed for forward compatibility, making future upgrades less disruptive. Moreover, Drupal 10 aligns with the latest web technologies, ensuring your site remains fast, secure, and compliant with emerging industry standards. The headless and multilingual capabilities, improved APIs and third-party integrations available in Drupal 10 will allow your site to evolve with new business requirements, future-proofing it for years to come.
- Using Drupal 7 after its end-of-life slows down future development and limits your potential for innovation and growth.
Common challenges of migrating from Drupal 7
While migrating from Drupal 7 to Drupal 10 offers significant advantages, it is a time-consuming and costly process. This undertaking involves various technical, resource, and operational challenges:
Compatibility issues
Many contributed modules and custom functionalities developed for Drupal 7 may not be compatible with Drupal 10. This can lead to a need for significant rewrites or replacements, impacting the overall migration process.
Complex migration process
The migration itself is often complex and can involve various steps, including data migration, content mapping, and preserving all features. The need for thorough testing to validate that everything functions correctly after migration adds to this complexity.
Need for design update
Drupal 10 introduces new themes and user interface components that may require a redesign of your site. This means that businesses not only need to migrate content but also may need to invest in design changes to leverage the new capabilities and improve user experience.
Budget limitations
Upgrading can be costly, especially for organisations with limited budgets. Costs can arise from hiring developers, redesigning the site, and implementing new features. If resources are tight, this can pose a significant challenge.
Capacity constraints
Organisations may face internal capacity constraints, including limited technical expertise or staff bandwidth. Insufficient resources can complicate the migration process, leading to delays and increased costs.
A unique alternative to traditional Drupal upgrades
To help organisations to overcome these challenges and fully leverage the benefits of Drupal 10, we have partnered with Pantheon, one of the leading WebOps platform providers.
Together, we offer a unique alternative to costly and labour-intensive traditional Drupal upgrades - the opportunity to migrate to a preconfigured, feature-rich, and fully managed Drupal 10 CMS.
This approach allows for a faster, more cost-effective transition while providing significant benefits in terms of system capabilities and overall user experience. The significant time and cost savings during the upgrade enable you to focus on innovation, fully leveraging the capabilities of a modern CMS system.
Read more about our unique solution
Choosing a reliable Drupal migration partner
Migrating a website from Drupal 7 to Drupal 10 it´s a strategic business move. The complexity of such a migration requires careful planning, advanced technical skills, and the right expertise for a smooth transition. Selecting a reliable Drupal migration partner can determine the success of your migration project. Learn more about our collaboration with Pantheon and the unique advantages of migrating with us.
Why choose 1xINTERNET and Pantheon for your Drupal 7 migration project
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