Drupal Updates: Do You Really Need to Upgrade?

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Drupal was born in January 2001. Throughout the years, the project evolved massively like any other project on the Internet that still exists. To remain competitive, it needs to have new features, be fast and secure. As the project is written in PHP, each new version of Drupal needs to rely on PHP versions as they also evolve and provide new functionalities and security updates.

Understanding Drupal versions lifecycle

This is an overview of how each version of Drupal fits into its lifecycle:

  • Drupal 11: This is the latest version
  • Drupal 10: Stable and supported until 2026
  • Drupal 9: End of support November 2023
  • Drupal 8: End of support November 2021
  • Drupal 7: End of support January 2025

More info here: https://endoflife.date/drupal

 

Why upgrading your Drupal website?

Security

Not upgrading the website makes it more vulnerable, especially to critical security breaches. There’s a new minor version every month that corrects the little details and in critical cases, upgrades are available very quickly.

Compatibility

Drupal is developed in PHP and each version of Drupal works with different versions of PHP that also become vulnerable with time. For example, Drupal 7 was originally released to work with PHP 5.6 which is no longer supported since December 2018. It’s still compatible with newer PHP versions but hosting providers stop using old versions so the website might become obsolete simply because it can’t be hosted anymore.

Performance

Each new version aims to optimse the cache, the performance and anything that decrease the time to load the website, which is very important for the user experience and to be better ranked by search engines.

User experience

Drupal 8 has was a major turning point in the way Drupal works and how it looks like. If we compare a Drupal 7 to any other more recent version, the improvement is significant. Since Drupal 8, the interface looks quite the same but each version has brought some interesting features that made it more enjoyable and smooth to work with.

Should I upgrade my Drupal website right now?

There are four scenarios:

  1. Drupal 7

You must take action urgently regarding your website!

Drupal 7 is obsolete, it was released in early 2011 and the reason why Drupal 7 has still been supported until january 2025 is that the transition from Drupal 7 to 8 (and all following versions) was a major shift in how Drupal is developed. In other words, upgrading a Drupal 7 website requires a complete rebuild. So to let companies upgrade the website, they extended many times the end of life.

  1. Drupal 8 - 9

Both versions are no longer supported; Drupal 9 reached its end of life in November 2023. However, the transition is not as radical as moving from Drupal 7 to 8. It mainly involves upgrading the core and all modules. It requires some development but it’s part of a upgrading process over the time.

  1. Drupal 10

All good for now. Just make sure to keep minor versions up to date to avoid security risks. However, since Drupal 10 is supported until 2026, you should start thinking about the next upgrade, but there is no urgency for now.

  1. Drupal 11

This is the latest version, so for now, it's important to keep up with minor updates.

 

Conclusion: Should I really upgrade my Drupal website?

Keeping the website up-to-date is a good practice. At least ensuring that we have the latest minor version. On the other hand, with the major versions, it depends.

If you’re running Drupal 10, it might be worth waiting, simply because some modules are still not compatible with Drupal 11. But keep in mind that next year, updating to at least version 11 will become necessary.

However, in any other case, upgrading is essential!

So in conclusion, if you're on Drupal 7 to 9, you need to take action now. If you need advice on your transition, feel free to contact me.