What are the benefits of migrating to Drupal 11?
Drupal 11 is the current major version of Drupal. The first supported Drupal 11 release was published in August 2024, and new features now land in Drupal 11 minor releases rather than Drupal 10. Drupal 10 remains supported until 9 December 2026, but for most organisations planning a move from Drupal 7 today, Drupal 11 is the right target version.
For editors, Drupal 11 gives you a much more modern editing experience than Drupal 7. Current Drupal 11 releases include improved CKEditor content editing, easier internal linking from the editor, more modern administration navigation, and stronger support for structured content and editorial workflows.
For administrators and developers, Drupal 11 brings a more modern technical foundation, easier configuration through Recipes, more flexible Workspaces, and a smoother upgrade path between supported major versions. That means a platform that is easier to maintain and easier to evolve over time.
Performance has also improved significantly. Drupal 11.3 introduced what Drupal describes as its biggest performance boost in a decade, alongside native HTMX support to reduce JavaScript weight and improve interactive experiences.
In practical terms, that means:
- a cleaner and more usable experience for editors
- a stronger, more maintainable platform for your team
- better performance and a longer support runway
- easier future upgrades than the old Drupal 7 to Drupal 8 style jump
The first thing you’ll notice is a real improvement in the user interface. This offers administrators more flexibility when building layouts. The publishing workflows are also much improved. Content editors will benefit from new improved content management, enabling you to reuse uploaded media in different ways.
If you're on Drupal 10, the path to Drupal 11 is straightforward.
“Our goal at Circle is to provide the latest and greatest version of Drupal to ensure you gain all the latest benefits, with security being at the forefront.”
Do I have to upgrade from Drupal 7?
Yes. Drupal 7 reached end of life on 5 January 2025 and is no longer community supported by Drupal.org. That means no new community security releases for Drupal 7 core, and no ongoing official community support for Drupal 7 contributed projects on Drupal.org either. Commercial extended support is available if you need more time, but that should be treated as a temporary risk-management measure rather than a long-term strategy.
The biggest risk of remaining on Drupal 7 is that regular security maintenance will come to an end. Some contrib modules are already not receiving any further updates. Your site functionality will also be at risk as well as integration of your site with other platforms.
How does the migration work?
Basically, the migration process starts with a new blank Drupal 11 site. The migration tools then push your users, configuration and content into the new site. Your theme will be upgraded for Drupal 11 and some elements of the site may need some further tweaking - especially block placements and some webforms. We’ll work this out with you.
For sites that are already on Drupal 10.3 or later, moving to Drupal 11 is a standard major-version upgrade.
How long will it take, and how much will it cost?
Each site is different and we’re working to offer the best value based on site functions and business needs whilst also trying to automate as much of our processes as possible. Small sites are likely to start at about 3-4 days work with large & complex sites taking many times longer. Speak to one of our account managers about likely costs for your site.
Could we move to Wordpress instead?
Absolutely and we will happily assist in that. However, bear in mind that for most sites this will be a much more substantial piece of work and you may lose some functionality. The tools available for automating content migration from Drupal to Wordpress won’t give as good results as migrating content from D7 to D11.
Drupal 12 is coming, will that mean another migration?
No, not another migration project on the scale of Drupal 7 to Drupal 11. One of the major goals of modern Drupal has been to make future upgrades much smoother. The published upgrade path from Drupal 10 to Drupal 11 is a standard major-version upgrade, and Drupal’s upgrade documentation also makes clear that major versions move forward consecutively rather than through another full rebuild model. Drupal 10 itself remains supported until 9 December 2026, after Drupal 12 is released.
So the big, disruptive leap is really the move away from Drupal 7. Once you are on a current supported version, future upgrades become far more manageable and predictable.
Will my site have all the same functionality?
In most cases, yes, and in some cases the functionality can be improved as part of the move. It may be that modules you relied on in Drupal 7 have newer or better-supported equivalents now, or that some workflows can be simplified as part of the rebuild.
The right first step is to audit your current processes and workflows. That helps separate what genuinely needs to be preserved from what can be improved, modernised or left behind.
What can I do to reduce the costs?
Review the current state of your system with your users and consider how it supports your goals and overall mission today. If your current website is built on Drupal 7 then it's likely that there will have been big changes in your organisation since the last rebuild.
Work with your team to determine which areas you want to keep much as they are, which to improve and what to leave behind. Maybe you want to take this opportunity to modernise your UX design or improve editorial workflows. Basing your decisions about your new Drupal 11 site on your current and anticipated needs will most likely reduce your project costs and future proof your system.
Talk to us.
We're here to help. We can make some recommendations based on a review or your current website and we are happy to facilitate discovery sessions too. Get in touch with us to start your Drupal 11 migration journey.
