Released on January 5, 2011, and still supported, Drupal 7 is the longest-lasting version of Drupal. At its peak, it was used by over a million users, indicating the extremely high popularity of the system. Even today, despite the Drupal 10 release and the myriad of new features and improvements that came with it, roughly 306,000 website owners still rely on Drupal 7.
However, everything eventually comes to an end. Drupal 7 end of life is coming on January 5, 2025, marking a 14-year history of the seventh version of the CMS. Official support for Drupal 7 from the Drupal community will cease, including updates, security fixes, and enhancements from the Drupal Association and the Drupal Security Team.
That means staying on Drupal 7 will no longer be secure. And if you are still using it, you have a few months to upgrade or switch to another CMS.
As a company specializing in Drupal migration services, AnyforSoft is here to help you move from the soon-to-be outdated environment. In the following paragraphs, you will learn what Drupal 7 EOL means for your business and what you can do about it.
Let’s dive right in!
Drupal 7 End of Life: What It Means for Your Business
Ending on January 5, 2025, Drupal 7 will soon be officially deprecated. Using this version will not be a wise option for the following reasons:
- No community support. After the Drupal 7 EOL date, the Drupal community will no longer provide support, including bug fixes, security patches, or updates for Drupal 7 core and contributed modules. Drupal 7 sites will be subject to security vulnerabilities, leading to data breaches.
- Compliance issues. Depending on your business, location, and industry, running a site on an outdated CMS will affect compliance with GDPR, HIPAA, PCI-DSS, and other regulations, as they require up-to-date software. This may result in substantial fines for your company and potential revocation of your license.
- Performance limitations. Since many Drupal modules and tools are no longer supported and the CMS relies on an outdated architecture, a Drupal 7 site runs slower than a site on Drupal 10 or another modern content management system. As the latest versions of Drupal and other CMSs continue to receive new features and improvements, Drupal 7 websites will fall further behind in functionality, performance, and security.
That’s why Drupal 7 site owners should start the migration process as soon as possible.
Migrating from Drupal 7: What Options You Have
According to official usage statistics for Drupal Core, the number of Drupal 7 users is decreasing as the end of life for Drupal 7 approaches. If in July 2015 the version could boast over 1 million active users, today that number is only slightly over 306,000.
At the same time, Drupal 10 is growing in popularity. In December 2023, the latest version of the CMS was used by only 20,664 users, whereas today it powers 169,677 websites.
However, if you take a look at the overall usage of Drupal, you’ll notice the decline in the CMS’s popularity.
Some believe it happens because Drupal is turning from the “everyman's CMS” to an enterprise-level CMS. Others attribute the decline to the competition from other content management systems as well as the growing number of website builders that allow users to create simple websites without coding. Whatever the case, the fact remains: the number of Drupal users is declining.
Considering this, you may be asking yourself: should I migrate to Drupal 10 or move to another CMS? Let’s review both options.
Read also: Should You Use Headless Drupal? Pros and Cons of Decoupled Architecture
Migrating to Drupal 10
If you or your team are used to the Drupal system and know it like the back of your hand, there’s no need to switch your CMS. You can simply upgrade to the latest Drupal version and enjoy the benefits of Drupal while staying in the familiar environment. The release of Drupal 10 comes with many new features and improvements, including the Olivero theme, Claro administration theme, CKEditor 5, Starterkit theme generator, Symfony 6.2, and PHP 8.1. It offers more security, performance, and stability compared to the 7th version.
Pros of migrating to Drupal 10:
- Familiar environment
- Improved features
- Enhanced security
- Performance optimizations
- Community support
- Modern architecture
Tip: Don’t forget to create a Drupal backup file when migrating.
Migrating to another CMS
If you don’t want to stay on Drupal, you can switch to one of the alternatives. Current market leaders are WordPress, Wix, Joomla, Shopify, and Squarespace.
WordPress is the most popular content management system powering 62.7% of websites. It boasts a user-friendly interface, thousands of themes for web design, and SEO-friendliness. Besides, WP has the largest user community that can help in case of issues and emergencies. One of the CMS’s biggest advantages is its huge plugin ecosystem: there are more than 60,000 free plugins that can dramatically enhance the functionality of your website. WordPress is versatile and can be used for any website, be it an eCommerce store, a business website, or a complex web application.
Wix is a website builder with a myriad of pre-made templates for website creation. Unlike other website builders, it offers many advanced features. One of them is Artificial Design Intelligence. Wix can design a site for you—all you have to do is answer a few simple questions. It also supports eCommerce functionality with features like abandoned cart recovery and secure online payments. In addition, the CMS offers over 250 different apps that can be integrated for enhanced functionality. Note that Wix is a suitable option for small and medium-sized businesses that don't require highly complex features or extensive customization; for large enterprises that need high scalability and flexibility, this CMS might not be the best option.
Joomla is an open-source CMS with multilingual support out of the box and other valuable features. One of its advantages is that it allows you to implement minor customizations without having to download third-party plugins. For example, you can utilize different templates for each individual page on your website, which is not available for WordPress users (unless they use a third-party plugin). Apart from that, Joomla is highly secure, with features such as Access Control List, two-factor authentication, Google reCAPTCHA, and GDPR compliance.
Shopify is a content management system for eCommerce businesses. It offers a wide range of ready-made templates, a user-friendly live theme editor for customization, and valuable eCommerce features. The CMS also provides protection against fraud-based chargebacks on eligible transactions. On top of that, it offers advanced analytics and reports that you can use to assess your store’s performance. Just like Wix, Shopify may not be the best solution for large e-commerce businesses with high scalability requirements.
Squarespace is a website builder with professional mobile-friendly design templates. Unlike Wix, it allows you to install multiple templates on a single website and switch between them. The CMS is SEO-friendly, with features like automatic tagging, clean URLs, and automatic redirects. In addition to that, Squarespace boasts valuable built-in marketing solutions and eCommerce tools, including abandoned cart recovery and inventory management.
Conclusion
As the end of life of Drupal 7 draws nearer, you have to decide whether to stay on Drupal and upgrade or opt for another CMS. We understand that this decision is tough and requires careful consideration of many factors. Business requirements, migration complexity, cost, the technical expertise of your team, website performance, and many other parameters come into play and should be taken into account.
If you have a hard time choosing the right solution for your business, try out Drupal consulting services. As a company with over 12 years of expertise in Drupal and other major content management systems, we will analyze your needs and help you find the most suitable option. We will also assist you at every stage of the migration, ensuring the safety of your data and its smooth work in the new environment.
Contact us today and we will build a professional development team for your project.
