If your website is still running on Drupal 7, this article is urgent reading. Drupal 7 reached its official end of life on 5 January 2025. That means no more security patches, no community support, and an increasing risk of vulnerabilities being exploited on your live site.
And if you’ve seen older guides recommending a move to Drupal 9 — ignore them. Drupal 9 also reached end of life in November 2023. The current supported versions are Drupal 10 and Drupal 11, with Drupal 10 itself reaching EOL in December 2026.
This guide covers everything UK organisations need to know about migrating from Drupal 7 to Drupal 10 or 11 in 2026.
Why You Can’t Stay on Drupal 7
Running an unsupported version of Drupal creates serious risks for your organisation:
- Security vulnerabilities — No patches means any newly discovered exploits will remain unaddressed. Drupal 7 sites are already being actively targeted.
- UK GDPR exposure — If your site handles personal data (contact forms, membership, donations), running insecure software could constitute a breach of your data protection obligations.
- Hosting incompatibility — Many managed hosting providers are dropping support for the older PHP versions required by Drupal 7, making it increasingly difficult to keep the site running at all.
- No new features or improvements — Modern web standards, accessibility requirements (WCAG 2.2), and browser compatibility improvements won’t reach Drupal 7.
Drupal 10 vs Drupal 11: Which Should You Migrate To?
For most UK organisations migrating from Drupal 7 in 2026, Drupal 10 is the safest choice for the migration itself, with a planned upgrade path to Drupal 11 once your site is stable on 10.
Drupal 10 is the current stable LTS release. It’s mature, well-supported, and has a large ecosystem of compatible contributed modules. However, be aware it reaches EOL in December 2026 — so planning your D10 → D11 upgrade path shortly after migration is advisable.
Drupal 11 was released in July 2024 and represents the future of the platform. It requires PHP 8.3+ and drops support for some older APIs. If you’re building from scratch, Drupal 11 is the right target. For migrations from Drupal 7, many teams migrate to D10 first and then upgrade to D11 — this two-step approach reduces risk.
What Makes Drupal 7 → 10/11 Different from Earlier Upgrades
Unlike the Drupal 8 → 9 upgrade (which was relatively smooth), migrating from Drupal 7 to Drupal 10 or 11 is a significant undertaking. There is no direct in-place upgrade. The architecture of Drupal changed fundamentally between versions 7 and 8, and those changes carry through to 10 and 11.
What this means in practice:
- Content migration — Your content (nodes, users, taxonomy, files) must be migrated using Drupal’s Migrate module, not simply carried across.
- Theme rebuild — Drupal 7 themes (built on PHPTemplate) are incompatible with Drupal 10/11 (which use Twig). Your theme must be rebuilt from scratch.
- Module compatibility — Many Drupal 7 contributed modules have Drupal 10/11 equivalents, but some don’t. Each module must be assessed and replaced or rebuilt.
- Custom code rewrite — Any custom modules developed for Drupal 7 will need to be rewritten for Drupal 10/11’s object-oriented, Symfony-based architecture.
- Configuration management — Drupal 10/11 uses a YAML-based configuration management system that is entirely different from Drupal 7’s variables system.
The Migration Process: Key Stages
1. Audit and planning
Before writing a line of code, conduct a full audit of your Drupal 7 site: content types, fields, views, modules (contributed and custom), theme, integrations, and user roles. This audit informs the scope, timeline, and budget of the migration.
2. Set up the Drupal 10/11 environment
Build the new Drupal 10/11 installation on a separate development environment. Install and configure the required modules, establish the new theme, and configure the content structure to match (or improve on) the original.
3. Run the content migration
Use Drupal’s Migrate module (migrate, migrate_drupal, migrate_drupal_ui) to pull content from the Drupal 7 database into the new site. This process often requires custom migration plugins for complex content types, relationships, or file handling.
4. Rebuild custom functionality
Any custom Drupal 7 modules must be rebuilt as Drupal 10/11-compatible modules using modern PHP and Drupal’s plugin and service architecture. This is typically the most time-intensive part of the project for complex sites.
5. Testing
Thorough testing across content, functionality, user roles, forms, integrations, and performance. Accessibility testing against WCAG 2.2 AA is also strongly recommended — a migration is an ideal opportunity to address accessibility issues.
6. Go-live and post-launch support
Deploy to production, implement redirects from old URLs to new, submit the updated sitemap to Google Search Console, and monitor closely in the first weeks post-launch.
How Long Does a Drupal 7 Migration Take?
Timelines vary significantly by site complexity:
- Simple content site (few content types, no custom modules): 4–8 weeks
- Mid-complexity site (multiple content types, some custom modules, integrations): 2–4 months
- Complex site (extensive custom functionality, CRM integrations, large content volume): 4–9 months
CiviCRM on Drupal: What Changes?
Many UK nonprofits and membership organisations run CiviCRM on top of Drupal 7. If that’s you, the migration has an additional dimension: CiviCRM itself must also be upgraded to a version compatible with Drupal 10/11.
The good news is that CiviCRM fully supports Drupal 10 and Drupal 11. However, the CiviCRM → Drupal upgrade must be carefully sequenced alongside the Drupal migration, and any CiviCRM customisations (extensions, custom hooks, webform integrations) need to be reviewed and updated.
At Mountev, we specialise in both Drupal and CiviCRM — so if your site combines both, we’re well placed to handle the full migration as a single coordinated project.
Should You Migrate to Drupal or Switch to WordPress?
A Drupal 7 end-of-life is a natural moment to evaluate whether Drupal 10/11 is still the right platform, or whether a move to WordPress makes more sense for your organisation.
Stay on Drupal if: you have complex content structures, granular access control requirements, large content volumes, or CiviCRM integration — Drupal’s architecture handles these better than WordPress.
Consider WordPress if: your site is primarily a brochure/blog with simple content management needs, and your team would benefit from a simpler admin interface. WordPress + CiviCRM is also a very capable combination for nonprofits.
We’re happy to advise on the right platform choice for your specific situation — without pushing you in either direction.
Get Expert Help with Your Drupal Migration
At Mountev, we’ve been building and migrating Drupal sites for UK organisations for years. We understand the complexity of Drupal 7 migrations and the specific challenges faced by nonprofits, membership organisations, and charities — especially those running CiviCRM alongside Drupal.
If your site is still on Drupal 7, don’t wait. Every month without security patches is a risk. Get in touch for a free migration assessment — we’ll review your site and give you a clear picture of what’s involved and what it will cost.