Drupal 7 will be reaching its “End of Life” on 11/01/2023, so it is time to take a step forward and enjoy the advantages.
Such as:
- Easier upgrades
- Intuitive solutions
- And innovative features that come with the latest versions of Drupal
The Drupal Content Management System (7.0) has served us well since its January 2011 release. It powered web applications, leading the era of Drupal as a favored option for building any kind of website. Drupal 7 introduced us to more than 11,000 contributed modules, 600 themes, and 200 distributions.
However, the time is coming to say goodbye.
What Does End-of-Life for Drupal 7 Imply?
The term end-of-life (or EOL) is used to indicate the end of official support on a particular piece of software or product. The software in question is no longer sold, promoted, or supported. In the case of Drupal 7, this means that Drupal’s community and security team will no longer be releasing any security patches or functional updates as of D7’s official EOL date on 01/01/2023.
How Will This Impact Me?
- Hosting services like ours will stop supporting all versions of Drupal 7 and will be required to migrate to the latest versions of Drupal or WordPress. This is not an “update” and will require a complete rebuild.
- We shall also discontinue essential services such as bug fixes, support, and security patches for Drupal 7.
- Drupal 7 will no longer be compatible with new PHP versions on all hosting servers across the world.
- Website functionality is also another factor that will be affected by Drupal 7 EOL. Starting on 01/01/2023 we will stop updating Drupal 7 contributed modules that enhance functionality. Therefore, we risk operating with an unpatched module or plan to write a custom code, which can get very expensive.
- If you are still using Drupal 7 on 11/01/2023, you may be forced to hire external support if something goes wrong with your site. Current maintenance and hosting plans will not support Drupal 7 patches or bug fixes.
- Drupal 7 will no longer be supported by the community at large. The community at large will no longer create new projects, fix bugs in existing projects, write documentation, etc. around Drupal 7.
There Will be no More Core Commits to Drupal 7
The Drupal Security Team will no longer provide support or Security Advisories for Drupal 7 core or contributed modules, themes, or other projects. Reports about Drupal 7 vulnerabilities might become public creating 0-day exploits.
All Drupal 7 releases on all project pages will be flagged as not supported. Maintainers can change that flag if they desire to.
On Drupal 7 sites with the update status module, Drupal Core will show up as unsupported.
After 11/01/2023, using Drupal 7 may be flagged as insecure in 3rd party scans as it no longer gets support.
The best practice is to not use unsupported software, it would not be advisable to continue to build new Drupal 7 sites.
Now is the time to start planning your migration to the latest versions of Drupal or WordPress.
What Happens When CMS Reaches Its End of Life?
Any site powered by D7 will be at a high risk of security issues, and will no longer be eligible for hosting on our web servers. However, this does not mean that D7 Will stop working, but our security protocols will require you to seek out other hosting solutions, as we will no longer have the capacity to keep your website secure. So it is essential to schedule a consultation and plan your upgrade early.
What Are The Upsides of Migrating to Drupal 9 or WordPress?
The latest versions of Drupal and WordPress come with beneficial features such as:
- Easy upgrades
- Backward-compatible features
- Headless CMS
- Faster and better performance
No deprecation. Unlike D7, which was more of an update to Drupal 6, which was an update to Drupal 5, which was an update to Drupal 4 … Upgrading to Drupal 8, 9 or WordPress is a complete rewrite of the core software that makes future upgrades easier. D8 and D9 and WordPress use a modern technology stack to ensure forward compatibility for subsequent versions.
How Much Work Is It to Migrate Away From Drupal 7?
There’s really no getting around it: this is a major upgrade. Starting with version 8, Drupal’s underlying technologies and architecture were thoroughly renovated to create a more powerful and future-ready platform.
This creates exciting possibilities for both organizations and their end-users, but it does require significant resources and planning to make that leap. There are new technologies and practices to learn, modules and themes to rebuild, content to be audited, and goals to be reimagined.
The good news is that this is a one-time event. Along with its architecture, Drupal’s approach to version releases was completely revamped. In the future, upgrading to a new major release will be more like keeping up with minor releases, and won’t require a major overhaul.
How Long Can I Use Drupal 7?
Organizations will be able to keep using their Drupal 7 website for the time being. Nevertheless, technical problems will inevitably arise past D7’s EOL date – think of deprecated modules that are no longer supported or security issues that will no longer be addressed. This, in turn, will decrease your website’s SEO score.
Just like any other software, eventually, it becomes obsolete and needs to be replaced with updated technology.
We are estimating it will take a minimum of 40 hours for a 10 to 20-page website (non-e-commerce). We are offering a free re-design (up to 10 hours) for existing clients who choose to migrate with us. Because every site we build is different in size and functionality we will provide a custom quote for you on request.
We will also offer payment plans to help with the costs of migration, for example, with a 50% down payment, we can break up the remaining balance into equal payments over 3 months with 0% interest after your new site is live.
You also have the option of having your website migrated to another hosting provider, but, like us, it is likely that come Nov, 2023, they will force you to upgrade your site due to security issues on your hosting agreement, or risk having your website suspended.
Schedule a Call or Send us an Email to Discuss Your Options
Space is filling up quickly, so give us a call at 303-424-2522 or send an email to info@sitewired.com to discuss your options and plan early for a smoother upgrade to the latest versions of Drupal and WordPress. You can also contact us via our website here.
Thank you,
Your Team at SiteWired Web Solutions, Inc.