Perhaps you feel that Drupal 8 came out not long ago and you are already being talked about upgrading to Drupal 9 which came out in the middle of last year and you are worried about the investment you will have to make for this upgrade.
We want to give you peace of mind in this regard. Since version 9, Drupal has implemented a continuous update model that allows you to move forward with the implementation of new features progressively, so that when changing to a major version such as 8 to 9, this process is extremely simple. The model allows your website to always be at the forefront without having to make large investments to keep it updated, as is currently done by projects such as Linux.
Our recommendation is to apply each update that comes out of Drupal, whether security or improvements, since this allows you to safely get closer to having your site ready for the major version change.
Is my site ready for Drupal 9?
If your site is already updated to version 8.9, you are already 90% ready for the update to Drupal 9, the adjustments you must make are minor since a module that works for 8.9 also works in 9.x, only the Sites that have custom developments should check if it is necessary to make some adjustments to their code to have 100% compatibility. These adjustments are very small so the process is not so cumbersome.
Dries Buytaert told us in his presentation of the state of Drupal at the virtual DrupalCon 2021 that people are adopting the update to Drupal 9 in record time, in previous experiences of major version releases such as 7, the first migrated sites were seen 7 months later, in Drupal 8 it was three months later and now in Drupal 9 in just one month the first sites were already migrated to this new version.
In addition to this, you should know that currently 90% of the most used modules for Drupal already have support for Drupal 9 so you will not find major barriers in your update.
The Drupal 8 cycle is almost over and we have the facility to move quickly
Drupal 8 has been released in its stable version for 1.5 years and according to the development team's planning, each major version will be supported for two years, meaning that we are half a year away from not receiving any more security updates.
As I mentioned, moving to version 9 is not traumatic at all and if we want to stay updated and secure, the best thing to do is move our sites to Drupal 9.
Upgrading to Drupal 9 is preparing to receive the benefits of Drupal 10
Drupal 9 was released in June 2020 and we are already talking about version 10.
The version changes are not on a whim, they respond to the modernization process of a platform that never ceases to surprise us with its high capacity to adapt and anticipate trends in technologies for the Web.
In version 10 we will have new features included in the core such as
- Uncoupled menus
- Automatic Updates
- Improved editing experiences with CKEditor 5
Among others that you can consult in the article what we dedicate to the subject .
The planned release date for Drupal 10 is June 2022, and although it may sound premature to talk about a release that will be in just over a year, we want you to know that by using Drupal you have the opportunity to take advantage of all these improvements built by the community at no cost, to take advantage of them you just have to maintain the continuous update cycles.
We are here to help you
Drupal has one of the largest and strongest development communities, 20 years of the project have made it strong and stable. Drupal.org's collaboration tools have been key to that success, as has the ecosystem of companies that offer services around Drupal.
Today, more than ever, we are convinced that Drupal has a bright future for the new generation of websites focused on digital experiences, and at SeeD we never stop preparing to support you in achieving your digital goals with a team of collaborators who are at your service.
We invite you to contact us to help you with your projects.