Selecting the right Drupal version from 7, 9 and 10 with matrix for decision-makers
Update: Drupal 8 is EOL and Drupal 9 will be EOL in November 2023, thus Drupal 10 is the go-to version for all new projects. Drupal 7 will receive limited security support until January 5, 2025, but that's a very old software, if you are still on Drupal 7, start the upgrade process.
There are 3 supported major versions of the Drupal CMS. This is not an easy situation for many decision-makers. We’ve been working with Drupal since core version 4. Let’s break down the differences between these three different versions of the Drupal CMS to help you better understand what fits your needs and gives you the best opportunity to have an effective website that delivers you value.
Scroll down to the comparison table.
Technical differences between Drupal 7, 9, and 10.
Drupal 7 is fundamentally different from later versions. There were so many architectural changes that a transition from a Drupal 7 site to Drupal 9 or 10 is closer to a migration project from a different CMS than to a software upgrade. For example, the whole theme (presentation) layer uses a different technology; therefore, an upgrade from Drupal 7 to 9 or 10 means the frontend must be fully rebuilt. Starting with Drupal 8 many standards and modern technologies have been adapted. Taking these into account the development and deployment of Drupal have become more and more effective and future-proof. Luckily, there is no big architectural gap between Drupal 9 and 10. Drupal 10 is actually closer to a next minor core upgrade, with 2 differences: code marked obsolete is removed and dependencies upgraded significantly. This approach makes it possible to build Drupal 9 sites that are fundamentally Drupal 10 ready as there are already tools to easily check whether there is any obsolete code dependency in a Drupal module.
Drupal 9 and 10 feature enhancements over Drupal 7
Content modeling, Drupal’s traditional advantage over other CMSes, is flexible content modeling capability. Setting up the proper content types, adding various fields in a standard, yet extensible manner is relatively fluid with Drupal. All of this leads to further structured content, making it easier to create a consistent, yet still adjustable presentation, more powerful search, and data integrations. This was already true for Drupal 7, but later versions have gotten it right even more with Media handling in core and supporting custom content entities much more. All of this makes the Drupal 10 platform a convincing option for any content-heavy web application, not only as a traditional CMS.
Multilingual capabilities - With over 100 languages out of the box and unrivaled translation workflows, no CMS offers better language support for multilingual capabilities. This was already true for Drupal 7, but later versions refined this even more bringing in more consistency and integration with 3rd party translation services.
Smoother, much more effective deployments and developer collaboration - For complex projects, with a team of developers and multiple environments (e.g. dev, test, staging, prod), it’s far easier to manage deployments (especially configuration changes), which makes the work more effective with Drupal 9 or 10.
Drupal 9 and 10 are leading the way in API-First, with JSON API And GraphQL out of the box in. The use cases are in the realms of decoupled and fully headless approaches. Adopting these approaches is considerably easier in Drupal than in any other platform. The concept of "headless" Drupal aims to innovate by separating the front end, i.e. how the site is viewed, from Drupal itself. What this means is that all services and content management are handled by Drupal, while the main user experience or the way the site is displayed in the browser is controlled by a JavaScript framework ( ex. React, Next, Nuxt). This allows the design team to be freed up for more creativity and helps with site speed and multi-platform operation. A headless Drupal can also power your mobile apps or any other platforms with content.
Performance: Drupal 7 barely can run, Drupal 9 supports, Drupal 10 requires an up-to-date hosting environment. An up-to-date hosting environment with the latest PHP, database engine, or key-value store. D10 is faster overall.
Conclusion on selecting the right Drupal core version
We presently believe that the safest bet is to select or stick with Drupal 9 with the aim of being Drupal 10 ready during the development and plan to close the upgrade to Drupal 10 as soon as the needed modules are ported, before November 2023 the latest.
For brand new projects, Drupal 10 should be primarily considered, but if important contributed modules are not yet available, then starting with Drupal 9 is also a viable option without major drawbacks.
