Drupal 7 Upgrade to Drupal 8

When was Drupal 8 released?

Drupal 8 was released on 19 November 2015.

Is it worth upgrading to Drupal 8?

Drupal 8 is now at version 8.9.X and is going to be supported until November 2021. Use this version for Drupal 8 sites with modules that are not Drupal-9-ready, or there is some other restricting factor. Ensure that you plan to update to Drupal 9 soon however. If you are on Drupal 7 still, then it is perfectly reasonable to upgrade to Drupal 8 first, then plan a routine upgrade to Drupal 9 later. 

Drupal 9 is essentially the same as the last Drupal 8 point release (minus deprecated code). What this means is that there is no architectural refactoring necessary for moving from Drupal 8 to Drupal 9, thus making a core version upgrade between the versions a much simpler process.

We would expect to build any new projects that we are involved with using Drupal 9.

Is it a big job to upgrade to Drupal 8?

It depends. The upgrade process is much more straightforward than the upgrade process from Drupal 6 to 7, but still comes with its own challenges.

What makes Drupal 8 so special?

• Improved mobile support: You'll notice this most on the Drupal administration pages.
• Better multi-lingual support: D7 was better than D6 at handling multiple languages, but D8 takes it to the next level.
• Configuration Management: A better process for capturing the Drupal config.
• Accessibility / HTML5 / Twig: Overhaul of the front-end technologies to improve accessibility and the theming layer.
• More functional core: With more options for structuring data and rendering content.
• Usage of external libraries: That make Drupal even more powerful and flexible.
• Drupal 8 can use BigPipe technology which can result in much quicker page renderings. For uncached pages, this will yield an improved visitor experience.

How long will Drupal 8 be around for?

Drupal 8 is going to be supported until November 2021, but given the straightforward, routine upgrade path to Drupal 9, this will give any platforms launched on Drupal 8 a significant lifespan.