Why migrate to Drupal 9 now

With the release of Drupal 9 and the announcement that Drupal 10 is planned for 2022 - we clearly understand that it can't go back to how it was. You can choose Drupal 9 to attain all the latest security updates and wholesome functionality. Are you ready to move to a brighter future?

Drupal 9 readiness

Since the company was started in 2007 we’ve been using Drupal as the foundation for the major part of our clients’ projects. None of the CMSs existing at that time looked so convincingly and inspired such assurance that the community would develop it as eagerly as parents educate their beloved child. In 2020 Drupal 9 emerged – the contemporary, reliable and safe version of this product supporting our forecasts.

Drupal 9 was released and those who love cutting-edge technology wriggled on their seats - c'mon! Let’s migrate to Drupal 9 as soon as possible! Earlier, we advised our clients to wait a bit until a new minor version is live and the major issues are fixed. But now we are ready to engage in dialogue with you.

New to Drupal? Learn why to choose the Drupal CMS

If you don’t have a Drupal site yet, we congratulate you sincerely: the advantages of Drupal 9 will make the site development quicker than ever. For years the core developers have been watching how the community members work with the system, then combined the obtained information with such web technology trends as Symfony, API-first approach and decoupled website development approach and created an out-of-the-box product covering many demands that have become standard with time.

If you’re thinking about migrating to Drupal 9, you’ve probably heard rumors and myths regarding migrations. Let's clear those up. Here are myths about migration that need to be squashed:

the difficulty of migration;

To begin with, the update is easier than ever before. To illustrate this point, imagine that your site is a train. Earlier, moving between the basic versions implied moving the train to a completely different path. As for Drupal 9, the main versions are simply stations on one road.

investing in a redesign;

It requires a significantly bigger budget, more complex planning, and more time. But, it's a great time to redesign the website from an SEO perspective (more on this later).

losing SEO;

Here's a secret: migration can help your page rank higher. Google has to recrawl your website, recognize that it’s you, and give you back your ranking. Migration can help you build a more powerful SEO framework.

losing all data when migrating.

We understand your fears but it can be easily prevented by taking the proper steps. In other words, successful migration keeps data and content intact by definition.

Drupal 9 advantages

Drupal 9 for programmers and site administrators means:

State-of-the-art technology stack and popular solutions that lower the entry barrier for novices and PHP developer who work with Drupal for the first time;
Out-of-the-box functionality and modules which were not available in Drupal 7 or which were available as contrib modules. Among them are the following: Views, CKEditor, Layout Builder, Media and web services as JSON:API;
Management of dependencies, files, and modules in the core using the package manager Composer;
The system of configuration export and import;
Possibility to use the Headless Drupal architecture where Drupal acts as the RESTful server and the frontend is based on JavaScript frameworks React, Vue or Angular.

Drupal 9 for business owners is:

The long-term support reducing the risks of intrusion and the cost of patches;
Increased speed of website operation that is enabled by the new version of PHP and rejection of Heavy JavaScript libraries and new caching modules, which reduces the bounce rate and improves the search engine ranking;
Low entry barrier that makes it easier to search for developers;
Free Drupal 9 themes and profiles;
New business expansion opportunities.

The Drupal 9 roadmap

Let’s check some figures and address the Drupal core release cycle. The important dates are:

So, the security support ends:

- for Drupal 8.7.x dated June 3, 2020

- for Drupal 8.8.x dated December 2, 2020

- for Drupal on 8.9.x dated November 2021

For example, there were 14 patch and security releases between Drupal 8.7.0 and 8.8.0. As we see, the latest release of Drupal 8.7 is 8.7.14! Look how many fixes were made during this gap between minor releases.

Other releases were announced as:

- for Drupal 9.1 in December 2020

- for Drupal 9.2 in June 2021

- for Drupal 9.3 in December 2021

Drupal 9.1 deserves special attention. There are a lot of changes, let's go through them. What's new in Drupal 9?

- The new themes. The new Olivero theme has been added to the core (in the future it will replace Bartik). Also, many improvements have been made to the Claro admin theme. To begin with, the admin’s visuals are repeated from year to year, but the updated themes on Drupal 9 have something new! They have got their own style and modern font.

- By default, enabled native lazy-load for images, including those in the content. This results in a decrease in the loading time of applications (for mobile applications this is more critical) and increases the performance of the page/app. In some cases, it is possible to improve SEO.

- Drupal 8.9 and Drupal 9.0 are marked incompatible with PHP 8. With Drupal 7 and 8 versions nearing their end of life, technical support for earlier versions would be difficult. With the latest version, Drupal updates some of the PHP library dependencies to recent versions ensuring long-lasting support. Who needs PHP updates? - read more here.

- Advanced technology for JSON: API preparations are underway to create public APIs. At the moment this is a zero-configuration solution. Also, RESTful web services will also now be in core. Needless to say, site configurations become easier with in-built YAML engines.

We advise you to enjoy the real novelties of the platform which were added in December 2020 with version 9.1. This version will be even more efficient and easier to use. New habits need to be formed. Exciting times are ahead with this new reality.

Why сhoose our Drupal web development company?

ADCI Solutions expertise is proven by real customer reviews - find them below.

Check us out:

2017 Listing: Top Web Developers in Russia announced by Clutch
2018 Listing: Top Web Developers in Russia announced by Clutch
2019 Listing: Top Drupal Developers Worldwide announced by Clutch
2020 Listing: Top B2B providers in Russia announced by Clutch
2020 Listing: Top 1000 Companies Clutch Global
2021 Listing: Top 1000 Service Providers announced by Clutch
2021 Listing: Most Reviewed Web Design Companies in Russia announced by The Manifest
2021 Listing: Top 100 ReactJS Developers in Russia announced by The Manifest
2021 Listing: Top 100 PHP Developers in Russia announced by The Manifest

See the full list of our awards.

ADCI Solutions in figures:

40+ people in the team: back end, front end, web and graphic design, sales and marketing, management
2007 - a year of foundation. We are a mature and trustworthy team that will always back you up
60+ is a number of free contributed Drupal solutions that we have on drupal.org
80% of clients stay with us after the first project

What should owners of Drupal 7 and Drupal 8 websites do?

And what will the site owners do with Drupal 7, with its support ending in November 2022, and Drupal 8, which is no more updated since November 2021? Even if the update goes smoothly – considering the similarity of Drupal 8.9 and Drupal 9 paradigms – the site migration from Drupal 7 will not happen overnight. However, there are some advantages here as well.

Over the years when your site worked on Drupal 7 you might have got used to its appearance, user scenarios and sections so much that you missed the rise of new standards. Before moving the site to Drupal 9, our web designers will help you look at your site through the eyes of an entrepreneur of 2022 and suggest solutions that shorten the time it takes your clients to buy a product, fill out the feedback form or order a call after they enter the site.

End of support of a useful module is an unpleasant though quite common situation in Drupal development. While designers are working with you revising the interface, the ADCI Solutions’ development team will check the installed modules for operability or select some new ones. If there is no suitable module for Drupal 9, our team is ready to develop it.

Drupal 9 end of life will come in November 2023. If you opt for our team to develop and support the website, these will be two exciting years for your business associated with growth and wellbeing.

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