Drupal 10 reaches end of life on 9 December 2026. After that, the Drupal community no longer provides security updates or bug fixes for it. If your organisation runs Drupal 10 — and many government, education and enterprise sites do — the upgrade to Drupal 11 needs to be planned now. The good news: this is an incremental upgrade, not a rebuild. This guide explains what to do.
What end of life means in practice
Your site does not switch off on 9 December. What stops is the flow of security fixes. Every vulnerability discovered after that date stays open on your site, and contributed modules progressively drop Drupal 10 compatibility. For sites handling personal data or subject to compliance requirements, running unsupported software is usually not acceptable. Note also that support is tied to minor versions: older Drupal 10 minor releases stopped receiving security fixes earlier, so check exactly which version you run.
Step 1: Audit the site
- Current core version and hosting environment (including PHP and database versions required by Drupal 11)
- Every contributed module and theme, and whether a Drupal 11-compatible release exists
- Custom modules and themes that use deprecated APIs
The Upgrade Status module reports deprecated code and module compatibility, and automated tools such as Drupal Rector can fix many deprecations.
Step 2: Update to the latest Drupal 10 first
Move to the latest supported Drupal 10 minor release and update contributed modules to their newest versions. This removes most surprises from the core upgrade.
Step 3: Fix deprecated code
Update custom modules and themes to remove deprecated API usage. For abandoned contributed modules, find an alternative or replace them with a small custom module.
A Drupal 10 to 11 upgrade is maintenance, not a rebuild — as long as it’s done before the deadline rather than after an incident.
ESS ENN Associates Modernisation Team
Step 4: Upgrade core and test
Upgrade to Drupal 11 on a staging environment, run database updates, then test functionality, editorial workflows, integrations, accessibility and performance before going live with a rollback plan.
Consider Drupal CMS while you are there
Drupal CMS 2.0, built on Drupal 11.3, adds the Canvas visual builder and site templates. Adopting parts of it can make life noticeably easier for editors. More in our guide to Drupal development services.
Still on Drupal 7?
Drupal 7 reached end of life on 5 January 2025. Leaving it is a migration: content is moved into a new Drupal 11 build with a new theme, which is a good opportunity to rethink the content model and design. Our legacy modernisation team plans these migrations with SEO-safe redirects.
Plan for the next one
Drupal now releases major versions on a regular cycle. Keeping modules current and avoiding deprecated code as part of routine maintenance makes each future upgrade small.
To scope your Drupal 11 upgrade before the 9 December deadline, contact us.