What Does Drupal 7 End-of-Life Mean for Your Website?

Drupal 7’s end-of-life is just around the corner. Sounds so final, and maybe scary if your nonprofit’s website sits on a Drupal 7 platform. But don’t worry. We’ll ease your mind with not only awareness and education, but also with solutions. So, let’s get started with defining what Drupal 7 is.

What is Drupal 7?

Drupal 7 is a content management system (CMS) that was released in January 2011. It is an open-source platform that provides a flexible and powerful solution for creating and managing websites. Drupal 7 has a large community of users and developers who contribute to the platform, creating a rich ecosystem of modules and themes that can be used to extend its functionality.

Drupal 7 is known for its robust and modular architecture, which allows developers to build complex websites with ease. It also provides a user-friendly interface for managing content and a variety of tools for managing users, permissions, and security. Additionally, Drupal 7 is highly customizable, with a wide range of modules and themes that can be used to extend its functionality and change the look and feel of a website.

This year (2023), Drupal 7 will reach its end of life. That sounds scary. But don’t worry. Our team has over 20 years of experience with Drupal, our developers love building websites in Drupal, and we’ve helped over 550 customers migrate to Drupal 9 over the last few years. But before we get into that, let’s discuss what end-of-life means a bit more.

What Does End-Of-Life Mean?

In this case, end-of-life (EOL) refers to the time when a software system is no longer supported or maintained by its manufacturer or developer. At EOL, the product is considered "obsolete" and no longer updated or receives technical support.

Drupal 7’s EOL is an important consideration for nonprofits that rely on software systems for their website. When a system reaches its EOL, upgrading to a newer version is necessary to ensure that the website remains secure and effective.

What Are Some Consequences Of Not Upgrading?

If organizations don't upgrade their Drupal 7 websites, they may face several consequences, including these:

1. Security risks: As Drupal 7 reaches its EOL, it means that security updates and bug fixes will no longer be released for the platform. This leaves websites running on Drupal 7 vulnerable to security threats. These include hacking and malware attacks that could compromise sensitive information and harm your nonprofit’s reputation.
2. Compatibility issues: As newer software and hardware are developed, the Drupal 7 platform may become incompatible with them. This could make it difficult to integrate with other systems or services that your nonprofit needs. And it could result in decreased functionality and increased maintenance costs.
3. Difficulty finding support: As Drupal 7 reaches its EOL, it may become more difficult to find support for the platform. This could make it challenging to resolve technical issues or to find help when problems arise.
4. Loss of functionality: The Drupal 7 platform may become outdated and lose functionality over time as new technologies and features are developed. This could limit the ability of your nonprofit to provide the level of functionality and user experience that your website visitors expect.
5. Increased maintenance costs: As the Drupal 7 platform becomes obsolete, it may require more time and resources to maintain and troubleshoot issues. This could result in increased maintenance costs for the organization.

Considering these consequences, we recommend that organizations consider upgrading their Drupal 7 websites to Drupal 9. This will help to ensure that the technology remains secure and effective, and it will help to avoid the costs and risks associated with an outdated platform.

What Are Some Benefits Of Upgrading?

Over the last few years, we’ve been upgrading our Drupal 7 customer websites to Drupal 9. They are realizing some wonderful benefits of upgrading. Here are many of those benefits that your internal stakeholders will appreciate.

Information Technology Team

1. Improved performance and scalability: Drupal 9 includes numerous improvements that make it faster and more efficient than Drupal 7, including better caching, improved JavaScript performance, and support for headless architectures.
2. Improved security: Drupal 9 includes a number of security enhancements, including better support for secure passwords, improved support for secure communications, and improved protection against cross-site scripting (XSS) and cross-site request forgery (CSRF) attacks.
3. Improved integration with other systems: Drupal 9 includes improved support for integration with other systems, including better support for web services and APIs, improved support for headless architectures, and improved support for decoupled applications.
4. Improved mobile support: Drupal 9 includes a number of improvements to make it easier to create and manage mobile-friendly sites, including better support for responsive design and improved support for mobile devices.

Communications & Marketing Teams

1. Improved accessibility: Drupal 9 includes improvements to make it more accessible to users with disabilities, including support for screen readers and improved keyboard navigation.
2. Improved authoring experience: Drupal 9 includes enhancements to make it easier for content authors to create and manage content, including a revamped content editor, support for inline editing, and improved media handling.
3. Improved language support: Drupal 9 includes improved support for multilingual sites, including better support for right-to-left languages and improved translation workflows.

Migrating to Drupal 9 also allows you to take advantage of the latest features and technologies, and to continue receiving support and updates from OneEach Technologies and the Drupal community. This can help us keep your site up-to-date, secure, and running smoothly.

Need More Convincing?

Here’s what a couple of our customers have to say about their experience migrating from Drupal 7 to Drupal 9.

Meals on Wheels of Summerville, Inc.

We transitioned from a Drupal 7 platform to Drupal 9. OneEach was FANTASTIC in incorporating parts of multiple site designs to perfectly represent our vision. OneEach Technologies has taken our nonprofit from a silent web presence to a high-functioning, efficient tool. We have more than tripled our service intake via the user-friendly webforms since we launched just 2 months ago!

-- Executive Director, Meals on Wheels of Summerville, Inc.

United Way of Southwest Oklahoma

OneEach helped us complete a website upgrade. This meant we also transitioned our grant application to online. Our OneEach Account Manager was a life saver in that process. Our partner agencies and our volunteers LOVE having the application online. It saves all of us time and money.

-- VP of Community Engagement, United Way of Southwest Oklahoma

Schedule A Free Consultation Today

We trust this information has helped you better understand what the Drupal 7 EOL means and why you need to upgrade to Drupal 9 this year. Our team is signing up nonprofits now to beat the rush. We encourage you to not wait until later in the year. Our Account Executive is looking forward to chatting with you about your nonprofit’s website needs.