Drupal 10 release is planned: what does it mean for website owners?

Drupal keeps evolving in order to give you even more advanced digital capabilities.

We love to share useful content about upgrades with you — like the blog post about Drupal 7 to Drupal 8/9 Module Upgrader.

Time flies fast, and there is already a Drupal 10 release planned. What does all this mean for your website? Let’s take a closer look.

When will Drupal 10 be released?

Drupal creator Dries Buytaert wrote an article, and also gave a State-of-Drupal presentation, announcing the expected Drupal 10 release date should be two years from now — around June 2022. The next year, in 2023, D9 will be end-of-life. This means that website owners will need to upgrade to the 10th version before 2023.

“Hey, what do you mean by upgrading to Drupal 10? I am not even on the 8th version yet,” many of our readers might think at this moment. We are moving on to the answer right now.

Why is the Drupal 10 release planned so soon?

Indeed, the new pace of Drupal releases looks very fast compared to previous years. Both D9 and D10 fly out just two years after their predecessors, while D7 and D8 had a 4-5 year waiting time.

According to Dries, one of the key goals of the Drupal team is to keep the CMS secure. Drupal depends on third-party components that have their own release cycles and end-of-life dates. When they get unsupported, security bugs in them will no longer be fixed, so no one can guarantee website security.

In the case with Drupal, these components include Symfony 4, CKEditor 4, PHP7, and more. Special attention is paid to the Symfony components. Drupal will need to have adopted Symfony 5 (or an even higher version) by November 2023 — Symfony 4 end-of-life.

What does Drupal 10 release mean for Drupal 7/8/9 website owners?

As stated above, everyone will need to upgrade to Drupal 10 by 2023 in order to provide website security and rich functionality according to the latest trends.

However, Drupal 10 release certainly does not mean any more cumbersome upgrades. The CMS is quickening its path and at the same time is getting extremely easy to upgrade. Beginning with a D8 to D9 upgrade and further, upgrades are almost instant, with just a few preparations websites should make. Making Drupal upgrades super easy is a big priority for its creators’ team, and they have achieved great success and will continue to work on it.

This sounds nice, so let’s sum up what Drupal 7/8/9 owners should do about the future 10th release:

• D7 website owners will need to make a big leap to the 8th version and then upgrade further very easily. They really need this move because the 7th version is getting technologically outdated. Review your website’s goals and reach out to our Drupal development team to plan your upgrade.
• D8 and D9 website owners just need to keep their websites updated between the minor releases and clean from deprecated code. This guarantees quick upgrades to D9/10 and further in the future. Ask our Drupal developers to quickly check your website’s state and refresh it, so it is ready to upgrade in a few clicks.

Be ready for the Drupal 10 release!

Although you have two years before the D10 release, you can start preparing your website now, especially if it is on D7. The future is around the corner and reaching it is very easy if you work with professionals. Contact our Drupal maintenance and support team and make your website modern, protected, and efficient!