Drupal 6 to Drupal 8 migration

7 reasons to migrate to Drupal 8

Why migrate to Drupal 8

As you might already have understood, we’re in the team “Migrate to Drupal 8 as soon as possible”. We find it’s rather profitable from the business perspective and wise and time-savvy from the technical point of view. So why we preach moving to Drupal 8 to all Drupal 6 and Drupal 7 websites' owners?

Reason 1 - the obvious one

Drupal 9.0.0 will be based on the last Drupal 8 version. What does it mean for a Drupal website owner? 

In terms of development effort: the upgrade to Drupal 9 for Drupal 8 websites' owners will be as easy as the upgrade to a minor Drupal release. 

Let me explain. There are major Drupal versions - 6, 7, 8. They differ significantly. Within the major versions, there are minor versions (Drupal 8.5, Drupal 8.6, etc) that are being released to introduce some new features.

You need less than a day to upgrade to the minor version while the migration to the major one can take months.

In terms of money: since the upgrade from Drupal 8 to Drupal 9 will take less time, it will take less money either. So allocate some money for the migration to Drupal 8 for 2020.

Reason 2 - for those who want to avoid hustle with old versions' support

Both Drupal 7 and Drupal 8 will reach the end of life in November 2021. That means the official Drupal Security Team won’t maintain these versions anymore and it won’t be in charge of keeping them secure. You must find someone who will at least support your website’s security so it doesn't get hacked.

Having your website on Drupal 8 already, you’ll just take a nice relaxed stroll and migrate to Drupal 9 once it has a stable release.

Reason 3 - for Drupal 6 websites’ owners

Drupal 6 websites are quite vulnerable ones and we would advise doing Drupal 8 upgrade as soon as possible even if Drupal 9 wasn’t about to be released.

Here’s why.

  • No more features and improvements for Drupal 6. This version is literally stalled and it does the same to your business.
  • The patches to Drupal 6 are mainly about security. Bug fixes are unlikely.
  • Drupal 8 is more convenient for developers and easier in terms of development.

Reason 4 - for Drupal 7 websites’ owners

  • Drupal 7 doesn’t allow using the Decoupled Drupal approach out-of-the-box, so forget about things like Gatsby. The significant resources and contributed modules are required to make it work.
  • As the developers are focused on Drupal 8, it’s unlikely that Drupal 7 will have new features.

Migrate to Drupal 8

Reason 5 - money matters

Drupal 6 support is somewhat costly.

Check the pricing plans for the Drupal 6 website monthly support. In some cases, it’s yearly Drupal 6 support equals the migration to Drupal 8.

Reason 6 - time matters

If you decide to move straight to Drupal 9, you’ll have just one year of the official support left and you’ll have to do the migration within a 1-year period. Also, consider that a couple of Drupal 9 patch releases should happen before you can safely migrate.

If you prefer a more smooth transition to Drupal 9, you can start now with the Drupal 8 upgrades. You have 2 years to do that.

Reason 7 - being ahead of the crowd

Soon you’ll see how everybody’slooking for Drupal migration experts as there are 2 major versions that are about to reach the end of life. Hence the demand is going to be bigger than when Drupal 8 was released. Start now with drupal consultants, get some rough quote for the migration, and include it into your budget.

Follow us on Twitter to read more articles on Drupal 7 and Drupal 8 EOL. Stay tuned!

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