Drupal 7 End-of-Life means Drupal 7 end of support
On 1 November 2023, Drupal 7 is End-of-Life. After this date, Drupal 7 won't receive official support or security updates from the Drupal community. This means that websites running Drupal 7 will be vulnerable to security threats.
The Drupal 7 Extended Support Program used to be available for support beyond the official End-of-Life date, but this program is currently not available. Despite this, there are still options available to help organisations/ businesses transition.
What is Drupal 7 End-of-Life?
Drupal 7 End-of-Life (EOL) is the software development phase when Drupal 7 stops receiving official support and security updates from the Drupal community. This means that Drupal will not address any security vulnerabilities discovered after the EOL date, 1 November 2023. Plus, any feature enhancements or bug fixes developed by the community after this date will not be added to Drupal 7.
If you continue to use Drupal 7 without any mitigations in place, you'll be at significant risk for security attacks, putting your website and data at risk. You can find out more about Drupal 7 End-of-Life in our EOL insight.
‘What about the Drupal 7 Extended Support Program?’ you may ask.
About the Drupal 7 Extended Support Program
The Drupal 7 Extended Support Program (ESP) was set up so Drupal vendors could provide support beyond the official End-of-Life date. The ESP included access to regular Drupal 7 patches and mitigation against critical security vulnerabilities. It also included customer service and technical support from developers.
The program was designed to help people move away from Drupal 7 before . It was available to Drupal vendors on a limited basis and required a separate agreement with the Drupal . The Drupal website currently says that the Drupal 7 Extended Support Program is ‘suspended’ and that the Association will consider whether to reinstate the Program closer to the EOL date.
Now that the ESP has ended, organisations can’t continue accessing Drupal 7 support via this program. Anyone who relied on ESP for extended support must explore other options.
Options to address Drupal 7's End-of-Life
When Drupal 7 reaches End-of-Life, you'll have to decide how you want to address the end of official support. Options include:
A traditional rebuild in Drupal 10, which requires a complete rearchitecture and rebuild of the website from Drupal 7
A rebuild on another CMS such as WordPress or Joomla, which would mean porting and re-mapping all content and data to the new platform and finding and configuring similar plugins and integrations that your site currently relies on
Both of these options need serious time, resources and money.
However, there are also some innovative Drupal 7 End-of-Life options that remove the security risks and give you a way forward that’s faster, easier and more affordable.
How can I get Drupal 7 extended support?
Unfortunately, there are no longer any formal options for extended support from the Drupal Association and its partners. But, you can still maintain your existing websites beyond Drupal 7 End-of-Life through Salsa’s innovative Drupal 7 End-of-Life services.
Salsa offers two solutions for Drupal 7 sites that keep the sites live and secure without the need to rebuild the site in Drupal 10 or another CMS. These options are:
Leave it — Generate and host a static version of your site, with a simple content editor for basic updates, then decommission (leave) your Drupal 7 site permanently once the static site is all set up.
Keep it — Generate and host a static version of your site for your public site visitors, while keeping a locked-down version of your Drupal 7 environment for your content editors to manage the content.
Both of these options save significant time and money. By using Salsa Digital's Drupal 7 End-of-Life services, your website can stay safe and secure even after Drupal 7 reaches End-of-Life.
Or, if you’re keen to rebuild your site in Drupal 10 without the hefty price tag, there’s one other option...
Are there any other options for Drupal 7 end of support?
Another option is a site rebuild in Drupal 10 using . This open source low-code design system provides a Drupal 10 theme with over 50 user interface (UI) components that are user-tested and WCAG 2.1AA-tested. By using CivicTheme, you can significantly reduce the time and costs connected with moving to Drupal 10 with its out-of-the-box, ready-to-use components and Drupal 10 theme, making the transition much smoother and more cost-effective.
The new Drupal 10 site can also be built on Salsa’s cutting-edge hosting platform. Salsa Hosting is highly secure and includes a sleep mode that helps to reduce costs and your carbon footprint.
We can also help with your content migration by using Merlin, an automated content migration tool, that will speed up your site migration process significantly, while retaining content integrity and post-migration validation reports and tools.
Next steps
With Drupal 7 End-of-Life fast approaching, it's important to take action and ensure ongoing support and security for your website. While the official Drupal 7 Extended Support Program has ended, you still have some options available. Salsa's innovative Drupal 7 End-of-Life services and Drupal 10 rebuilds with CivicTheme can help you make the transition much smoother.
If you're still using Drupal 7 and haven't yet explored your options, now is the time to act. The longer you wait, the greater the risk of security vulnerabilities and other issues.
Don't let Drupal 7 End-of-Life catch you off guard – have a chat to us about our Drupal 7 EOL services to ensure the ongoing support and security of your website.