Migrating to Drupal provides numerous advantages for businesses and organizations looking to enhance their website’s performance, security, and flexibility. Whether you're upgrading from an older Drupal version or transitioning from another CMS like WordPress, Drupal offers a powerful, scalable, and future-proof solution. Here are the key benefits:

1. Enhanced Security 🔒

• Drupal is known for its strong security framework, offering regular security updates and patches.
• Advanced role-based access control (RBAC) ensures data protection.
• Compliant with industry standards like GDPR, HIPAA, and PCI DSS, making it a reliable choice for government, financial, and healthcare organizations.

2. Improved Performance & Scalability 🚀

• Optimized for fast load times, even for high-traffic websites.
• Built-in caching mechanisms and CDN integration boost website speed.
• Scales easily to accommodate growing content, users, and complex functionality.

3. Advanced Content Management System (CMS) 📝

• User-friendly content editing and workflow management.
• Flexible content types, taxonomies, and layout builder for structured content.
• Supports multilingual content out of the box, enabling global reach.

4. SEO & Marketing-Friendly Features 📈

• Clean URL structures, meta tags, and SEO-friendly modules for better search engine rankings.
• Easily integrates with digital marketing tools like Google Analytics, HubSpot, and Marketo.
• Personalized content delivery and AI-driven recommendations enhance user engagement.

5. Headless CMS & API-First Architecture 🔗

• Allows seamless integration with mobile apps, IoT devices, and third-party applications.
• RESTful and GraphQL APIs enable flexible omnichannel content delivery.
• Supports decoupled and headless Drupal implementations for modern web experiences.

6. Customization & Flexibility 🎨

• Over 40,000+ modules and custom themes enable extensive site customization.
• Fully open-source, giving businesses complete control over their digital experience.
• Integrates smoothly with third-party CRMs, ERPs, and e-commerce platforms.

7. Cost-Effective & Long-Term Sustainability 💰

• Reduces maintenance costs by eliminating reliance on outdated CMS platforms.
• Long-term stability with a strong community of developers and regular updates.
• Open-source nature eliminates expensive licensing fees.

8. Future-Proof Your Website 🔮

• Migrating to the latest Drupal version (Drupal 10 and beyond) ensures compatibility with modern web technologies.
• Uses Twig templating engine for improved frontend performance.
• Adopts Symfony framework for scalable backend development.

How to Migrate to Drupal?

For a smooth migration, businesses often rely on Drupal migration services offered by Drupal migration companies. Whether you're planning a Drupal WordPress migration or upgrading from an older version, professional Drupal Migration & Upgrade Services help ensure a seamless, error-free transition with minimal downtime.

By migrating to Drupal, you empower your website with best-in-class security, performance, and customization, making it an ideal choice for enterprises, e-commerce, government, and content-driven websites. 🚀

Hello,

Drupal 8 is much more flexible as compare to Drupal 7. Below I have listed some major difference between D8 and D7.

You can get more details in www.Drupal.org.

1. Drupal 8 has object oriented concept comes with symphony framework. It has MVC architecture, which helps to maintain code and reuse the code easily.
2. Admin configurations are mobile friendly I.e. responsive experience for users as well as administration.
3. Everything is bind to entity in new Drupal such as Taxonomy, user profile etc. The benefit of this is you can manage fields for these also in Drupal 8.
4. New modules added in Drupal 8 like Twig, provides ability to make changes quickly and effectively.
5. In Drupal 8, View is core module.
6. Picture module in Drupal 8 resizes the images for different screens.
7. While adding a fields to an entity new field types as email field and telephone provides validation of e-mail address and generates tel: link respectively.

Migration simply meaning move application data from one platform to another drupal platorm. In the process of migration we migrate bothe content and configuration of that web application. We migratie to drupal and create node, taxonomy, user and core, custom and contributed modules. Now, there are several reasons to migrate to drupal.

Some of benifits I am highlighting here,

Improved website performance: Drupal is known for its powerful and flexible content management capabilities, which can improve website performance, speed, and scalability. By migrating data to Drupal, you can take advantage of its robust features and optimize your website's performance.

Better content organization: Drupal offers a wide range of content management tools that can help you organize your content in a more efficient and user-friendly way. You can use Drupal's taxonomy system to categorize your content and make it easier for users to find what they're looking for.

Enhanced security: Drupal is known for its strong security features and has a dedicated team of developers who regularly release security updates and patches. By migrating your data to Drupal, you can benefit from its security features and reduce the risk of security breaches.

Easier website maintenance: Drupal's modular architecture makes it easier to update and maintain your website. With its extensive library of modules and plugins, you can easily add new features and functionality to your website without having to write custom code.

Better integration with other systems: Drupal can integrate with a wide range of third-party systems, such as CRMs, marketing automation platforms, and e-commerce platforms. By migrating your data to Drupal, you can benefit from its integration capabilities and create a more seamless and efficient workflow across your entire organization.

Overall, migrating data to Drupal can offer several benefits, including improved website performance, better content organization, enhanced security, easier website maintenance, and better integration with other systems. However, it's important to carefully plan and execute the migration process to ensure a smooth and successful transition.

I think, it totally depends upon time of your career. As you are saying you are newbie, you have to think what is long term & short term goals are. As per most of the people around Drupal developers community, Drupal has got steep learning curve. So you will have to spend enough time playing around different kind of things & start getting hands dirty with code.

Drupal Learning Curve:

Now if you are a student & have got a year or two to start being REAL productive, then Drupal 8 would be your best choice. You will learn everything what Drupal core provides & work around contributed modules. You can be part of many ongoing development of module which is being ported from Drupal 7 to 8 & learn a lot from them. Though I don’t think it would be possible to develop some complex application from contributed modules but personnel blog sites, college websites etc can be made.

But if you are about to start your career with Drupal & have very less time before you can be productive & start working with clients, then choose Drupal 7. As per my experience, even a small client projects needs many peculiar functionality. Coz if Drupal 7 being released in 2011 there are whole lot of modules & themes available today. I mean, Drupal 7 can help you start earning your bread & butter shortly. In long run, your learned architecture will help you going forward with any other version of Drupal. You can start exploring Drupal 8 soon, playing around available things & participating in ongoing events, code sprints etc. I think more people can help with Drupal 7 code in forums, StackExchange, IRC compare to Drupal 8 now because once in a while you have to depend upon community help for crucial demands of client.

Think of it in cool mind, plan & go. Most importantly, stick with it for sometime, give it a chance & you will have lots of fun in the end.

Best of Luck !!!

1. Improved Content Authoring Experience- In Place Editing

2. Mobile First

3. Site builder improvement -

Views in Core !

Better Block- Create Custom Blocks,

New Field Types

4. Multilingual

Translatable Everything!

content

Blocks

Menus

User Profiles

Taxonomy

Views

Image styles

text formats

comments

Feeds.....and More!

5. Configuration Management

6. Twig and HTML5

Friendly syntax for designers

Varibales auto-escaped for better security

Semantic, HTML5 Markup

Component Symfony2

Other External Libraries : PHPUnit, Doctrine, Backbone.JS, Underscore.JS, Composer, Guzzles

YAML, YAML Everywhere

7. Web Services

8. Modern, OO Code

.... and Literally Hundreds of other improvments

Honestly, the most important thing to do is actually build functioning sites with Drupal. Whether you're an experienced developer or a complete beginner, the same thing applies: only practice will truly teach you what you need to know. (Not to knock any of the formal learning options, like DrupalizeMe and BuildAModule! They're crucial tools. But only hands-on experience will matter in the end, especially for getting a job.)

That being said, here are some things to focus your energies on after you've done your first install and you want to learn more:

Understand the difference between “core” and “contributed” modules, know what contributed modules are considered essential, know how to work with the templating system, what entities are and how to relate them to each other, how to work with the code and database, using git, and using drush.

If you're an experienced developer, write a module. It doesn't have to do anything earth shattering, just making it work will teach you a lot. It will also enable you to understand how other modules work so you can contribute meaningfully.

Finally, understand that Drupal is more than software. “Come for the code, stay for the community” is a common saying in Drupal circles, and they mean it. Get familiar with the community. Hang out on groups.drupal.org, study the issue queues for modules that you've found useful, and find ways to contribute. (Even if you don't write code, you can contribute by testing, writing documentation, etc.) Join a local Drupal user group. There are two benefits to this - having a place to explore Drupal and ask questions, and networking so you hear about jobs. Attend regional Drupal gatherings and DrupalCon.

One other thing I would strongly suggest: Don't just learn Drupal 8. It's very different to Drupal 7, and a lot of sites are still running on Drupal 7. So getting work in a Drupal shop or freelancing will be easier if you understand both, and get the differences between them well enough to explain them to clients and help with migrations.

Hope all that is helpful! I haven't done a lot with Drupal 8 yet, and to be honest I have been focused on other platforms lately, so this was fun to write. :)

Migrating your website to Drupal or upgrading to the latest version offers a range of advantages that enhance your website’s functionality, security, and scalability. Partnering with a professional Drupal migration service ensures a seamless transition and unlocks the full potential of the platform. Here are the key benefits:

1. Enhanced Performance and Scalability

• Improved Speed: Modern Drupal versions are optimized for faster page loading and better performance, even for content-heavy websites.
• Scalability: Drupal is ideal for businesses expecting growth, offering robust support for large user bases and high traffic.

2. Advanced Security Features

• Drupal is known for its strong focus on security. Regular updates and patches protect your website from vulnerabilities.
• Migration ensures compliance with the latest security protocols, reducing risks of data breaches and cyberattacks.

3. Access to Modern Features

• Migration to the latest Drupal version unlocks new features like improved content editing tools, better media handling, and layout customization.
• Utilize advanced modules and integrations to enhance website functionality and user experience.

4. Seamless User Experience (UX)

• Improved theming tools allow for modern, responsive, and accessible designs.
• The migration ensures your site delivers a seamless experience across all devices, improving user satisfaction and engagement.

5. Better Content Management

• Drupal’s intuitive content management interface streamlines workflows, making it easier for teams to create, manage, and publish content.
• Migration allows you to reorganize and optimize your content for better readability and navigation.

6. Multilingual Support

• Drupal offers robust multilingual capabilities, enabling you to reach a global audience.
• During migration, content can be optimized for multiple languages, enhancing localization efforts.

7. Improved SEO and Digital Marketing Tools

• Migration ensures your site adheres to the latest SEO best practices, such as clean URL structures and meta tag management.
• Leverage tools like Pathauto and XML sitemap modules for better search engine visibility.

8. Future-Ready Architecture

• Migrating to a modern Drupal version ensures compatibility with evolving technologies and third-party integrations.
• The platform’s modular architecture allows easy customization and upgrades, keeping your site ready for future needs.

9. Cost-Effective Maintenance

• Older CMS platforms or outdated Drupal versions often require more maintenance and patching. Migration reduces these overheads by leveraging up-to-date, reliable technologies.

10. Expertise and Support

• Partnering with a Drupal migration company provides access to experienced developers who manage complex processes, ensuring minimal downtime and data integrity.
• Professional services often include ongoing support for performance optimization and troubleshooting.

Why Choose Drupal Migration Services?

A professional Drupal migration service streamlines the transition process, ensuring your website is optimized, secure, and future-ready. Whether you’re migrating from another CMS like WordPress (Drupal WordPress migration) or upgrading from an older version, expert services ensure a hassle-free experience with measurable improvements in website performance and user satisfaction.

With the right migration partner, you can harness the full power of Drupal, empowering your business to grow and adapt in the ever-changing digital landscape.

I’ll be biased here since we specialize in Drupal development services. Drupal 8 does have good acceptance. All new Drupal sites are being created in Drupal 8.

Robert is correct that Drupal costs more, primarily because there is a steeper learning curve for developers and development rates are higher. Drupal also does not have the number of beautiful commercial themes for purchase that Wordpress does.

From architectural perspective, I like Drupal’s architecture way more than that of Wordpress, especially with Drupal 8 being OO.

In short, if you are building a personal site or a site for small / medium sized business where there is not much custom functionality and the look and feel is more important, then go with Wordpress. On the other hand if custom functionality is more important then go with Drupal.

I really like it. There are the inevitable jokes about having to create class extends FooAbstractFactoryFactory implements IFooAbstractFactoryFactory. But I spent enough time with Java to perversely enjoy that. Having real interfaces, namespaces and base classes makes extending it a lot cleaner in most cases than Drupal 7. Dependency injection is nice, especially when you really need to add another custom implementation. So far, so good, right? Now let's get to the other side of the coin.

You know that DI container? Yeah, it only works with services. They fake it for other things — i.e. plugins — but the instance you need to add your own dependency that the base classes didn't have you're stuck writing you own static factory method. So instead of being able to just declare things in your constructor you have to put them there and then do service location in a static function and make sure they're the same. No fun. So much so it often becomes easier to rely on the static methods on the \Drupal object to fetch things instead of doing it the right way.

Some things are more convoluted to do. For instance creating a link. In previous version there was the l() function. In D8 you use static functions on the Link class — or instantiate one yourself — depending on whether it's a route, or just a string URL. The following object does have a toString() method but you still have to pass it around … and doing it from Twig is a little painful.

There are things in Drupal 8 that are pretty inexplicably problematic. For instance there is no reliable way of clearing the Twig cache across multiple hosts. Given that both Acquia and Pantheon advertise themselves as handling Drupal 8 and default to multiple hosts makes this even more inexplicable. Basically Acquia tells you have to say into each machine and run a command there. Pantheon? I'd have to check with some folks on my team, but I suspect it comes down to clearing the cache until it runs in each container. Likewise the REST interface is pretty useless. I'm told it's getting better, but just as an example there is no default mechanism to get a list of content, you use Views and a custom URI. But it only returned data, not anything useful like — oh, I don't know — paging. Also that means that you have completely unrelated URIs to GET a list, GET and PATCH the document itself and POST to create a document.

And that's not even getting to the state of the community. We're on the third minor version but the number of migrated modules is still pretty pitiful. And while core is moving in the direction of using Composer to manage dependencies including contrib modules, there is still a tendency to keep everything in the dev branch. Sure you can pin to a specific commit, but getting that information is hard through the Drupal interface. Semantic versioning? We can't get past posting and re-rolling the same patches over and over again in comments.

While I prefer writing custom code in Drupal 8 to previous versions, trying to actually build something is often an exercise in frustration. You can use what's in core and build a menu and node based site or you can do a whole lot of custom code to fix contrib modules or write your own custom to fill in the gaps. There is a yawning gulf between those two extremes and it only takes a small amount of complexity to go from trivial to xkcd: Tasks.

It has a reputation of being good for large companies and large websites but apples to apples WordPress is a more robust, stable, scalable, and reliable platform.

Drupal is so niche and fringe that really there isn't a reason to use it unless you want to join a Drupal development house and fleece Enterprise level companies that don't have their own IT department.

Anecdote:

There was a major Drupal build I was working on a few years back that cost about $250,000. For a similarly complex WordPress site the cost would have been closer to $50,000, including a healthy profit margin. Because they went with Drupal, every time they made changes to the database it would wipe. Because of some back-end limitations they weren't able to import any of the data they - had no matter the format. These two idiosyncrasies alone cost the company tens of thousands of dollars of labor hiring temps to manually enter data, in some cases multiple times.

For that particular project, Drupal cost about seven times more than an equivalent WordPress build and they were forced to maintain the relationship with the development house because it was not self manageable. The build also took over a year instead of the three months the WordPress build would have taken. I moved to another project at the company, but when they finally wrapped up the build, several of the managers responsible for starting that project were no longer employed.

Drupal 9 is a major release from Drupal 8. And even then, support to upgrade is very much straight forward, probably as simple as a minor update.

You should migrate/upgrade from Drupal 7 to Drupal 8. Migrate if your application is big, and upgrade if it is a small one. And then incorporate deprecation checking tools into the migration process to make sure the upgrade is as Drupal 9 compatible as possible.

The important thing is for you to understand that the support for Drupal 7 and PHP 5 are both going to get extinct in the near future. And Drupal 9 and the latest of PHP 7 are here to stay for long. If you have not migrated or upgraded your Drupal 7 site yet, now is a very good time.

The best thing about Drupal 9 is it is almost the same as Drupal 8 so if your Drupal team can handle Drupal 8, they can handle Drupal 9 as well.

“The big deal about Drupal 9 is … that it should not be a big deal.”

The foundation of your digital experience is a content management system (CMS). As the digital landscape expands to include more channels and touchpoints, a CMS must provide adaptability, robust content creation tools, and efficient workflows to power the content for customer journeys. Drupal is the preferred content management system for over a million websites worldwide and continues to be a market leader in delivering ambitious digital experiences.

Consider Drupal if you want to transform your organization's digital strategy with a CMS that can accommodate demand of any size and scope. Learn why we believe Drupal is superior to all other CMSs on the market today.

1. Collaborative Community
2. Enterprise CMS
3. Flexible
4. Drupal Handles Code the Right Way
5. High-Security
6. Offers Scalability
7. Boosts Website Performance
8. Accessibility

In conclusion, we can say that this system is ideal for webmasters who are proficient in programming languages and who want to create a website without attachments.

The scope of Drupal 8 would be unprecedented. D8 has all the advanced & improved features which are ready power next generation websites.

Drupal, since its inception has been the most advanced CMS with superior capabilities, every iteration is improvement over the previous one and the case is no different with D8.

Here's the list of some cool features of D8.

Theme Engine - D8 includes brand new theme engine called TWIG, which is based on PHP. It's now much easier to create beautiful and more functional Drupal website with it.

Content Authoring - Content creators and marketers can use the integrated WYSIWYG editor or navigate the site and use the new on-page editor.

Mobile Ready - Drupal 8 is built for a mobile-first world. Everything in Drupal 8 supports responsive design.

Multilingual Ready - Drupal 8 boasts extensive multilingual features right out of the box. The admin interface has built-in translations.

Views in the Core - "Views" is among the most widely used modules in Drupal for site builders, it's almost impossible to work without "Views", it's now firmly integrated in D8 core.

Drupal in general lost a lot of popularity since Drupal 8 was released because

1. The architectural changes were big, more than the transition from D6 to D8
2. Many developers weren’t ready for the Procedural vs OOP programing, even though D8 still have some procedural parts.
3. D8 introduced new languages: Twig for templates and YAML for config
4. D8 was very very buggy on the date of release, so conversion was slow and site owners with D7 sites weren’t sure if D7 was still going to be receiving support for D7 and when D8 (if ever) was going to become stable.

Fortunately, D8 has gotten very stable during the last couple of years but still has to regain its popularity. It’s not for every site and the solution for everything as D7 was promoted to be, so you can expect less conversion and some projects to be migrated to Backdrop instead which is a fork aimed to keep the simplicity of D7 but the new features from D8.

The following page summarizes Drupal conversion to date

Usage statistics for Drupal core

Personally, I like all the changes, and as Ryan Price said, it can be tough to go back to Drupal 7 after working on Drupal 8. The separation of code and configuration is a lot more pronounced, and code is organized in a much more modular way. (every form in its own class, in own file, for example)

That said, the level of programming and Drupal API knowledge required if you’re going to do module development on Drupal 8 is a lot higher. I think it’ll be much harder for tinkerers, people whose primary job is not PHP development.

An example of this would be the caching system. It’s a a great improvement, but it’s something that every module developer needs to understand before they can do almost anything. Even if you’re trying to build a form or something that seems unrelated, the new cache system touches everything.

Overall, I would say it’s a higher barrier to getting started, but people will be able to build much more ambitious projects in a cleaner way.

Now that I have worked on both at the same time, I see the light. Drupal 8 FTW.

However, config management is a chore during development. I constantly have to uninstall/reinstall my module if I change configs, add variables, schemata, etc. Drupal 7 was much more forgiving - sort of like the difference between HTML and XHTML, if you get that analogy. Or JavaScript with triple equals everywhere… maybe? I don’t do much JS outside of Drupal.

You now have an indication that you did something wrong (provided you remembered to cache-rebuild) by seeing a huge exception on your screen or command line. If you forget to `drush cr` then you may not see your changes at all. If you are in a load balanced environment there are more fun things.

These are all quips, though. Writing a class that implements and interface is sooo much better than magically naming the function the right thing. Everything is explicit (OK, still a few Drupalisms), and a good IDE will help you out a lot.

TLDR: It’s painful to go back to seven after working on eight.

In Drupal 8, a service is any object managed by the services container. Drupal 8 introduces the concept of services to decouple reusable functionality and makes these services pluggable and replaceable by registering them with a service container.

Service is a PHP class with some code that provides a single specific functionality throughout the application. So you can easily access each service and use its functionality wherever you need it. Because of that it is easy to test and configure in your application. This is called service-oriented architecture which is not unique to Symfony or even PHP.

The Services and Dependency Injection Container concepts have been adopted by Drupal from the Symfony framework. Accessing the database, sending email, or translating user interface are examples for the services in Drupal 8.

How to define your own service in Drupal 8 through custom module Step are below.

1- create the .info.yml file [custom_services.info.yml]

name: Custom Services

type: module

description: The module provide the sample code to define your service from your custom module.

core: 8.x

package: Custom

2- create the .services.yml file [custom_services.services.yml]

services:

custom_services.say_hello:

class: Drupal\custom_services\HelloServices

File name is ‘custom_services.services.yml’ where the ‘custom_services’ is our module name.

‘custom_services.say_hello’ is the service name defined by us, , Where we need to follow the pattern of ‘module_name’ concatenate with a ‘unique_name’.

We have the class name for services. ‘class: Drupal\custom_services\HelloServices’ which will be kept under the ‘src’ folder.

Also the dependency can be added the following way

arguments: ['@modulename.services1', '@modulename.services4', '@modulename.services7']

In this case there are no dependencies.

For more details visit https://www.drupal.org/node/2194463

3- Create the class ‘HelloServices.php’ under the ‘src’ folder

<?php

/**

* @file providing the service that say hello world and hello 'given name'.

*

*/

namespace Drupal\custom_services;

class HelloServices {

protected $say_something;

public function __construct() {

$this->say_something = 'Hello World!';

}

public function sayHello($name = ''){

if (empty($name)) {

return $this->say_something;

}

else {

return "Hello " . $name . "!";

}

}

}

This is simple class provide the service.

How to access the our own defined service?

Accessing the service globally.

$service = \Drupal::service('custom_services_example.say_hello');

If you want to test this , you can enable the devel module and go to the path ‘devel/php’ and run the following code

$service = \Drupal::service('custom_services.say_hello');

dsm($service);

dsm($service->sayHello('Waliullah'));

So you will get the following output.

Drupal\custom_services\HelloServices Object

(

[say_something:protected] => Hello World!

[_serviceId] => custom_services.say_hello

)

Hello Waliullah!

For more details please visit the following links

What is services in drupal 8

https://www.drupal.org/node/2133171

http://symfony.com/doc/current/book/service_container.html

From my perspective when I make a decision to recommend either Drupal or WordPress for a client I weight the following.

Advantages for WordPress:

• Closer to PHP -- building lists of content, for example, is done in-line with the markup
• Easier to theme -- markup comes from fewer places in WordPress so it's easier to override
• Lots of plugins

Advantages for Drupal

• More re-usability -- you can create different views of content that are re-used throughout the system
• More integrations -- there are a lot more modules for Drupal focused on integrating with external systems such as SalesForce, etc.
• More options for authentication, authorization and workflow

What that means for us, generally, is that normal "brochure-ware" sites are easier, faster and cheaper to deliver in WordPress. There are fewer areas to get caught in complexity and it's simpler to make it output exactly what you want it to output. But when you start trying to display content in a lot of different places consistently Drupal pulls ahead because you aren't having to repeat yourself a lot. Similarly if you need to meet a lot of specific user authorization and workflow requirements Drupal is likely to require less custom code. And if you need to connect to other systems you may find that the functionality has already been developed for Drupal but not for WordPress.

Drupal is well-suited for…

• Site/system building with little developer involvement.
• Complex content repositories with critical workflows and structure.
• Content websites created, contributed to, and/or managed by communities or groups.
• E-commerce sites with special requirements and accounts.
• Marketing websites with evolving, varied, and technical needs.
• User account backbones within a system stack.

There’s certainly a learning curve in using the admin UI, module (plugin) install/setup, and refining caching for high traffic if that’s an issue.

Drupal’s special sauce is controlling powerful features via admin settings. It’s an extremely mature CMS, so there are community-created modules to do anything a traditional large scale website would need. Some key examples: content schema building, hierarchal vocabulary (fancy tags), list view building, contextually assembled layouts, user accounts, permissions/roles… just in core.

I have spent about 1 year in total developing in Drupal and about 5 years total developing in WordPress and I can tell you that there are way fewer instances (where a third party CMS suffices) that I would choose Drupal over WordPress.

Here are the three biggest advantages in my opinion:

1 - Community Contributors & Documentation

WordPress powers around one third of all websites on the Internet. Because of this large community, it is easier to find people that have already figured out solutions to problems that may arise. This means you spend less time pulling your hair out troubleshooting.

It also means you have virtuously endless options when it comes to third party plugin use. Drupal has a large quantity of plugins as well, but not compared to WordPress.

2 - Core updates on Drupal are basically complete overhauls

For example, there are vast differences in Drupal 7 and Drupal 8. Drupal 8 incorporates twig, which was not the case in Drupal 7.

You basically have to build a completely new website when Drupal core updates, and these paradigm shifts seem to be in more frequency than that of WordPress.

3 - Integration with relevant and up and coming technology

Want a setup that works with great with Webpack, Laravel, and es6? Roots’ Sage WordPress theme has you covered.

Want to build your own endpoints and use React.js to build a web app? You can do it with WordPress. In fact WordPress is constantly moving the needle forward in the development community and even got Facebook to change React.js’s terms of use!

In the end…

In the end Drupal is still a very good option and it depends on what your needs are.

Where I think Drupal might make more sense is a site like weather.com (they used to use Drupal); where your content is more “block” based rather than “post” based.

A good way to help make a decision is to see what other companies are using. You can download a chrome extension like wappalyzer that shows you the technology stack of websites.

I would say it depends. I’ve built several Drupal 7 & 8 sites, and migrated two Drupal 8 sites. Basically, it all depends on how much custom work you had done, and which modules are required.

Know that it will be a complete rebuild and all custom functionality (template.php code, custom modules) and theme templates have to be rebuilt from the ground up. You can’t import settings from D7 modules, you’ll have to configure those in the admin. Migrating content has gotten better with v8.6, but you still have to configure the yml import files to migrate from the old database to the new DB.

I would build the site on D8 first, creating all of the fields and functionality, the last step is importing content.

Drupal is a highly popular and widely used open-source content management system (CMS) that is known for its flexibility and extensibility. It is written in PHP and offers a robust framework for building websites and web applications. Drupal has been used by numerous organizations, including governments, enterprises, non-profits, and educational institutions, for a wide range of web development projects.

Here are some benefits of using Drupal for web development projects:

• Flexibility: Drupal is highly flexible and can be customized to suit the specific needs of any website or application. It provides a modular architecture that allows developers to add or remove features easily, making it adaptable for various use cases.
• Scalability: Drupal is known for its ability to handle high levels of traffic and content. It is ideal for websites with complex data structures, large content volumes, and high user engagement. Drupal's scalability makes it suitable for websites ranging from small blogs to large enterprise-level applications.
• Customization: Drupal provides a wide range of modules and themes that allow developers to create unique and customized websites. The modular architecture allows for easy integration with third-party systems and services, making it highly extensible.
• Security: Drupal has a strong emphasis on security and has a dedicated security team that actively monitors and addresses vulnerabilities. It offers robust security features, including regular security updates, user role management, access controls, and other security best practices.
• Community and Support: Drupal has a large and vibrant community of developers and users who contribute to its development, provide support, and share resources. Drupal's community-driven approach ensures continuous improvement and innovation, and it also provides ample documentation and forums for support.
• Multilingual capabilities: Drupal has built-in support for creating multilingual websites, making it an excellent choice for websites with content in multiple languages. It provides language handling features such as translation management, language detection, and language-specific URL routing.
• SEO-friendly: Drupal is designed with search engine optimization (SEO) in mind. It provides various SEO-friendly features such as clean URLs, meta tags, XML sitemap generation, and other tools that help improve the visibility of websites on search engines.
• Mobile responsiveness: Drupal offers responsive design capabilities, allowing websites to be accessed seamlessly across different devices, including desktops, tablets, and smartphones. This helps provide a consistent user experience across different platforms.

Drupal offers a flexible, scalable, customizable, secure, and community-supported CMS solution with multilingual and SEO-friendly capabilities, making it a popular choice for building a wide range of websites and applications.

Migrating a website to Drupal or upgrading to the latest version involves multiple critical steps to ensure a seamless transition. Whether it’s moving from an older Drupal version, a different CMS like WordPress, or simply upgrading to enhance functionality, careful planning is essential. Here's a detailed guide to the key considerations:

1. Define Migration Goals

• Clearly outline why the migration is necessary. Common goals include upgrading to the latest Drupal version for improved security, migrating from WordPress for better scalability, or adopting Drupal for enhanced customization options.
• Align the migration goals with your business objectives to ensure a return on investment.

2. Audit Your Current Website

• Content Inventory: List all the existing content types, taxonomy terms, media files, and custom data structures.
• Modules and Themes: Identify modules and themes in use, including custom or deprecated ones, to determine their compatibility with the new version.
• Functionality Check: Review all custom functionalities, workflows, and integrations that need to be preserved or improved.

3. Choose the Right Migration Approach

• Direct Upgrade: Ideal for older Drupal versions (e.g., Drupal 7 or 8 to Drupal 9/10). Tools like the Migrate API can simplify this process.
• CMS-to-Drupal Migration: For websites migrating from platforms like WordPress, the process may require extensive content mapping and adjustments.
• Engage a professional Drupal migration company or use Drupal migration services for complex migrations or when handling large websites.

4. Evaluate and Replace Modules

• Module Compatibility: Check whether the modules you’re using in your current version are available or compatible with the target version.
• Alternatives: Replace unsupported or outdated modules with modern, supported equivalents. For example, some contributed modules in older Drupal versions may now be part of Drupal Core.

5. Plan Content and Data Migration

• Content Mapping: Map the structure of the old content to the new one. Define relationships between content types, taxonomy, and user roles.
• Data Cleanup: Remove redundant or outdated data to streamline migration and improve website performance.
• Custom Scripts: Develop migration scripts if needed to handle unique data structures or integrations.

6. Handle Design and Theming

• Recreate or redesign the website theme to align with the latest Drupal theming standards (e.g., using Twig templates).
• Ensure the new theme is responsive, user-friendly, and meets accessibility standards.

7. Manage Custom Code and Integrations

• Custom Modules: Update or rewrite custom modules to ensure compatibility with the latest Drupal APIs.
• Third-Party Tools: Review integrations with external tools (e.g., CRMs, analytics, or payment gateways) and update API connections if required.

8. Prioritize SEO and URL Structure

• Ensure that URLs, redirects, meta tags, and other SEO elements are preserved during the migration.
• Use tools like Drupal’s Pathauto module to manage clean URLs and redirects effectively.

9. Testing and Quality Assurance

• Staging Environment: Set up a staging site to test the migrated content and functionality before going live.
• Functional Testing: Verify that all features, forms, and workflows work as expected.
• Performance Testing: Ensure the site meets performance benchmarks, such as loading times and scalability.
• User Acceptance Testing (UAT): Allow end-users to test the site to identify any overlooked issues.

10. Security and Compliance

• Implement best practices for security, such as ensuring HTTPS, updating modules, and setting proper permissions.
• Confirm compliance with legal standards (e.g., GDPR) during data migration.

11. Partner with Experts

• Collaborate with a trusted provider offering Drupal Migration & Upgrade Services to simplify the process and minimize downtime.
• Look for companies with expertise in Drupal WordPress migration or other CMS transitions.

12. Post-Migration Optimization and Maintenance

• Performance Tuning: Optimize caching, database queries, and asset loading to improve speed.
• Ongoing Updates: Keep your Drupal Core, modules, and themes up to date.
• Monitoring: Set up analytics and monitoring tools to track website performance and user behavior post-migration.

Why Consider Professional Services?

Professional Drupal migration services ensure a streamlined process, reducing the risks of data loss, downtime, or performance issues. With the help of experienced developers, you can leverage industry best practices to build a scalable and future-ready website.

By following these detailed considerations, your Drupal migration will not only achieve its technical goals but also enhance your website’s performance, usability, and security.

Short Answer: Drupal 7 to Drupal 8, that will make you ready for Drupal 9 as well.

Explanation:-

#1. From Dries Buytaert key note in Drupal Con Seattle it was quite apparent that Drupal 9(releasing in 2020 Q2) is essentially an extension to Drupal 8 with upgrade to some of the third party services like symphony and some of the core Drupal API changes, but no major architectural changes at code or configuration level.

Drupal 9 = Drupal 8.9 - deprecated Code + updated 3rd party dependencies.

So a website on Drupal 8 can be easily upgraded to Drupal 9, given the cleanup for deprecated code.

#2. Along with Drupal 9 readiness, upgrading to Drupal 8 will allow you leveraging some of the greatest community initiatives taken in Drupal 8 like layout building capabilities, configuration workflow, API driven development, better editorial experience.

#3. Most of the modules that were in Drupal 7 are now ported to Drupal 8, so migration path from 7 to 8 is relatively easier than it used to be, in case you “Its not in D8 yes” was your problem statement.

If security is the only concern that you have for your Drupal 7 site, in that case you don’t need to worry since Drupal community will continue to support Drupal 7 for another 3 years(till 2021).

The pictorial representation below can help you visualizing the life cycle of Drupal 7/8/9

Drupal 7 is more procedural and hooks concept is the major driven approach and many drupal oriented drupalism concepts are included in drupal 7.

Whereas drupal 8 follows object orientented style of php programming

Symfony and twig is integrated to drupal 8.and many drupalistic concepts are minimalised to attract new developers to work with drupal.

Configuration handling is one of the best advantage in drupal 8

Drupal 7 is structured with the associative arrays and in depth key properties whereas drupal 8 is based on the classes where a specific functionality is defined

Above mentioned points i wrote a article about difference between drupal 7 and drupal 8
Please checkout the below link

https://letssharedrupal.blogspot.in/2017/10/comparison-between-drupal-7-and-drupal-8.html?m=1