Why is Drupal a safe long-term choice?

Drupal is a popular and very user-friendly content management system (CMS). The latest version of this CMS, Drupal 9, was launched in June 2021. Drupal 9 is considered a cleaned-up version of its predecessor, Drupal 8. The latter had been on the market for six years and could use some updates and tweaks.

There are several reasons why a website built with Drupal 9 is a safe choice for the future.

• Stability
  The most recent version of a software package is usually the most stable. This is no different for Drupal. Drupal 9 will eventually be the only supported version of the CMS, so the only version where issues are quickly resolved.

• Performance
  Drupal 9 is a cleaned-up version of its predecessor, Drupal 8. This means that all obsolete and superfluous functionalities have been ditched, and only the relevant parts remain. Less code means higher-performance code. A website running on Drupal 9 simply performs better.

• Security
  An up-to-date system is a secure system. An open source CMS like Drupal leans on third-party components, like Symfony or Twig. These components are also updated to their latest versions, and thus more secure and better performing. In the long run, they only remain secure for the latest version of the CMS.

• Support
  Drupal 8 has been out of support for some time now, and support for Drupal 7 will soon come to an end as well. Drupal 9, on the other hand, will be supported for years to come. Want to continue enjoying security updates? Then upgrade to Drupal 9 soon!

After Drupal 9 comes — you’ve guessed it! — Drupal 10. The launch of Drupal 10 is already scheduled for August 2022. That's merely two years after the release of Drupal 9, and there's a pretty good reason for that. Drupal 10 will be nothing more than a refined version of Drupal 9. The transition from Drupal 8 to Drupal 9 was the easiest and least intrusive upgrade of the past decade and the next version upgrade is expected to take a quite similar step.

It's not that hard:

• Is your site running on Drupal 7? Update to Drupal 9, it'll make the transition to Drupal 10 easier.

• Is your site running on Drupal 8? Then update to Drupal 9 as soon as possible. Drupal 8 has been out of support for a while now.

• Is your site running on Drupal 9? Good for you! You don't have to upgrade before Drupal 10 is available.