Drupal 11 has now been released, marking another important step in the platform’s evolution toward a faster, cleaner and more secure foundation. For organisations already running Drupal 10 — including all Digital Garden clients — the transition is straightforward and low-risk. But it remains an essential upgrade to ensure continued security, compliance and long-term sustainability.

This article outlines what Drupal 11 brings, when the upgrade needs to happen, and what level of effort organisations should expect.

Why Drupal 11 matters

Drupal 11 doesn’t reinvent the platform, but it strengthens it in meaningful ways. The emphasis is on performance, sustainability and security, rather than new features for features’ sake. Improvements include:

• removal of deprecated code, resulting in a cleaner and more reliable core
• performance refinements across rendering and caching
• alignment with modern PHP versions and updated JavaScript tooling
• ongoing support for improved editorial experiences

The result is a more secure and streamlined foundation — one that supports future enhancements without introducing unnecessary complexity.

When the upgrade needs to happen

Once Drupal 11 is released, Drupal 10 will remain supported for roughly 12 months before reaching end-of-life. After that point, it will no longer receive security updates. For any organisation with compliance obligations — particularly government, higher education, councils or corporates — remaining on an unsupported version is not an option.

Hosting platforms such as Platform.sh and Upsun will also begin phasing out Drupal 10, and GovCMS SaaS will align its roadmap accordingly, eventually requiring all sites to move to Drupal 11.

Digital Garden will manage the transition for our clients well ahead of any deadlines. For organisations not yet working with us, Drupal 11 is an ideal moment to ensure your site is being actively maintained and is upgraded in time.

What preparation is required

Because our supported clients are already on Drupal 10, the preparation is straightforward but still essential. The first step is reviewing all contributed modules and ensuring they have Drupal 11-compatible releases. Some modules will be ready on day one; others may require patches or replacements.

We then look at custom modules and themes. Drupal 11 removes all deprecated APIs, so our team will:

• update or modernise any custom code
• replace deprecated services, hooks or Twig functions
• ensure templates and components align with the new version
• verify that the hosting environment (PHP, Composer, etc.) supports Drupal 11

Once the foundation is in place, we proceed with full regression testing, including mobile, desktop and accessibility checks, followed by a staged deployment and production release.

How much effort the upgrade requires

The amount of work varies depending on the size and complexity of your site. Based on our client portfolio, the typical ranges are:

• 12–20 hours for small sites with simple structures
• 20–35 hours for most sites (the majority of Digital Garden clients)
• 35–60 hours for large or complex platforms with integrations, calculators, or extensive custom modules

Effort is influenced by:

• how much custom code needs updating
• the number of modules installed
• integration or workflow complexity
• the level of testing required

For most organisations, planning for 20–35 hours is appropriate and realistic.

What Drupal 11 means for your organisation

Upgrading ensures that your website remains fully secure and compliant, which is particularly important for government and enterprise clients. It also reduces long-term technical debt by removing outdated code and aligns your platform with modern hosting environments. For editors and users, the upgrade brings subtle improvements to speed, reliability and usability.

Staying current with Drupal’s release cycle avoids the large, disruptive rebuilds that were once common and instead supports predictable, incremental improvements.

Digital Garden’s upgrade programme

Digital Garden will run a structured Drupal 11 upgrade programme for all clients. This includes a readiness assessment, remediation where needed, module and theme updates, full testing, and coordinated deployment. Each client will receive a proposed timeframe and a clear explanation of what to expect.

Preparing early

If you’d like to get ahead, we can run a Drupal 11 readiness scan now, provide a tailored estimate and identify any opportunities to bundle in additional improvements such as accessibility updates, design refinements or performance enhancements.

For organisations seeking a new Drupal partner, Drupal 11 provides a timely opportunity to ensure your site is maintained by an experienced, government-aligned agency.