Here is an update on Drupal’s lifecycle, which many of you find too ambitious. Following the rapid wave of upgrades to Drupal 10, Drupal site owners and administrators need to assess the lifespan of their investment and plan their budgets accordingly. The community has just announced its response: Drupal 10 will be supported until mid-2026.
Reminder of the Drupal lifecycle
November 1, 2023 marked the end of life for Drupal 9, along with Symfony 4, CKEditor 4, and Twig 2. There will be no further releases of Drupal 9.
Some of you may have noticed that the release cycle for major versions seems to have sped up recently, even though the upgrade process itself has become easier. This “impression,” particularly justified by the synchronization of maintenance cycles with the Symfony framework, led to some hesitancy when it came time to upgrade Drupal projects to version 10.
The community, through its announcement on 11/22/2023, has now reassured all Drupal site owners and administrators. Major upgrade cycles will now last 2 years.
https://www.drupal.org/blog/drupal-10-will-be-supported-until-the-release-of-drupal-12-in-mid-late-2026
Starting with Drupal 10, a major upgrade cycle set at 2 years
Starting with Drupal 10, a new major version of Drupal will be released every two years, in even-numbered years. Each major version will receive active support for about two years, followed by maintenance support and security coverage for about another two years. Each version is supported until two further major versions are released.
Drupal 11 in 2024
Drupal 11 will be released during 2024. Like Drupal 9 and 10, Drupal 11 has three possible release windows, in June, August, and December.
The development of Drupal 11 alpha has just begun
After the release of version 10.2.0-beta1, changes made to 11.x that diverge from Drupal 10 as part of the upgrade path will begin. Anyone can get involved and join the #d11readiness channel on the Drupal community Slack.
Maintenance of Drupal 10 minor versions
Following the release of Drupal 11.0.0 in 2024, an LTS phase for Drupal 10 will begin, and it will include new minor maintenance every six months. For more information, refer to the main Drupal release process presentation.
Running a supported PHP version
The minor versions of Drupal 10 will continue to support the latest PHP versions as they are released. The minimum PHP version supported for Drupal core follows the support cycle of the main PHP team.
So what should we do?
With Drupal 10, the community aimed to address site administrators by extending support for major versions, offering a lifespan of two and a half years for the LTS version.
The advantages are significant:
- Drupal now, for better or worse, offers a predictable release cycle: no more wondering when the next major version will be released, as was the case between Drupal 8 and Drupal 9.
- Sites running on Drupal 10 will have over two years before needing to perform a major update.
Everyone understands, therefore, that upgrading to Drupal 10 is essential.
You will decide, in consultation with your technical team, whether you wish to follow a regular, less costly update cycle each year, or if you prefer to wait until the next period. This time, you know you have a choice!
Are you unsure about updating your site to Drupal 10?
Contact us for a free analysis of your instance.
To learn more on the blog:
The Drupal 10 roadmap and how to prepare for it - July 2022.
Drupal 10, new features and upcoming trends - May 2022.