In November 2023, Drupal 9 officially reached its End of Life (EOL) — meaning community support, security updates, and maintenance for Drupal 9 have ceased. For organizations still running Drupal 9, this transition presents significant risks as well as an urgent call to action. In this article, Scideas Solution walks through the risks, the impact on your web properties, and how to navigate your path forward.

What Does “End of Life” Mean for Drupal 9?

When a software version reaches EOL, it no longer receives official patches, bug fixes, or security updates from its maintainers. In Drupal’s case, once Drupal 9 went out of support:

• No new core releases, bug fixes or security advisories will be published for Drupal 9. 
• The Drupal community and ecosystem shift focus to newer versions (Drupal 10 and beyond).
• Dependencies used by Drupal 9, such as Symfony 4, CKEditor 4, and other libraries, are themselves reaching or already reached EOL, compounding risk.
• Over time, contributed modules or themes may cease compatibility with Drupal 9, or no longer be maintained.

Importantly, note that a Drupal 9 site may continue to “work” post-EOL, but it becomes increasingly fragile and vulnerable.

Key Risks of Staying on Drupal 9

Continuing on an unsupported version introduces a range of risks — some immediate, others that grow over time.

1. Security Vulnerabilities & Exposure:- Without security updates, your site becomes a soft target for attackers. Known vulnerabilities may remain unpatched, and new exploits targeting deprecated dependencies (e.g. Symfony 4) may surface.

If your website stores or handles user data (logins, forms, payments, personal info), a breach could cause reputational damage, regulatory fines, or legal liability.

2. Compliance & Legal Risks:– Many data-protection regulations (GDPR, CCPA, etc.) require that you take reasonable security measures. Running on unsupported software may be seen as negligence, putting you in breach of compliance obligations. 

3. Compatibility & Dependency Breakage:– As your server environment, PHP version, or database upgrades over time, Drupal 9 may break. Modules or themes might stop receiving updates or drop Drupal 9 support. Integration with third-party APIs or libraries may fail. 

4. Performance & Reliability Degradation:- Without maintenance, bugs and inefficiencies can accumulate. Caching, performance optimizations, and security mitigations that rely on core updates may stagnate. Over time, site speed and reliability can suffer. 

5. Escalating Technical Debt & Cost:-The longer you delay upgrading, the more “bit rot” accumulates. Custom modules may become outdated, fixes will need more rewrites, and the eventual upgrade/migration becomes more complex and costly. 

6. Loss of Vendor or Community Support:- Drupal agencies, module maintainers, and professional services will prioritize current versions. It becomes harder to find support or updated modules for Drupal 9. 

Impacts on Your Business & Stakeholders

Beyond technical risk, running an end-of-life CMS can affect your business as a whole.

• User Experience & Brand Reputation: If your site breaks or behaves erratically, users will notice. That leads to lost trust, increased bounce, and damage to brand image.
• SEO & Availability: Security issues, downtime, or performance drops can negatively affect search rankings and traffic.
• Operational Disruption: As things break, more emergency fixes may be needed — diverting time and cost away from innovation and growth.
• Financial Risk: The cost to patch, mitigate security incidents, or perform a rushed migration under duress is often higher than planned migration.
• Missed Features & Innovation: New features in Drupal 10 and beyond (e.g. improved editor, performance optimizations) won’t be accessible if you stay behind.

Next Steps: How to Transition Smoothly

At Scideas Solution, we recommend a structured migration path rather than reactive patches. Below is a roadmap to guide you.

1. Audit Your Current Setup

• Inventory all modules, themes, custom code, and integrations
• Identify deprecated or unmaintained modules
• Check your hosting environment (PHP version, database, server)

2. Assess Upgrade Readiness:-Use tools like Upgrade Status or Drupal Rector to scan for deprecated code or compatibility issues. 

3. Prepare a Staging Environment:-Clone your site to staging or local development to test upgrades safely, before touching production.

4. Upgrade in Phases

• First, ensure your Drupal 9 is at the latest patch release
• Update all contributed modules and themes to the newest compatible version
• Refactor or rewrite deprecated custom code
• Remove or replace unsupported modules
• Then perform the core upgrade to Drupal 10 using Composer (e.g. composer require drupal/core:^10) 

5. Testing & Validation:- Extensively test functionality, UX, performance, and integrations. Check forms, login flows, APIs, content load, edge cases. Use automated tests where possible.

6. Go Live & Monitor:- Deploy to production, but keep rollback plans and backups handy. Monitor logs, performance, and security events post-deploy.

7. Post-Migration Maintenance

• Keep Drupal core, modules and libraries updated
• Monitor for security advisories
• Regular backups & vulnerability scanning
• Plan for future upgrades (Drupal 11, etc.)

Why Scideas Solution is Your Ideal Migration Partner

At Scideas Solution, we combine Drupal expertise with a rigorous methodology:

• Thorough audit and diagnostics
• Custom module refactoring and legacy cleanup
• Seamless upgrade execution minimizing downtime
• Post-migration support & performance optimization

We believe every migration is an opportunity — not just to “catch up,” but to reimagine your site’s architecture, performance, and user experience.

In Summary

Drupal 9’s EOL is not merely a technical milestone — it’s a signal that continuing to run unsupported software introduces mounting risk to security, compliance, performance, and your brand’s credibility. If your site is still on Drupal 9, the time to act was yesterday — but better late than never.

By following a structured migration path, testing thoroughly, and leveraging expert help, you can transition smoothly to Drupal 10 (and beyond) with minimal disruption. At Scideas Solution, we’re ready to partner with you to future-proof your digital presence.