The verdict in three sentences
Drupal 7 reached end of life in January 2025: a federation with 180,000 members still on it pays extended support of around 1,200 EUR per month and is exposed to unpatched vulnerabilities. The two serious options are Drupal 10 or 11 (25,000 to 45,000 EUR) or Next.js with a headless CMS (30,000 to 55,000 EUR), over 3 to 5 months. Either way, success depends on migrating 12,000 pages and the plan for 2,500 301 redirects, not on the framework choice.
Why you need to leave Drupal 7 now
Community support for Drupal 7 ended on 5 January 2025. Security patches now come only from paid extended support vendors. For a federation handling member data, competition results and sometimes payments, the risk is concrete: an exploited flaw can lead to a personal data leak and a notification to the data protection authority (the ICO in the UK, the CNIL in France).
| Situation | Estimated monthly cost (2026 Paris benchmark) | Risk |
|---|---|---|
| Staying on Drupal 7 without support | 0 EUR | High: no security updates |
| Drupal 7 with extended support | 800 to 1,500 EUR, often around 1,200 | Medium: patches, but abandoned third-party modules |
| Migration in progress (double run) | Extended support + project budget | Low if cutover is planned |
| Migrated site, standard maintenance | 400 to 1,000 EUR | Low |
| Security incident on member data | 20,000 to 80,000 EUR (crisis handling, notification, audit) | Reputation and legal liability |
Waiting one more year costs about 14,400 EUR of extended support with no progress on the site.
Drupal 10 or headless Next.js: comparing the two paths
Figures are 2026 market estimates from our Paris benchmark for a 12,000-page site; London agencies quote in GBP in a similar or slightly higher range.
| Criterion | Drupal 10/11 | Next.js + headless CMS |
|---|---|---|
| Project cost excl. VAT | 25,000 to 45,000 EUR | 30,000 to 55,000 EUR |
| Duration | 3 to 4 months | 4 to 5 months |
| Content migration tools | Native Migrate module, well-known path | Custom export and transformation scripts |
| Mobile performance | Good with well-tuned caching | Very good, static or regenerated pages |
| Editorial team autonomy | Familiar interface for former Drupal 7 users | New interface, 1 to 2 days of training |
| Maintenance skills | Drupal PHP developers | JavaScript developers, more widely available |
| Future features (mobile app, live results) | Possible via API | Native, content is already served by API |
Drupal 10 is the safe choice if the editorial team is attached to its tool and the budget is tight. Headless makes sense if the federation plans a mobile app, real-time results or an ultra-fast site for competition days.
Protecting SEO: 12,000 pages and 2,500 redirects
A botched migration can wipe out 30 to 60% of organic traffic within weeks. The key steps are always the same.
| Step | Estimated effort | Checkpoint |
|---|---|---|
| URL inventory (crawl + Search Console + Analytics) | 3 to 5 days | 12,000 URLs classified: keep, merge, delete |
| 301 redirect plan | 4 to 6 days | 2,500 redirects for changing URLs |
| Content and media migration | 15 to 30 days | Sample of 200 pages checked by hand |
| SEO acceptance testing on staging | 3 to 4 days | Tags, internal links, structured data |
| Cutover and monitoring | 4 to 6 weeks | 404 errors under 0.5%, traffic stabilised |
Club, competition and historical results pages often bring the most long-tail traffic. They must keep their URL or be redirected one by one, never to the home page.
Mini case study
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Nick, CIO of a hypothetical sports federation in London, pays 1,200 EUR per month for Drupal 7 extended support. He compares Drupal 10 at 38,000 EUR and headless Next.js at 48,000 EUR.
With Drupal 10, the project takes 4 months: he pays 4 x 1,200 = 4,800 EUR of support during migration, 42,800 EUR in total. With headless, 5 months of project mean 6,000 EUR of support and a 54,000 EUR total. The 11,200 EUR gap is only justified if the mobile app planned for the following year reuses the API and avoids a back-office build estimated at 15,000 EUR.
FAQ
Drupal 7 still works, why migrate?
Because it has had no free security patches since January 2025. Extended support costs 800 to 1,500 EUR per month and many third-party modules are no longer maintained at all.
Can we go straight from Drupal 7 to Drupal 11?
Yes, migration works by importing content into a fresh install, whether Drupal 10 or 11. There is no in-place upgrade from Drupal 7, hence a budget of 25,000 to 45,000 EUR.
How long does the migration take?
Allow 3 to 4 months for Drupal 10 and 4 to 5 months for a headless solution, SEO testing included. Avoid cutting over in the middle of the competition season.
Will we lose our rankings?
Not if the redirect plan is complete. With 2,500 well-tested 301 redirects, the dip usually lasts a few weeks and stays under 10% of traffic.
What maintenance budget after migration?
Plan 400 to 1,000 EUR per month depending on service level, less than the current Drupal 7 extended support.
Let's scope your project. Send us your page count, modules in use and sports calendar, and we will compare Drupal 10 and headless for your federation, with budget, redirect plan and timeline. Detailed quote within 48 h. WhatsApp +221 77 596 93 33.
Mohamed Bah
Fondateur, Kolonell
Passionate about digital and entrepreneurship in Africa, Mohamed has been helping Sénégalese businesses with their digital transformation since 2020. Founder of Kolonell, he believes every SME deserves a professional and accessible online présence.
