The verdict in three sentences
A mid-sized company site still running on Drupal 7 has had no official security fixes since 5 January 2025, and every month of delay increases both risk and the cost of extended support. For 300 to 1,500 pages, a migration to Next.js with a headless CMS costs, as a 2026 ballpark, between EUR 15,000 and EUR 45,000 excluding VAT, with a 3 to 6 month timeline. The line item that protects your traffic is the 301 redirect plan, budgeted separately at EUR 2,000 to EUR 5,000.
Drupal 11 or headless Next.js: the real trade-off
Moving from Drupal 7 to Drupal 11 is not an update: modules, theme and content structure all have to be rebuilt. For the same scope, the effort is close to a full rebuild. The question for an IT director becomes: which stack will be cheapest to run over five years, and which one can your marketing team manage on its own?
| Criterion (2026 ballpark) | Drupal 11 | Next.js + headless CMS |
|---|---|---|
| Migration budget, 300 to 1,500 pages | EUR 18,000 to 50,000 | EUR 15,000 to 45,000 |
| Delivery time | 4 to 7 months | 3 to 6 months |
| Annual hosting | EUR 1,500 to 6,000 | EUR 600 to 4,000 (CDN + SaaS CMS) |
| CMS licence | Free (open source) | EUR 0 to 4,800 per year depending on vendor |
| Typical mobile LCP after rebuild | 2.2 to 3.2 s | 1.2 to 2.2 s |
| Talent availability | Scarce, day rate EUR 550 to 750 | More common, day rate EUR 450 to 650 |
| Attack surface | Back office exposed online | Static front end, separate back office |
Drupal 11 still makes sense if you run very complex editorial workflows or fine-grained permissions per department. For a corporate site, a solutions catalogue and a press room, a headless architecture delivers better performance and isolates editing from the public site.
The 301 redirect plan, line by line
A rebuild that changes URLs without a redirect plan can lose 20 to 50% of organic traffic for several months. The plan is built before development starts, not the night before launch.
| Step | Deliverable | Estimated effort | Indicative cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Full crawl of the current site | URL inventory, HTTP codes, canonicals | 1 to 2 days | EUR 500 to 1,200 |
| Search Console and backlink export | Pages that bring traffic and links | 0.5 to 1 day | EUR 300 to 700 |
| Mapping table | Old URL to new URL file | 2 to 4 days | EUR 800 to 2,000 |
| Technical rules | Server or middleware redirects, no chains | 1 to 2 days | EUR 400 to 900 |
| Pre-launch testing | Automated test of 100% of listed URLs | 0.5 to 1 day | EUR 300 to 600 |
| 8-week monitoring | 404 checks, reindexing, adjustments | 1 to 2 days | EUR 400 to 900 |
Total: EUR 2,000 to 5,000 depending on volume and how clean the current site is. Drupal aliases (pathauto), taxonomy URLs and PDF files stored in /sites/default/files are the three most frequently forgotten sources.
Extended support or migration: pricing the delay
Several vendors sell paid Drupal 7 extended support, around EUR 3,000 to 8,000 per year for a mid-sized company site. It patches critical vulnerabilities but brings no performance gain, no guaranteed compatibility with recent PHP and no new features. It works as a 6 to 12 month bridge during migration, rarely longer.
| 3-year scenario | Estimated cumulative cost | Residual risk |
|---|---|---|
| Stay on Drupal 7 without support | EUR 0 direct | High: known vulnerabilities unpatched |
| Extended support only | EUR 9,000 to 24,000 | Medium: growing technical debt |
| 6 months of support, then Next.js | EUR 16,500 to 49,000 | Low after switchover |
| Direct Drupal 11 migration | EUR 18,000 to 50,000 + 2 major upgrades | Low, regular maintenance |
Mini case study
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Illustrative scenario: Julien, IT director of a building materials distributor in Bordeaux, runs an 850-page Drupal 7 site bringing 14,000 organic visits a month and about 60 quote requests. He pays EUR 5,000 a year for extended support. Next.js migration quote: EUR 28,000, plus EUR 3,500 for the redirect plan, delivered in 4 months.
Without a redirect plan, a 30% traffic loss over 6 months would cost around 18 quote requests a month, or 108 in total. With a 10% close rate and an average margin of EUR 4,000 per deal, the shortfall reaches EUR 43,200. The EUR 3,500 plan is therefore the most profitable insurance in the project. Extended support, kept for 6 months only, costs EUR 2,500 instead of EUR 15,000 over three years.
FAQ
Is Drupal 7 really dangerous in 2026?
The Drupal community has published no fixes since January 2025. Any vulnerability found since then stays open unless you pay for extended support, around EUR 3,000 to 8,000 a year.
How long does it take to migrate 1,000 pages?
Allow 4 to 6 months as a ballpark, including 3 to 5 weeks of scoping and content migration. Scripted migration cuts manual re-entry by 60 to 80%.
Which headless CMS fits a mid-sized company?
Sanity, Strapi, Payload or Contentful cover most needs. The deciding factor is the approval workflow: check that it supports at least two approval levels and version history.
Will we lose rankings during the switchover?
A temporary drop of 5 to 15% over 2 to 6 weeks is common, even with a good plan. Without complete 301 redirects, losses can exceed 30% and last several months.
Can we keep the same URLs?
Yes, and it is often the best option for strategic pages: Next.js can reproduce the existing structure. The redirect plan then covers only 10 to 30% of URLs.
Let's scope your project. Send us your page count, hosting constraints and deadline, and we will price the Drupal 7 migration and redirect plan with an indicative budget and a realistic schedule. 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.
